Out of every Rupee sanctioned by the Center, only 5 paise reaches the actual beneficiaries.....Where is it all going?
Huge amount of tax payers money is used by the Government for various schemes and subsidies for the poor and there have been probably hundreds of schemes which are discussed and debated by our elected representatives for years, before they are actually converted into Bills and Acts and budgets worth thousands of crores are created and sanctioned accordingly.
Huge amount of tax payers money is used by the Government for various schemes and subsidies for the poor and there have been probably hundreds of schemes which are discussed and debated by our elected representatives for years, before they are actually converted into Bills and Acts and budgets worth thousands of crores are created and sanctioned accordingly.
The tragedy is that most of the actual beneficiaries of these schemes never know about these schemes at all and a very small section of these beneficiaries are made to run from pillar to post to get the benefit, that they ultimately give up.
Then there is a section of our society who are generally aware about these schemes, but do precious little about it, since they are not the direct beneficiaries.
A lot of NGOs who work on various issues, do not bother to create an awareness or follow up with the authorities concerned to ensure proper implementation of these schemes, but go back to donors, individual and corporate sector, etc. and create parallel systems.
Who wants the headache of following up and talking to authorities in Government Departments or even our elected representatives for something which does not benefit us directly?
And this is precisely the reason for failure in proper implementation and execution of all Government Schemes, resulting in colossal waste of tax payer money.
Based on this experience with the Education Department, CACR decided to create empowered and aware citizens, who on one side will continue to have dialogue and create accountability in the various concerned departments, meet our elected representatives, interact with communities who are the direct beneficiaries etc.and ensure proper implementation of various schemes meant for the poor and underprivileged.
Even if a good percentage of the Rs.2660 crores budgeted for primary education in Mumbai is monitored and well spent, we will have achieved our objective.
The positive angle the RTE Act does allow NGOs to participate along with parents and authorities from the system.
Infact a typical SMC in a school would comprise of 20 members, which would include 15 parents(50% women), rest comprising of school authorities, local elected representative as well as NGO representative.
Role of the NGO representatives would be to monitor the system, empower the community, share observations and findings with the hierarchy of the department which would finally help in ensuring better functioning and improved quality of education in municipal schools.
While this sounds a lot of hard work, it is the only sustainable solution which will ensure that the benefits of such schemes actually reach the true beneficiaries.
CACR strongly believes that empowering communities and getting them to participate in the system, is a long term and sustainable solution to this problem.
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Nitin_CACR
Come volunteer with us. Donate your Time, Money and Word.
Nitin_CACR
