Do funds allocated by the Indian Government reach the Grassroot level? – Montek SIngh Ahluwalia

Posted by Fausto Aarya De Santis on April 25, 2010 under Interviews, News, Video | Be the First to Comment

“No scheme is perfect, it is impossible to have a scheme which has zero leakage. When you say that they don’t reach at the bottom do you mean that the leakage is 100… absolutely not! Leakage are high, even as high as 30%, but 70% is reaching at people. The other reason people think that the schemes are not having the effect that the effect that were expected, is that the challenges are very complex one… you can have very good schemes but you don’t deliver the result.”

(Gives example of education) and says that
“Pratham brings out a report every year and saw that 37% percent of children in class 5 cannot read a text for class 2. Now if you say that therefore the benefits are not reaching the target population, in a sense you are right. But what can the government do? It sets up schools, it highers teachers… we say that you need to have more parent-teacher involvement, you must have local communities enforcing accountability, techers must be made to teach.

These are things that are not just done by governments, these are things done by social pressure, social awareness, social mobilization and it would not surpeise me that it takes time.

It is not true that nothing is happening, lots is happening! “