Empowering people… Empowering Tamil Nadu has been the agenda that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has worked on and delivered in the last five years. The period from 2006 to 2011 has been that of strategic empowerment and development. Education, healthcare and upliftment of the downtrodden have been, among others, the three thrust areas towards realising the dream of social justice in Tamil Nadu.
This vision, however, has always been tainted with the view that these are “freebies” handed out by our government to appease votebanks. The narrowness of this perspective, however, can’t take away from the value of investment by the DMK Government in the field of education. It has allocated over Rs 40,000 crore towards school education and has been placed among the high-performing states in the field. The system of activity-based learning followed in primary schools of the state made the process of learning joyful, with children looking forward to going to school and thereby significantly reducing the dropout rate. This initiative of the DMK Government has been a model for the entire country to follow.
When you educate a woman, you educate a family which results in a literate society. In order to motivate parents to let their girl child study, the government introduced the scheme of awarding Rs 25,000 to girls, who have studied up to class X, for their marriage.
We have now pledged to increase this assistance to Rs 30,000. Computer education, with its lure of lucrative jobs, was always the bastion of the rich but the state Government has taken a pioneering step to provide it to students of government-run school so that they are second to none. Taking this further, the state Government has now promised a laptop to every student in government and government-aided colleges to keep up with current advancements in higher education.
The Common Entrance Test (CET), introduced by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government, for admission to professional colleges had put the rural students on the backfoot as students in urban areas had the benefit of coaching classes. Despite strong opposition from city students, the DMK Government abolished the CET and helped many students from the rural areas to realise their dreams of becoming an engineer or a doctor. To facilitate this further, the DMK promises that every district in Tamil Nadu will get a medical and engineering college, and universities will be set up all over the state.
Kalaignar Kaappeedu Thittam (health insurance scheme) has been attacked by the opponents of the state Government on the ground that it is a vote garnering ploy, failing to see or more precisely refusing to see that for the poor the area of healthcare is the last on their scale of priorities. Labourers and daily wage workers have always overlooked their health as lack of money and access to healthcare has prohibited them from approaching private hospitals for specialised treatment for several life-threatening diseases. The insurance premium for this scheme has been fully borne by the Government. The scheme was introduced by the DMK Government to reinforce our commitment to the welfare of the poor, thereby providing quality healthcare services to over three lakh people so far.
Among the welfare schemes, the first and foremost was the eradication of starvation. Towards this, families of the lowest sections of society were ensured up to 20 kg of rice at Re 1/kg per month, which has been increased to 35 kg of free rice, to ensure that even the poorest of poor are shielded from starvation. Empowerment schemes have not been only for the masses, but even for marginalised groups such as transgenders. A separate welfare board and Aravani self-help groups along the lines of women self-help groups were constituted.
Differently abled citizens, once again a small percentage of the state’s population, were also given due recognition by constituting a separate department under the supervision of the chief minister. The DMK has started with distribution of pension for differently abled and continues with various other welfare schemes, including the provision of ramps in all government offices.
In a society that is struggling to rise above its circumstances, the plight of senior citizens has been neglected.
Keeping their situation in mind, the DMK has promised to increase the old age pension to Rs 750 per month and free bus passes for senior citizens.
The industrialisation seen across verticals, which has led to the creation of jobs, accelerated development in backward areas, raised the standard of living and brought with it prosperity to the state. This has been possible only because of the foresight of the state Government to provide an ambient climate to investors.
During the last five years, there has been an investment of over Rs 60,000 crore.
The five years of the DMK regime have unquestionably been golden years of empowerment in Tamil Nadu.
The writer is a DMK Rajya Sabha MP