PM-KISAN scheme leaves out vulnerable populations

Agriculture: While Budget 2021-22 announced an allocation of INR 65,000 crore—almost half the total agriculture budget—to the PM-KISAN scheme, it leaves out vulnerable sections such as tenant farmers, women farmers, tribal families, and landless labourers, who need income support the most.

More than 73 percent of rural women work in agriculture. However only 12.8 percent of them are reported to own land, leaving most of them landless. As a result, millions of rural women in the country are not recognised as farmers. Similarly, landless agricultural labourers and tenant farmers, who account for close to 150 million people in rural India, are not part of any land records.

In order to make the PM-KISAN scheme more inclusive, the Centre can draw from the experiences of Odisha’s KALIA scheme and Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu Scheme.

KALIA, Odisha’s farmer welfare scheme, has benefited over five million small and marginal farmers, tenants, sharecroppers, and landless agricultural labourers. To form a comprehensive and credible farmer database, Odisha leveraged existing databases such as the Paddy Procurement Automation System, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the National Food Security Act. It also deployed close to 50,000 government staff at state, district, and block levels to conduct extensive on-ground verification to identify eligible beneficiaries.

Telangana took a different approach prior to rolling out the Rythu Bandhu Scheme, a direct benefit transfer scheme for land-owning farmers. The scheme targeted only land-owning farmers, but the state took on the onus of updating land records before implementing the scheme. It involved 3,500 revenue officers going from village to village to update land records, covering almost all its 33 districts within three months. Therefore, what is often deemed an impossible task—that of updating and digitising land records database—was made possible with focused efforts.

Given the need for strong social security mechanisms in light of the distress caused by the pandemic, the government must attempt to reach the most vulnerable sections of the population. It is therefore important that the PM-KISAN scheme be made more inclusive

Read this to know why Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOS) must intentionally engage women farmers.

Fundraising & Communications: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a circular extending the validity of FCRA registration certificates to September 30th, 2021. This applies to all FCRA licences that have expired or will expire between September 29th, 2020 and May 31st, 2021. The decision to extend the deadline has been driven by the exigencies arising from the COVID-19 situation.

FCRA refers to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, which permits charitable organisations based in India to raise funds from foreign sources.

The order also clarified that nonprofits that have already opened an account and have the requisite permission to receive foreign aid, can henceforth receive it only in these newly-opened accounts.

The FCRA law was amended in September 2020 to include a clause that mandated that all nonprofits receiving foreign aid must necessarily open an account in State Bank of India’s New Delhi Main Branch. The government had initially set the deadline for this account opening as March 31st, 2021; it later extended it to June 30th, 2021 after several nonprofits argued in court that there had been delays because necessary approvals from MHA had not been received.

Several organisations have not been able to receive foreign funds during the crisis caused by the second wave, and this has impacted their COVID-19 relief efforts. Relaxing the foreign funding rules could significantly help organisations ramp up their operations to help individuals, supply critical healthcare equipment, and respond to communities in rural areas.

Read this article to know how amending the FCRA can have unforeseen implications.

Philanthropy & CSR: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has issued a circular that allows corporate spending on health infrastructure for COVID-19 care to qualify as corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure.

This includes setting up medical oxygen generation and storage plants, manufacturing and supply of oxygen concentrators, ventilators, cylinders, and other medical equipment to counter COVID-19.  

The announcement comes at a time when all efforts are being directed towards expediting efforts to support the country’s healthcare infrastructure.

According to the circular, companies can now undertake projects and activities in collaboration with other companies using CSR funds. Additionally, they can contribute to specified research and development projects, as well as publicly funded universities and certain organisations that conduct research in science, technology, engineering, and medicine.

The government had earlier clarified that setting up makeshift hospitals and temporary COVID-19 care facilities would also be considered a CSR activity. Rajesh Verma, the Corporate Affairs Secretary, has requested businesses to consider converting vacant office buildings into COVID-19 facilities to cater to the rapidly increasing caseload.

Read this article to understand why media attention on COVID-19 deaths due to lack of oxygen in big cities has skewed donor priorities.