Positive Side of Freebies in India: UPSC Daily Important Topic | 10 August 2022

Positive Side of Freebies in India

✓Foundation for Welfare Schemes: Freebies not only include unviable pre-election promises but also a number of services that the government provides to meet its constitutional obligations (Directive Principles of State Policy) towards citizens like Public Distribution System (PDS) , Free Covid Vaccine and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

✓The ‘Mid-day Meal Scheme’ was first introduced in 1956 by Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister K. Kamaraj and then it was adopted as a national programme a decade later.

✓NT Rama Rao’s promise of rice at Rs. 2 per kg in Andhra Pradesh is the original avatar of the current day National Food Security Programme.

✓Rythu Bandhu of Telangana and Kalia of Odisha were forerunners of what is now Kisan Samman Nidhi.

✓Upliftment of Lower Class: As the states with comparatively lower levels of development have a greater percentage of their population living in poverty, such freebies become more useful for upliftment of lower strata in these states.