[Indian Year Book 2022-23]* Indian Year Book Notes | Chapter 19. Rural Development

 

Indian Year Book

(2022-23)

Chapter – 19. Rural Development

 

Rural development implies both the economic betterment of people as well as greater social transformation. In order to provide the rural people with better prospects for economic development, increased participation of people in the rural development programmes, decentralisation of planning, better enforcement of land reforms and greater access to credit are envisaged. Rural development must include elimination of poverty, ignorance, diseases and inequality of opportunities with better living standards.

 

§  Community Development Programme

·         In 1952, an organisation known as Community Projects Administration was set up under the Planning Commission to administer the programmes relating to community development.

·         The Community Development Programme, inaugurated in 1952, was an important landmark in the history of rural development.

 

§  Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

·         In October 1974, the Department of Rural Development came into existence as a part of Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

·         In August 1979, this Department was elevated to the status of a new Ministry of Rural Reconstruction. That ministry was renamed as Ministry of Rural Development and again converted into a Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

·         In 1991, the Department was upgraded as Ministry of Rural Development.

·         Presently, the Ministry of Rural Development consists of two departments, namely, Department of Rural Development and Department of Land Resources.

 

Major Programmes for Rural Development

§  Rural Employment

§  Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a rights based wage employment programme implemented in rural areas of the country.

§  The Act aims at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing not less than 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a fi - nancial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

§  The objectives of the scheme are: 

·         enhance livelihood security of the rural poor 

·         strengthening and securing the livelihood resource base of the rural poor; 

·         ensure empowerment to women;

·         ensuring social inclusion 

·         Strengthening grass-root democratic institutions

 

§  Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana—National Rural Livelihoods Mission

·         It aims at mobilizing all rural poor household into Self Help Groups (SHGs) in a phased manner and also aims at supporting all women SHGs of the poor, including those promoted by other state agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

·         Key components of the NRLM: 

·         Promoting Institutions of Poor 

·         Training, Capacity Building and Skill Building 

·         Community Investment Support Fund National Special Fund Support for Convergence under DAY-NRLP 

·         Infrastructure creation and Marketing Support Sensitive Support Structures 

·         Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) 

·         Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana

 

§  Rural Self Employment Training Institute

·         Government decided to set up one Rural Self Employment Training Institute (RSETI) in each district of the country.

·         RSETIs are bank-led initiatives with the active support of state government.

·         RSETIs are expected to train 750 rural poor youth each year to take up self-employment in the area they reside. 583 RSETIs are functioning in the country.

 

§  Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana

·         PradhanMantri Gram SadakYojana (PMGSY) 2000 is a centrally sponsored scheme to assist the states, though rural roads are in the State List under the Constitution.

·         The primary objective of the scheme is to provide connectivity by way of an all-weather road to the eligible unconnected habitations as per core-network with a population of 500 persons (as per 2001 Census) and above in plain areas.

·         In respect of ’special Category States’ (North-East, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, former state of Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand), the desert areas, the tribal (Schedule V) areas and 88 selected tribal and backward districts, the objective is to connect eligible unconnected habitations as per Core-Network with a population of 250 persons and above (Census 2001).

 

§  Rural Housing

·         The rural housing scheme Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) implemented by Ministry of Rural Development, aimed at providing houses to families below the poverty line (BPL) in rural areas has since inception provided assistance for construction of 360 lakh houses.

·         In the context of government’s priority for “Housing for All” by 2022, the rural housing scheme IAY has been restructured to Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana— Gramin (PMAY-G), which came into effect from the fi nancial year 2016-17.

 

§  National Social Assistance Programme

·         National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) was launched in 1995 as a centrally sponsored scheme under which 100 per cent central assistance.

·         NSAP is a social assistance programme for poor households—for the aged, widows, disabled and in the case of death of the breadwinner, thereby aiming at ensuring minimum national standards in addition to the benefi ts that the states are providing or might provide in further.

·         At present, NSAP comprises: 

§  Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme 

§  Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme 

§  Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme 

§  National Family Benefi t Scheme (NFBS) 

§  Annapurna

 

§  Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana

·         It is a critical component of the National Skill Development Policy, and has an ambitious agenda, to benchmark wage placement-linked skill programmes to global standards and requirements.

