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The renewed emphasis of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government on various poverty alleviation programmes has been in conformity with the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) – the charter of governance.
There has been a paradigm shift in the policy of rural development, in terms of which the rural poor are treated as resource and whose ideas and experiences form an integral part of the development strategy. For the development to be in consonance with the people’s wishes and aspirations, the emphasis has been shifted towards participation of people in development process through Self- Help Groups and Panchayati Raj Institutions. For the Tenth Five Year Plan, the allocation of funds for the Rural Development Ministry has been Rs.76,774 crore. The budgetary allocation for Annual Plan 2004-05 is to the tune of Rs. 16,000 crore. It is also expected that during the year another Rs. 2,300 crore would be provided additionally apart from the payment of food grains.
The Ministry stands committed to efface poverty and hunger from the face of rural India. Two main Schemes, one for providing wage employment – ‘Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana’ (SGRY) and the other for providing self employment ‘Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana’ (SGSY) to rural poor are under implementation to face the biggest challenge of unemployment specially in the rural areas of the country.
Launched on September 25, 2001 SGRY is self-targeting in nature with special emphasis to provide wage employment to women, Scheduled castes, Scheduled Tribes and Parents of children withdrawn from hazardous occupations. As per the programme, minimum wages are paid to the workers through a mix of minimum 5 kg of food grains and at least 25 per cent in cash.
SGSY is holistic programme covering all aspects of self-employment such as organization of the poor into Self Help Groups, training, credit, technology infrastructure and marketing. Families below poverty line in rural areas constitute the target group of the SGSY. Within the target group, special safeguards have been provided to vulnerable sections, by way of reserving 50 per cent benefits for SCs/STs, 40 per cent for women and 3 per cent for disabled persons
With the aim to generate supplementary wage employment and providing food security to the rural poor, the National Food for Work Programme (NFEWP) has been launched in 150 backward districts of the country by the Prime Minister , Shri Manmohan Singh on November 14, 2004. It has been made a cent per cent Centrally Sponsored Scheme so that the backward areas does not suffer because of lack of resources available with the States. For the current year, Rs. 2,020 crore have been allocated for the scheme, in addition of 20 lakh tons of food grains. An amount of Rs.297.91 crore have been released as a part of initial installment of the cash component besides 20 lakh tons of food grains till date. The annual requirement for the next year is estimated to be about Rs 5,400 crore and 37 lakh tons of foodgrains. It is expected that with this level of investment it will be possible to provide 100 days of supplementary wage employment to one member of each below poverty line (BPL) family in the rural areas of the identified 150 districts.
In keeping with the promise made in the NCMP of the UPA Government, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004 has been introduced in the Lok Sabha during the last session. The primary objective of the Bill is to enhance the livelihood security of the poor rural house holds by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment to every poor rural house-hold whose adult members volunteer to do un-skilled manual work. In case employment is not offered to them within the prescribed time limit, the eligible applicants would be entitled to unemployment allowance at the rates fixed by the State governments. Full wage cost of the un-skilled labourers, three fourth of the material cost including wages of the skilled and semi-skilled labourers and administrative expenses of the programme would be borne by the Central Government and remaining by the State governments. To provide marketing support since 1999, SARAS an exhibition of products made by the rural artisans is also being organized by the Ministry at India International Trade Fair(IITF) in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Since April 2003, Ministry has started organization of Regional SARAS at regular intervals at various State Capitals/ prominent commercial centres.
There is a close link between connectivity and growth, be it in the area of employment, education, healthcare and even trade. On December 25, 2000 a cent per cent Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana(PMGSY) was launched to provide connectivity by all weather roads to 1,70,594 unconnected habitations with population of 500 persons (or more) in rural areas by end of the Tenth Plan period. To provide house to the poor shelterless and quickly cover the rural housing shortage, Indira Awaas Yojana(IAY) is under implementation of the Ministry. Under the scheme per unit assistance has been increased from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 25,000 in plain and from Rs. 22,000 to Rs.27,500 in hilly and difficult areas with effect from April 1, 2004. Since inception of the scheme about 121 lakh of houses have been constructed so far.
Considerable success has also been achieved in meeting drinking water needs of the rural population and about 99 per cent habitations have already got access to safe drinking water. On December 25, 2002 ‘Swajaldhara’ was launched to formulate, implement, operate and maintain Drinking Water projects by the village community. As a part of total sanitation campaign, which is under operation in 426 Districts of the country, it is also planned to cover all rural schools with sanitation facilities by 2006-07.
The Ministry is implementing the Schemes relating to development of wastelands through watershed approach. Special emphasis is being given on rainwater harvesting and desilting of ponds under watershed projects. A new initiative ‘Hariyali’ has been launched to empower the village community through Panchayati Raj Institutions. It would undertake area development programmes on watershed basis with financial and technical support from the Government. The Government is also committed to have greater access of landless rural poor to land through various initiatives pertaining to land reforms.The Ministry has also taken an initiative for Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA). This new initiative aims to provide physical and social infrastructure in the identified rural clusters to enhance their growth potential.
Vigilance and Monitoring Committees with greater role for the Members of Parliament (MPs) have also been reconstituted at the State and District level to make them vital instrument of monitoring of the implementation of the programmes. These Committees would be headed by the respective MPas the Chairman and the concerned District Magistrate would be Member Secretary.
With the time bound multi-pronged approach adopted by the Ministry through a wide range of programmes and initiatives, it is expected that major milestones on the path of development of rural areas would be achieved soon.(PIB Features)
*PIB Feature Unit
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