Right to Basic Needs Progress made and way forward

1. Right to Basic NeedsProgress made and way forward Suresh P Singh

2. Outline • Basic needs and right to basic needs • Types of basic needs • How is the right to basic needs positioned? • Objectives, scope and methodology of the study • Progress and way forward

3. Basic needs and basic rights • Basic needs: needs which are critical for survival and normal mental and physical health of people. These include: • food; • clothing; • healthcare; • drinking water and sanitation; • shelter; • education; • energy; and • transportation. • Right to basic needs: the right to access needs indicated above.

4. SHELTER CLOTHING FOOD RIGHT TO BASIC NEEDS EDUCATION TRANSPORTATION ENERGY HEALTH CARE DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION

5. Objectives, scope and methodology • Objectives • To assess progress made towards right to basic needs and identifying opportunities and threats. • Scope • All India • Methodology • Review and analysis of primary (consumers’ perception) and secondary data on progress on each of the basic rights

6. Progress made towards right to basic needs

7. Right to foodProgress and the way forward • About 50% consumers access PDS. • Nearly 71% of them also access standalone/retail shops. • Dependence on PDS is high among BPL households – about 73% BPL household’s access PDS compared to 38% APL households. • 44% consumers receive appropriate quantity of food grains from PDS on a regular basis, while 26% never receive appropriate quantity of food grains from PDS. • About 5% of those who access PDS are not aware about their entitlement and importantly 85% of such respondents are from rural areas. • 42% consumers receive food grains on the government prescribed price; while 11% never received food grains on prescribed price. • 10% consumers not aware about prescribed rates and 81% of these are from rural areas. • 45% respondents do not receive appropriate quantity at prescribed rate. Of these, 74% respondents have never made a complaint regarding irregularities in PDS operations. The PDS continues to remain the most important tool to address consumers’ right to food. There is need for strengthening the system by strict and effective monitoring measures. Such measures should include helping consumers to lodge complaints. There should also be a mechanism timely redressal of such complaints. Besides, there is need for looking into issues of PDS shop owners that result in leakages in the system.

8. Right to clothingProgress and the way forward • There is presently no government scheme to address the issue effectively. This makes right to clothing determined by the ability of a consumer to pay. • So far, the Government of India and various State Governments efforts (such as distribution of clothes through PDS) towards clothing have proved piecemeal. • Most of the states have already stopped distribution of clothes through the PDS. In addition, the public distribution system appears grossly incapable of addressing the issue. Right to clothing is important in a country like India where nearly one-third of the population live below or near the poverty line. The government should introduce a targeted approach to help poor benefit from the scheme of distribution of cloth at subsidised rates. There is also need for promoting initiatives such as clothes bank. This is being done by some organisations, these might be extended through PPP to cover a wider population.

9. Right to healthcareProgress and the way forward • 26% consumers have received institutional healthcare facility in last 6 months and two-third of them have obtained healthcare facility from government hospitals. • 26% respondents travelled more than 5 km to access health care facility. • Only about 31% consumers rate quality of healthcare facility as “good”. Majority of them are from urban area. Close to 50% consumers rate healthcare facility as “fair”. • Only 44% consumers consider cost of obtaining healthcare services affordable. • According to 59% consumers, doctors do not generally prescribe generic or competitively priced drugs/medicines. 43% consumers say that even if doctors do so these medicines are not easily available in the market. Majority of such people are from rural area and largely belong to BPL households. In order to improve the situation, it is necessary to adopt a comprehensive and need-based health policy at the national (macro) level. The basic objective should be the preventive aspects of disease control, but at the same time curative aspects should also be strengthened. In addition, there should focus on controlling the price of essential/ lifesaving drugs. The existing drug policy needs to cover a larger number of such drugs. There is also need for making these drugs available as and when required.

10. Right to drinking water and sanitationProgress and the way forward • 54% consumers meet their drinking water demand through government supply and 30% receive it from privately owned source like – bore well, well etc. The remaining 16% receive drinking water form community sources/ shared sources like – community hand pump, well etc. • Government supply is more common in urban area as compared to the other two sources, while community sources are more in rural area. • 74% consumers receive adequate quantity of drinking water from these sources. • Only 69% consumers believe that the water from these sources is potable and safe for drinking. About 22% consider their primary source of drinking water expensive, while 34% receive it for free. • 26% consumers do not have access to toilets; the situation is worse in rural areas where 33% do not have access to toilet facility. • Over three-fourth of urban respondents have access to a private toilet at home while 13% use a community toilet. About 12% do not have access to any toilet and majority of them are from BPL Households.

