Long road: Editorial on the plight of differently abled persons

 The road to inclusion is often long and winding. India has undertaken legal measures to empower the differently abled in the past few years: the  enactment of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act in 2016 is one example. But a revised, comprehensive strategy that would address current needs and challenges is long overdue. The Indian population of PwDs is estimated to be roughly 3 crore. Among them, 1.3 crore are employable. But data show that only 34 lakh PwDs are employed across different sectors. Alarmingly, only 5 per cent of them are graduates. The figures suggest that the implementation of the provisions of the RPwD Act have been tardy in the spheres of employment and education. There are other policy failures. The Centre launched the Accessible India campaign in 2015 to create a barrier-free environment to grant accessibility to public resources and dignified living for this constituency. But a recent report illustrated that a meagre 8 per cent of public buses are partially accessible to the differently-abled, while only 48 per cent of government buildings are such. A 2020 RTI report revealed that about 19 states do not even have dedicated toilets for the disabled community. Accessibility to crucial amenities — a civil right — remains a pipe dream evidently. 

Hearteningly, the recently-released draft national policy attempts to address several of these pressing concerns. It envisions a dynamic database that will provide information on a real-time basis. It also identifies areas of intervention and reiterates the government’s commitment to institutional mechanisms. The intentions are noble but this is not to say that the draft is water-tight given several glaring omissions. Article 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities — India is a signatory — mandates political representation, something that the draft policy fails to take cognisance of. Further, it fails to plug the deficiencies in the public procurement laws that are necessary to augment disabled-friendly infrastructure. Additional budgetary allocation of 25 per cent has remained unaddressed as well. These lapses reveal an old malaise: the refusal of successive governments to move past rhetoric and work towards an integrated approach. Regular audits and periodic inspections of infrastructure, public outreach programmes, and the creation of a greater number of disabled-friendly organisations must be encouraged to ma

Source: The Telegraph, 25/07/22

Written by Bhaskar Chakravorti | Published on:June 9, 2015 12:15 am

Narendra Modi has a fondness for the word “inclusive”. Rarely has there been a landmark occasion in the prime minister’s first year that the magic word has not made an appearance. Ironically, prior to his election, this was not a man most associated with inclusiveness. Much of the concern that swirled around him had to do with his exclusionary record — ranging from the status of minorities in Gujarat to his autocratic governance style.

Modi was elected on a platform of getting the economy going again and yet, over this past year, his rhetoric has invoked more inclusive growth than fast growth. “My philosophy, the philosophy of my party and the philosophy also of my government is, what I call ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’… the impulse of that particular motto is to take everybody together and move towards inclusive growth,” he said to Time magazine. The major domestic policy offerings in the year gone by, from the budget to the formation of Niti Aayog, the announcements of big initiatives such as the smart cities project or Jan Dhan Yojana, were all lit by the soft glow of inclusion. Even foreign policy has been graced by it. Modi in Japan offered: “We will explore how Japan can associate itself productively with my vision of inclusive development in India,” whereas in Germany, he said: “Our focus is not merely economic growth but an inclusive development.”

Since the frequent repetition of “inclusive” is so integral to Modi’s mantra, it is natural to ask how frequently it is repeated in Modi’s action. If this first year is any indication, India is unlikely to rocket up the inclusiveness index in coming years. Indicators point towards an administration that will prioritise near-term fast growth over the slow and often painful process of inclusive growth. Inclusive growth is not just an outcome measured by a simple GDP growth rate; it is a process that calls for wide participation and equitable sharing in the benefits of growth. There is a tradeoff to be made if there is an urgency to jumpstart a stalling economy. The experience of fast-growing economies is one of exclusionary growth: scarce resources have to be focused in certain sectors, regions and parts of the population with the greatest potential. The Modi record on inclusion can be evaluated along three dimensions.

One, governance inclusion. By some measures, it would appear that the political power structure has, indeed, tended towards greater inclusion: Modi has adopted a more decentralised approach by delegating greater power and tax revenues to the state governments. However, the Centre presides over a competitive federalism model. Modi’s style of governance is more Lee Kuan Yew and less King Arthur. What is missing is a spirit of debate among confident deputies unafraid to challenge the king and project a broader leadership team with multiple poles of expertise and executive function. Arguably, this is the strong leadership that Manmohan Singh never projected, and it has its benefits in a country with many disparate forces. But on the whole this is a model of leadership and governance that has taken several steps away from inclusiveness.

