Rural Development in India

Rural development generally refers to the process of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is considered as a “Silver Bullet” for eradicating rural poverty and unemployment, by way of generating demand for productive labour force in villages.

Recent Developments Gram Swaraj Abhiyaan Gram Swaraj Abhiyaan was a campaign that was organised on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti during the period 14th April to 05th May, 2018. Objectives The campaign was undertaken under the name of “Sabka Sath, Sabka Gaon, Sabka Vikas”. The objective of the campaign was to promote social harmony, spread awareness about pro-poor initiatives of government and reach out to poor households to enroll them as also to obtain their feedback on various welfare programmes. Activities The campaign was being held through a partnership of beneficiaries, 33 lakh elected PRIs members, 5 crore women SHG members, MLAs and MPs to achieve goals. The Central/State and Local Governments are also partners in progress. As a special endeavour during the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, saturation of eligible households/persons was made under seven flagship pro-poor programmes in 21,058 identified villages covering 530 districts (except Karnataka, West Bengal where Election Code of Conduct was in place). The identified schemes were as follows: Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana Saubhagya Ujala Scheme Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana Mission Indradhanush An important aspect of the campaign was also the public disclosure to the Gram Panchayats (GP) regarding funds made available under various schemes of the line departments and activities to be taken up in each GP area. Present Status of Rural Development in India (Achievements in 2017-18) Against the target of 1.00 crore houses to be constructed by March 2019, 44.54 lakh houses have been constructed during 2017-18 under Housing Scheme. The target is likely to be achieved by December, 2018. Pucca houses constructed under PMAY-G with facilities like toilet, LPG connection, electricity connection, drinking water, etc. are changing the rural landscape at a very fast pace. The pace of construction of PMGSY roads reached an 8 year high of 134 kms per day in 2017-18 as against an average of 73 kms during the period 2011 to 2014. Hence the pace of construction has increased by 93%. 6557 km length of rural road constructed using Green Technology in 2017-18 as against 1237 kms constructed during 2014-15. MGNREGA has undergone transformation over the last four years with the focus being drastically shifted towards creation of durable assets, Natural Resource Management and Water Conservation Works along with augmentation of the livelihood of the vulnerable section of the population. During FY 2017-18, MGNREGA has provided employment to 5.12 crore households by generating more than 234.25 crore person days of wage employment covering 177 lakh works. During FY 2017-18, around 67% of total expenditure has been incurred on agriculture and allied activities, highest since inception. During 2017-18, more than 88 lakh households have been mobilized into 7.75 lakh Self Help Group (SHGs) across the country. Cumulatively, more than 4.8 crore women have been mobilized into more than 40.8 lakh SHGs. DAY-NRLM, launched in 2011, has seen a rapid expansion in the last three years. During FY 2017-18, 826 additional Blocks were covered under the “Intensive” strategy enhancing the foot print of DAY-NRLM under intensive strategy to 4,465 blocks, spread across 599 districts of 29 States and 5 Union Territories (UTs). During 2017-18, more than 88 lakh households have been mobilized into 7.75 lakh Self Help Group (SHGs) across the country. 33 lakh women farmers have been supported under MKSP scheme of DAY-NRLM. About 8 lakh Mahila Kisans have been mobilized into 86,000 Producer Groups (PGs),126 Producer Companies (PCs) contributing significantly to the farmers’ income from agriculture, horticulture, dairying, fisheries and Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) related activities, have been setup. To facilitate marketing of rural produce, it is proposed to set up haats at village and block levels in convergence with MGNREGS and the District and State level using DAY-NRLM resources. Under National Rurban Mission 263 out of 300 clusters have been identified and approved across 29 States and 5 Union Territories till April 2018. Village Development Plans (VDPs) have been prepared by 996 Gram Panchayats containing 53,832 activities of which implementation of 22,745 (42%) activities have already been completed. The Ministry with the support of MC has designed, developed, enhanced and deployed various electronic solutions for its flagship programmes. A citizen centric mobile application “Gram Samvaad” has also been developed in collaboration with MC team of Department of Rural Development, to serve and empower the rural citizens, by facilitating single window access by citizens to information at Gram Panchayat level on various Rural Development programmes. Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 The Government has successfully launched Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0. The UBA 2.0 was officially launched on 25th April, 2018. Vision: Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is inspired by the vision of transformational change in rural development processes by leveraging knowledge institutions to help build the architecture of an Inclusive India. Mission: The Mission of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is to enable higher educational institutions to work with the people of rural India in identifying development challenges and evolving appropriate solutions for accelerating sustainable growth. Goals: To build an understanding of the development agenda within institutes of Higher Education and an institutional capacity and training relevant to national needs, especially those of rural India. To provide rural India and regional agencies with access to the professional resources of the institutes of higher education, especially those that have acquired academic excellence in the field of science, engineering and technology, and management. Major Areas of Intervention In order to move towards the holistic development of the villages, there are two major domains, i.e. human development and material (economic) development, which need to be developed in an integrated way. The major components of these two domains are a. Human Development Health Education and culture Values and perception development Skills and entrepreneurship b. Material (Economic) Development Organic agriculture and cow-based economy Water management and conservation Renewable energy sources Artisans and rural industries Development and harnessing of local natural resources Basic amenities E-support (IT - enabling)

Rural Development Government Interventions

NGO Darpan: Voluntary Organizations (VOs)/ Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) play a major role in the development of the nation by supplementing the efforts of the Government. The NGO-Partnership System (NGO-PS) Portal called as NGO-DARPAN enables VOs/NGOs to enrol centrally and thus facilitates creation of a repository of information about VOs/NGOs, Sector/State wise. The Portal facilitates VOs/NGOs to obtain a system generated Unique ID, as and when signed. The Unique ID is mandatory to apply for grants under various schemes of Ministries/Departments /Governments Bodies.

