Freedom postponed: Stories of broken promises
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COMMENTS 
When the right to live with dignity is denied to millions, the Millennium Development Goals are a million miles away from the poorest of the poor
At the stoke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom...The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and the inequality of opportunity.... So long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over...
-- Jawaharal Nehru, August 14, 1947
Dharani Devi, wife of dalit rickshaw-puller Lalbabu Paswan, a resident of Ambedkar Colony on the outskirts of Patna , sold her two-month-old son for Rs 6,000. She used the money to repay her debts. She could not afford to provide medical care to her two-month-old child who had fallen ill. Just a couple of months earlier, her other child, two-year-old Manish, had died as they could not get access to a hospital or doctor. By selling the two-month-old baby, Dharani hoped to give him a chance to survive. Her husband, Lalbabu Paswan, who earned around Rs 50 a day, is now unable to earn even that as he is suffering from tuberculosis. Lalbabu could not access the government's free TB treatment programme. His family could not get their entitlements under the government's Below Poverty Line (BPL) food schemes either.
This story was widely reported in the Indian media on September 14, 2004 , 57 years after we made the 'tryst with destiny' and India awakened to 'life and freedom'. The story repeats every day, only the names and places change. But not the plight of Dharani Devi, Manish, Lalbabu and the nameless child. They are the 'broken people' of India . Millions of children die in 'free' India . Millions go to bed hungry every day. Promises are broken, rights are violated and freedom gets postponed. Whose India is shining?
The Millennium Declaration adopted by the UN at the dawn of the new millennium does not make sense to millions of poor people in India . When the right to live with dignity is denied to millions, the Millennium Development Goals are a million miles away from the poorest of the poor. So are the National Development Goals envisaged by the Tenth Five-Year Plan. In this land of unprecedented GDP growth and ever-growing military expenditure, promises to the poor are meant to be broken. Even after 30 years of Garibi Hatao (banish poverty) promises, public policy in the country is littered with unimplemented schemes. Election manifestos and promises have become a part of the democracy ritual, to be kept in deep freeze till the next elections.
When policymakers are so effective in postponing freedom from fear and freedom from want, the very preamble of the Constitution of India is undermined. The Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Indian Constitution guarantee freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of association and freedom of belief. The UN Declaration (1986) on the Right to Development clearly articulates development as a human right, and further reiterates the fulfilment and realisation of Economic, Social and Cultural (ESC) rights in realising development and eradicating poverty.
With appropriate policies of taxation and a reordering of expenditure priorities, there is no reason why substantial progress cannot be achieved vis-a-vis basic rights, such as food and nutrition, drinking water, sanitation, shelter, primary health and basic education. The neglect of economic, social and cultural rights generally leads to an increased resource burden for the State in maintaining civil and political rights. This means that spending more on schools, hospitals, the creation of livelihoods and the eradication of poverty may be the option to spending more on the police and prisons.
The policymaking process needs to move away from the conventional and patronising approach of a State that believes in the desirability of basic needs. This smacks of charity, as if pro-poor policies are a favour done by the State to the needy. The policymaking process should move towards a rights-based approach to development: all citizens must have a set of core entitlements which are justiciable and in whose provisioning the State must be held primarily accountable. Obstacles in the way of fulfilling such entitlements must be confronted, and efficient ways of meeting the necessary obligations must be explored on an ongoing basis. Such a policymaking perspective demands citizens as active participants in development and claim-holders rather than passive beneficiaries of development hand-outs.
InfoChange News & Features, November 2004