"The MGNREGS dashboard, maintained by the rural development ministry, showed 2.6 crore (26 million) households and 3.7 crore (37 million) persons were looking for work in April this year, higher by 91% and 85%, respectively, over April 2020," Financial Express. These levels "are the highest compared with any previous April since 2013-14". "The scheme's mandate under the MGNREG Act 2005 is to provide at least 100 days of 'wage employment' in a financial year to every rural household whose adult member volunteers to do unskilled manual work. This goal has never been met." "Are 'freebies' a good idea? Set up in this way, this question almost instinctively invites an answer in the negative," Prof Surajit Mazumdar wrote a passionate defence of subsidies for the poor in Times of India (TOI). "Typically, those who get extraordinarily little have to work very hard -- partly because returns on labouring activity in India are very low and partly because some of them do unpaid work to help sustain their low income household. Even those who are unemployed are not so by choice and therefore cannot be called idlers." "It is also worth remembering that the so-called recipients of freebies also pay taxes out of their measly incomes." "So those who are too poor to pay income tax also pay taxes every time they make purchases in the market and their taxes constitute a large proportion of tax revenues in India." India has a long list of schemes to help the poor going on for years. Prime Minister Narendra modi has added his own schemes to the list. A report by the United Nations Development Programme, released in 2019, "found that over 640 million people across India were in multidimensional poverty in 2005/2006 and that fell steeply to slightly more than 365.55 million by 2016/17 -- and impressive reduction of 271 million", Forbes. If people are dependent on government handouts to survive, have their lives become secure? "Around 75 million people in India fell into poverty last year because of the pandemic-induced economic recession, compared to what it would have been without the outbreak, an analysis by Pew Research Center showed," CNBC. "The number for India accounts for nearly 60% of the global increase in poverty in 2020, the analysis showed. It defined the poor as people who live on $2 or less daily." In a rebuttal, Prof Amartya Lahiri wrote, "The Madras High Court recently made some trenchant observations regarding the practice of doling out freebies around election time in Tamil Nadu." "Promises to write off debts, provide electricity, free rice, cash handouts to target voting blocs, subsidised cooking gas, and many more, are familiar to voters across the country." "From gold chains to TV sets, the battle has now moved to washing machines and free cable connections," Economic Times (ET). "The ruling AIADMK, which is contesting in alliance with the BJP, has promised to give one government job per family along with washing machine and cable TV, connection of the government-owned Asaru Cables to all below poverty line families. In addition, it has promised these families free solar stoves. It has also promised six LPG cylinders for free in a year to every family." This is pure misappropriation of taxpayer money. The culture of handouts has led to "The expectation of state support is ingrained in private businesses and is the reason for repeated bailouts of banks swamped with non-performing assets", and "myriad agitations across the country by various groups demanding reservations in higher education and employment on the basis of caste and ethnic identities". With income tax collections falling center and state governments have hiked taxes on petrol and diesel, Economic Times. As prices rise due to higher transport costs the government has collected a record Rs 1.24 trillion from goods and services tax (GST) in March 2021, Times of India. These are indirect taxes that the poor are forced to pay. What is the point collecting blood to transfuse into the same person? Mystery.
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