The Future of a Stable India Depends on UBI

Kerala, we are told, is now the first state in India to be declared “extreme poverty-free.” It is a magnificent headline and, if true, a substantial achievement.

- Anand Neelakantan

The government deserves a grudging nod for this coordinated effort, for at least proving that moving people beyond the World Bank’s meagre §2.15-a-day benchmark is logistically possible.

Yet, one cannot help but notice this with only profound cynicism. Even as the state prepares its triumphant banners, voices from tribal heartlands like Wayanad are calling the whole exercise a hollow, administrative fiction. Activists argue that their communities still struggle for a single square meal, still exist in makeshift shelters without sanitation, and that the state’s meticulously ‘uplifted’ count fails to capture the raw, daily misery of the most marginalised. This is a fundamental flaw in our system that allows the most neglected to exist in a state of perpetual want, while the political class trades in grand, unverified declarations.