Rajasthan government is on the track to centralization

 

Centralization as a system is

inconsistent with a non-violent

structure of society

 - Mahatma Gandhi

The more the concentration of power with a few dominant people, the less will be the citizen’s participation which ends up collapsing the entire system of democracy.

Rajasthan government is not in favor of building the narrative of a community-centric approach, rather it is skewed toward a centralized approach to accomplishing its ambition. The congress-led Rajasthan Government has turned a blind eye/ ignorant to the sorrow of rural communities. We often listen to the line “Mukhya Mantri Ji ki Mehetwakanshi Yojana”. It’s CM's ambition, who has drafted the policy in the AC rooms and is unaware of the miseries of the community. By the way, the term ambition infuses a negative sense, it is used for the fulfillment of desire by going to any extent.

The government claims to benefit the rural women by facilitating Saras license for establishing 1000 dairy booths and 1320 Milk Collection Centers all over the 33 districts of Rajasthan with the support of an MOU signed between RCDF and Rajasthan SRLM. This component was articulated in the budget announcement for FY 2022-23. This project seems to have been designed and “imposed” without priorly brainstorming its limitations such as Saras is incompetent to compete with the highly competitive and fluctuating local market, the production of milk is not the same in every season, and not every woman is affluent enough to establish Saras booth.

However, women SHGs are formed taking into consideration SECC 2011 deprived households, In the FY 2022-23, the Rajasthan SRLM has a target to achieve saturation anyhow and 100% SHGs to hold membership in Village organizations and CLF. SHG, VO, and CLF are separate entities and responsible to make their own decision with a consensus of all members. Within 3 months of SHG formation, 3 office bearers of SHG visit the bank for opening an SHG saving account, and after 9 months all SHG members visit the bank for seeking a loan. Numerous women cadres have been developed in each vertical of SRLM to run the project smoothly, these women in themselves are agents of change and the epitome of women empowerment being self-reliant, but if the government does not consider them capable to put their opinions on the table, then it is raising a question mark on its project. 

Image of centralization 

There are juggernaut people to take care of CM's ambition and go to the bitter end to meet his expectations because no one wants CM to take umbrage by showing disagreement even in the sweetest manner, but who will pay heed to women’s plight, her dreams, her expectations, and her everlasting hope from the incumbent government? Has anyone ever asked a woman about her thoughts on nation-building/ economic and social growth? 

The government is simply serving a chicken feed and restricting the community to some petty narrow-minded ideas when they deserve to go beyond the horizon with vibrant minds and magnificent hearts because the sky is the limit to obtain in the development prospect.

For the sake of creating a philanthropic image, some officials visit the village, distribute some articles, click pictures, post it on social media platforms and return to their AC rooms. Why does the government feel pity for the poor and tag them as “beneficiaries”? If the poor get benefited from the government project, are the government officials not earning bread and butter from the same? And CM and other ministers aren’t getting paid and advantaged with lavish facilities for delivering their services? If the project had not been running in the state, then lakhs of people would have been roaming unemployed. After all, they all fall under the category of labor according to economics jargon.

To my mind, firstly the officials who are holding the position in top-level management need to unlearn the concept of centralization in policymaking and implementation of development projects/ schemes and imbibe the modern way of development that comprises a community-centric approach. We are often eloquent about social/ behavior change and frequently use the statement like transforming the lives of rural poor/ changing the mindsets of the community. Primarily, we require correcting our concept of development, then only any difference can be made.

Merely a stint of one year left to the Rajasthan Assembly Election, the easiest way to make people believe in the Congress government is to emphasize the research part more and plan accordingly. Instead of filling the gaps, it believes in throwing the baby out with the bathwater as it is hostile to the numbers. Living in a cuckoo land is the most comfortable zone, but when reality hits, one receives a great degree of shock, and this status quo has become a dime a dozen for Congress. The focus area of the government should be to convert the citizen’s dreams into reality instead of sticking to their vision. People support the leader who connects to their problems, puts himself/ herself in their shoes, and combats those difficulties compassionately.