For the uninitiated, UBI is a radical solution, which could provide a right to basic income to everyone. Generally, it consists of three elements. The first is universality; that is UBI for all. Second is unconditionally, meaning basic income without any conditions. Third is agency, which means it can make a citizen move away from being a subject of government welfare programme to agents of its own change.
Recent Developments Equal Society in the World and India
Social Progress Index 2018 (India)
The index combines three dimensions
Highlights
The districts are grouped into the following four tiers- Very High Social Progress, High Social Progress, Middle Social Progress and Low Social Progress.
Social Progress Index
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Universal Basic Income is a radical and compelling paradigm shift in thinking about both social justice and a productive economy. A universal basic income is, like many rights, unconditional and universal: it requires that every person should have a right to a basic income to cover their needs, just by virtue of being citizens.
Why India Needs Universal Basic Income?
Despite making remarkable progress in bringing down poverty from about 70% at independence to about 22% in 2011-12 (Tendulkar Committee), it can safely be said that “wiping every tear from every eye” is about a lot more than being able to imbibe a few calories. And the Mahatma understood that better, deeper, and earlier than all the Marxists, market messiahs, materialists and behaviouralists. He intuited that it is also about dignity, invulnerability, self-control and freedom, and mental and psychological unburdening. From that perspective, Nehru’s exhortation that “so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over” is very much true nearly 70 years after independence.
Arguments in Favour and Against UBI
For
Against
National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) NSAP comprises of five sub-schemes namely Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS), Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme (IGNWPS), Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDPS), National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) and Annapurna Scheme. The schemes of NSAP are implemented both in urban and rural areas, by the Social Welfare Department in the States.
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