The problem, of course, with a lot of such schemes is that they are not well targeted — why should rich farmers get free power? Why should the government be giving away televisions? Also, there is a lot of leakage and corruption in subsidised food schemes. And even when you add them all up, poverty remains persistent, farmers still commit suicide. So, in terms of impact, we need something much better.

In this context, one proposal, floated by Naidu this time round, could overcome many of these general shortcomings: directly transferring cash transfer to the poor.

Now, there is nothing original about the idea, but it’s never found much traction in India, where we have tended to prefer more indirect programmes like NREGA, which pay the poor in cash or food, but only if they work. Again, the impact of such programmes on poverty has typically been slow, uneven and ridden with leakages. The direct cash transfer, therefore, may just be the big improvement we need.

Consider the most successful example of a cash transfer programme from Brazil, from which Naidu drew his inspiration — the bolsa familia programme. The programme initiated by the government of President Lula Da Silva during his first term in office makes a provision of a direct cash transfer to poor families every month but conditional on their sending their children to school and getting their children vaccinated. In this way, it tries to alleviate the problem of short-term poverty with a longer term of goal of lifting people permanently out of poverty through the provision of good education and health. The programme is designed to try and minimise leakage — families are given a smart card, usually in the name of the oldest female member, which they use to withdraw money from an automated machine.

... contd.