The Shrivelled Mammaries of the Welfare State?

There has been a long period of silence since I last wrote. So why is this silence being shattered now? The urge to write emanates from strong feelings; feelings that need to be taken out of the abstract and moulded into concrete ideas, which can be shared. There are many shades of such feelings – ranging from extreme happiness to extreme sadness. These feelings, however, leave very little to write about – except for, maybe, a status update on Facebook. However, somewhere in the middle lies the feeling of cognitive dissonance – which comes when one’s held beliefs and ideas clash with one’s real life experiences. This feeling gives rise to great literature – irony is in fact one of the strongest weapon in the armoury of a writer. Not to drag the point too far, for the past two quarters, I had been in the realm of the ideal – dealing, almost exclusively, with how things ought to be. Not anymore! 

Those who had seen Adolf Hitler in his last few days recalled that he had become cut off from the reality. He was busy directing armies that that long perished, ordering defence of redoubts that had been decimated, and planning movement of units that had never been raised!  No one had the heart to tell Herr Fuehrer the reality behind his grandiose dreams. Some of the closest advisors even humoured his fantasies, just to keep the peace. This may sound ridiculous. This may also be the reality about the State machinery in the nation!

Many of the intellectuals and commentators dealing with the State, particularly the Permanent Executive (often, derogatorily, referred to as the ‘bureaucracy’), have a common thing to say – it is bloated. I have some bad news for them. From what I have observed – and believe me, I have observed in details – it needs to bloat further – somewhere between 30-50% more, if things are to be set right.

The past few months have given me the opportunity to observe the working of almost all the departments of the government - mainly the Revenue Administration and the Rural Development Departments, but also various associated departments like Agriculture, Cooperatives, Social Welfare, Panchayati Raj, Planning and Statistics, Medical and Engineering Departments. There were two things in common. Understaffing at the lower levels, and under-budgeting to debilitating levels. With due apologies to Upamanyu Sir, the so called ‘Mammaries of the Welfare State’ have become totally shriveled!

The level of understaffing can be appreciated better by looking at some figures. A gram panchayat is supposed to have a Village Development Officer (VDO), who implements the various schemes of the Rural Development Department at the village level, and a Village Panchayat Officer (VPO), who is supposed to be the secretary of the Village Council, providing the services of a permanent executive to the elected Political executive of the panchayat. Somewhere in the older days, owing to the shortage in both the cadres, it was decided that either can look after the task of the other cadre. Thus, a Panchayat was now supposed to have either a VDO or a VPO, who was supposed look after both the works. At a stroke, the workload of this functionary was nearly doubled. However, he was supposed to work in the given Panchayat, and could dovetail his works together. However, the situation worsened even further. In the present scenario. The single Panchayat Secretary (who has the double work of VDO and VPO) is looking after 6-8 panchayats. Thus, the workload on this functionary is about 12-16 times what was designed initially! Those who are think that this functionary has some mindless dead end clerical job, are in for a shock. This guy has to execute all the schemes of the Rural Development and all the works desired to be done by the gram sabha. He is responsible for the holding of all the meetings of the Gram Sabha – the regular, as well as the special ones – for social audit, or for some special publicity event; he has to prepare the plan for works to be done in the village, get it approved in a meeting of the Gram Sabha, give administrative approval on those schemes, get those works executed, and verified, and paid for; he has to look after the end to end performance of mammoth schemes like the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme; he has to inquire and redress all the development and public works related grievances in his village, and assist all senior functionaries who go to his village for any such inquiry. These are just the regular jobs that he has to do. In addition, this guy is roped in for verification of ration cards, enumeration of electoral rolls, assisting in the Pulse Polio vaccination, and a number of other programs that do not have their own dedicated personnel. Contrary to the image of a government functionary napping on the desk, this functionary has to work 7 days a week, often beyond office hours, and he still gets the stick for not completing the targets. I have myself been the unwilling conduit for a number of such ‘admonishments’ handed down by the higher ups to these functionaries. Recently, one of my Village Secretaries had a serious road accident, and was hospitalized for 2 months with multiple fractures. The other Secretaries were almost envious!  And it is not that this serious staff crunch is there only in this department. This malady is ubiquitous – Lekhpals (Village Records Official) are holding charge of two to three circles, Auxilliary-Nurse-cum-Midwives are supervising 3-4 subcentres, and Supply Inspectors, meant to look after 150-200 Fair Price Shops, are now having to supervise a whole Subdivision of a District. The ground layer of government is being spread a little too thin for comfort.

