Dignity and honour pitted against freebies
POLITICAL parties offer freebies to cover up the failure of their governments to provide gainful employment to the people. Under Article 324 of the Constitution, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has the mandate to conduct free and fair elections with integrity. As rightly observed by the Supreme Court in the Subramaniam Balaji case, the distribution of freebies of any kind influences voters and shakes the foundations of free and fair polls. This evil needs to be curbed by the ECI as it is a serious electoral malpractice.
The question arises: Will poll-bound Haryana’s voters embrace the freebie culture? My experience says that it is not likely. In the early 1980s, I was the secretary to the state government for social welfare and related departments, including women and child development. That was the time when the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), launched in 1975, was picking up and getting implemented in select districts. It was a unique programme aimed at addressing malnutrition, health and development needs of young children and pregnant and nursing mothers. The ICDS was being run through anganwadis; the mid-day meal scheme was part of it.
I undertook an inspection of several anganwadis in Mahendragarh district, where the scheme was being actively implemented. I was accompanied by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and other officials. We made two rounds — one in the morning, when the ‘early education’ part started, and the other around noon, when the mid-day meal commenced. As we moved around, we observed a distinct pattern. While the classes were almost full in the morning, they were more than half-empty at noon. The explanation given by officials was that most of the children were picked up around noon and taken back home and hence did not partake of the mid-day meal. A bit puzzled, I decided to look into this matter since the provision of nutritional supplementation was an essential part of the ICDS.
I requested the DC to convene a meeting of the sarpanches and village elders to discuss the issue. At the meeting, the scheme and its components were explained to them in detail. They were asked why children were not being allowed to have the mid-day meal. After a lot of cajoling and persuasion, the response that came from a senior sarpanch in typical Haryanvi still rings in my ears. Translated into English, it went like this: ‘We cannot teach our children the way you do because we are unlettered. But we can feed them with our humble earnings through our work, which we are still capable of doing. We cannot see our children eat free food. This is a matter of our dignity and honour. Period.’
Wonder whether such people would compromise their dignity and honour for the lure of freebies. The jury is out.
