We have embraced capitalism, but where is the social security network?

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has stressed the need for "institutions and mechanisms that can deliver effectively our promise of livelihood security, the right to education, to employment, to food, to shelter."

This should be pursued in right earnest. He has made a caveat. These things cannot be done from the top. These should have top priority at the state level. No point of difference with him regarding the priority for all-round development.

But I have always been insisting on one thing about social security in the serious sense now that we have opened up our economy, markets, gone in for liberalization, globalization etc in tune with the norms of capitalism.

Where is our social security network as obtaining in capitalistic countries. There should have been a hue and cry from the political parties for institutionalizing a federalized social security department catering to the people who are jobless and incomeless.

Countries like the UK are going in for slashing the benefits for those taking unduly advantage of the welfare network. Mind you incomeless people are given as much as 850 pounds a week for their survival in many forms.

Here we have allowed big companies and corporates to reap rich harvest from the opened up market and economy. Parallel work for setting up effective social security network has not even begun. One may say Mahatma Gandhi job scheme is there. That is not the sort of social security scheme running successfully in capitalist countries.

One can say the economy is robust, growth is forward and the like. But we are backward in the matter of taking care of the incomeless people. There should be a social security network as a federal scheme taking care of all the people of all states, to be taken care of by a single department.