Two, economic inclusion. Modi clearly favours the “hard” levers for moving the economy in the near term, with his priorities on manufacturing, infrastructure development and attracting foreign investment. There are “soft” levers that play a more indirect role and are more fundamental to sustaining growth over the longer term. The prime enablers of inclusion are: access to education, healthcare and financial capital. On at least two of these three, Modi’s record falls short.

Education has not received enough attention and has had its allocation cut by 16 per cent in the last budget. Already, India’s allocation of 3.8 per cent of GDP on education in 2012 was lower than the global average of 4.9 per cent in 2010, according to the World Bank. Other than disconnected initiatives, including an ambitious goal of providing vocational training to 500 million people by 2022 and promises to build additional IITs and IIMs, more systematic and realistic investment in different facets of education has been absent. Similarly, in healthcare, public health has been cut in the national budget and the responsibility has been pushed out to the states. Budget allocation to public healthcare has been reduced by 8 per cent.

Financial inclusion may be the one area with some tangible progress. Credit should be given to the administration for opening a record number of bank accounts in a week. Of course, we should pay close attention to the words of caution from RBI governor Raghuram Rajan: “The target is universality, not just speed and numbers.” Increasing bank accounts in record numbers is a start, but for real impact, much more is needed — such as financial and other forms of education, where we have already noted the challenges.

Three, social inclusion. On social issues, Modi has acquiesced and looked the other way while the Hindutva forces have been on the ascendant. The marginalisation of religious minorities, especially Muslims, has only increased in the past year. Other than occasional tweets with a mild scold or a message or two to the Sangh Parivar that hate speech against minorities will not be tolerated, Modi has done little to discourage or take action against this growing trend. Moreover, a number of initiatives — from bans on cow slaughter to the introduction of the Bhagavad Gita in school curricula — add up to a disturbing pattern of an increasingly intolerant and non-inclusive society.

In his anniversary speech in Mathura, the PM spoke of the poor as “my warriors”, with heavy overtones of inclusion. But, thus far, in practical terms, he has proven to be a reluctant inclusionist. Of course, one might argue that no Indian politician can afford to retreat from the poor and the disadvantaged in his rhetoric. However, they have also learnt that reality cannot lag behind the rhetoric for too long. In coming years, Modi will have to make a choice: declare himself, as many suspect, a trickle-down Reaganite or put his money and policy where his inclusive words have been.

The writer is the senior associate dean of international business and finance at The Fletcher School, Tufts University

- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/reluctant-inclusionist/#sthash.LtjT2iEZ.dpuf

The virtue of inclusiveness

The new Maharashtra and Haryana Assemblies have only 12 Muslim MLAs between them and no Muslim Minister. The number of Muslim Ministers in nine major BJP-ruled States thus remain just one. The non-BJP-ruled States do better, the share of Muslim legislators and Ministers being much closer to their share in the population, but some Congress-ruled States like Uttarakhand too have no Muslim Minister. On the back of a General Election that swept the BJP to power but produced a Parliament with the lowest proportion of Muslim MPs in over 50 years, this is cause for concern. Undoubtedly, this has to do with the communalisation of political parties, but it is also about the communalisation of voters. Under the first-past-the-post system, Muslims are now likely to win only from constituencies with an unusually large Muslim population. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the likelihood of a Muslim winning dropped, falling to just 1 per cent in constituencies where Muslims formed less than 20 per cent of the population. Political parties breed and then react to this communalisation, responding by nominating ever fewer Muslims from constituencies where they are not in sufficient numbers for reasons of “winnability”. Following the BJP’s sweep in Uttar Pradesh in May despite nominating no Muslim, the Samajwadi Party, which has nominated more Muslim candidates than any other national party over the last 50 years, reduced the number of tickets given to Muslims in the recent by-elections in Uttar Pradesh.

But Muslims being in positions of power does not necessarily ensure development outcomes for Muslims, the argument goes. However, the dignity of political representation and high office is not only a means to an end; it is an end in itself too. Moreover, while political representation is certainly not the only mode of development, the Rajinder Sachar Committee Report recommended it as one of the solutions to the disproportionate educational and economic backwardness of Muslims. The century-old fight of backward class empowerment movements and political parties to gain political representation in the southern States led to a situation where backward classes in Tamil Nadu and Kerala today have better development indicators than upper castes have in some northern States; political empowerment matters. Some dismiss these findings as a legitimate concern for a democracy, subscribing to what the late Professor Iqbal Ansari called a sort of “political Darwinism”. By this same token, he wrote, concerns about the representation of women in politics would be dismissed as sexism. Expecting the legislatures to represent its diversity more fairly is not tokenism; it’s what inclusive democracy truly looks like, as opposed to majoritarianism.

