Type: Schemes

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship the felicitation program of 200 tribal women under the Grameen Udyami Scheme.

Grameen Udyami Scheme

• It was launched to augment skill training in tribal communities for their inclusive and sustainable growth.
• It is a unique multiskilling project, funded by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) that aims to train tribal students in select states.
• It is implemented under Sansadiya Parisankul Yojana.
• Under the program, 49 ST clusters in 15 states of India have been selected by 40 tribal MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
• Under their leadership, the scheme in respective clusters is being implemented.
• One development associate is appointed by the MPs in each cluster.

Stated objectives

• Increase in Rural/Local Economy
• Enhance employment opportunities
• Reduce forced migration due to lack of local opportunities
• Conservation of natural resources

Scope of the project

• The project is being implemented in six states – Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Gujarat.

Benefits

• Transportation, boarding & lodging during the learning period is provided to candidates
• The training under the project will be conducted in the job roles which are relevant to the local economy.

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The Centre has named its new free foodgrain scheme under the National Food Security Act, 2013, as ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY)’.

PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana

• PM had approved the new integrated food security scheme for providing free foodgrains for a year beginning January 1, 2023 to beneficiaries under the NFSA –

1. Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)
2. Primary Household (PHH)

How is it different from earlier scheme?

• The difference between the two schemes is that about 81 crore NFSA beneficiaries were entitled to get free of cost 5 kg foodgrain per person in a month over and above their monthly entitlements.
• However, they were required to pay the subsidised rate of foodgrains (Rs 3 per kg rice, Rs 2 per kg wheat and Rs 1 per kg coarse grains) to purchase the quantity for which they were entitled–35 kg per Antyoday Anna Yojana Household and 5kg per person to a Priority Household in a month.
• In the new scheme, the government has done away with the subsided prices and is providing foodgrains free of cost for a year.
• Now the additional quantity, which was available during the Covid pandemic, will not be provided to these beneficiaries.
• They will receive as much quantity of foodgrains, for which they are entitled under the NFSA.

Implementation strategy

• For effective and uniform implementation of NFSA 2013, PMGKAY will subsume the two subsidy schemes of Department of Food & Public Distribution –

1. Food Subsidy to FCI and
2. Food Subsidy for decentralized procurement states dealing with procurement, allocation and delivery of free foodgrains to the states under NFSA

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Prime Minister has launched the government’s Aspirational Block Programme (ABP), which is aimed at improving the performance of blocks lagging on various development parameters.

Aspirational Block Programme (ABP)

• The Aspirational Blocks Programme is on the lines of the Aspirational District Programme that was launched in 2018 and covers 112 districts across the country.
• The Centre had announced its intention to launch this initiative in the Union Budget 2022-23.
• The programme will cover 500 districts across 31 states and Union Territories initially.
• Over half of these blocks are in 6 states—Uttar Pradesh (68 blocks), Bihar (61), Madhya Pradesh (42), Jharkhand (34), Odisha (29) and West Bengal (29).
• However, states can add more blocks to the programme later.

About Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP)

• Launched in January 2018, the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ initiative aims to remove this heterogeneity through a mass movement to quickly and effectively transform these districts.
• The broad contours of the program are Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors), and Competition among districts driven by a spirit of mass Movement.
• With States as the main drivers, this program will focus on the strength of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.

Behind the name

• PM then negated the idea of naming any scheme based on their backwardness.
• Rather the name ‘Aspirational’ presents a more affirmative action-based execution of the scheme.

Selection of districts

• A total of 117 Aspirational districts have been identified by NITI Aayog based upon composite indicators.
• The objective of the program is to monitor the real-time progress of aspirational districts based on 49 indicators (81 data points) from the 5 identified thematic areas.

Weightage has been accorded to these districts as below:

• Health & Nutrition (30%)
• Education (30%)
• Agriculture & Water Resources (20%)
• Financial Inclusion & Skill Development (10%)
• Basic Infrastructure (10%)

Strategy of the ADP

The core Strategy of the program may be summarized as follows.