·         The ultimate aim is to convert India’s demographic surplus into a demographic dividend by developing rural India into a globally preferred source of skilled labour.

·         DDU-GKY has its roots in the Swarnjayanti Gram SwarozgarYojana (SGSY).

 

§  Key Features

·         The focus of this programmes is on the rural youth from poor families, in the age group of 15 to 35 years, belonging to: 

·         MGNREGA worker household in which household members have together completed 15 days of work; 

·         RSBY household; 

·         Antyodaya Anna Yojana card household; 

·         BPL PDS card households; 

·         NRLM-SHG household; 

·         Household covered under auto inclusion parameters of SECC 2011.

·         The programme promotes the economic strategies— Make In India, through proactive partnership with industry through multi-pronged engagement—champion employer policy, captive employer policy and industrial internship policy

 

§  Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban mission

·         The Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) was launched in 2016 to deliver catalytic interventions to rural areas on the threshold of growth.

·         Features of the scheme: 

·         Rurban clusters are identifi ed across the country’s rural areas showing increasing employment, presence of growing economic activites and other socio-economic parameters. 

·         Cluster development requires preparation of integrated cluster action plans (ICAPs), undertaking spatial planning, completion of projects proposed in the ownership and O&M of projects.

§  Convergence

·         The fundamental structure of SPMRM rests on a convergence framework focused on optimising outcomes with the effi cient utilisation of public resources ensuring integrated development of cluster of villages.

 

§  Critical gap fund

            As per the framework of implementation

·         For plain areas- the critical gap fund is capped at 30% of the project expenditure or Rs. 30 crore.

·         For desert, hilly and tribal areas- the critical gap fund is Rs.15 crore or 30% of the project capital expenditure, whichever is less.

 

§  Rural housing

·         With the view of ‘ housing for all by 2022’ by improving delivery mechanism and scheme architecture, the erstwhile rural hosuing scheme has been restructured into Pradhan Mantri Awaas yojanaGramin (PMAY-G).

·         Salient features of PMAY-G includes: 

·         Providing assistance for construction of houses in rural areas, 

·         Financial assistance to states, 

·         Diffi cult areas and districts with integrated action plan, 

·         Identifi cation of benefi ciaries through Gram Sabha based on Socio-economic census (SECC 2011) data. 

·         The cost of the scheme would be shared between the government of India and the state governments in the ratio of 60:40 for plain areas and in case of north-eastern and Himalayan states of 90:10.

 

§  AwaasApp

·         It has been launched for the inspection of houses through geo-tagged, time-stamped photographs of the house at various stages of construction.

·         Rural housing interest subsidy scheme 

·         It has been launched for providing interest subvention on housing loans from 2017. 

·         National housing bank is the nodal agency for channelizing the subsidy to lend institutions and monitor the RHISS.

 

§  Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

·         Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) was launched in 2014 with the aim to develop one village by each Member of Parliament as a model village by 2016 and two more by 2019.

·         The goal of SAGY is to translate the comprehensive and organic vision of Mahatma Gandhi into reality.

·         SAGY also aims at instilling certain values, such as people’s participation; Antyodaya; gender equality; dignity of women; social justice; spirit of community service; cleanliness; eco-friendliness; maintaining ecological balance; peace and harmony; mutual cooperation; self-reliance; local selfgovernment; transparency and accountability in public life, etc., in the villages and their people so that they get transformed into models for others.

 

§  Key Features

·         The features of SAGY are as follows:

·         Village Development Plan: 

·         The Gram Panchayats adopted under SAGY prepared Village Development Plans (VDPs) containing prioritised time-bound activities to achieve holistic progress of the village,

§  Panchayat Darpan: The Ministry has developed a 35-point impact monitoring tool to gauge the impact of SAGY in the GPs. Progress is measured through outcome indicators broadly covering basic amenities, education, health, sanitation, livelihood, women empowerment, fi nancial inclusion, food security, social security and e-governance.

