Indian politics has a long history of luring the voters on terms with freebies and debt waive off. Since its independence, India has seen several governments ruling at the center and the assemblies of the states.
One thing common that has been seen by the political pundits over the course of time is the best possible manners in which people are lured to consolidate their vote bank although the methods and approaches were different.
In contemporary times the battle of freebies has again come to the fore in the sphere of Indian politics. Prime Minister in one of his addresses mentioned the culture of ‘Muft ki Revdi’ (the freebies) from then on it was the talk of the town and the spokespersons of political parties jumped into a fierce war of words the situation got so tough that it reached the country’s apex court.
On August 3rd a Supreme Court bench led by CJI N.V Ramana opined that a panel must be set up to gauge the extent and need of freebies in the country. A panel. However, is yet to be established but the battle among political parties of allegations and the counter allegation is still on.
One must be pondering the culture of freebies and luring the voter base is only limited to a vibrant and varied democratic settlement like ours along with few other developing nations or does it exist in far more developed nations like ours?
A detailed presentation on how and where we stand at par with the developed nations around the globe:
In India, the focus on electricity, water, and fuel are more is provided with government subsidies than its European counterparts like Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and other similar countries roughly equal to its state emphasize more on education and health care and are thus free in these nations.
These European nations cater to the medical need of its citizen right from a minor common flu to a major organ transplant, whereas in education the governments look after their citizen’s education right from nursery to Ph.D.
In far more developed nations the government issues allowances to assist citizens in providing house rents whereas in the USA government provides the unemployed with monetary assistance to ensure social security.
How does the government bear these expenses?
In India or any other developed European nation, the government does not put pressure on their coffer to ensure their citizen’s well-being rather it is taken care of by the tax that the people pay on their income or whatever purchase they make.
Here is a complete picture of how different nations fair in providing freebies differently and where we stand in this regard and does this culture has burdened the coffers of Indian states:
Education:
• 14 Countries from 5 continents provide completely free education to their citizen. Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Greece from Europe. Morocco, Egypt, and Kenya from Africa. South American nations of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Besides Panama and Malaysia from Central America and Asia respectively ensures that their citizen gets the best education absolutely free of cost.
• The standard of European education is the benchmark for the world, however, barely 5% of the third world nations can be expected to match that stage. Finland among all on the list stands wide apart it not just provides free education to its citizen rather anyone coming to their nation is also looked after with equal dignity.
• There is no bar on education. Private or Public funded educational institutions are under the obligation to provide free education to its citizen. Right from primary to Ph.D. education is totally government funded.
India in terms of Education:
• The case in India of free education is limited to government-supported institutions only.
• Based on statistics in 2020-21 the country had 10.32 Lakh government schools which are not sufficient enough to cater to the needs of its entire population.
• On contrary to that there are missionary and charity schools that provide education at minimal expenses while some are free although those are too less and reach also not in the entire nation.
• Then comes private institutions, which now stand as a pure business, education is too costly here and not in the ambit of all to pursue.
Health Care:
16 countries from 4 continents, where Europe leads the chart with the inclusion of Japan from Asia in the list have been providing absolutely free medical facilities to its people. From the common flu to major operations everything in these countries is free.
India:
• The status of Health care in the country is extremely poor. Medical infrastructure is not free in the country however it is cheap in the government-funded facilities which makes the government hospitals much more crowded and the infrastructure and facility remain in a disastrous state.
• The current government has rolled out a scheme of Ayushman Bharat which provides insurance cover of 5 Lakh annually to 50 crore people in the nation of 1.4 billion people.
Home Rent Allowances:
• The Netherlands was the first country in the globe to provide allowances to people for home rent which is now in practice in four more European countries Finland, Sweden, Ireland, and Hungary.
• The government of these nations decides how much allowance will be paid to the people of their country for the rent. The allowance is paid based on the income of an individual and how much rent is the person supposed to pay.
• In Hungary and Ireland, 70% of the poor get benefit from this scheme.
India:
• 30% of India’s entire population lives in rented houses. The government here doesn’t provide any form of assistance in this regard.
• The only form of assistance one gets is the subsidy on the home loan. Which barely makes any impact on an overall effective price. This benefit is also limited to people of certain limited income batch.
Unemployment Allowance:
• Along with three European nations Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom, the USA provides an allowance to its jobless citizens. The Danish government provides financial assistance to its citizen for 2 years if one loses their job.
• The allowance scheme varies from country to country, viz in the US until one gets a job the government provides monetary assistance to the person. In Denmark, people losing their job are provided with 90% of the last issued salary in form of an allowance. Whereas in contrary to that Sweden has the provision of pension after one finishes 5 years of service.
• In the USA, the family in need gets a temporary form of assistance. Whereas based on the TANF scheme the government provides basic amenities of groceries, house, and electricity.
India’s stand for Unemployed:
• Indian government discontinued the central unemployment allowance. At present, the allowances for the jobless vary from state to state.
• The country has a separate provision for providing monetary assistance to people with physical disabilities, widows, and old age, which is taken care of by the state and central government differently.
• The EPF scheme in the country covers all the salaried and working professionals, besides a pension fund covering all.
The fine print of the freebies, how is being provided and how does the government compensate?
Major European nations Finland, Germany, and Sweden do all the basics for their citizens. 50% of the people’s Income goes into the tax.
The tax in these nations forms the basic pattern and this is how the government in these nations ensures a quality of life and better services. The reason these nations perform well in the happiness index also lies in the kind of service they get.
In India, things go in a different form, here emphasis has always been given to providing subsidies for electricity, water, and fuel.
The subsidies for electricity are provided by the state government whose electricity board mostly remains in debt. The Tamil Nadu electricity board is in debt of a whopping 11,965 crore.
A fair proportion of tax collected from the citizen goes for the free schemes and is not grounded well or reaches to the public due to the lack of full-proof planning.