Rural Development
India lives in villages and village uplift is the key to the progress of the country. Since Independence, there has been a great exodus of population from the villages to the cities and towns. In spite of this the majority of our population still lives in villages.
According to the 1971 census, 96 per cent of India’s geographical area comprised rural India, and 79.8 per cent of her total population lived in rural areas. The 1991 census estimates showed that out of total population of 846 million in that year, 629 million persons or 74.35 per cent of total population were living in the villages while only 217 million people (25.65 per cent of total population) lived in cities and other urban areas. The population of the country as on March 1, 2001 (latest census) was 1,027 millions out of which 72.22 per cent people lived in rural areas.
Successive Five-Year Plans have deployed huge funds for village development. The Ninth Plan raised the outlay from Rs. 30.000 crore in the Eighth Plan to Rs. 42,874 crore (i.e., nearly over 40 per cent). Statistics show that more than half a million villages in the country have been electrified and over ten million tube-wells have been energises. The Green Revolution has also brought about prosperity for the villagers. But all that has not been enough which makes it imperative for the government to do a great deal more for village uplift in respect of link roads to villages, educational facilities, provision of better and improved health services and sanitary conditions, piped water to villagers, banking, postal and telephone service etc. It is towards this that the Government has evolved a number of schemes.
Social welfare schemes
Alleviation of rural poverty has been the dominant concern of the Government and with end in this, a new dimension has been added by introducing the fully Central funded National Social Assistanc Programme. This reaffirms that Central Government’s resolve to help the poor rural people, particularly the old and destitute and the women.
The social welfare schemes are aimed at ameliorating the condition of poor people. The schemes are: mid-day meal scheme for primary school students for poor families, a rural group life insurance scheme where the Government would provide half the premium, a national social assistance scheme and construction of one million dwelling units. They will cost nearly Rs. 4,000 crore a year.
Mid-day meal scheme: The scheme has been launched under the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education as part of the Centre’s ambitioous social welfare package. The programme projected to cost Rs. 2,085 crore, will cover in the first phase 30 million children in schools in 2,500 blocks in some of the most backward regions in the country and 10 million when it is extended to the entire country. This also marks the entry of the Centre in a crucial social welfare sector where the States have traditionally a larger role to play.
Rural group life insurance scheme: The scheme would cover people below the poverty line. In this unprecedented scheme, every poor man in a village would get a life insurance. Half of the premium amount is to be paid by the State and the rest by the villagers. Family of the insured poor man would get Rs. 5,000 in case of a natural death and double this for an accidental one.
National Social Assistance Scheme: The National Social Assistance Programme introduces several schemes for social assistance to poor households. The three schemes under this programme will ensure a minimum national standard of social security for the poor and reinforce the Central Government’s commitment towards the fulfillment of the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in Constitution. The National Social Assistance Programme provides for,
(i) National Old Age Pension Scheme under which Rs. 75 per month would be paid to persons 65 years old and above who are destitute.
(ii) National Family Benefit Scheme which will provide lumpsum benefit of Rs. 5,000 in the case of natural death and Rs. 10,000 in the case of death due to accident for households below the poverty line on the death of the primary bread eamer. The age group for the benefit Scheme which provides for a lumpsum assitance of Rs. 500 per pregnancy to women above the age of 19 years belonging to households below the poverty line; only first two live births are to be covered.
From April 1, 2001, a new scheme—Annapurana Scheme has been introduced to provide security to senior citizens in BPL category (65 years or above) which would provide 10 kg food grains every month free of cost.
Indira mahila yojna
This scheme for the benefit of poor women was introduced on August 20, 1995. The programme seeks to organise the schemes for women’s development at the anganwadi level in Indira Mahila Kendras where their needs would be identified, prioritises and evolved into micro plans. At the block levels, these micro plans whould be combined and then the district plans would be formulated on these basis. The institutional mechanism would help ensure the participation of women in the decision making process.
Indira Mahila Yojna is another step towards empowerment of women. It will generate awareness among women, assist income generation and bring about convergence of government programmes for them. The spectrum of services at the Indira Mahila Kendra are:
1 Easier access to credit available for women in government schemes.
2 Preparation of sub-plan for women.
3 Information sharing.
4 Awareness and confidence building.
5 Creation of opinion groups.
6 Raising of resources.
Prmie Minister’s Rozgar Yojna
The Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojna was launched on October 2, 1993 with the objective of providing sustained employment to about 10 lakh educated unemployed urban youth in micro enterprises cover manufacturing, service and business ventures.
