One evening a few months ago, Prasanth returned home with a heavy bag. The wiry 19-year-old son of a farmhand was happy to be done with the 90-kilometre journey that he had to cover by bus and cycle to reach home from college. He couldn't wait to get home. His bag was heavier than it had been in the morning. Inside was a treasure: black, shiny and magical. In Thiruvalakkurichy, the Scheduled-Caste hamlet in this poor, backward district of Perambalur, Prasanth was the first to own a laptop.

Sitting in the mud-floored verandah at the back of his single-room house, Prasanth, an undergraduate student who has just completed his first year, says, "Many in the neighbourhood came home to check it out. Not all of them knew how to use a computer, but everybody wanted one. It was one of the happiest days in my life."

Like hundreds of thousands of people across Tamil Nadu and, in fact, across the country, Prasanth is the beneficiary of a welfare state that gives out subsidies, government sponsorships and, in election season, freebies or 'doles', as critics disparagingly refer to them. Tamil Nadu held its assembly election in mid 2011, during which J Jayalalithaa, now Chief Minister, promised free laptops to students if she was voted in.

Prasanth takes his laptop to college every day, uses it to learn the meaning of words and looks up the internet for model papers of the state public service commission testshe wants to be a policeman. He also listens to music and watches movies on it. The machine has become his constant companion, his most valued possession that he shares only with his married older sister and school-going younger brother.

"I knew the basics of using a computer, mostly stuff related to internet browsing but never even dreamed of owning one. It used to feel so out of reach for a family like ours. Now that I have this, I hope it will help me get a good job," he says.

Prasanth's father, R Pichaiyappan, is a farmhand though he has some land of his own. The family of fourPrasanth and his father, mother Dhanalakshmi and younger brother Praveenlives in one of the interior streets in the village in a one-room house. Their housespartan with one table, one cupboard and two plastic chairswas built as part of the Indira Awaas Yojana, a Central Government scheme that envisaged providing basic housing facilities to the rural poor, perhaps the first assistance that the family received from the government. "That was about 20 years ago, before which we were staying in a hut made of mud," said Pichaiyappan.

Between the house then and the laptop now, the family received a series of assistance from governments in power.

Governments are made and brought down on the basis of this, or so it is believed. After all, it was widely believed that the free colour television offer that the DMK-led alliance promised ahead of the 2006 Assembly election was considered to be a clincher for the front. There have always been supporters and detractors. Trained economists criticise the trend where the exchequer picks up the tab for the freebies that the party in power is showering on the people.

"In our country, most of the subsidies and freebies never reach the intended beneficiaries. If the money spent on that is instead spent on health, education and other basic infrastructure, it won't then be necessary to extend such benefits to a good majority of them. A government's job is not feeding the masses, but is to create an enabling atmosphere for the people to feed themselves," says MR Venkatesh, a Chennai-based chartered accountant who has been a vocal opponent of subsidies, sops and freebies.

Even Jayalalithaa was once the fiercest critics of the so-called freebie culture, which she blamed for the state of politics in Tamil Nadu and the financial position of the State. But it all changed within months when she matched and even outdid the DMK offer-by-offer, equipment-by-equipment. While DMK offered a mixer or a grinder, she stressed her offer was a mixer and a grinder and a fan. When the DMK offered laptops to students of government and aided colleges, Jaya promised to give it to all students of all colleges and polytechnic institutes and class 12 students as well. Her schemes dealing with free rice, healthcare and housing were more extensive and she filled the manifesto to the brim by including distribution of cows and goats, financial assistance for women and children, and even packaged drinking water for the poor.

Just days after the new government took charge last May, a new department was created called Special Programmes Implementation Department with a minister in charge to monitor the fulfilment of the promises, especially the flagship programmesdistribution of free laptops and fans, mixers and grinders. All state government departments appointed nodal officers to coordinate the effort.

Soon enough, the Pichaiyappan family received the mixer, grinder and a table fan. Months after voting Jaya's party to power, they eagerly stood in queue and collected their gifts. But that was not all. Their daughter Priya, now 21, was married about six months ago to a young farmhand with the help of the financial assistance extended by the Government. They received Rs 25,000 in cash and four grams goldthe cash component would have been double if she were a graduate at the time of marriage. Priya, who is now doing her third year microbiology at a private college, is also getting a government scholarship that will cover about 60 per cent of her college fees. The children studied at government schools without paying fees, got free text and notebooks and uniforms. (New schemes include colour pencils, geometry boxes, atlases, school bags and even a pair of footwear.) From the previous regime, they got the TV. Prasanth still does part of his commute on a cycle which the government distributed two years ago. The family also gets free rice and many essential commodities at subsidised rates from the local PDS. They haven't heard of Aadhaar. There are only a few things they need to buy; for everything else, there is the government.

In this house and several thousand others spread across Tamil Nadu, the state is omnipresent, increasingly so. It is there on the TV, the leader's face beams from the laptop, mixer, grinder, the fan and even on the rice sacks. The freebies are claimed to be tools of uplift, though they are, at least in equal part, vehicles for propaganda.

But this house also represents an ironic dichotomyeven while they are now the proud owners of gadgets and appliances that are identified with the affluent, the family remains poor.

With over 70 per cent of the agricultural land in the district being completely dependent on rains for irrigation, Pichaiyappan goes without work for months together. This year in June, he came to Chennai seeking work at a popular south Indian restaurant chain. He is not skilled to be a chef nor is he literate to be a waiter. At best, he can assist in the kitchen or do cleaning work. Even Prasanth does part-time jobs that he can manage to help out the family. The only relief is that Dhanalakshmi gets work 100 days a year under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

With the family struggling to make ends meet, the gifts they got from the government have limited use. Of the new household equipment, it is the mixer that is used the mostonce in a fortnight. That too because they get a limited supply of free rice and other essential commodities at subsidised rate that ensure that there is something at home to eat.

District collector of Perambalur, Darez Ahamed, focused on the developmental schemes that aim to increase the agricultural productivity of the district that is the most backward in Tamil Nadu. "The income levels of the poor farmers could be increased by a combination of strategic interventions like aggressively promoting modern irrigation methods, setting up farmers' markets and providing better quality seeds," he said.

Once that becomes a reality, the Pachaiyappans of Perambalur will not have to migrate to slums in the cities looking for jobs, nor will they have to stand in line to collect the gifts.

Sop list

The government has allocated Rs 14,552 crore for school education, which includes financial incentive to poor students to continue studying, SSA contribution, free uniforms, school bags, atlases, geometry boxes, text and note books, colour pencils and setting up infrastructure.

As per a policy note of the Special Programmes Implementation Department, the government would have required 9,07,790 laptops for the year 2011-12 and Rs 912 crore was provided for this in the budget. During 2012-13, 7.84 lakh laptops would be procured and distributed at a sum of Rs 1,500 crore.

The Government will also distribute a package of electric fan, mixer and grinder to about 1.85 crore women beneficiaries selected from those having family ration cards. During 2011-12, it was planned that 25 lakh households would be covered under this scheme, 35 lakh households in the current year, and all the remaining eligible beneficiaries will be distributed these appliances in a phased manner. This year's budget has earmarked Rs 2,000 crore for the scheme.

At present, 26.41 lakh people in the state benefit from various social security pensions for which Rs 3,820.25 crore has been allocated in the budget this year.

For meeting the expenses incurred as food subsidy, mainly for supplying free rice to 1.85 crore PDS rice card holders, and tur dal, urad dal, palm oil and fortified atta at subsidised rates, Rs 4,900 has been set apart this year.

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