Time for Modi to revisit freebies: Welfare must empower, not encourage dependency

There was a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to provide free ration to millions of Bharatiyas was both necessary and humane. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when livelihoods disappeared overnight and millions of families were pushed into uncertainty by lockdowns, the government had no choice but to stand beside its people. The free ration scheme was not merely justified—it was indispensable.

But extraordinary measures cannot become permanent policy.

A welfare scheme introduced during a national emergency cannot continue indefinitely without asking difficult questions. The time has come for the Modi government to undertake an honest and courageous review of its policies on free ration and public welfare. Welfare must become a ladder to opportunity, not a permanent destination.

No nation in history has become an economic superpower by making dependence a way of life. Bharat certainly will not become a Viksit Bharat by 2047 if productive citizens are increasingly divided between taxpayers and permanent beneficiaries. A welfare state must empower people to stand on their own feet—not inadvertently create incentives for dependency.

The fundamental question is simple. If Bhaarat has successfully emerged from the pandemic, if economic activity has normalised, if employment opportunities have substantially returned, and if the government itself repeatedly claims that crores of people have been lifted out of poverty, then why should emergency welfare measures continue unchanged?

This is not an argument against helping the poor. It is an argument against confusing compassion with complacency.

The biggest casualty of Bharat’s welfare politics today is not the poor—it is the invisible middle class. The salaried middle-class family earns too much to qualify for subsidies and too little to afford quality education and healthcare without enormous sacrifices. They faithfully pay taxes, receive virtually no welfare benefits and struggle silently every month to balance their household budgets.

Today, admission fees for kindergarten itself can run into lakhs of rupees in many private institutions. Professional education demands investments running into tens of lakhs. Housing costs are soaring. Healthcare costs continue to rise. Parents think twice before planning for a second child because they understand the economic responsibilities involved in raising and educating their children.

Ironically, they are often excluded from the very welfare ecosystem they help finance.

The Modi government deserves appreciation for increasing income tax exemptions and introducing several taxpayer-friendly reforms. But tax relief alone cannot address the structural burden being borne by Bharat’s middle class.

There is another uncomfortable truth that policymakers must confront. Freebies have become political instruments across party lines. Whether it is free electricity, free cash transfers, free transport or free ration, governments increasingly compete over who can distribute more rather than who can create more opportunities. Such politics may win elections, but it rarely builds nations.

Bharat requires productive citizens, skilled workers, entrepreneurs and innovators—not generations conditioned to believe that governments exist primarily to provide permanent entitlements.

The solution is neither insensitive nor complicated.

The government need not abruptly withdraw welfare schemes. Instead, they must be rationalised. Free ration can gradually give way to highly subsidised ration for genuinely deserving beneficiaries, subject to periodic economic verification. Welfare must remain dynamic, not permanent irrespective of changing circumstances.

Similarly, the answer to education is not merely announcing free education. The government’s foremost responsibility must be to transform public education itself. Every government school should offer infrastructure, sanitation facilities, technology and teaching standards comparable to the best institutions in the country.

Perhaps the day government employees, bureaucrats and elected representatives are required to send their children to government schools, public education reforms will receive the urgency they deserve.

Simultaneously, an effective regulatory mechanism must ensure that private educational institutions do not impose unreasonable financial burdens upon middle-class families.

Prime Minister Modi’s inspiring slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas carries a deeper meaning. The last word—Prayas—demands participation and effort from everyone. Nation-building cannot become a one-way transaction where some contribute endlessly while others are expected to contribute little or nothing.

Rights must walk alongside responsibilities.

Welfare must be compassionate, but compassion must not become dependency. Subsidies must uplift people, not institutionalise helplessness. Economic justice must include the struggling middle class alongside the poorest of the poor.

Bharat stands at a historic moment. It seeks to become the world’s third-largest economy and eventually a developed nation. Such ambitions demand difficult conversations and courageous decisions.

The time has come for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revisit the architecture of Bharat’s welfare model—not to abandon the poor, but to empower them; not to reduce compassion, but to restore fairness; and not to weaken Bharat’s social fabric, but to strengthen it through dignity, opportunity and shared national responsibility.

A great nation cannot be built on permanent freebies. It must be built on permanent empowerment.