Summer of Social Security

Most summers begin and end with sweaty afternoons but I can never forget the summer of June 2013. On the day before my Computer Science paper I got an unexpected call from Jean Dreze. As many would know Jean Dreze is a giant in the field of development economics and has done monumental work for promoting and scrutinizing the fundamental rights that have been bestowed to the people of India. He asked me if I could be a part of a nationwide survey, which aimed to study the rights to life. Before I knew it, I attended a two-day training session in IIT-Delhi where I was briefed about the basics of surveying. We were informed how to be probing at the same time polite. We were told to blend into our environments and live the ‘village life’ in order to understand our respondents better.

My team consisted of many students from Delhi University, DSE, IGIDR and IIT-D. One of my teammates was also from China! Over the course of 22 days we surveyed over 200 households and 100 pensioners, staying two days in each village. We covered four villages from two districts each. In total, we covered eight villages and spent over two days in each of them. We lived a simple life, ate with the village folk and slept in the government schools.

We spent a lot of time inquiring each household about five schemes in total- NREGA (Right to work), PDS (Right to food), Mid-day meal scheme and Anganwadi programme (Right to Education) and the Pension scheme. These schemes form the major bulk of India’s Social Security that seeks to give to people the basic material entitlements and a primary sense of dignity. Social Security seeks to increase the capabilities of the underprivileged. I also learned about data entry and how to edit data. We spent a lot of time scrutinizing and correcting data too.

Why is this Important? From my time here, I have understood that economic growth is a shallow concept without development. Economic Growth is only a means to better welfare. We often forget this and consider growth as an end in itself. Education, Healthcare and Employment are more “real” concepts that affect people’s lives more directly. Himachal Pradesh is experiencing social transformation that is ensuring higher standards of living.

Social Security is extremely important to India, which is the world’s largest democracy. The people of Himachal Pradesh have been awake and have demanded their fundamental rights. This is the reason why the people of Himachal are richer, more educated and happier than the rest of India. This makes us realize that amid the beautiful scenery and cold weather, their lies a much more admirable force within the people of Himachal that makes democracy truly work.

                                                                                                 Pranjal Rawat,

                                                                                                 Presidency University

P.S : Here is the link to the presentation that I made on social security- LINK