Revdi-nomics – Times of India

In the last few weeks we have seen how politics of family first, corruption first and freebies first have led to the complete destruction of economies around India especially Sri Lanka. Sounding a note of caution, Prime Minister Modi, without taking the name of any state, political party or personality spoke about the perils of short cut politics and populism. This is something upon which various intellectuals and institutions, including the Supreme Court , have weighed in upon from time to time.

Any effective and efficient administrator would endorse the idea of ensuring that his or her government ensures targeted, foolproof and leakage free delivery of welfare policies to those who need it the most rather than a free for all approach that is inherently unfair to the most deprived and perhaps nothing more than a gimmick because usually such schemes can never be implemented or sustained for a long time. Given that any state has finite resources, and not unlimited bounties , which ultimately come from the tax payer it is essential that administrators ensure that the first right on these resources belong to the poorest and most marginalised.

From this it is very clear that while a welfare measure is a targeted instrument to effect long term change and for improving the condition of the beneficiary by raising it to a level where the beneficiary can become self sustaining and productive, a freebie or a Revdi is a mere feel good announcement whose implementation is suspect, outcome is flawed and intent is malafide.

In that context one was perplexed as to why the chief minister of Delhi took the comment of the Prime Minister so personally even when nobody had been identified or named. It was as if a raw nerve had been touched. The over reaction by Mr. Kejriwal therefore prompts us to examine in some greater depth the difference between welfare and Revdi.

Mr Kejriwal has been constantly harping about his so called free education model. His spokespersons claim that many in Delhi have taken their children out of private schools and enrolled them into government schools in Delhi. Logically that would mean more schools should have been opened by Mr Kejriwals government in the last eight years to cater to this huge demand.

But in debate after debate, night after night, much to my surprise, those who promised that they would open 500 new schools and 20 new colleges cant name 20 new schools and 5 new colleges they have opened up in the last eight years. In fact the Delhi government is guilty of closing down several government schools instead of opening of new ones and this issue was raised by the BJP in the Delhi assembly. They keep talking about adding classrooms but that means nothing unless you have other infrastructure including teachers, toilets, grounds, etc. to cater to those additional children and unless you open up a school that is close to their locality instead of adding some rooms in an existing school which is far away and inaccessible.

The reality is also that of the 1027 schools the Delhi government has nearly 750+ schools had no principal and 418+ schools had no vice principal, something that has been flagged by the NCPCR. It is also fact that thousands of seats meant for EWS category students had not been filled as per the RTE Act thereby depriving poor children of their constitutional right to free and compulsory education. 22,000 guest teachers lost their jobs.

Delhi government has promised to make them permanent but far from that they havent even filled up the sanction positions for teachers in Delhi government schools. In fact recently the Delhi High Court sought a response from the Kejriwal government on a plea that exposed how 63% of teachers posts, 80% of principals posts were lying vacant in schools run by Delhi government. Delhi High Court in April 2022 pulled up the Delhi government for failure to pay salaries to teachers and Justice Subramanium Prasad lamented that lack of money was not an answer for non-payment and teachers could not be treated like this as they shape the future of the country. Surely this is far from being a world-class model!

All of this is having a direct impact on the performance of the schools and a recent report suggested of 40% of students who failed class ninth are dropping out of school. Recently the NAS 2021- a survey testing students of classes 3rd, 5th, 8th and 10th from across the country in a variety of subjects showed the Delhi government schools scored comparatively lower in every subject and across classes in comparison to Punjab.

What the Delhi government schools have been at the forefront of his allegations of irregularities and corruption in construction of classrooms. Recently on the basis of a complaint made by MP Manoj Tiwari alleged that classrooms that could have been constructed at Rs.5lakhs per room were constructed at an inflated price of Rs.28 lakhs per room. This complaint has been taken cognizance of by the Delhis lokayukta and a probe and report has been sought. Even Mr Sisodias Education ministry has flagged off a number of complaints about use of low quality material, where is deficiencies in the construction work done by the PWD in a letter dated 20th of July 2022.

Since the orientation of the Revdi model is only to gather votes and make no substantive or transformational change, it emphasises more on advertisement or vigyapan and less on vyavastha or systemic change. A proof of this can be seen in the loan scheme of Kejriwal government were only two students could avail of a loan out of the 89 that had applied in the year 2021-22 but a sum of Rs 19 crores had been spent on advertising it. Welfare economics can transform and uplift lives of the most deprived whereas Revdi-nomics only burdens the tax payer while earning some short term political brownie points for its patroniser.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Revdi-nomics - Times of India