An Illustrious Model For a Welfare State

Although there are many definitions for a welfare State, however, there is a broad convergence of views on its imperatives. In the strictest sense, a welfare state is a government that provides for the welfare, on the well-being, of its citizens completely. Such a government is involved in citizens’ lives at every level. It provides for physical, material and social needs to those people who cannot provide them for themselves. The purpose of the welfare state is to create economic and social equality or to assure equitable standards of living for all. The welfare state provides sustenance (food and water), housing, education, healthcare, pensions, unemployment relief, supplemental income in some cases and equal wages for equal works. It also provides for public transportation, childcare, social amenities such as public parks, libraries and entertainment facilities, as well as many other goods and services.

Typically a welfare state, in its true sense, can exist only under a socialist system. However, even countries that don’t typically subscribe to socialism offer at least some form of safety net, most of which continue to expand. The exemplary record of Tamil Nadu under the DMK rule led by Kalaignar, is that it had met with almost all welfare requirements of people, even under a mixed economy (of India) and much more in the era of market oriented liberalization and globalization.

The right to sufficient food is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under the UN charter and in subsequent international law. A rights-based approach to food security would impose obligations on national governments to implement non-discriminatory strategies to enable their people to feed themselves. However, only 22 countries have embedded the right to food in their constitutions and India (and its Constitution) is not among them. However, a compassionate and humanitarian leader he is, Kalaignar voluntarily offered to shoulder the non-constitutional obligation of providing food security for all the  people of Tamil Nadu, which was stifled by the previous insensitive regimes of Jayalalitha. The DMK manifesto for 2006 Assembly elections promised to provide 20 kg of rice per month to all ration cardholders irrespective of income at a heavily subsidized price of Rs.2 per kg.; Kalaignar brought it into force minutes after swearing-in in May 2006. He further slashed the price of PDS rice to one rupee a kg.

In a free-market economy, the governments have no direct role and control market forces and hence on prices of goods. Prices can be controlled only by indirect intervention by strengthening Public Distribution System. Tamil Nadu has a wide network of PDS with over 30,000 outlets. As for food subsidy, the previous ADMK regime effected a cut in food subsidy budget from Rs.1,240 crore in 2002-2003 to Rs.600 crore in 2003-2004 under the pretext of financial crunch and mindlessly suppressed the poor and downtrodden people in the State. Whereas by strengthening the PDS and making it universal irrespective of income, the DMK government’s food subsidy bill for the current year would cross a whopping of Rs.4,000 crore. (Rice accounted for Rs.2,931 crore; sugar Rs.455 crore; kerosene Rs.42 crore; special public distribution system Rs.567 crore and supply of 10 varieties of condiments Rs.12 crore.) By providing rice at Re. One per kg., besides essentials like toor dhal, urad dhal and palm oil at reduced prices the government last year allocated a total subsidy of Rs.2,900 crore. This year the Chief Minister has proposed to increase the subsidy to Rs.4,000 crore as the consumption of rice, wheat and other essentials has substantially increased: rice from 2.5 lakh tonnes 3 years ago to 3.18 lakh tonnes now, wheat from 6,000 tonnes to 13,000 tonnes and sugar from 20,000 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes. This is an indicator of the increased consumption by people and hence more of food security under the DMK rule. There are nearly 30,000 PDS outlets in the State with nearly two crore ration cardholders – one of the widest network in the country. The offtake of many ration items is much more than the allocation made by the Centre and the state government has to resort to bulk imports and procurements in open market.

Another significant step taken by the DMK government is to provide nutrition content in the midday meals scheme for children. Almost half of all young children in India are underweight. Malnutrition impairs the ability to learn or to work and reduces resistance to disease, these problems increasing in severity with the shortfall from minimum dietary requirement. Children are especially sensitive to the extent that the majority of child mortality is attributed to malnutrition. Sensitive to the health needs of the future generations, the far-sighted leader Kalaignar has increased the nutrition content of Midday meals scheme, by providing three eggs per week and bananas to 76 lakh children covered under the scheme. In order that infants born are healthy, pregnant women are given Rs.6,000 at the rate of Rs.1,000 pm for three months each during the pre and post natal periods, thus the state taking care of its citizens even at the foetus state.

The DMK is committed to provide protected drinking water to all hamlets in the State and most of the drinking water projects operating in the State were executed under the previous DMK rules. Three major combined drinking water schemes conceived and being executed now are the Rs.616 crore Ramanathapuram Combined Water Supply Scheme supplying Cauvery river water to the parched districts of Pudukottai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram, Rs.1929 crore Hogenakkal Combined Water Supply Scheme for Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts having a high fluoride content in ground water, and for Vellore district in its second stage.

As for housing facilities, it was Kalaignar who found Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board in 1970 to build multi-storeyed  tenements with basic amenities to poor and downtrodden people living in slums, who constitute 35 percent of population in Chennai and 25 percent in other urban centres in the State. So far the Board has built and handed over 10 lakh tenements to slum dwellers. Although the Tamil Nadu Housing Board was formed in the year 1961 to cope up with the increasing demand in housing sector all over the State it was only in 1970s that the Board became very active and created self-sustaining townships like Anna Nagar, Besant Nagar, K.K.Nagar, Ashok Nagar and Shastri Nagar in Chennai and in other urban centres. It has also completed mid size neighbourhood developments in Velachery, Mogappair and Chitlapakkam in Chennai and tier II cities like Madurai, Tiruchi and Coimbatore.

