Why not try no strings attached cash transfers?

Did you know that unconditional cash transfers giving money without strings are helpful? I ask this in full anticipation of hearing two kinds of hollow laughter. One, from people who know intuitively, or through life experience, the liberating impact of free money. Of course, free money will help you, they are bound to exclaim. Two, I expect hollow laughter from people who are coordinating it with eye-rolls at these methods of encouraging laziness.

- NISHA SUSAN

Just in case you are interested in the cash transfer universe, there are dozens of fascinating studies about cash transfers and in-kind transfers, where they work best and how. In India, we have many versions of both cash transfers (like old-age pension) and in-kind transfers (subsidised food), with varying success, depending on the number of hoops the recipient has to jump through. If, for instance, you want to get a cash transfer and it requires all recipients in the scheme to have an Aadhaarenabled bank account though they may not have access to banking to begin with, you will find yourself in the Olympics of hoop-jumping. Why do we make things so difficult? Perhaps because society likes to think hoop-jumping is good for health. But is it really?

In a recent interview with MSNBC, Canadian psychologist Jiaying Zhao said the idea of solving the problem of poverty by giving money to those who don't have money "almost seems glib". Doesn't it? However, she went on to say that there has been "robust, theoretical and empirical work done over the last several decades showing that reducing poverty might not be as complex as we make it".