F14-Poverty

India’s Basic Income Experiment by Rasmus Schjoed  https://socialprotection-humanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Indias-Basic-Income-Experiment-PP21.pdf 

Cash transfers will obviously not solve all issues faced by vulnerable people but, given how complex issues of poverty are, it is amazing how much can be done simply by providing people with a small extra income on a regular and predictable basis.

Basic Income: A Transformative Policy for India https://www.environmentandurbanization.org/basic-income-transformative-policy-india 

Countering critics’ expectation that providing a basic income would lead to squandered spending, the beneficiaries quickly made improvements to basic living conditions, nutrition, schooling, and other areas. By the end of the pilot, almost twice as many households in the basic income villages that did not previously have a latrine in their home now possessed one, compared to the control villages. Consumption of fresh vegetables in the basic income villages increased by 888 per cent. And illness levels were lower in the basic income villages than in the control villages.

The authors believe firmly in the transformational power of unconditional cash transfers. A key example of this from the Madhya Pradesh work concerns indebtedness, which is chronic and common in the area. Among the households that received basic incomes, debt was dramatically reduced both early in the pilot and after it concluded. Not only was the basic income amount used to pay off existing debt, it also reduced the likelihood of individuals securing more – and more exploitative – loans.

Rahul Gandhi promises minimum income scheme: How it works for India https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/rahul-gandhi-lok-sabha-polls-minimum-income-guarantee-universal-basic-income-1486117-2019-03-25 March 25, 2019
Until a few years ago, UBI -- the idea that government guarantees a fixed monthly income to every citizen of a country -- was largely utopian. But now, with Rahul Gandhi's announcement, the idea has entered the mainstream.

a minimum income guarantee (MIG) scheme  if Congress came to power after 2019 Lok Sabha polls, 20 per cent families in poorest of the poor category would be given Rs 72,000 each annually as a minimum income.

UBI was first flagged in the Economic Survey 2016-17 as a conceptually appealing idea and a possible alternative to social welfare programmes.

The Congress president’s minimum income guarantee for the poor is a spinoff of the concept of UBI, which is a model for providing all citizens of the country or a geographic area with a sum of money.

UBI FOR INDIA -- the formula

Poverty line or the estimated minimum level of income needed to sustain life was fixed at Rs 7,620 per person/annum, based on economist Suresh Tendulkar’s poverty line formula.

The survey had estimated that such a model of UBI will cost 4.9 per cent of India’s GDP in comparison to 5.2 per cent of GDP spent on all 950 central sector and centrally sub-sponsored schemes. 

Under the scheme, income transfer was envisaged through direct benefit transfer to the concerned individual using Aadhar. It was also recommended to start the scheme with women, elderly people, widows, and persons with disability.

The case for minimum basic income Puja Mehra  https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-case-for-minimum-basic-income/article26131268.ece January 31, 2019 
Updated: January 31, 2019 00:13 IST
It will improve equity, address rural distress and cover the urban poor

The reforms since 1991 have largely bypassed agriculture and other segments of the economy that engage poor and rural Indians. While incomplete economic liberalisation and technological advances have led to growth in national income, all individuals have not gained equally. The disproportionate share of gains from the reforms have gone to middle-class and rich Indians. This unevenness in development calls for a superior economic growth model. Until that happens, redistributive policy interventions such as income transfers can improve equity. Income transfers are not to be confused with doles or unemployment benefits. They are unconditional income supplements to compensate for policy failures and ease the economic anxieties of the less advantaged. In the West, economists are advocating universal basic income to fight inequality and slow wage growth, allay fears that immigrants will take away jobs, and advance automation.

Basic Income Could Empower Millions Of Indians, But India May Find Cost Too High 
ByShreya Shah|24 Jun, 2017 https://www.indiaspend.com/basic-income-could-empower-millions-of-indians-but-india-may-find-cost-too-high-75113/ 
In a country where 21% of the population lives below the poverty line (of Rs 816 per capita per month in rural areas, and Rs 1,000 in urban areas), where the top 10% of the population own 53% of its wealth, with worsening inequality over the last two decades, a basic income could empower millions, even as the government said the programme might not be politically or economically feasible.

If 75% of the population received Rs 6,450 per capita per year, the UBI would cost India 4.2% of its gross domestic product--more than the 2016-2017 central government revised estimate for the department of food and public distribution, defense services, expenditure on departments of agriculture, farmers' welfare, fertilizers, telecommunications, road transport and highways, and atomic energy put together.

The UBI amount would be greater than all current welfare programs of the government including the Public Distribution System, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, the Integrated Child Development Scheme, the Mid Day Meal scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, and the Swachh Bharat Mission, according to the 2016-2017 economic survey.

A basic income would be different from a payment for work done under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) because it does not have a work requirement, or from a payment made to mothers choosing to deliver in a hospital as the UBI isn’t for a specific category of people. It is also different from a payment made to only those below the poverty line because the income is meant for everyone, irrespective of the level of income.

UBI as an alternative to current programmes: could correct faulty targeting, reduce leakage

The 2016-2017 economic survey highlights the misallocation of funds in current programmes: it concludes there is little overlap between the share of poor in a district and the share of overall funding it receives from current welfare programs, suggesting the poorest districts do not receive the most money.