The word 'freebies' reflects the class privilege of those using the term, including members of the judiciary, industrialists, business executives, journalists or people occupying high positions who deride social welfare schemes even as they themselves receive all kinds of benefits. https://thewire.in/law/justice-br-gavai-freebie-parasites-assault
During a hearing on civil writ petitions pertaining to provision of adequate shelter facilities to homeless persons in urban areas, Supreme Court Justice B.R. Gavai chose to criticise the practice of freebies for harming the national work ethic.
To think that a monthly cash transfer of Rs. 2000-3000 is enough to make the poor lazy defies logic and reason. If labourers are indeed not going to work, this is not because of free rations, they are just not getting decent wages for agricultural work. The latest Economic Survey points to stagnating or decreased rural wages.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has found that there is a stark lack of decent employment opportunities in India. Cash transfers have been offered because severe unemployment afflicts the capitalist world, including India.
Many of the so-called freebies are a constitutional requirement for social and economic justice in a country that is ranked among the most unequal countries in the world. The World Inequality Database shows that economic inequality in India was higher than the colonial period, and termed it as a Billionaire Raj. India has not even been able to ensure that all its people receive basic food and nutrition, healthcare, housing, educational access, etc. In most other countries, universal access to reasonable quality goods and services that constitute basic needs is seen as the responsibility of the state, these are not viewed as freebies.
The government recently announced a slew of extra retirement benefits for Chief Justices of India and Supreme Court judges (not to be confused with freebies). Similarly, tax cuts given to the corporate sector are not to be confused with freebies. Even as many welfare schemes are seen as wasteful, there is predictable silence over the billions of rupees worth of bad loans, owed to the public sector banks, being written off the banks’ balance sheets.
There can’t be a better example of freebies than the write-offs of non-performing assets (NPAs) of large corporate loans in the last few years paid for by Indian taxpayers.
by Zoya Hasan
20/02/2025