Under the scheme, youth between the age of 18 and 35 belonging to families having income of less than Rs. 25,000 per annum are provided assistance. These educated unemployed entrepreneurs are given a subsidy of 15 percent subject to a celling of Rs. 7,500 each for starting the micro-enterprises. They are required to bring in 5 per cent of the project cost as margin money. Each entrepreneur is eligible for a loan up to a ceiling of Rs. 1 lakh and this loan does not require a collateral guarantee.
A reservation of 22.5 per cent for scheduled castes/scheduled tribes and 27 per cent for other backward classes has been provided. Preference is given to women. The beneficiary has to be a permanent resident of the urban area for three years.
Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna
A new scheme Swaranjaynti Gram Swarozgar Yojna was launched on April 1, 1999, with which the erstwhile schemes names Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM), Supply of Improved Tool-kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA), Gram Kalyan Yojna (GKY) and Million Wells Scheme (MWS) were all disbanded.
This scheme aims at improving the family incmoes of the rural poor. It establishes a large number of micro-enterprises in the rural areas whose beneficiaries could be both individuals or groups (self-help groups). The objective is to bring every assisted family above the poverty-line in three years. Efforts are to be made to cover 30 per cent of the poor in every blcok in the next five years with the emphasis on encouraging self-help groups.
The expenditure on the scheme would be shared both by the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25 respectively with the assistance of banks for implementation of the scheme.
Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana
This new scheme was announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address to the nation on August 15, 2002 under which Rs. 10,000 crore have been provided for drought relief programmes and rupees five thousand crore have been given to the State to undertake Food-For Work schemes.
Distribution of Surplus Land
Land, in rural areas, continues to be regarded an important asset, a significant resource of production and a widely accepted measure of social strength. Thus, for improving the socio-economic status of the poor landless labourers, who constitute the hard core of rural poverty groups, it is necessary that the surplus land made available through implementing land celling laws, be distributed expeditiously among the landless poor. Though land ceiling laws have been enacted and are being implemented in all the States excepting Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram where land is generally held by the community, the progress in acquisition and distribution of surplus land is very slow.
Drought Prone Areas Programme (dpap)
Being implemented in 947 blocks, spread over 149 districts of 13 States in the country, the DPAP aims at an integrated development of these areas through optimum utilisation of land, water and livestock resources with a view to expanding production, opening up more avenues of employment and increasing incomes of the people inhabiting these areas. The economy of these areas is sought to be insulated from the effects of recurring droughts through diversification of agriculture, and by promoting pasture development, soil management and water conservation.
Pradhan Mantri Grameen Jal Samvardhan Yojana
In his Independence address to the nation on August 15, 2002, the Prime Minister announced the new scheme under which: (i) one lakh hand pumps would be installed in water-scarce areas, (ii) one lakh primary schools in rural areas would be provided drinking water facilities and (iii) one lakh traditional sources of drinking water would be revived.
Desert Development Programme (DDP)
Programme aims at integrated develoment of desert areas with a view to providing the local population better incomes and more employment opportunities. The programme now covers 227 blocks in 36 districts in seven States, of which 17 are in hot and arid zones of Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat, defined as desert areas in the report on desert development prepared by the National Commission on Agriculture. The DDP also covers the cold arid zones comprising two districts in Jammu and Kashmir, and two districts of Himachal Pradesh. Development of forests and grasslands, dunes stabilisation, ground water development, construction of water harvesting strctures, rural electrification for energising structures, rural electrification for energising pumpsets, and development of agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry are some of the major components of the Desert Development Programme.
National Rural Employment Programme (NREP)
The NREP aimed at providing additional employment opportunities of 300 to 400 million man-days per year to the unemployed and underemployed rural poor and creating durable community assets for strengthening rural infrastructure. Under the programme, the workers were given one kilogram of foodgrains daily as a part of their wages. This was being done with a view to improving their nutritional standards; the foodgrains being priced since January 1984 at subsidised rates. The NREP was indeed a judicious combination of three basic objectivies, viz., creating more employment opportunities, utilising surplus foodgrains stocks and improving nutritional standards of the poor. In Appril 1989, the NREP was merged with Jawahar Rozgar Yojana.
Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP)
With a view to alleviating poverty, un-employment and underemployment among the rural landless workers, the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme was launched. The programme aimed at (i) improving and expanding employment opportunities for the rural landless and providing guarantee of employment to at least one member of every landless labour household up to 100 days in a year; and (ii) creating durables assets for strengthening of the rural infrastructure for rapid growth of the rural economy. The RLEGP was entirely financed by the Central Government. With effect from April 1989, the RLEGP was also merged with the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana.
Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour
Bonded labour comprises that class of rural workers which has remained attached to the landlords and other village bigwigs for generations together, working for them for a mere pittance, without being ever having a chance to choose or change their masters, thus perpetuating the vestiges of the much maligned and obnoxious slave system of the bygone ages. As such, these people remained tied up to the lowest rungs of the fresh air of freedom or of participating in the process of rural development. Consequently, legislation was passed for abolition of the system of bonded labour and steps were taken to release them from their age-old bondage. The State Governments were made responsible for identifying and rehabilitating the released bonded labourers. In addition to the on-going beneficiary schemes, a Centrally-sponsored scheme for rehabilitation of freed bonded labour was launched. The scheme provides Central grant of 50 per cent of the total cost on a matching basis, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 2,000 per bonded labourer.
Minimum Needs Programme (MNP)
The Minimum Needs Programme is aimed at improving quality of life and providing infrastructural support needed for supporting and supplementing the other beneficiary programmes of helping the rural poor. The MNP is essentially a programm of investment in infrastructure and human resource development in infrastructure and human resources development. It seeks to imporve the consumption levels, productivity and efficiency of the poor throgh provision of free or subsidises services according to the internationally accepted norms. The main components of the Minimum Needs Programme are: (i) elementary education, (ii) adult education, (iii) rural health, (iv) rural water supply, (v) rural roads, (vi) rural electrification, (vii) house sites for landless labourers, (viii) environmental improvements of urban slums and (ix) nutrition. Besides these, three more components have been added to the Minimum Needs Programme under the Seventh Five-Year Plan. These are:
(i) rural domestic cookery energy,
(ii) public distribution, and (iii) rural sanitation, But MNP seeks to provide these services through public agencies in a time bound manner.
Jawahar Rozgar Yojana
An ambitious employment guarantee programme, Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY), which is being implemented through the village panchayats and which seeks to guarantee employment to at least one person in a rural family living below the poverty line was launched. Under the programme, panchyats with a population ranging between 3,000 and 4,000 are given annual financial assistance of Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 1 lakh.
The yojana envisages provision of employment to at least one member of each poor rural family for 50 to 100 days at a workplace near his or her residence. A highlight of the scheme is that 30 per cent of the jobs ae reserved for women.
All existing rural wage employment programmes have been merged into the yojana. The programme aims at covering all 440 lakh families in rural India living below the poverty line.
The JRY also has two sub-schemes, neamly, the million wells scheme and the Indira Awas Yojna, which continue under the first stream of JRY.
Certain modifications have been carried out in JRY during the Eighth Five-Year Plan to make the scheme more effective in reaching its benefits to the significant modification if the steps for prevention of migration of labour which head been causing a lot of problems.
Under the new scheme, five per cent of the total JRY funds subject to the maximum of Rs. 75 crore are earmarked for taking up special and innovative projects such as those aims at prevention of migration of labour, enhancing woman employment, special programmes through voluntary orga-nisations aimed at drought proofing as well as watersheds development resulting in sustained employment.
Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana
A new scheme for rural development Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) has been started in the year 2000-2001 for providing basic minimum services in rural areas in respect of rural roads and certain other primary services for rural development. It envisages allocation of additional Central assistance of Rs. 5,000 corre annulaly to States and Union Territories—2,500 crore for rural roadsh and 2,500 crore for five primary, services to the rural poor, namely health, education, shelter, drinking water and nuration. The scheme is being administered and emplemented by the Ministery of Rural Development.
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