§  A campaign, namely, Gram Swaraj Abhiyan was also started. This campaign, undertaken under “SabkaSath, SabkaGaon, SabkaVikas”, is to promote social harmony, spread awareness about propoor initiatives of the government, to reach out to poor households to enrol them as also to obtain their feedback on various welfare programmes.

 

§  National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj

·         The national institute for rural development and panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), an autonomous organisation under the ministry of Rural development.

·         It is a premier national centre of excellence in rural development and panchayati Raj. It has been recognized internationally as a one of the UN-ESCAP centres for excellence.

·         Features: 

·         It builds capacities of rural development functionaries, elected representatives of PRIs, bankers, NGOs and other stakeholders through inter-related activities of training, research and consultancy. Its focus is on policies and programmes that benefi t the rural poor, to energise the decentralisation processes, improve operation and effi ciency of rural development personnel, promote transfer of technology through social laboratories. 

·         As a ‘think-tank’, NIRD will act as a repository of knowledge on rural development and assist the ministry in policy formulation. 

·         It also facilitates the rural development efforts with particular emphasis and focus on the rural poor by improving the knowledge, skills and attitudes of rural development offi cials and nonoffi cials through workshops, training and seminars.

 

§  Land Reforms

              The Department of Land Resources in implementing two schemes namely,

·         Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme( DILRMP) and

·         Watershed development component of the Pradhan Mantra Krishi Sichayee Yojana (WDCPMKSY).

 

§  Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme

·         It is the erstwhile national land records modernisation programme launched in 2008-09 with 100% funding by the centre.

·         Integrated land Information Management system (ILIMS) 

·         This initiative will provide real-time information on land, 

·         Optimises use of land resources, 

·         Benefi Reduces land disputes, 

·         ts owner and prospectors, 

·         Assist in policy and planning, 

·         Enable timely credit supports to farmers through integration of banks. 

·         Linking of banks, courts, circle rates, Aadhar number etc.

 

§  Unique land parcel identifi cation number (ULPIN)

·         A unique identifi cation numbers have been allotted to land plots. It will be a 14 digits alpha numeric unique ID for each land parcel based on geo-coordinates of vertical of the parcel which will comply with international standards. It is the single authoritative source of truth of information on any land parcel to provide integrated land services.

·         An ULPIN will be generated.

 

§  National generic document registration system (NGDRS)

·         It is a common, generic and confi gurable application developed for the registration departments across the country. The application is designed for the use of sub registrars, citizens and apex users from the registration departments. It will create state specifi c instance and confi gure the software as per requirements.

 

§  Linkage of e-Court with Land Record/Registration Data base

·         Pilot test for linking of e-Court with land record and registration data base has undertaken successfully in three states namely, Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh in association with Department of Justice.

·         The benefi ts inter alia include: 

·         the court will have fi rst-hand information on substantive and authentic evidence of Record of Rights, Cadastral map including Geo referenced and legacy 

·         the information will be advantageous to a great extent to the courts in deciding admission as well as disposal of the disputes; 

·         courts will be able to easily know whether any case relating to a particular property is pending in any court (though an affi davit is given by the petitioner to this effect); 

·         reduction in quantum of land disputes; 

·         prospectors will know the disputes status in respect of a property to enable them to take an informed decision after considering risk factor in transacting such property;

·         Litigants will have access of status of the case online in place of visiting courts/lawyers; and the system will lead to ease of doing business and promote ease of living, etc.

 

§  Watershed Management Programme

·         A watershed is a topographically delineated area that is drained by a stream system. It includes physical and hydrological natural resources.

·         Watershed management is the process of guiding and organising land use and use of other natural resources in a watershed.

·         Watershed development is a multi-disciplinary fi eld, for sustainable natural resource management. Watershed development activities also contribute towards mitigation and adaptation to global warming.

 

§  Watershed Development

·         Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) was launched in 2015-16 by amalgamating ongoing schemes of three ministries, viz., Accelerated Irrigation Benefi t Programmed (AIBP) and PMKSY (WR) of the Ministry of Water Resources; River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (MoWR RD and GR); Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) of the Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Land Resources (DoLR); and the Micro Irrigation component of On Farm Water Management (OFWM) of National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC & FW).

