The local govt. bodies that we established should perform. Sarpanches and samiti members are the best resources in ensuring people know about the schemes. Also the ground govt. staff like the VLW/EO/GRS/RI etc are even more important.

Entitlements are to be of a different kind. Yes we need to provide food for their hunger problems. It is never a single process that will solve the problems. But we only have a single process, to give food.

The suggestion you made for school going families is good, but as u know, it depends on the implementation. We have MDM scheme which works decently fine with its own troubles. If we can implement a fail proof structure, it might work.

Sir, It is great to know that you have a good team at your disposal and people with knowledge about schemes.

Yes, entitlements aren’t beneficial in long term and imparting skills will definitely make them ‘earn’ their food and live with dignity. But until then how else can we make sure that the population doesn’t suffer from hunger?

Can we implement food security on the lines of Bolsa familia where the ration is provided strictly to those families whose children are enrolled in school and regularly vaccinated? For every R1$ spent, the govt. could get back R1.72$ and more importantly reduced the poverty in great numbers.

The general ideas of giving ‘subsidies’ or reservations is not the right approach, especially economically. Entitlements cannot ensure long term prosperity. What we need is capacity building. We need to train them to be economically stable.

At least in my block, people do know about schemes, I mean the entitlement schemes. There is no missing information in that regard. My block people know of NREGA, know of pension and housing schemes etc. They didn’t know about a training program, and as u said, the local body staff helped them in knowing it, and they responded in huge numbers.

Yes, procedure is still a tough ask for the villagers. We need a IT based solution to reduce procedures. Someone should help.

Ethical and moral education is more imparted indirectly through the society we live in, than in a classroom. Change thyself.

Sir, i read that local bodies can play a great role in transforming villages, atleast theoretically. As a BDO can you work through them and make sure the people know about these schemes. How about resorting to techniques like danDora, screening of public schemes at street corners,etc.
I think many of the villagers find it hard to get to terms with the ‘procedure’ followed. Seldom they’re helped by offices in completing the task especially by those who are point-of-contact with people. Shouldn’t they be more sensitive?

I’ve friends who are well off financially and yet they produced fake certificates to get fee reimbursement in college. when i asked them about this, what they said was, if i’m not taking advantage of the loopholes some other will; when the politicians are swindling away crores of rupees, what big deal if i have my fee covered.
What we need is ethical and moral education where people can think of society at large and not just their own personal benefits at others cost.

What i also realised is that, the lowest level of staff also do not have a bigger picture of why they do something (say, nrega works or selecting someone for training). All they know (or worry) is to reach targets and ensure their salaries are obtained without break. They have to be encouraged and trained, and if they can become efficient, they would be the best people to filter the greedy.

i wish we could also do similar tricks .
yes, as u mentioned policy formation is still very far. direct cash transfer whether works or not, we need to find out ‘whom’ to give. identification of beneficiaries is a critical problem. aadhar came n went away , but the situation remains the same.

n, thanks for the encouragement.

U mentioned mix of things, can u elaborate if possible please?
identifying beneficiaries gets exceedingly tough only because new couples register as separate suddenly and just before a scheme etc. it is a big deal.

Passiveness of administration is a big problem, there are direct solutions except to have real good people coming in.