Just Populism?

Every parent in occupations covered by the Vishwakarma scheme wants their children to have a modern education, skills and be a part of the modern economy and earn decent incomes. They do not want their children to feel it is their destiny (karma) to lead a life with low incomes and no modern education

- PSM RAO

Coinciding with Vishwakarma Jayanthi on 17 September this year, the government of India is launching its PM Vishwakarma scheme as if to satiate this divine architect and craftsman deity.

The boon, the quid pro quo, the government seeks from this God, looks to be the bountiful votes to the ruling party from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), who constitute about 52 per cent of the population, in the coming elections to five state assemblies Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana toward this year-end and to the Lok Sabha later.

The realization of the desire will depend on to what extent the target groups will receive or at least perceive to receive the benefits; the second is always more important to the politicians because it is this perception that they think generates the votes for them.

More so, since the scheme is slated to be implemented over five years 2023-24 to 2027-28 and the list of categories of eligible trades is stated to be expanded, the hopes and expectations, but not the actual benefits, will be tangible before the elections. The people's trust in the scheme is important to the party in power for the time being.

A closer look at the so far available details of the scheme suggests that it is unlikely to yield much benefit neither in quantitative nor in qualitative terms; not significant enough to woo voters from the target groups despite the hype being created to raise hopes of the entire OBC Community.

Before going into the micro details of the scheme, let us first look at the macro factors to see how big or small is the scheme.

The five-year outlay for the scheme is only Rs.13,000 crore which means Rs.2,600 crore per year in the entire country both in rural and urban areas. So, it is too small a sum compared to the size of the OBC class.