SYED MASOOD HASSAN dwells upon the nitty-gritties of “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” vis-à-vis development in the various sectors.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a much publicised national scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This was announced by our Prime Minister on 15 August 2014 and later launched on 2 October 2014. The Prime Minister invited all citizens to join this campaign. He himself swept a parking area in New Delhi. President Pranab Mukherjee also asked every Indian to spend 100 hours annually on this drive.
This “Clean India Campaign” is scheduled to be achieved by 2 October 2019, the 150th birthday of Father of the Nation. It is expected to cost over Rs 62,000 crores. Almost every section of the society has been drawn into this campaign.
This is not the first time such a scheme has been introduced. Earlier too, Central Rural Sanitation programme (CRSP) during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, and later Complete Sanitation Programme (CSP) during the first BJP rule, were introduced in 1986 and 1999 respectively. Like many other Government schemes, both the above programmes did not bring sustainable results.
“Health is Wealth” is indisputable. But cleaning alone is not enough. Even today, about 25,722 villages have no electricity. Twenty-six crore poor Indians go to sleep without dinner, another 26 crores do not have proper shelter, 82% of rural population lack basic facilities like drinking water, sanitation and electricity. About 64% rural population does not have bathroom facility. Farmers’ suicide has become a daily affair. India is home to largest human slaves in the world. Thousands of children who go missing mostly from poor neighbourhoods remain untraceable. Media highlights all these issues but due to lack of stringent action these problems continue unabated.
Under Article 21 of the Constitution, protection of life and personal liberty of citizens has been guaranteed. The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly said, “Right to Life includes everything which goes with human dignity like Proper Housing, Food, Clothing, Education and Health Care.” The state is obliged to deliver the same to its citizens. But, even after 67 years since Independence we could not achieve this to the optimum level.
Section 135 of Indian Companies Act 2013 makes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mandatory for all major corporates with a turnover of over Rs 1,000 crores or net worth of Rs 500+crores, or net profits of over Rs 5 crore during any financial year. Those who qualify should spend at least 2% of their average net profit on several public projects listed under (Schedule VII) of Indian Companies Act 2013. CSR came into force on 1 April, 2014.
Lack of lucrative tax incentives is a major drawback. CSR contributors were anticipating 100% deduction before computation of Income Tax. Section 37 of the Income Tax Act 1961 does not differentiate “Non-business expenditure”. Practically, Companies Act mandates CSR while Income Tax Act is not offering any special tax benefits for CSR contributors.
However, CSR is only secondary option. Always, the government has a major responsibility towards allocation of sufficient funds for any public cause. Before allocation, the government should consider ways of curtailing non-essential expenses. Actor Amir Khan through “Satyamev Jayate” brought several thrilling information of wastage of public funds like Rs 2300 crores being annually spent by Municipal Corporation of Mumbai, for clearing of garbage. In fact, by involving bio-gas plants, municipality can save this Rs 2300 crores besides generating additional income. Conservation of Solar Energy, Utilisation of stagnant wealth of “Gold Reserves” with thousands of temples, commercial development of barren Waqf lands and other Waqf properties, etc. Care must be taken that poor Hindus derive benefits from Temple wealth while poor Muslims are benefited from Waqf properties.
Under Article 45 of the Constitution of India, within 10 years (1947 to 1957) the state shall endeavour to provide “Free and Compulsory Education” for all children up to the age of 14 years. Even after 67 years, we could not achieve this 100%. Not only this, the government has been gradually getting rid of its major and very important responsibility by slowly outsourcing education to private sector. As a result, education has become expensive and not affordable for many. Those who talk about Article 44, don’t speak on Article 45. Is it because Education is not so important? Or Implementation of Uniform Civil Code is more important than providing education?
According to recently released report 2010-11 by World Economic Forum (WEF) on international competitiveness, India has been pushed down to 51st position from its 49th place earlier, mainly due to its poor performance in Education, Health and Infrastructure. Even China managed to climb 27th position from its earlier 29th position, mainly due to its success in fighting poverty, through improved access to education and health care.
If we start comparing India with China just for academic pursuit, the growth rate of both countries is not at all matching in many sensitive areas. UN Human Development Index (China 101st // India 136th), Exports (China 1st // India 20th), Foreign Exchange Reserve (China 1st /US$ 3,726 Bn// India 10th /US$ 312.58 Bn), Work force (China 797 Million / India 487 Million), Industrial force (China 30% // India 20%) Annual Industrial Production growth rate (China 7.6% // India 0.9%), Exports (China US$ 2.21 Trillion / India US$ 313 Million, Variance -86%), Imports (China US$ 1.95 Trillion // India US$ 467.50 Million), Exports Less Imports (China US$ 0.26 Million // India US$ -154 Million), Indian exports to China 5% // Chinese exports to India 10.7%).
India is a gifted country; Indian talent is well recognised and respected world over. A small contribution from every responsible citizen can win little hopes for the downtrodden and also can change the fate of our beloved country. The need of the hour is to rise to the occasion and get vigilant. Those who project emotional issues in public domain are actually trying to improve their political goodwill. They are not so keen or interested in the nation’s well-being or growth. It’s the national duty of every citizen to make it clear. We need our fundamental rights of “Sanitation, Food, Shelter, Education, Health Care, and Employment”. We voted you for development.