Zeluosielie Kehie
Sovima Village, Chümoukedima
The Government’s continued efforts to implement various welfare, developmental and benevolent schemes for the benefit of the downtrodden/economically weaker sections and the general public are highly commendable and deserve due appreciation.
Yet, there is another aspect that deserves serious consideration. In many cases, the intended beneficiaries face practical difficulties in accessing these benefits. For economically disadvantaged people, availing Government schemes itself can become a financial burden, particularly when they have to bear expenses towards travel, food, lodging and other incidental requirements while visiting offices, training centres or other designated locations. As a result, some genuinely deserving beneficiaries unable to participate in, complete or follow through with the procedures required to benefit from such schemes. A scheme may be well-designed and adequately funded, but its true effectiveness depends on whether the intended beneficiaries can realistically access it.
Another challenge is access to institutional finance. Under several schemes, unemployed youth and aspiring entrepreneurs are encouraged to obtain loans from banks and financial institutions. However, beneficiaries sometimes face difficulties in securing such finance. At the same time, the concerns of banks are understandable. Based on their past experience, banks may have encountered cases where borrowers failed to repay loans within the prescribed period or, in some cases, defaulted altogether. Banks naturally have to exercise due caution while extending credit. Therefore, greater coordination among the Government, implementing agencies, financial institutions and beneficiaries is necessary to ensure that genuinely deserving people are not left behind, while maintaining necessary safeguards for financial discipline.
It is also important to recognise that Government and its agencies themselves face administrative, financial and procedural constraints. Everything cannot be accomplished immediately. Similarly, beneficiaries also have a responsibility. They must make sincere efforts, fulfil the prescribed requirements and take initiative to use the opportunities provided.
Government assistance can provide the opportunity and support, but individual initiative and effort are equally essential to achieve meaningful results. Life is full of challenges; life is not a bed of roses. One has to take the first step, work hard, overcome obstacles and remain determined.
My humble appeal to the Government is to re-examine existing provisions and consider the ground realities faced by beneficiaries, particularly those from economically weaker and vulnerable sections. Wherever feasible, reasonable provisions for essential expenses such as travel, food, lodging and other incidental costs may be considered in schemes requiring beneficiaries to travel, attend training, undergo verification or remain at designated locations.
A welfare scheme becomes truly meaningful when the people who need it most can actually afford to access it. Its success should therefore be measured not merely by the number of schemes approved, projects announced or funds sanctioned, but by how effectively, inclusively and transparently the intended benefits reach the last and most deserving beneficiary.
This is not intended as a criticism of the Government or its initiatives, rather a humble suggestion and appeal to make our welfare and development programmes more accessible, practical, inclusive and people-centred, so that the benefits genuinely reach the people for whom they are intended.
A Government scheme should not merely exist for the people; it should be practically accessible and beneficial to the people.
