We want justice, we want self-esteem

When the Congress party came up with the promise of a minimum income guarantee scheme in its election campaign last year, I thought it would be a wonderful policy in a country like ours still grappling with large-scale poverty, hunger and unemployment. 

Of course, we the majority of voters emphatically rejected the idea, probably because we didn’t trust them, or, perhaps we didn’t give it a thought or didn’t get to know about it, or, more likely, we just love Modi and his party for whatever reason.

But, now, when I watch and read and hear about the horrible procession of millions of migrant workers on highways and railway tracks in blind hope of reaching their villages hundreds and thousands of kilometres away, about tens of thousands of jobs being cut by organisations, about teachers and MBA degree holders who have lost their jobs taking to manual works in their hometowns to support their families, and some study that said 34% of the country’s households will run out of resources to sustain their lives within a week, about governments diluting labour laws drastically and privatising almost all sectors using the crisis as an excuse, and so on...I am certain about one thing:

A minimum guaranteed income is an absolute necessity for this country. And it’s not just about eradicating poverty or hunger, or dealing with a spike in unemployment. It’s about the rights of the people… 

The right to live. 

The right to self-esteem.

The right to freedom.

The right to choose. 

In my early days in Delhi, I once heard the thud of an accident involving a big car and a cycle rickshaw, and when I turned around I saw the car driver slap the rickshaw puller. That cannot be.

Minimum income is perhaps the only way to empower most of the people in this country to stand up for their rights, to say no.

Every person in this country, and in every democracy, deserves it. No questions asked. It’s her right. The math has to add up.

Because human life matters. We, the people of India matter.