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana: Launched on 25 December 2000 by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the scheme aims at enhancing rural road connectivity. This scheme provides connectivity to the habitations with less or no connectivity at all and helps in poverty reduction by promoting access to economic and social services. Nearly 82% of roads have been built till December 2017 which have successfully connected several rural areas to cities. Remaining 47,000 habitations will also get connected by all-weather roads by March 2019.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana: This is a part of National Livelihood Mission, has the objectives of catering to the career aspirations of the rural youth and adding diversity to the income of rural families. Launched on 25th September 2014, the scheme’s prime focus is on the rural youth of poor families aged between 15 and 35. The yojana is present in 21 States and Union Territories across 568 districts and 6215 blocks changing the lives of youth. As per the government reports, over 2.7 lakh candidates have been trained till now and nearly 1.34 lakh candidates have been placed in jobs.

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)/ National Rural Livelihood Mission: SGSY is redesigned as National Rural Livelihood Mission was launched in 2011. Also known as Ajeevika, this scheme aims at empowering women self-help model across the country. Under this scheme, the government provides a loan of 3 lakh rupees at an interest rate of 7% which can be reduced to 4% at the time of repayment. NRLM also helps in harnessing the capabilities of the poor so that they can participate in the growth of the economy of the country.

Prime Minister Rural Development Fellows Scheme: The scheme is initiated by the Ministry of Rural Development, implemented in collaboration with State Governments. It has dual goals of providing short-term support to the district administration in the underdeveloped and remote areas of the country and to develop competent and committed leaders and facilitators who can serve as a resource for a long-term.

Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY): It was launched in 2001 to provide employment to the poor. It also aimed at providing food to people in areas who live below the poverty line and improving their nutritional levels. Other objectives of this Yojana were to provide social and economic assets to the people living in rural areas.

Sarv Siksha Abhiyan: Pioneered by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Bajpayee, the Sarv Siksha Abhiyan was launched in 2000. It is an attempt to provide an opportunity to all children between 6 and 14 years of age to get free education which is also a basic fundamental right. The state and the central government share the expenses of this project. It has done a phenomenal job to increase the school enrolments.

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY): SAGY is a rural development project launched in 2014 by the Government of India in which each Member of Parliament will take the responsibility of three villages and look after the personal, human, social, environmental and economic development of the villages. This would substantially improve the standard of living as well as the quality of life in the villages.

National Social Assistance Programme: National Social Assistance Programme signifies the fulfilment of Directive Principles in Article 41 and 42 of the constitution which states that it is the duty of the state to provide assistance to the citizens in terms of sickness, unemployment, old age in limits of the economic capabilities.

Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin)/ Indira Awas Yojana: Indira Awas Yojana revamped as PMGAY in 2016, is a welfare programme created by the Indian Government to provide housing to rural poor people in India. The goal of this scheme is to provide home to all citizens till 2022. The cost of constructing the houses will be shared by the centre and the state. The scheme has been implemented in rural areas throughout India, except in Delhi and Chandigarh. Houses developed under this scheme will have basic amenities such as toilet, electricity connection, drinking water connection, LPG connection etc. The alloted houses will be jointly under the name of husband and wife.

Relevant SDG Targets Related to Rural Economy 1.2 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions 2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and the incomes of small-scale food producers, particularly women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets, and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment 8.2 Achieve higher levels of productivity of economies through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high value added and labour-intensive sectors

Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY): Launched by the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000, aimed at providing food grains to around 2 crore people at subsidized rates. As per the scheme Below Poverty Line (BPL) families were provided 35 kgs of food grains. Rice was provided at the rate of Rs 3/kg and wheat at the rate of Rs 2/kg. The scheme was first launched in Rajasthan but has now been implemented in all Indian states.

Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA): PURA is a strategy for Rural Development in India which was proposed by former President APJ Abdul Kalam in his book ‘Target 3 billion’. PURA proposes that urban infrastructure and services should be provided in rural areas to create opportunities outside the cities. This will also prevent the migration of youth from the rural areas to urban areas. The Central Government has been running PURA programs in various states since its launch in 2004.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS): National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 was launched on the February 06, 2006. Now the new name of this scheme is “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act” (or, MGNREGA). It aims to enhance livelihood security (‘right to work’) in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. 50% workers should be women. Its 90% funding is borne by the central government and 10% by the state government. MGNREGS is to be implemented mainly by gram panchayats (GPs). The involvement of contractors is banned. Labour-intensive tasks like creating infrastructure for water harvesting, drought relief and flood control are preferred.