A budget that overlooks real needs–A R Vasavi writes:INDIAN EXPRESS

Clipped from: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/a-budget-that-overlooks-real-needs-7757560/

A R Vasavi writes: Budget 2022 has little to offer farmers and other citizens in rural India

Workers harvest pea at a farm in a village near Amritsar, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. (PTI Photo)

Budget 2022 has assured us a comfortable passage from the “achhe din” initiated in 2014 to an “amrit kaal” until 2047. From now onwards, there will be no poverty, deprivation, unemployment, ill-health or pandemics. For rural India, much is promised via the “amrit” (nectar) that digital technologies, interlinked rivers, world-class infrastructure, super-fast trains, and new-age start-ups can enable. In this “amrit kaal”, the rural poor will receive free rations to satiate their hunger (but not meet their nutritional needs), children will attend schools improved via the digital PM e-Vidya, youth will attend ITIs to gain skills in the new digital technologies or have access to the new “digital university”, healthcare access will be assured via the digital health platforms, and farmers across India can learn about organic farming from the model farms that will be developed along the banks of the Ganga.