Editorial: Are Citizens Reduced To Freebie Recipients Under The 'Ladki Bahin' Scheme?

With the first phase of the Maharashtra’s latest scheme-based outreach to women commencing, through the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, the spotlight is back on an issue that rears its head every time there’s an election round the corner: the freebie culture targeted to garner votes. The government asserts that the scheme, to transfer Rs 1500 a month to women in certain categories, is a hit as 1.62 crore women across the state have already registered. The first tranche, Rs 3000 for two months, was transferred to 80 lakh of the registered women on the eve of Independence Day.

 The government has now made an outlay of nearly Rs 200 crore to only publicize the scheme drawing derision over its misplaced priorities. A few more hundreds to every woman’s account would have had more significance than spending on publicity but who dares to point this out to a government hurtling at top speed towards a must-win Assembly election? It is not merely the government though; MLAs have joined the freebie bandwagon too with many distributing food grains, saris, pressure cookers, laptops, tabs, notebooks, hearing aids, and even sponsoring pilgrimages. This was once criticized as ‘revdi culture’ at the highest level in India.

 Welfare and welfare schemes do have a place in social democracy and significance in the lives of people at the bottom rungs of the society especially when they are left out of the free market mechanisms. However, there is no doubt that welfare turns citizens of a democracy into beneficiaries dependent on the largesse of governments or individual politicians. Freebies of the sort seen now go a step further in diminishing citizenship because they can be a one-off act of charity or munificence timed to win political support. What can be more cynical in a democracy than this?