Note: This paper was submitted as part of the Post Graduate Diploma in Public Administration course at RIM-2007
Genuine Poverty- the story of AP Dorji and Khoumo
Kethekla is a remote village under Mongar Dzongkhag. Isolated from the
mainstream urban population, it is three days walk from the nearest motorable
road. People here are mainly dependent on agriculture. Kathekla juristically falls under Kengkhar Gewog but since it is 8 hours tedious walk from the road
point, most people are unaware of the happenings beyond their village.
In this village live an old couple Dorji (67), and his wife Khaoumo (72). 25 years ago they were
blessed with two healthy sons but they ultimately succumbed to illness and
untimely death. Dorji and Khaoumo couldn’t afford to take their
sons to the nearest BHU.
Dorji and Khaoumo were basically slaves under the reign of the local landlords.
When His Majesty the 3rd King abolished serfdom, they were among the
many people in Mongar who received kidu of half acres of land. Since then
they had been working for the rich people in the village supplementing to the
produce from their own meager possession. Everyday they prayed to be blessed
with a son but their prayers unfortunately were never heard.
Today, neither do they have enough
land nor can they work for others. Adding to the hardship, Dorji succumbed to paralysis 12 months back. His wife now is the
only bread earner, but she is 72 and barely able to work. Adding fuel to fire,
their few relatives who now live in Thimphu have shut their doors and shunned them. Every
day for them is a nightmare and a serious question to their survival. Some of
the villagers have been forth coming for help but for most of them themselves
are surviving on meager incomes.
Their only wish today is to pray and
wait for death to embrace them. Life has been very cruel indeed but they have
no regrets. Core Buddhist as they are they accepted their life as a result of
their past life and fate. Given the choice they would like to pray and meditate
the rest of their life. Religion is their only solace.
Under the grace and guidance of Your
Majesty the King, many poor and deserving people have received alms and kidu. Lives of many people have been
totally transformed. People now live in safer and happier homes and with the security
and comfort that Your Majesty would always look into their well-being. Your
genuine acts of kindness and selfless service has also inculcated in the hearts
of the people, a genuine feeling to serve and work for the well-being of the
country.
But the present government policies
require that people in need of kidu
come and talk to local leaders. For Dorji
and Khaoumo, however, traveling
to the Gewog centre and talking to
local leaders is as good as crossing the Atlantic
and the Pacific to go to the US
With Your Majesty visiting all the
districts yourself and granting kidu to
the needy, this couple is hopeful that they would be granted one. The only kidu they ask for is somebody to take
care of their food, lodge and shelter and let them practice religion till death
put them to rest. Their condition at home is in sheer destitute. Neither do
they have proper shelter nor decent clothes to put on. Dorji has had the gho for
over five years. When it comes to food, the produce from their small patch of
land is barely enough and moreover, they are not able to work as they used to.
They wish that they be put into a monastery somewhere and be allowed to pray
and rest. The wrinkles on their faces tell a tearful story of hard work,
struggle and hope for peace.
While the government policies have
been framed keeping in mind the practicality and need of the people, time and
experience has shown that there are certain loopholes in the system that bars
deserving people from being granted kidu.
Ap Dorji narrates a story that dates back five years ago when His Majesty
the Fourth Druk Gyalpo visited Gyelpozhing He genuinely wanted to
request His Majesty to kindly enroll him and his wife in a monastery somewhere.
But time and again he was warned by the village leaders not to narrate any kind
of story of grief and sorrow. That they should make His Majesty feel that every
body is so very happy and that there is basically nothing that they needed.
That under the benevolence of the Monarchs there has been tremendous peace and
tranquility and that they are truly blessed to be born in Bhutan Bhutan
In truth, the true story is never
presented to the higher authorities. When a high official visits some place,
local leaders make sure that everything is in order and the visiting
dignitaries goes back with the feeling that plans are being implemented
properly and benefiting the people. Therefore, Your Majesty, the streets that
you walk are not as clean as you see, the people in the villages are not as
happy as they seem to be; there are problems and shortcomings.
Another shortfall in our system is
that there is a lot of paper work and (unnecessary) formalities. Given the
amount of work that our village people have to put in to earn three decent
meals a day, and being illiterate, people dread the amount of paper work to be
fulfilled until they are eligible for whatever they are applying for. Critics
term it as “bureaucratic quagmires” invented by the people to show who is in
power. This is in sheer contrast with Your Majesty’s noble vision of Civil
Servants as a servant of the people. Service delivery thus is very poor and
torturous especially to our rural folks. It is indeed significant that the
civil servants change their mindset and realize that they are being paid for
the service that they provide to the people contrary to people being dependent
on them.
The hierarchical answering system of
our government is another shortfall. Everybody is answerable to somebody else
and in the end nobody is in the position to decide. Today you visit an office,
some very “important” officer is not there and there is nobody to sign.
Tomorrow you go again; you need another “important” person’s opinion. There is
not much of delegation of power and responsibilities. Job responsibilities are
not specific and everybody is doing everything but the result is nothing. Power
of decision making is centered to a few people.
There is a general consensus among the
public that officials are not clear about their job responsibilities. Right
people have not been placed for the right job. Often times you visit an office
for some work and you will be told to get some forms. Tomorrow you go back with
these forms, you will be told of another form that would be required. Therefore,
people who are the custodians of different
Service delivery fields in the government are
themselves not clear on the requirements and formalities. Thus, poor farmers to
whom a day of labor lost is a challenge towards survival prefer rather to work
at home then run around offices. To them it makes more sense to work in their
fields than to run around offices and ultimately be told that you don’t have
certain forms and that you are not eligible.
However, these shortfalls can be
corrected. The only thing is our people must change their mindset and be ready
to accept the change. We must now begin
to think out of the box and be thankful that we have these people to serve for
which we are paid. If there were no people, why would the government need to
employ a lot of people wasting money? We must realize and learn to see to the
people as our patrons.
As regards to answers to the above
questions, I would like to suggest the following based on feed backs received
from various sections of the people and with diverse experiences.
Firstly, there should be a one stop
service centre in as many places as possible. These service centers should be
manned by people who are familiar with the government rules and regulations and
provide genuine information to the people. It should be opened as per
convenience of the people who use the service and must be accessible without
much trouble.
There should be proper delegation of
power and responsibilities in our offices. If somebody is out of office for
genuine reasons, his or her responsibility has to be delegated to some other
person so that the work is not disturbed and that the chain of service delivery
is not broken. Just because someone is out of office, we can’t afford to waste
so many people’s time and energy. They could otherwise be informed and made
sure that they do something productive.
Hence, by the standard requirements of
genuine poverty ridden situation to be considered as eligible and beneficiary
of Kidu, it is to hereby submit to
the grace of Your Majesty that this aforementioned couple is truly eligible for
the grant of royal Kidu.
Bibliography
Royal
Government of Bhutan Bhutan
National Statistical Bureau, the Poverty Analysis Report 2004
World Hunger Is a Staggering Problem, Retrieved
on 12th October
2007 from http://www.freedomfromhunger.org/lending/endhunger.php?origin=14
Poverty in Bhutan 12th October 2007 from http://web.worldbank.org/
Poverty, Retrieved on 13th October 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty
Rural
poverty in Bhutan
United Nations Bhutan Bhutan
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