Are subsidiary helpful?

Economic policies in India are govern by the myths and prejudices and are not helpful/ favorable to the common man. Government has taken various steps to support the poorer people and announced many incentives but whether this support system and incentive reach to the target people, is a debatable question and needs to be quantified.

Government has increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP’S) for the food grains but this incentive is good for powerful and minority of farmers who have a sizable marketable surplus and have access to government program but majority of farmers are poor marginal farmers and are hurt by higher food prices, because they are the net buyers of food grains. There are millions of landless laborers who are the net buyers of food grains, are directly affected by higher food prices. With inflation figures with a historic high, higher food grain prices are badly affecting each and every common man of the country.

Government has provided subsidiaries on food, fuel and electricity to help the poorer class and to the people living below poverty level. But these subsidiaries help only few people in few states where there is a strong public distribution system. Majority of the India’s poor do not have access to the public distribution system and are deprived from the subsidized food and power. Subsidy on electricity is utilized by handful of farmers who are rich and have electricity driven equipments for farming, but major of the farmers neither have tube wells nor power connections at there homes, so cheap electricity does not make any meaning to them.

image souce: mrm.org