·         Under the erstwhile IWMP, the activities undertaken interalia include ridge area treatment; drainage line treatment; soil and moisture conservation; rainwater harvesting; nursery raising; afforestation; horticulture; pasture development; livelihoods for assetless persons, etc.

·         In 2015-16, the IWMP was amalgamated as the Watershed Development Component (WDC) of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY).

 

§  Panchayati Raj

·         The mandate of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), which was set up in 2004, is to ensure the compliance of the provisions of Part IX of the Constitution, provisions regarding the District Planning Committees as per Article 243 ZD, and PESA.

 

§  Constitutional Mandate

·         Part IX of the Constitution of India provides for setting up of three tiers of Panchayats (only two tiers in case of states or union territories having population less than 2 million): 

·         Gram panchayats at village level; 

·         District panchayats at district level; 

·         Intermediate panchayats at sub-district level in between gram panchayats and district panchayats.

 

·         The Constitution envisaged that Panchayats will function as institutions of local government and prepare plans and implement schemes for economic development and social justice, but leaves the precise devolution of powers and authority to panchayats to the states.

 

§  Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan

·         To improve the functioning of PRI, the MoPR implemented the Rajiv Gandhi PanchayatSashaktikaranAbhiyan (RGPSA) in the 12th Five Year Plan period, to address the major constraints of inadequate devolution of powers, lack of manpower, inadequate infrastructure and limited capacity in the effective functioning of panchayats by providing manpower, infrastructure, training and promotion of devolution of power to panchayats and put in place structures of accountability.

 

§  Rashtriya Gram SwarajAbhiyan

·         The Rashtriya Gram SwarajAbhiyan (RGSA) will focus on capacity building of Panchayati Raj Institutions for convergent action to deliver basic services and achieve development goals.

 

§  e-Panchayat

·         E-Panchayat was identifi ed as one of the 27 Mission Mode Projects under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) formulated in 2006

 

§  Recommendations of Fourteenth Finance Commission

·         Under the Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) award for the period 2015-2020 grants to the tune of ₹ 2,00,292.20 crore are being devolved to gram panchayats in the country constituted under Part IX of the Constitution.

·         The FFC has not recommended grants to Non-Part IX areas under Schedule VI in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Assam, the areas in the hill districts of Manipur, rural areas of Nagaland and Mizoram.

 

§  The fifteenth finance commission

·         Fifteenth Finance Commission (XV FC) has recommended devolution to all tiers of the Panchayati Raj including the Traditional Bodies of Non Part IX States and Fifth and Sixth Schedule areas.

·         XV FC grants are provided in two parts, namely, (i) Basic (Untied) Grant and (ii) Tied Grant. The basic grants are untied and can be used by Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) for location-specifi c felt needs, under the twenty nine subjects enshrined in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution, except, for salaries and other establishment, costs.

·         The tied grants are to be used for the basic services. 

·         Sanitation and maintenance of ODF status, and this should include management and treatment of household waste, and human excreta and faecal sludge management in particular and 

·         Supply of drinking water, rainwater harvesting and water

·         Establishing block level public health units, grants for buildingless sub-centres, primary health centres and community health centres and conversion of rural primary health centres and subcentres into Health and Wellness Centres

 

§  SVAMITVA

·         Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas, SVAMITVA is a central sector scheme launched in 2020. The scheme aims to provide the ‘Record of Rights’ to village household owners possessing houses in inhabited rural areas in villages and issuance of property cards to the property owners.

·         This would facilitate monetisation of rural residential assets for credit and other fi nancial services. There are about 6.62 lakh villages in the country which will be eventually covered in this scheme.

·         The survey of rural land in India for settlement and Record of Rights had last been completed many decades back and moreover, ABADI (inhabited area) of villages are not surveyed.

·         Through the scheme, drone-based survey of properties in rural habitations is done, which is turned into geo-referenced property parcel maps. These are ground-verifi ed, displayed in public domain and fi nally turned into Record of Rights, duly provisioned in the state/UT Rules/Act.