11. Right to drinking water and sanitation Progress and the way forward (contd..) • Only 16% of those who have toilet at home have reported receiving government support for construction of toilet at home. About 24% respondents are aware about government schemes such as Nirmal Gram Yojana/Integrated Low Cost Sanitation Scheme/National Urban Sanitation Program aimed at providing affordable and hygienic sanitation facility. • Out of 11,499 respondents covered under the survey only 17% believe that government support for home community toilet is easily accessible. To improve the situation, there is need for (a) developing an effective information management system so that the physical and financial progress of water supply facilities can be monitored periodically; (b) ensuring proper maintenance of the assets created, involvement of the community is necessary; (c) implementing the maintenance system in States with village level, block level and district level planning; and (d) involving women in the selection and maintenance of the water supply systems.

12. Right to shelterProgress and the way forward • 70% consumers own a self-financed house on privately owned land, while 15% received land from government housing scheme for construction of house. 5% received full/ partial financial assistance from government. • Only 12% consumers who own a self-financed house on privately owned land have tried to access government housing finance or bank finance scheme. • About 74% of such consumers believe that finance is not easily accessible to everyone and only 34% consider terms of bank or government finance for housing affordable. Majority of such people belong APL households in urban area. • Majority of those who have received full or partial financial assistance from government belong to BPL category (8.5%). • Rented accommodations are more common in urban area (16%) as compared to rural area (6%). To improve the situation, there is need for (a) extending government support to help poor construct their houses, and (b) secondly making finance available and more accessible to common people.

13. Right to educationProgress and the way forward • 80% and 70% consumers believe that access to education has increased due to Right to Education (RTE) and Mid-Day Meal Scheme respectively. Right to education has played a vital role in increasing the access to education while mid-day meal scheme has motivated parents/ students to enrol into schools. • About 77% consumers expressed their desire to have a regulator for private schools. The regulator can make education in private schools more accessible and affordable for a common man which is not the case. RTE needs to be effectively implemented with strong provision for poor students. The universalisation of education is an important pillar for making people (consumers) realise other rights. It is also important for making them understand their responsibilities.

14. Right to energyProgress and the way forward • 79% consumers have electricity connections, while among BPL households only 72% have electricity connection. • Despite having electricity connection, electricity supply still remains a major challenge. Only 23% rural consumers receive more than 20 hours of electricity supply in a normal day. • 62% consumers consider electricity affordable and 68% of them are in urban area. • 26% consumers are aware about electricity regulator and 78% of them belong are from APL households. • Usage of LPG is significantly high in urban areas, while usage of wood is high among rural areas and BPL households as major source of energy for cooking.

15. Right to energy Progress and the way forward (contd..) • 56% of those who use LPG or kerosene as their primary source of energy for cooking reported incidence of obtaining LPG/kerosene from black market. About 20% of them always obtain LPG or Kerosene from black market; • Only 54% consumers consider their primary source of energy for cooking affordable and 70% such respondents belong to APL families. There are three basic issues that hamper access of energy to a significant number of consumers. These are (a) shortage in power generation; (b) distribution and transmission losses and (c) lack of affordability. To improve the overall accessibility scenario, there is need for addressing all three problems identified above. There is also need for strengthening infrastructure for generation of renewable sources of energy.

16. Right to transportationProgress and the way forward • For 57% consumers, Bus/ Jeep is the most common mode of transport. • About 84% consumers commonly use public transport like bus, jeep, train, auto rickshaw and taxi etc. • 14% consumers use own vehicle/private mode of transport. • 78% respondents believe that their common mode of transport is easily available and accessible, however, only 54% consider them to be affordable. There is need for extending road networks to effectively cover rural people. Considering that roads are the dominant and convenient mode of transportation in India compared to rail, water, and air transport, it must be given higher weightage in the overall planning for country-wide connectivity.

17. Cross cutting issues hampering achievement of basic rights • Lack of awareness about government schemes/initiatives • Inadequate complaint and redressal system • Lack of affordability • Inadequate involvement of people in government run welfare schemes • Unspecified role for Panchayati raj and community based organisations What could be done: • Bring in and empower Panchayati raj institutions for creating greater awareness, lodging of complaints and their redressal. • There is also need for including consumers’ basic rights and responsibilities in education curricula at the secondary level • While government campaign on creating awareness needs to be strengthened, especially in the rural areas, government should also create a holistic mechanism to transform its welfare schemes/ initiatives to outcome is urgently required.

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