Indian Economy, 5th edition (106 page)

As per the latest
Economic Survey 2012-13
(which quotes the Ministry for Rural Development), enumeration under SECC 2011 has been completed in 2,339,926 enumeration blocks (EBs) comprising
94.26
per cent of the total EBs of all the states as on
31 December 2012
.

The government has constituted an
Expert Committee
under the chairpersonship of
Prof. Abhijit Sen
, Member Planning Commission, to examine the SECC indicators and the data analysis and recommend appropriate methodologies for determining classes of beneficiaries for different rural development programmes. It will consult states, experts, and civil society organisations while arriving at these methodologies.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND
EMPLOYMENT GENERATION
PROGRAMMES

To achieve inclusive development, several poverty-alleviation and employment-generation programmes are being implemented by the Government of India. Some of the important schemes are as follows:

I. MGNREGA

This flagship programme of the Government of India aims at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. It also mandates 1/3 participation for women. The primary
objective
of the scheme is to augment wage employment. This is to be done while also focusing on strengthening natural resource management through works that address causes of chronic poverty like drought, deforestation and soil erosion, and thus encourage sustainable development.

Notified in 2006 in 200 districts, the flagship programme today is implemented in
all districts
with rural areas. For 2012-13 the total outlay was Rs. 33,000 crore – 4.39 crore households have been provided employment of 156.01 crore persondays of which 82.58 crore
(53 per cent)
were availed by women, 34.56 crore
(22 per cent)
by SCs, and 24.90 crore
(16 per cent)
by STs.

At the national level, with the average wage paid under the MGNREGA increasing from Rs. 65 in 2006-7 to Rs. 115 in 2011-12, the
bargaining power
of agricultural labour has increased as even private sector wages have increased as shown in many studies (said by the
MGNREGA Sameeksha 2012
). Improved economic outcomes, especially in watershed activities, and reduction in distress migration are its other achievements. Wages under the MGNREGA are indexed to the consumer price index for agricultural labour
(CPI-AL).

As per the latest
Economic Survey 2012-13
(which quotes the Ministry for Rural Development), the GoI has taken the following new initiatives to make MGNREGA effective and focused –

(i)
The basket of permissible activities has been expanded to make it more meaningful.

(ii)
Electronic Fund Management System (eFMS) in all states has been initiated in a phased manner to reduce delay in payment of wages.

(iii)
Additional employment over and above 100 days per household in notified drought-affected talukas/blocks is now permissible.

(iv)
Provision has been made for seeding in Aadhaar into the MGNREGA workers records to prevent leakage.

(v)
Convergence of the MGNREGA with the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) has been undertaken.

The
Survey
further adds, ‘with better planning of project design, capacity building of panchayati raj institutions (PRIs), skill upgradation for enhanced employability, and reduction of transaction costs, gaps in implementation could be plugged to a greater extent and the assets so created could make a much larger contribution to increasing land productivity’.

II. Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana

The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) is a
self-employment
programme with the objective of helping poor rural families cross the poverty line by assisting them to take up income- generating economic activities through a mix of bank credit and government subsidy. The SGSY specially focuses on vulnerable sections among the rural poor with SCs/STs to account for at least 50 per cent and women 40 per cent of the
swarozgaris
. Under the special project component of the SGSY, a placement-linked skill development programme has been taken up – in each district of the country, one Rural Self Employment Training Institute (RSETI) has to be set up for basic and skill development training of rural below poverty line (BPL) youth to enable them to undertake micro-enterprise and wage employment. The SGSY has now been restructured as the
National Rural Livelihoods Mission
(NRLM). The NRLM
aims
at reducing poverty by enabling poor households to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities. This should result in appreciable improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis through building strong and sustainable grassroots institutions. The salient features of the NRLM are:

(i)
At least one member from each identified rural poor household, preferably a woman, to be brought under the SHG network in a time-bound manner, the ultimate target being 100 per cent coverage of BPL families;

(ii)
Setting up of strong institutions of the poor such as SHGs for reducing dependence on external agencies;

(iii)
A multi pronged approach envisaged for continuous capacity building of the targeted families, SHGs, their federations, government functionaries, bankers, NGOs, and other key stakeholders;

(iv)
Subsidy to be available in the form of revolving fund and capital subsidy as an incentive for inculcating the habit of thrift and accumulation of their own funds towards meeting their credit needs in the long run and immediate consumption needs in the short run;

(v)
To work towards universal financial inclusion beyond and partial/permanent disability of the head of the family of rural landless households in the country. Under the scheme, the head of the family or an earning member is eligible for receiving the benefit of Rs. 30,000 in case of natural death, Rs. 75,000 for accidental death, Rs. 75,000 for total permanent disability and Rs. 37,500 for partial permanent disability.

III. Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana

The Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) was launched by the Government of India on December 1, 1997 to provide gainful employment to the urban unemployed and underemployed by encouraging the setting up of self-employment ventures or provision of wage employment. This scheme subsumed the earlier three urban poverty-alleviation programmes and was also revamped with effect from April 2009 to include the Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP), Urban Women Self-help Programme (UWSP), Skill Training for Employment Promotion amongst Urban Poor (STEP-UP), Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP), and Urban Community Development Network (UCDN).

