Letter to BS: NYAY scheme is worth pursuing, debate can survive elections

The funding could be from a corpus created by contributions from prospective employers who will benefit from the skill development initiatives

This refers to “Congress’ NYAY: Unanswered questions” (April 1). The minimum income guarantee scheme” is an idea worth pursuing and the debate on NYAY may survive this election irrespective of the Congress’ fortunes. In India, the system is apparently comfortable to retain a target catchment area of people below the poverty line poor and illiterate, to ensure availability of cheap labour (now rechristened as outsourced work) in different sectors.

It is in this context that we are prepared to dole out a portion of taxpayers’ money to keep a “reserve” of illiterate and idle people who will be available on call