What are the drawbacks of cutting so deep into the working arm of the executive. The reader must have noticed the whole schedule of schemes and programs that the ground level workers have to execute. Most of these involve personal interaction, with the still functionally illiterate masses, who cannot use the internet to achieve the same effect quite easily. Recently, the whole ground level force was deployed to do publicity for a new fast track scheme for vocational training. The village secretaries had to go personally into each village and call meetings and explain the program to them! When they tried to distribute the few handbills we had received for publicity, there was a mad rush, as the village folk thought those handbills were forms for application! Often there is an unfair comparison between the efficiency of the government and the corporate sector. What one forgets is the fact that the clientele composition is totally different. Most corporates would have easily done their publicity through advertisements in newspapers and on the television. The government still has to do it the old way of the ‘town crier’ – as the majority of the cell phone subscribers are unable to read and understand the SMSs that are sent! (whatever the advertisers for IDEA Cellular may like you to believe) Hence, it can be seen that ground level work requires personal supervision, unlike the work of the higher ups  - who can do their work of supervision on telephone, and in weekly meetings and similar events. Hence, increasing the ground level workload, upto 16 times on a territory 8 times larger than what they were meant to cover, can be deleterious. We are seeing the effects now. Gram Sabha meetings are being held in a bogus way. The sincere secretaries wait for the quorum to assemble and get done with it, the smarter ones simply visit the houses of quorum strength people and get their minutes signed! Thus, the concept of ‘parliamentary’ control has been totally lost at the village level – and the Panchayats have become unsupervised. A lot Pradhans are being accused of favouring their votebanks – which is all the more easy at Panchayat level, as it is possible for the elected government to pinpoint its ‘friends and foes’ very clearly. What should keep the Panchayat in check is the control by Gram Sabha resolutions. With the atrophying of the Gram Sabha mechanism, the elected Panchayats have more space to indulge in nepotism, and in absence of redressal at Gram Sabha level, the grievances are frequently reaching the desks of Block Development Officers, Sub Divisional Officers and Collectors. Not all of these grievances are genuine. As it is easy for the Pradhans to identify friends and foes, so is it easy for the ‘opposition’ to find their friends and foes.  This had led to a very clear and stark division in all the villages, along the lines of political allegiance. Complaints and counter complaints keep on flying across. I have witnessed RTI harassment – two cases in my tenure of three weeks. What is RTI harassment? Nothing – just asking for reams and reams of information – ‘all the works being done in the Panchayat in all the years, including the names and details all the laborers who did the work’ type of RTI queries. This is harassment at a physical level. Just imagine collating all that data and getting it photocopied, and sending it across – there is a single person, a village secretary, who has to do all this – in addition his already bloated job sheet! The harassment becomes even greater, when the same information is asked for again, with minor changes in the particulars – to make the person repeat the efforts. Then again, often these “grievances” are disguised as allegations of corruption, since that is one word that is sure to get an ear these days. Guess who has to inquire into these grievances (or supervise his higher ups in their inquiry) – yes, the same ground level worker. To add to their plight, often, under stiff targets on the developmental  programs, they cannot physically verify the works, and sign, at their personal risk, whatever the Pradhan or his representatives give them. On that front, it is largely true for all the levels of the hierarchy. Recently, Courts and Commissions have been asking for statements signed by officers not lower than Collectors, and even Principal Secretaries in some cases. However, given the low staff strength at the lower levels, it is not possible for the higher authorities to get the statements filed by the ground level workers verified independently as a matter of routine. There is a common adage in government – “Lekhpal ka likha Rajypal bhi nahin badaltey” (Even the Governor does not change what has been written by the Village Record Official). This is not a happy situation, but this is the reality. Tonnes and tonnes of bogus data and implementation figures keep creeping to the highest levels. There is also immense scope for nepotism and misappropriation by the non-official persons who are helping, unofficially, in the program implementation. Then again, these workers have to be constantly on the move, from this Panchayat to that, in order to attend to their scattered wards, and at the meager level of rural connectivity that we have, it leads to about half of the productive time being wasted in commute. The result is in front of us to see – half baked implementation of programs, and a general sense of discontentment among the beneficiaries, resulting in physical conflicts, within the village, as well as between the village folks and the government functionaries.