SOCIAL PROTECTION

To provide a minimum level of social protection to workers in the
unorganized sector
and ensure inclusive development the coverage of social security schemes has been expanded which include:

Aam Admi Bima Yojana (AABY)

The Janashree Bima Yojana (JBY) has now been merged with the AABY to provide better administration of life insurance cover to the economically backward sections of society. The scheme extends life and disability cover to persons between the ages of 18 and 59 years living below and marginally above the poverty line under 47 identified vocational/occupational groups, including ‘rural landless households’. It provides insurance cover of a sum of Rs. 30,000 on natural death, Rs. 75,000 on death due to accident, Rs.37,500 for partial permanent disability due to accident, and Rs. 75,000 on death or total permanent disability due to accident. The scheme also provides an add-on benefit of scholarship of Rs. 100 per month per child paid on half-yearly basis to a maximum of two children per member studying in Classes 9 to 12 (including ITI courses). The total annual premium under the scheme is Rs. 200 per beneficiary, of which 50 per cent is contributed from the Social Security Fund created by the central government and maintained by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). The balance 50 per cent is contributed by beneficiary/state governments/union territory (UT) administrations. The scheme is being implemented through the LIC.

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY)

The scheme provides smart card-based cashless health insurance cover of Rs. 30,000 per family per annum on a family floater basis to BPL families in the unorganized sector with the premium shared on
75:25
basis by central and state governments. In case of states of the north-eastern region and Jammu and Kashmir, the premium is shared in the ratio of
90:10
. The scheme provides for portability of smart card by splitting the card value for migrant workers – being implemented in 27 states/ UTs with
smart cards
.

UWSCA & NSSF

The UWSCA (Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008) provides for constitution of a National Social Security Board and State Social Security Boards which will recommend social security schemes for unorganised workers. The National Social Security Board was constituted in August 2009. It has made some recommendations regarding extension of social security schemes to certain additional segments of unorganized workers. A National Social Security Fund (NSSF) with initial allocation of Rs. 1,000 crore to support schemes for weavers, toddy tappers, rickshaw pullers, beedi workers, etc. has also been set up.

Social Security Agreements (SSAs)

The SSA, a bilateral instrument to protect the interests of Indian professionals as well as self-employed Indians working in foreign countries, was initiated by signing an SSA between India and Belgium on November 3, 2006. So far India has signed
15 SSAs
with Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark, Czech Republic, Republic of Korea, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden, and Japan. These SSAs facilitate mobility of professionals between two countries by exempting them from double payment of social security contributions and enables them to enjoy the benefits of exportability and totalisation.

RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The Government of India has been according high priority over the years to building rural infrastructure with the objective of facilitating a higher degree of rural-urban integration and for achieving an even pattern of growth and opportunities for the poor and disadvantaged sections of society. Programmes for achieving this include the following:

Bharat Nirman

This programme, launched in 2005-06 for building infrastructure and basic amenities in rural areas, has six components, namely rural housing, irrigation potential, drinking water, rural roads, electrification, and rural telephony. A goal has been set to provide connectivity to all villages with a population of 1,000 (500 in hilly or tribal areas) with all-weather roads.

Indira Aawas Yojana (IAY)

The IAY is one of the six components of the Bharat Nirman programme. The unit assistance provided to rural BPL households for construction of a dwelling unit under the IAY has been revised with effect from April 1, 2010 from Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 45,000 for plain areas and from Rs. 38,500 to Rs. 48,500 for hilly/ difficult areas. In addition, construction of IAY houses have been included in the differential rate of interest (DRI) scheme for lending up to Rs. 20,000 per housing unit at an interest rate of 4 per cent. Sixty left wing extremism (LWE) affected districts have been made eligible for a higher rate of unit assistance of Rs. 48,500. Under this scheme a homestead site of 100-250 sq.m will be provided to those rural BPL households who have neither land nor a house site. For this purpose, Rs. 10,000 per beneficiary, to be shared by the centre and states in a 50:50 ratio, will be provided to the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs).

Rural drinking water

Drinking water supply is one of the components of Bharat Nirman. The present status of provision of safe drinking water in rural areas as measured by habitations where the population is fully covered, as per information reported by the states is that about 72 per cent of rural habitations are fully covered. The rest are either partially covered or have chemically contaminated drinking water sources. The States of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Uttarakhand have exceeded their targets whereas Sikkim, Punjab, Assam, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir have reported low (less than 50 per cent) achievement against targets. As per the policy initiatives of the Eleventh Five Year Plan document, the guidelines for the Rural Water Supply Programme were revised in 2009 and renamed the
National Rural Drinking Water Programme
(NRDWP). The
Jalmani
programme, a scheme to provide 100 per cent assistance to states for installing stand-alone water purification systems in schools in rural areas was launched in 2008-09.

Rural Sanitation-Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)

The TSC is one of the flagship programmes of the government. The TSC follows a community-led and people-centric approach, laying emphasis on information, education, and communication (IEC) for demand generation for sanitation facilities. To motivate the community towards creating sustainable sanitation facilities and their usage, the incentive for Individual household latrines for BPLhouseholds has been increased from Rs. 2,200 (Rs. 2,700 for hilly and difficult areas) to Rs. 3,200 ( Rs. 3,700 for hilly and difficult areas) with effect from June 1, 2011. With the scaling up of the TSC, combined with higher resource allocation, programme implementation has improved substantially. The TSC has now turned into an inclusive programme, with participation of all sections of society. Provision of earmarked funds has been made for SCs and STs for inclusive growth of all sections of society. The active participation of women and adolescent girls in the sanitation programme has been encouraged with special components for them. The Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) incentive scheme has been launched to encourage PRIs to take up sanitation promotion. The award is given to those PRIs that attain a 100 per cent open defecation-free environment.