Today’s Topic for Discussion is:
Universal Basic Income
Issues:
Knowledge Base:
Aspirants can discuss in the comment section below.
About the Initiative:
Important Issues and topics for UPSC Interview would be posted daily. We will try to cover all important areas for your Interview preparation. Aspirants can discuss in the comment section.
Good.. Keep participating.
Universal basic income which is an unconditional and uniform cash transfer from the Government to every adult ,rich or poor.
Should India implement it ?
Yes already In 2011 in 8 villages of Madhya Pradesh every man,woman,and child provides with monthly payment of initially Rs200 for each adult and Rs 100 for child .These were later raised to Rs 300 and Rs 150 Respectively
So if implanted In India it could replace numerous poverty alleviation such as Indradhanush awas yojna, pm’s, mgnrega.
What are it’s pros and cons ?
Pros :
a)The UBI seeks to provide unconditional cash to every individual or households and the individual would be free to use the cash as per their discretion and spend according to their own preference.
b ) It is regarded as a simple and potentially comprehensive antidote to poverty.
c)for the socially stigmata d workers in India like scavengers and waste carriers UBI can provide an escape ladder d and induce society to mechanised as much as possible such unwanted filthy jobs.
Cons:
a)It would reduce the motivation for work and might encourage expletives to live off assured cash transfer
b) It will crate inflation ,distance to market ,distance to bank and hassles of collecting money .
Challenges in its Implementation:
1.The phasing out of food related subsidies.
2. Coordination between state and central government. Any plan to phase out subsidies and tax exemptions will require an extraordinary degree of cooperation between centre and state
3. Unconditional cash transfer might rise wages due to the decline in the supply of casual labourers
Good. Covered a lot of points.
Universal Basic Income(UBI) is provided to a person to meet his basic needs and to live a life of dignity, just by virtue of being a citizen of that country.The idea can be positively related to India by:
1)Social: As absolute poverty in india stands at 29%, who are being deprieved of access to basic services like food,sanitation etc., UBI can ensure their basic needs gets satisfied.
2) Political: As identification of BPL families for welfare schemes like PDS becoming a challenging task and resulting in inclusion errors, UBI can ensure universality and avoids targeting problems.
3) Economic: Transfer of UBI directly to one’s account reduces corruption problems and it will also improves one’s access to formal credit, since their consumption levels will increase.
4) Psychological: UBI reduces the necessity of people to work for their social capital, thus leveraging their cognitive resources towards important decisions and aspirations.
Challenges:
1) Social: An universal UBI, including children in a household, may encourage households to have greater number of children and might increase the fertility rates.
2) Political: : UBI once implemented cannot be recalled in case of failure.Thus,this scheme should be implemented in phases and only success models can be replicated all over the country.
3) Economic: centre-state share in funding of the UBI would involve complex negotiations including calculating the potential costs of replacement of schemes like PDS,if necessary.
4) Psychological: It might reduce one’s incentive to work, but once their basic needs gets satisfied, their involvement with work will increase thereby raising productivity.
Thus, though the idea of UBI is not ready for implementation in the short run, it is ready for serious discussion and could soon be tried out in phases(district wise) to ensure success and emulate the model elsewhere.
Leave a Reply