Having regard to the fact that house site pattas are essential for providing housing facility to the poor, the DMK government has distributed so far 6,99,917 house site pattas and now has reduced the requirement of minimum number of years of residence from five to three years to get the benefit. It was again Kalaignar who implemented the scheme for constructing, free group houses for Adi Dravidars in rural areas for the first time in the country in 1974.

This year the Government has announced a mega project to convert an estimated 21 lakh mud-walled huts with thatched roofs of the poor people into concrete roofed permanent houses which will be given free of cost to the beneficiaries. The scheme to be called ‘Kalaignar Housing Scheme’ to be fully funded by the State government to pave for hutless villages, will be completed in six years. In the coming financial year three lakh houses will be constructed at a cost of Rs.1,800 crore. A free housing scheme for the poor of this magnitude is unprecedented in the country, perhaps in the world.

Traditionally, Tamil Nadu had been in the forefront in the field of education, with massive funding by the State government. Tamil Nadu was the pioneer state in implementing free education scheme and midday meals scheme. The sector received an impetus whenever the DMK came to rule. The very fact that the total allocation for School Education department which was Rs.4,110 crore in 2005-06 under the ADMK regime has been increased to Rs.9,147 crore in the current fiscal year and the provision for Higher Education also almost doubling from Rs.745 crore to Rs.1,463 crore respectively, speak volume about the DMK government’s commitment. It has accomplished the historic move of bringing in Uniform and Equitable Standard Education system and Kalaignar had been successful in getting a Central University, IIT, IIM and IISc from the Union government. This year the government, in a move to encourage families denied access to higher education and professional courses, announced that it would henceforth pay the tuition fees of potential first generation academic achievers – be it in government or private institutions – if they wished to pursue engineering, medicine or law – irrespective of any caste or community they belong to.

In the field of public health care also, Tamil Nadu is a lead State with a vast network of health facilities consisting of 12 teaching hospitals, 26 district headquarter hospitals, 239 taluk and non-taluk hospitals, 1,782 Primary Health Centres and over 9,000 Health Sub-Centres and other specialized hospitals. In fact teams from other states regularly visit Tamil Nadu to study the working of PHCs and government hospitals and express their admiration for the quality healthcare rendered by them. Under the ‘Varumun Kaappom’ scheme, so far, 13,045 camps have been conducted across the State and 1,26,73,884 persons have been benefited. The free emergency ‘108’ ambulance service is functioning successfully all over the State and over one lakh calls attended in one year. It is significant to note that the number of patients receiving treatment and number of deliveries in government hospitals have increased significantly. Under the ‘Kalaignar Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatments’, 1,40,70,367 families have enrolled as members so far and in the very first four months till now. 24,495 beneficiaries have received free specialized treatment worth Rs.83 crores in 539 hospitals across the State. The scheme, as in the case of many others, is being emulated by other states including Puducherry.

The DMK government has taken care of senior citizens by providing to nearly 16 lakh of them Old Age Pension at Rs.400 pm and free nutritious meals in those centres. It is also paying pension to unmarried single women of age over 50 years. The government is providing monthly financial assistance to 3,53,801 unemployed youth to the extent of Rs.240 crore so far. As for providing supplemental income, the State’s record in organizing nearly 65 lakh women in self help groups and providing them with revolving funds and bank credit and their excellent performance is a success story hailed by national institutions. Besides making women economically and socially independent, their incomes supplement family income and improvement in living standards.

It was Kalaignar, who in his second tenure as Chief Minister nationalized all bus routes and private fleet and paved way for a very vast network of public transport facilities, with ever increasing fleet strength, covering every nook and corner of the State, even on non-remunerative routes to far away centres. The bus fares in Tamil Nadu is the lowest in the country. The DMK government is the forerunner in providing social security with a number of social welfare schemes such as marriage assistance for poor girls, welfare boards for almost all sections of working people and indigent social groups like transgenders and folk artists etc. The state’s social safety net is now worth Rs.15,519 crore. The government strengthened its social security net during the recession year 2009-10 so as to insulate the  people from the ill-effects of global industrial slowdown and the consequent crisis. By providing free colour television sets to over 96 lakh families so far and another 40 lakh sets ready for distribution, the government has offered entertainment and educational facilities to all families in the State. Also by distributing free gas stoves with LPG connections to about 12 lakh poor families so far, women have been relieved to a great extent from the arduous chore of cooking.

The list of various social security measures of the DMK rule is very long. By taking care of all the people of the State from the womb to the grave, the DMK government led by Kalaignar has set an illustrious model for an ideal welfare state and the observation of the English daily ‘The Times of India’ while reporting the Governor’s Address to the Assembly on January 6, that ‘When it comes to projecting itself as the ultimate welfare State, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu is really pushing the envelope’ is not far-fetched!               

(17-01-10)