The other dimension of the mendicancy of the state machinery at the lowest levels is the level of under-budgeting. While there is ample budget for the programs themselves – the material, the labour cost, the books etc. there is scarcely anything for the machinery that runs the programs. The average Village Secretary must be travelling 70-80 kilometres daily on an average, and that excludes the commute from his residence. That, on a bike would mean expenditure of at least a litre of fuel everyday., or around Rs.2000 worth of fuel everyday. Similarly, there is a lot of paperwork involved at their level. Each grievance requires an investigation report of two pages, followed by photocopies of the documents relied upon by the concerned to refute the charges. To avoid the slur of ‘being insensitive’, we often entertain all sort of random complaints – ‘massive wrongdoings going on in MNREGS’, & ‘a number of undeserving BPL cards being issued’ type. What should ordinarily be done in such cases is to ask the complainant to give specifics and, as far as possible, documentary evidence. That is, sadly, not being done, and it is left to our lower functionaries to deal with all the paperwork. Massive budgets are required for the paperwork generated (each worker must be getting Rs.100 worth of photocopying done daily), and none is provided as a matter of routine – leaving them to skim off the ‘administrative budget’ of various programs to get the work done. Where does the money come to run the show? You may have already guessed it – irregularities. Ask no question, hear no lies!

The nation has, in the recent times, seen some phenomenal upheavals in the political arena. How far that leads to the fulfillment of the promises which have been made is to be seen. I must humbly submit that despite past misgivings, I do see some hope around this development. It may go a long way in curbing one kind of irregularities that happen in the working of the State. That obviously brings us to the question – are their various ‘kinds’ of irregularities that happen in the workings of the State? Yes. There are various ways of classifying irregularities. Let’s take the simplest one first – ours vs theirs! While the latter is commonly known as corruption, the former is known by various names – management, smartness, adjustment etc. Similarly there are many other methods of classification. Our purpose shall be served by classifying according to motive. While there may be psychopaths in all walks of life, and many studies have been conducted, and will be conducted in the future to know what exactly makes them carry on their illegal acts. We are more concerned with why seemingly normal, god fearing people, who aren’t psychopaths, and who most probably have been raised on the homilies of honesty being the best policy, and are quite good persons in all aspects, do a whole range of irregularities in their public offices. Sadly, the answer lies not in any dishonest streak that we all share, but in two things – one - a financially exploitative political leadership, and two - these unbudgeted critical gaps.*** Recent political changes may very well rid us of the former, but to get rid of the latter requires efforts in another dimension. Readers would notice, that the major part of it – expenses for transportation, maintenance of office infrastructure, and stationery etc, are not so prohibitive as they are made out to be. Sadly, basic tools for public functionaries – such as transportation facilities, or communication facilities, are often seen as ‘perks’ by the public. The media spread perception is to be blamed. Two months back, they had run riot about officials getting ‘free petrol’ upto so and so limits. There have been instances of misuse of occupational facilities, and that is to be blamed, to some extent. However, in this great nation of ours, there is scarcely any occupational facility which has not been misused – either in public, or private organizations. Shying away from provision of these facilities, and the budget for their upkeep, only because they appear ‘perky’ is like shooting oneself in the foot. For though these look like peanuts as compared to the actual budget provisions, these expenses are too big to be paid out of the pockets of the functionaries, and once someone starts to steal to pay for his occupational expenses, he would not stop at that alone. Once a person crosses the line, he is, for all purposes, a delinquent – better to hang for ten crimes if you are to hang for one. It is much easier for us higher officials to ‘stay clean’ – it just requires a little bit tempering down of personal lifestyle. However, in the current understaffed and under-budgeted scenario, for a lower functionary to stay clean requires him to miss on targets on most of his jobs; and contrary to popular perception, performance appraisal in the government can get really nasty, especially for lower functionaries. So, there is a huge incentive to play a bit dirty but safe. Once they do dirty their hands out of compulsion, there is no compunction in dirtying them for private gains either.  Even the higher authorities generally do not have an incentive to stop the garden variety irregularities, as they themselves would not like to see their achievements fall back on the appraisal. Thus, despite the best of intentions at the top most level, these types of irregularities will surely continue under the given circumstances.