Keywords: Muslim representation, Muslim representation, LS polls, Assembly polls

Inclusion by mobile

Executive Summary: In 2007, M-Pesa started in Kenya as a CSR pilot project by Safaricom, a Vodafone subsidiary, to transfer money over mobile because it was unsafe to carry cash. But soon it changed into a financial service and became a big hit. Vodafone brought the platform to India in 2010 as a pilot in Rajasthan, and launched it in April 2013. But it has had a slow start considering only 1.5 million of Vodafone's 170 million subscribers use this service. This case study looks at how a service that originated in Kenya was tweaked for India and whether it can succeed.

Geeta Devi, Choti Devi and Lilima Kachaap, three poor women in the nondescript area of Namkum near Ranchi, Jharkhand's capital, had recently given birth to healthy offspring. But their joy was tempered by exasperation. Their wait for due money from Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), a financial assistance plan under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), was getting never-ending. The scheme, which promotes institutional delivery among poor women, gives Rs 1,400 on the birth of every child to the mother.

Thankfully, the trio would get their due unlike thousands of others who do not, and from quite an unexpected source. It all started when Vodafone, India's second-largest mobile operator by subscriber base, tied up with NRHM to do a pilot project in Namkum. The objective: disburse money directly to the beneficiaries through M-Pesa - its financial mobile service better known as a mobile wallet. M-Pesa is a USSD-based (an SMS-based service that does not need Internet) technology that helps people send and receive money over the mobile, apart from making utility bill payments, and recharging mobile and DTH accounts.

The Jharkhand government shared the list of beneficiaries with Vodafone. In turn, Vodafone identified its customers on the list, and activated the M-Pesa service for them. For people who were not on Vodafone, the company put up camps in Namkum so that they could get Vodafone SIMs and the M-Pesa service.

Once that was done, the government sent information on the beneficiaries - and the money - to the banking system that was linked with the M-Pesa accounts. Vodafone's agents - some of who are also business correspondents - then hand over the money to the recipients. So, Geeta, Choti and Lilima - and several others - finally got their money through M-Pesa.

WHY MOBILE MONEY MIGHT WORK IN INDIA

Mobile money has worked elsewhere in the world. M-Pesa was started in Kenya in 2007 by Safaricom, a 90- per cent Vodafone subsidiary, as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity. Due to Kenya's high crime rate, it was near impossible to carry money physically. So M-Pesa started as a money transfer project and was hugely successful. Today, M-Pesa has 70 per cent penetration in Kenya and is no more a CSR activity.

India might not have the same problem as Kenya, but mobile money still holds up an interesting solution for money transfer to rural areas.

Consider the facts. India has 100,000 bank branches, five per cent of which are in rural areas. Sending money through banks becomes impossible for the millions of villagers who migrate to big cities for work. The post office system is also used a lot to transfer money, but is not considered entirely reliable. As a result, most migrant workers send money home in cash through travelling relatives or acquaintances - a method fraught with chance and risk.

At the same time, government assistance schemes like JSY and employment plans like MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) have given rise to a new breed of middlemen. This unscrupulous lot takes commissions to disburse the money to the beneficiaries, but don't always deliver. And the cheated beneficiary is none the wiser, largely due to ignorance and illiteracy. Plus, there are the inevitable delays due to red tape.

In Odisha, for instance, a large chunk of rural employment comes from MNREGA, which ensures 100 working days to every enrolled individual in rural India each financial year. In the current financial year, according to estimates by experts, 6.48 crore payments are delayed by more than 15 days, worth Rs 4,629 crore, much behind the government's desire to clear all payments within 15 days.

In Odisha, Vodafone did another pilot and tied up with the state government to disburse wages of MNREGA workers through M-Pesa in the Hinjilicut and Chikiti blocks in Ganjam district. It solved two problems. For those with accounts in local cooperative banks and post offices, it reduced delay in payment. And it helped deliver the money to the people who didn't have bank accounts.

What works in mobile's favour is that India has 900 million mobile subscribers, 40 per cent of which are rural consumers. "Time will tell if it is the best possible way, but it definitely seems that m-banking is the best available medium, because of mobile telephony's penetration in rural India," says telecom regulatory expert Mahesh Uppal.

