“Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”

With an aim to become self reliant which is adequately dictated by the effects of the Corona-virus pandemic and to fight the economic sluggishness and boost recovery from the dormancy of important routine activities – commercial, industrial, services and the like, it was incumbent upon all the state and UT Governments to strive for implementation of different programmes under ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’. It goes all to the initiative and innovative thinking on the part of the Prime Minister to devise a stimulus package under the concept of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to help the economy and the people come out of the negative impact of the lockdown undergone in different but continuous phases. However, our economic strength lies in no less measure in cottage and home industries, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as also in other industries. The same needs to be not only seriously evaluated but ensured to receive a push or a stimulus so that mainly the vast sections of the population survived, in net tangible form, the impacts of closures, shutdowns and cessations of normal routine activities related to earning livelihood etc, to fight the Corona-virus pandemic.
In this connection, five pillars have been identified that could lead to the realisation of the objectives and fulfilment of the vision of emerging triumphant in fighting the aftermaths of suspension of usual routine economic activities. They are – economy, infrastructure, system driven by technology and innovation, demography and economic demand. Immediately, therefore, at the commencement of ‘unlock 1.0′ in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, a meeting to review the preparations for speedy implementation of different programmes under these pillars was recently held and chaired by the Lieutenant Governor. On the face of it, constituting seven Task Forces under the overall supervision and control of various Administrative Secretaries seems plausible and workable too. What was, however, needed the most was identifying the existing resources and ensuring their optimum utilization for better results and wastes minimised .
We would not rate any of the targeted areas under the domain of the Task Forces as being less important than the others but would definitely opine in favour of an increasing emphasis to be laid on improving healthcare system which continues to be of less than the peoples’ expectations, if not quite contrary to the claims of the Government. Condition in Government run hospitals, if seriously appraised, would be known to be at levels requiring immediate improvement. Moreover, during the COVID-19 pandemic, non COVID virus patients or routine patients suffering from other ailments find themselves at the edge. On the other hand, private clinics and consultations have virtually come to a screeching halt due to the pandemic, the position of such patients becomes quite problematic as OPDs and other facilities in such hospitals are not fully functional.
Farmers and their immediate problems definitely need to be given preference as every step taken towards increasing and sustaining agricultural growth was extremely important. If analysed in the context of the PM’s monthly ‘Mann KI Baat’ of the last month, he expressed concern for each and every district of the country not being self reliant not to speak of the states or the UTs they were part of. That underlines importance of the agricultural produce including vegetables etc being as much sufficient so as to feed the local area sufficiently. Our industries need necessary push as their different organisations during the period of the phases of lockdown have demanded to save most of them from imminent closure.
Though other areas like distribution of ration to card holders, migrants etc and in time, payment of relief to Building Construction Workers, payments of pensions, helping the poor and the destitute were equally important, additional ways had to be devised to give a push to general economic demand. That, as a natural corollary, required sufficient liquidity and attending to all the five pillars simultaneously though agreeably and gradually, which could result in what the PM has envisioned in the overall synthesis of self reliance or ‘Atmarirbhar Bharat’. It should be remembered that adaptive development being integral part of economic development, the UT of Jammu and Kashmir had to do a lot of work and toil on the subject matter.

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