Basis for pro-people growth

BY LYNN Ockersz

THE central attraction of the 2006 budget formulated by the Mahinda Rajapakse administration is the more than Rs. 20,000 million allocated for the country's welfare. While the provision of fertiliser at a subsidised price could be expected to have a positive, long-term impact on agricultural productivity, if effectively availed of, it is the large-scale investment in the development of the country's human resources which could be considered the most decisive development thrust in the current budget - the Jewel in the Crown as it were.

To take up cudgels with the Government that the stage is being set for a sharp incline in State expenditure which could spark inflationary tendencies and in turn cause a spiral in living costs would be glaringly besides the point.

Nor would it be analytically sound to take up the position that the way is being paved for the establishment of a hand-outs culture among the people or that we are witnessing the unprecedented burgeoning of a dependency syndrome in the public's relations with the State.

This is no throw-back to the Seventies, for instance, when welfare benefits were indiscriminately showered on most social strata, making the State a veritable engine of welfare expenditure and little else.

Besides, the State's bureaucratic control over the people was strengthened and rations and queues became the order of the day.

The present budget would not make us revisit those times because the envisaged welfare measures are being selectively targetted and are aimed at developing the potential and productivity of those social segments which over the past two decades or more have been relegated to the margins.

It is easy to see, for example, that free nutritional food stuffs and medical care at rural hospitals for the poor coupled with a monthly allowance for the purchase of milk for children up to five years and a free mid-day meal scheme for school children would improve the nutritional status of the populace and lay the foundation for a healthy and productive labour force.

We also warmly welcome a series of welfare measures aimed at improving the material security and well-being of social categories, such as orphans from the tsunami tragedy and child victims of the North-East war.

We are also glad that the disabled are coming in for unprecedented empowerment measures, not to speak of enhanced welfare measures for the poor under the Samurdhi programme.

It is apparent, then, that the less privileged and victimised social segments are coming in for a series of welfare measures, which, if effectively made use of, could result in their empowerment and material independence.

However, what we need to also establish is a culture of self-help and self-reliance on the basis of these far-reaching schemes.

The targeted groups need to be schooled in the belief that they should avail of these welfare benefits to only - sooner rather than later - stand on their own feet and breathe the air of economic independence rather than perpetually depend on the State.

Another prominent plus point in the budget is the help granted to those engaged in religious instruction, such as Daham school teachers and the assistance extended by the State for the upkeep of religious institutions.

It is easy to see that moral decadence and spiritual poverty are no longer closing in on us at a 'creeping peace'. They are upon us and exacting high costs in the form of rising criminality and rampant indiscipline in almost all quarters.

Accordingly, enhancing morality and spirituality emerges as an essential requirement.