To target or not to target: that is NOT the question. We are like Molière?s Monsieur Jourdain who was talking in prose all the time without realizing it. We are targeting differently different socio-economic groups all the time without realizing we are doing systematic targeting. The income tax department targets people whose income is above a certain amount. The social security ministry targets people in greater need of assistance to help them out of their misery. The public in general, and the middle class in particular, accept this sort of targeting up to a certain point until they say: enough is enough.

As from last year the Minister of Finance has been targeting the middle class further by taxing their savings, by taxing their residential property, by not giving them credit for the loans they take to build their houses and for the life insurance policies they take. In an article entitled ?The middle class:a disappearing species?? published in l?express of 25 July 2007, after the presentation of last year?s budget, I quoted S.Ganguly of India who had said that ?the middle class ethic of working for a more prosperous future is spreading across the board? and that the role of the middle class is improving India?s economy as well as its democracy.

Sir Winston Churchill is reported to have said that the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of wealth whereas the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of poverty. Our Minister of Finance gets the dubious credit of trying to do both at the same time.

Having said this we have also to realize that a just society has to care for its poor and underprivileged people. When millions of Indians were dying of hunger in India, Gandhi said that for them the only form God can take is that of Food. The other familiar Indian expression ?roti, kapra aur makaan? (bread, clothes and a house) summarizes the basic necessities that all human beings should have to live a decent life. It is our duty as fellow human beings to help others in dire need of basic necessities. But just giving money is a waste of financial resources. Giving work to the poor on the other hand gives them dignity.

But the problem is more deep rooted. As Jean Claude de l?Estrac reflected on the fact that the most important phase in the life of a person is from birth to the age of five, this is where our social responsibility can be more focused. Providing free access to nurseries and pre-school education for the deprived classes of society will go a long way to give the children a level playing field in future. Governments should encourage those who can and want to pay for the education of their children and for the health of their family to have access to fee-paying private schools and private hospitals, even if these need to be subsidized to some extent. This will diminish the burden on the State without debarring anybody from having access to the State system if they so wish. Free vocational training leading to employability is a greater long term investment than short term financial assistance. It is a question of inculcating a spirit of dignity rather than a feeling of being ?assisted?.

The ill-advised decision to restrict the old age pension to those earning less than a pre-determined income and to treat a large number of old people in a humiliating manner was resented by the public in general. Large companies which have seen their corporate tax reduced by some three billion rupees should be required to contribute a percentage of their net profit, at present of the order of thirty billion rupees, to a Social Solidarity Fund to show their commitment to social responsibility, rather than fleecing further those earning twenty to thirty thousand rupees a month. The other sort of targeting is to help those who help themselves like paying for the cost of a roof slab to complete the building of a modest home. It is the combination of heart and imagination that is needed, not a textbook policy to share poverty equally.

by Surendra BISSOONDOYAL