• Making development a mass movement in these districts
• Identify low hanging fruits and the strength of each district, to act as a catalyst
• for development.
• Measure progress and rank districts to spur a sense of competition.
• Districts shall aspire to become State’s best to Nation’s best.

Features of the ADP

• It has transformed into a Jan Andolan.
• The ADP is different in trying to monitor the improvement of these districts through real-time data tracking.
• The programme seeks to develop convergence between selected existing central and state government programmes.
• District performance in the public domain and experience building of the district bureaucracy is another notable feature.
• The programme is targeted, not towards any single group of beneficiaries, but rather towards the population of the district as a whole.

What makes this program special?

The program reflects what has become of the development project in India under neoliberalism, especially after the end of planning.

• Long overdue sectors have been given more emphasis.
• It is not a tailor-made program with one-size-fit strategy. More onus has been laid on the districts. It has a district-intervention strategy.
• It works on the principle of SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threats) model and comparison with national best parameters for effective resource management.
• It is the most reviewed programme by the Prime Minister.
• A general idea behind the idea is that a good work never goes un-noticed. It is duly appreciated on social media as well as by the officials.

Programmatic Strengths

• A key strength of the ADP is the collection of baseline data and follow-ups at regular intervals.
• Sustaining this effort would create a robust compilation of statistics for use by both researchers and policy-makers.
• In doing this, the government also brings much-needed attention to human development and a willingness to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Incremental progress being made in the chosen districts as reflected in the rankings.
• The programme also claims to be “non-partisan and unbiased” and geared towards all-India growth.
• The selection of districts indeed suggests that the programme has not favored any bias either regional, political or any other.
• The programme seeks convergence of central and state schemes anchored around specific activities.

Issues with the programme

• Using the case of Bihar, they argue that the programmes selection of districts itself is problematic.
• In fact, it actually excludes the most backward districts because per capita income, the most basic measure of development, has not been considered.
• There seems to be some ambiguity around the issue of whether the programme is concerned only with improved access or also with the quality of service provided.
• The indicators used are not defined relationally, rather they are static human development indicators that do not see people mired in dynamic social relations.
• It is also accused that the state is not making any new or focused public investment (except for possible use of Flexi-funds) into these districts, on the other hand, it is moralizing about their inability to improve (through rankings).
• The programme is carrying the burden of proving the government’s “developmental” work without addressing any of the fundamental issues around achieving equitable development.
• Yet, the NITI Aayog justifies the overall approach as capitalizing on “low-hanging fruit.”

Way forward

• The program has been able to make difference in the lives of citizens of India, in education, health, nutrition, financial inclusion, skill development and this has made a difference to some most backward and most geographically far-flung districts of the nation.
• ADP is ‘aligned to the principle of “leave no one behind—the vital core of the SDGs. Political commitment at the highest level has resulted in the rapid success of the program the report said.
• UNDP has recommended revising a few indicators that are slightly close to reaching their saturation or met by most districts like ‘electrification of households’ as an indicator of basic infrastructure.

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The government discontinued the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and has decided to provide free foodgrains to all 81 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) for one year.

About PMGKAY

• PMGKAY is a food security welfare scheme announced by the GoI in March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
• The program is operated by the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
• The scale of this welfare scheme makes it the largest food security program in the world.

Targets of the scheme

• To feed the poorest citizens of India by providing grain through the Public Distribution System to all the priority households (ration card holders and those identified by the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme).
• PMGKAY provides 5 kg of rice or wheat (according to regional dietary preferences) per person/month and 1 kg of dal to each family holding a ration card.

Success of the scheme

• Pandemic mitigation: It was the first step by the government when pandemic affected India.
• Wide section of beneficiaries: The scheme reached its targeted population feeding almost 80Cr people.
• Support to migrants: It has proven to be more of a safety net to migrant people who had job and livelihood losses.
• Food and Nutrition security: This has also ensured nutrition security to children of the migrant workers.

