Making a case for direct cash transfers

The state government of Bihar has a scheme that gives out bicycles to girls so they keep going to school. TheMukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojana is one of the Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar's pet projects. A five-year old scheme, most media articles have been in praise of this scheme - of both its impact on education status of girls in the state as well as the effective utilisation of government funds.

Also came across an old blog-post by Nitish Kumar. I dont normally follow such blogs, choosing to avoid the political propaganda, but the following reference to the bicycle scheme sounded interesting -

...I held a meeting with senior officials of the Human Resource department asking them to work out a plan for distribution of free bicycles among all high school girls. The department promptly invited tenders from the companies and the lowest quoted price was Rs 1,840 for each bicycle. The officials of the department advocated for bulk purchase of bicycles and their distribution through official machinery...(but) I thought that purchase of bicycles through tenders might give rise to corruption in future. Instead, I was in favour of handing over money through cheques directly to the beneficiaries. I thought it would not only simplify the entire process but also make the scheme transparent. I, therefore, asked the then secretary of the Human Resource department to add Rs 160 to the lowest quoted price for each bicycle and launch the project straightaway...

...It does not exclude anybody on the basis of caste, creed or economic background. The only eligibility criterion is that the beneficiary should be studying in Class VIII and above in a government-run school...

A few points about the scheme stand out, significant also because this comes from a policymaker's reflections on a state-sponsored scheme -

• Firstly, drect cash transfers to the beneficiary households (and I assume, trusting households to use this money appropriately) instead of opting for the more bureacratically cumbersome process of procuring bycycles and distributing them
• Secondly, easy targeting contributing significantly to the success of the first - the scheme is universal - for all girls enrolled in a government school, required to fulfill an easily measurable eligibility critieria

Useful advice, not just for maps...

Baada ya kumaliza kuchora ramani mturejeshee  sisi ili tuweze kuona ni jinsi gani jamii yetu inavyo kaa (When you finishing drawing the maps, bring them back to us so that we can see how our community look likes)

via matharevalley; h/t: How Matters

On flying bloggers out to the field

In reaction to Tom's piece on the subject, I wonder why that is even the question? Why not ask: "how can we encourage local bloggers to write on socially relevant issues?" More so, if the objective is greater PR. Tom is rightly cautious as he concludes -

Nobody seems to have figured out how to effectively utilize bloggers as partners. A few are getting close. Davies is right to be concerned with what impact these opportunities have on the organizations and the greater conversation. Without much planning, these trips can end up using up resources unnecessarily. I think that an effective partnership can be forged between NGOs and bloggers, but it must be done carefully. Money and time spent on visitors should ultimately be done if they can impact the most important people in all of this; the recipients of the interventions and aid seen by bloggers.

Local bloggers are more likely to have had a first-hand experience of poverty; or at least, the cost in exposing/initiating them could be quite low. And assuming they come from a relatively better-off socio-economic background, the contrast in their experience growing up in the same country/state/region is likely to be fascinating. Needless to say, we might expect them to know the larger political and social context much better.

Source local bloggers (or even better, create new ones by encouraging students etc to write) and give them an uncensored platform - on organisation's websites or newspapers - to reflect on their experiences, to blog, or to write op-eds and debate actively - and help them present their thoughts by giving inputs into language, style and grammar. This will call for greater engagement and creative thinking - but will be worth it, no doubt, even if its just a PR exercise. Even good work needs good publicity.