 

§  Objectives of SVAMITVA

·         Providing the people with property card and bringing fi nancial stability to the citizens in rural India by using their property as a fi nancial asset for taking loans, etc.;

·         Creation of accurate land records for rural planning; creation of survey infrastructure and GIS maps that can be leveraged by any Department for their use;

·         Supporting the preparation of better-quality Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) by making use of GIS maps; reduction in property related disputes, etc.

 

§  Media and Publicity

·         The existing Media and Publicity Scheme primarily aims at better and more effective communication through all the available media platforms for advocacy, awareness and publicity regarding Panchayati Raj and its programmes.

·         These schemes aim to build capacity within, and enhance the performance of Panchayats at all level. Conferences and meetings are also held with elected representatives, offi cers of the Department of Panchayati Raj in states/UTs, experts, ]

academicians, social activists, NGOs etc., at regular intervals.

 

Drinking Water and Sanitation

Ø  It is the nodal ministry for the overall policy, planning, funding and coordination of the fl agship programmes of the Government of India, viz., the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) for rural drinking water supply and the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) [SBM(G)] for sanitation in the country.

 

§  Swachh Bharat Mission

·         Swachh Bharat Mission was launched in 2014. The concept of Swachh Bharat Mission is to provide access for every person to sanitation facilities including toilets, solid and liquid waste disposal systems and village cleanliness.

·         The programme is implemented by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

·         The Mission aims to increase the access to sanitation from 39 per cent in 2014 to 100 per cent by October 2019. The Action Plan calls for an Open Defecation Free (ODF) India in fi ve years.

·         To begin with, as part of Swachh Bharat, priority was given to build separate toilets for boys and girls in all schools of the country.

 

§  Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)

·         To bring the focus on the issue of sanitation, the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) was launched in 2014.

·         The main objectives of the SBM(G) are : (a) to bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas, by promoting cleanliness, hygiene and eliminating open defecation; (b) accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas to achieve the vision of Swachh Bharat by October 2, 2019; and (c) encourage cost-effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation.

·          Behaviour change is the primary focus and fundamental tool for achievement of ODF outcomes.

 

§  Swachhata Pakhwada

·         Swachhata Pakhwada was started in April 2016 with the objective of bringing a fortnight of intense focus on the issues and practices of Swachhata by engaging Gol ministries and departments in their jurisdiction.

 

§  Namami Gange

·         Namami Gange Programme is an initiative of Ministry of Jal Shakti, aimed at making villages on the bank of river Ganga ODF and interventions dealing with solid and liquid waste management.

·         The Ministry has taken up 24 villages on the bank of river Ganga to transform them as Ganga Grams in coordination with National Mission for clean Ganga (NMCG).

·         The Project is focused on better cleanliness and infrastructure facilities, through convergence with other departments.

·         Gram Panchayats have been empowered to play an active role in ownership and maintenance of Ganga Gram activities

 

§  Swachhta Action Plan

·         Swachhta Action Plan (SAP), a fi rst of its kind inter-ministerial programme for Swachhta, is a concrete realisation of the vision that swachhta is everyone’s business. All Union ministries/ departments have started to work for its realisation

 

§  Swachh Iconic Places

·         The Ministry has taken up a multi-stakeholder initiative focusing on cleaning up 100 places across the country that is “iconic” due to their heritage, religious and/or cultural signifi cance.

·         This initiative is in partnership with ministries of Urban Development, Tourism and Culture with Ministry of Jal Shakti being the nodal ministryin a signifi cant manner with appropriate budget provisions.

 

§  National Rural Drinking Water Programme

·         The National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) is a centrally sponsored scheme aimed at providing adequate and safe drinking water to the rural population of the country.

·         The NRDWP is a component of Bharat Nirman which focuses on the creation of the infrastructure.

·         Rural drinking water supply is a state subject and is also included in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution amongst the subjects that may be entrusted to panchayats by the states. Thus, the participation of the Panchayati Raj Institutions in the rural drinking water supply sector is an important area of focus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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