Limitations of the scheme

• Corruption: The scheme has been affected by widespread corruption, leakages and failure to distribute grain to the intended recipients.
• Leakages: Out of the 79.25 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), only 55 crore have so far received their 5 kg.
• Inaccessibility: Many people were denied their share due to inability to access ration cards.
• Low consumption: Livelihood losses led to decline in aggregate demand and resulted into lowest ever consumption expenditure by the people owing to scarcity of cash.
• Resale of subsidized grains: This in turn led to selling of the free grains obtained in the local markets for cash.

Back2Basics: National Food Security (NFS) Act

• The NFS Act, 2013 aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two-thirds of India’s 1.2 billion people.
• It was signed into law on 12 September 2013, retroactive to 5 July 2013.
• It converts into legal entitlements for existing food security programmes of the GoI.
• It includes the Midday Meal Scheme, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme and the Public Distribution System (PDS).
• Further, the NFSA 2013 recognizes maternity entitlements.
• The Midday Meal Scheme and the ICDS are universal in nature whereas the PDS will reach about two-thirds of the population (75% in rural areas and 50% in urban areas).
• Pregnant women, lactating mothers, and certain categories of children are eligible for daily free cereals.

Key provisions of NFSA

• The NFSA provides a legal right to persons belonging to “eligible households” to receive foodgrains at a subsidised price.
• It includes rice at Rs 3/kg, wheat at Rs 2/kg and coarse grain at Rs 1/kg — under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
• These are called central issue prices (CIPs).

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The Union government has extended the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for another three months from October 1.

What is PMGKAY?

• PMGKAY is a food security welfare scheme announced by the GoI in March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
• The program is operated by the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
• The scale of this welfare scheme makes it the largest food security program in the world.

Targets of the scheme

• To feed the poorest citizens of India by providing grain through the Public Distribution System to all the priority households (ration card holders and those identified by the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme).
• PMGKAY provides 5 kg of rice or wheat (according to regional dietary preferences) per person/month and 1 kg of dal to each family holding a ration card.

At what rate are food grains provided under the NFSA?

• NFSA beneficiaries are entitled to receive foodgrains at highly subsidised rates.
• Under the food law, rice is provided at Rs 3 per kg, wheat at Rs 2 per kg, and coarse grains at Re 1 per kg.

Why was such a scheme needed?

• The devastation by pandemic has increased manifold in the second wave resulting into localized restrictions and lockdowns from the States.
• This resulted in massive jobs losses in urban areas since the largest employers being construction and hospitality sectors have been completely shut down.
• The virus penetrated deeper in the countryside in rural areas halting almost every sources of livelihood.
• These areas are such where 60% of the income was earned from non-pharm activities. This resulted in livelihood losses of large section of population.

Success of the scheme

• It was the first step by the government when pandemic affected India.
• The scheme reached its targeted population feeding almost 80Cr people.
• It has proven to be more of a safety net to migrant people who had job and livelihood losses.
• This has also ensured nutrition security to children of the migrant workers.

Failures

• The scheme has been affected by widespread corruption, leakages and failure to distribute grain to the intended recipients.
• Several of the states above have claimed that the ineffective distribution has been caused by the beneficiaries, especially migrant workers, not being available to receive their rations.
• Out of the 79.25 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), only 55 crore have so far received their 5 kg.
• However, almost 90% of beneficiaries have received their regular subsidized grain for the month, raising questions over why the free grain has reached fewer beneficiaries.
• Many people were denied their share due to inability to access ration cards.
• Livelihood losses led to decline in aggregate demand and resulted into lowest ever consumption expenditure by the people owing to scarcity of cash.
• This in turn led to selling of the free grains obtained in the local markets for cash.

Way forward

• There should be an all-encompassing database for migrant workers and their family. This should accurately capture the data on migration.
• The One Nation One Ration Card should be implemented in true spirit by all the states.
• Along with food security, there should be a sustainable income support through schemes like MGNREGS accompanied by free vaccines in nearest future.
• The leakages in PDS should be minimized through modernize PDS.
• To avoid leakages, there should be food-token system.

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