Then, what is the way out. More importantly, why am I mildly optimistic about the change in the politics, when the rot that I am worried about is largely apolitical. The reason is simply the balance of incentives. In the current scenario, achieving the targets, by means fair or foul, is more acceptable, even at the risk of exposing oneself to the charges of corruption at some later stage, as compared to not achieving the targets. The hope is that the popular uprising against corruption would raise the stakes much higher against the risk of getting caught using foul means – in other words, putting the extreme fear of God in those who commit irregularities. In that scenario, using ‘ill-gotten budget’ to achieve one’s targets would be more costly than not achieving the targets. Then the much abused machinery would start to put its foot down – they would not be willing to risk dismissal and incarceration for the achievement of a few development targets, and the higher officials will be fearful of asking them to ‘manage’ it anyhow. Then all the development schemes, and even a few essential services will come crashing down. The welfare state shall be largely paralysed, and then it shall be realized that there is no grease in the bearings of the State. This fact shall be made to be known, and redressed, if the party has to continue. Someone shall have to pay for the show to run. Those who imagine burgeoning deficits should relax – most of it shall have to come out of taxes, and more importantly, fees. Any burden imposed upon the user shall be lower than what he currently has to pay on the side to get the works done, since the functionaries, in absence of any pressure to take money for official work, shall have all the more reasons to desist from taking bribes for their personal use. Thus, the whole ‘underground’ taxation would be brought over ground, and would be comparatively lessened. Of course, there would still be sociopaths and genetically wired delinquents, who shall not stop – and there are punitive means to deal with them. In absence of the pressure to allow irregularity ‘for the greater good’, the higher authorities would be more free to crack down on these elements. This shall be the way governance and administration shall finally be cleansed. 

However, there is a catch in this scenario. To cleanse via this route would require all our programs and services to reach to a shutdown level. It is true that out of destruction comes the new creation. However, it is the measure of a sentient civilization to avert total destruction and to metamorphose into a changed system on the first inkling of a better way. My endeavor in writing this long, dull piece is simply to make the reader aware of what exactly is needed to give this nation clean and more responsive governance. If the realization dawns on a ‘pareto majority’ – the majority of those who make and break opinions in this highly charged opinion-osphere, and if they are honest about cleaning the system, and not just hyperventilating hypocritically, we might address this issue and get some changes done without reaching apocalypse first. That is the scenario I wish for, for the alternative is imminent otherwise.  

[*** - There is a third major 'source' that motivates otherwise honest functionaries to steal in order to line up a tribute. However, I am not sure if writing about that would be 'contemptuous' to the 'source'! Hence, more on that after more research.