HOW VODAFONE DID IT

After travelling through Tanzania, Fiji, South Africa and Congo, M-Pesa finally made its launch in India in April 2013, after a pilot in 2010. That was when Vodafone had tied up with HDFC Bank to become a banking correspondent in a small village called Sikar, in Rajasthan's Jaipur district. The pilot was small, and wasn't scalable then due to regulatory problems - the government had yet not given mobile wallet licences to operators. Vodafone was dependent on HDFC Bank to get the wallet activated, which took anything between eight and 10 days. As a result, people would often lose interest and never come back. "We wanted to understand distribution and customer need," says Suresh Sethi, head of M-Pesa in India. "It was a good learning process for us."

Things changed in June 2012, when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) started giving out licences to start mobile wallet, and Vodafone applied. In November, the operators, including Airtel, were given licences to operate a semi-open mobile wallet - which allowed consumers to send and transfer money, pay bills and do recharges, but did not allow the user to take out cash. But the RBI did allow interoperability with a bank, which enabled Vodafone to tie up with ICICI Bank to allow cash out options.

Finally, Vodafone's M-Pesa service was rolled out in April 2013, in the circles of West Bengal, Kolkata, Bihar and Jharkhand. A lot of people from these states migrate to bigger cities for jobs. M-Pesa users, who could enrol in M-Pesa by a one-time payment ofRs 100, also needed to open an account with ICICI Bank.

So Vodafone started collecting Know Your Customer (KYC) forms, a mandatory requirement to open a bank account, and started instant activation. "We are doing a quasi-banking service. We collect KYC forms like any bank does," says Sethi. Thousands of Vodafone dealers became M-Pesa agents or business correspondents, and started banking the unbanked.

The only problem at the time was that all M-Pesa agents had to be within 30 km of their parent bank, especially since ICICI Bank does not have deep penetration in rural India. (The RBI subsequently removed the 30-km restriction this June.)

Within a year of M-Pesa's launch, Vodafone completed its pan-India rollout. Today, it has 80,000 outlets or banking correspondents, 60 per cent of which are in rural India, and all of them have the ability to cash out. Even though M-Pesa has other services like utility bill payments and recharge options, money transfer accounts for 60 per cent of the business.

To Vodafone's advantage, therefore, is the limited banking infrastructure in the country and the migrant workers' need to send money home in a secure manner. What helps is that Vodafone has a distribution network that spans 1.7 million touch points, and deep penetration in rural India - of its 170 million users, 53 per cent are in rural areas.

Of course, Vodafone isn't the only company offering money transfer on mobile. India's biggest mobile operator Bharti Airtel launched Airtel Money in January 2011. But its inherent disadvantage is that it doesn't allow cash out, as it does not have a pan-India tie-up with any bank, except a very small footprint with Axis Bank. Airtel's older tie-up with State Bank of India (SBI) has also long come to an end. SBI itself runs a banking correspondent service called Eko India Financial Services. Eko works as a mobile wallet, but is not dependent on any mobile operator. But the network is much smaller than Vodafone's.

Idea Cellular, India's third-largest mobile operator, also has an M-Wallet. "In its current form, the segment that it appeals to is the urban and semi-urban user," says Ambrish Jain, Deputy Managing Director of Idea Cellular. "But m-banking is needed for the unbanked population who don't have debit and credit cards. And they require cash out, which is not available today."

Telecom companies are expecting that once the RBI comes out with the final guidelines, it will allow them to provide cash out services without any intervention needed from banks.

LONG WAY TO GO

However, the success of M-Pesa in India on a scale comparable to Kenya looks like a long haul. Of Vodafone's user base of 170 million, only 1.5 million are enrolled in M-Pesa. And less than one-third of these are active users. A lot of this is because people still rely on the bank to deposit money, and are not comfortable transferring money over mobile.

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The problems with microfinance in India had raised a question: is it too early for financial inclusion in India? And now, there is a new question: is it too early for inclusion through mobile? Marten Pieters, CEO of Vodafone India, doesn't think so. "No, we feel that we are well positioned and aligned to enable financial inclusion," he says confidently.

Vodafone is also upgrading the M-Pesa platform. The old platform was an import from Kenya, and is not scalable. The new platform being built will also work on the Internet. "We have built capability to provide Internet-based services also, given that reduction in price points of smartphones and increased availability has led to (their) greater adoption," says Pieters. "M-Pesa will also be available on a mobile app shortly."

In 2011, industry estimates and experts had said that by 2015 there will be anywhere between 200 and 300 million people using financial inclusion, but numbers haven't yet reached a sixth of that. Even though Vodafone has got initial success with M-Pesa, the bigger challenge is to get the numbers like its mobile service has garnered.