Decision on British aid to India splits opinion
British aid to India is to be controversially frozen at £280m a year, according to critical media reports yesterday. Articles in the Daily Express and Daily Mail newspapers have expressed frustration with the continuation of aid to a country which is home to ‘three times as many billionaires’ as the UK and ‘has its own space programme’.
While Emma Boon of the Tax Payers’ Alliance found it difficult to understand the UK funding ‘one of the world’s fastest growing economies’ and Backbench Tory MP Philip Davies planning to raise the ‘completely unacceptable’ decision in the Commons today, other Ministers defended the announcement.
Ministers stated that continuing to give aid to India was in the best interests of strengthening the relationship between the two countries. Highlighting the fact that the Coalition has stopped aid to two of the world’s biggest economies, Russia and China, the Department for International Development (DfID) claimed that India is ‘different’. Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, enforced that sentiment, stating that the funding will be channelled to the three poorest states in India.
DFN UK welcomes decision
Dalit Freedom Network UK welcomes Andrew Mitchell’s comments. Joseph D’souza, International President of the Dalit Freedom Network, said, “Aid and support is not the kind of thing you can give one year and withdraw the next. Effective and sustainable development programmes require long-term investment in order to facilitate permanent and progressive change. Withdrawing aid now has the potential to undermine the impact of programmes which have a longer and more fundamental impact on people’s lives. Continuing aid, especially when used judiciously, has the potential to help shape priorities for future national investment initiatives.”
DFN UK knows that it is the Dalit people, one of the poorest people groups in the world, who will suffer most if aid to India is suddenly stopped. As such, DFN UK is asking the British Government to direct its aid towards Dalits – those categorised by the Indian government as scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
Call for community-focused development
Andrew Mitchell states that aid to India will be targeted towards private enterprise, creating jobs and prosperity where neither currently exists. Supporting this sentiment, DFN UK believes that if this aid could be channelled into community-focused models of development, the UK’s objective would be better met and the Dalit people, who most need it, would benefit. Community-focused models are long-term, and they are rooted in the community and accountable to that community. This approach not only ensures effective use of aid, but it restores dignity and credibility to the beneficiaries themselves. DFN UK supports a range of economic development and education programmes to help Dalits break free from the cycle of poverty and exploitation which makes them so vulnerable to trafficking.
For information on how you can support DFN UK as they lobby the British Government on this issue download Action Sheet 3 in our Resource Downloads
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