Lok Sabha Question No. 198 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-02
Subject: Development in Rural Areas
Ministry: RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Arjunlal Meena, Mohanbhai Kalyanji Kundariya, Dipsinh Shankarsinh Rathod, Anil Firojiya

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 198

ANSWERED ON 02.02.2021

## DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL AREAS

198. SHRI ARJUN LAL MEENA:

SHRI ANIL FIROJIYA:

SHRI DIPSINH SHANKARSINH RATHOD:

SHRI MOHANBHAI KALYANJIKUNDARIYA:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken any steps toremove the hurdles and improve the rural economy;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) if not, the reasons therefor;
- (d) whether  any  step  has  been  taken  for  the  development  of  villages  and  providing basic facilities therein in which positive results have been reported during the last ten years; and(e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a) to (e)  The Ministry of Rural Development is implementing Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA), Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National  Rural  Livelihoods  Mission  (DAY-NRLM),  Deen  Dayal  Upadhyaya  -  Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana - Gramin (PMAY-G), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), Shyama Prasad Mukherjee National Rurban Mission and Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) to bring about development of rural economy, removal of existing obstacles of growth and overall improvement in the quality of life of the people in rural areas through employment generation, strengthening of livelihood opportunities, promoting selfemployment, skilling of rural youths, provision of social assistance and other basic amenities.

The steps taken by the Ministry of Rural Development for the development of villages and providing basic facilities, scheme-wise are given below:-

## (i) Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme:

The principal  objective  of  the  scheme  is  to  provide  for  the  enhancement  of  livelihood security  of  the  household  by  providing  at  least  one  hundred  days  of  guaranteed  wage employment  in  every  financial  year  to  every  rural  household  whose  adult  members volunteer  to  do  unskilled  manual  work.  It  gives  emphasis  on  creation  of  durable  and sustainable  assets  to  make  the  beneficiaries  self-dependant.  Under  Mahatma  Gandhi NREGA, a total of 2649.62 crore persondays have been generated since 2010-11.

(ii)  Deendayal  Antyodaya  Yojana  -  National  Rural  Livelihoods  Mission  (DAYNRLM): The  Ministry is  implementing  DAY-NRLM,  to  tackle  the  problem  of unemployment,  especially  among  women,  in  a  mission  mode  with  the  objective  of organizing  the  rural  poor  women  into  Self  Help  Groups  (SHGs),  and  continuously nurturing  and  supporting  them  to  take  economic  activities  till  they  attain  appreciable increase in income over a period of time to improve their quality of life and come out of abject poverty. Besides, Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), the subscheme under  DAY-NRLM, has the objective  of  helping  Self  Help  Group  (SHG)  and their family members to set-up small enterprises in the non-farm sector. A total of 65.63 lakh woman SHGs have been promoted since inception of NRLM.

## (iii)  Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen KaushalyaYojana  (DDU-GKY)  and  Rural Self Employment and Training Institutes (RSETIs ):

The  Ministry  of  Rural  Development  is  implementing two  skill  development initiatives for rural poor youth under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). These schemes are aimed at increasing employability of rural poor youth either for wage or self employment leading to economic and social development of youth of rural area of the country by removing the hurdles of the rural livelihoods and by strengthening rural economy and rural income.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) is the placement  linked  skill  development  programme  for  rural  poor  youth  under  NRLM being  in  operation  since  September,  2014.  Under  DDU-GKY,  a  total  of  10.63  lakh candidates have been trained and 6.80 lakh candidates have been placed since inception (September, 2014) till December, 2020.

Skill development  through Rural Self Employment  and  Training Institutes (RSETIs) is also being undertaken to enable a trainee to take bank credit and start his/her own Micro-enterprise. Some of such trainees may also seek regular salaried jobs. Under RSETI, a total  of  36.49  lakh  candidates  have  been  trained  and  25.42  Lakh  candidates have been placed since inception (2008) till December, 2020.

(iv) Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G): PMAY-G aims to provide a pucca house with basic amenities to all rural houseless households and households living in kutcha and dilapidated houses in rural areas. The target under PMAY-G is to construct 2.95  crore  houses  during  the  period  2016-17  to  2021-22.  To  achieve  the  objective  of 'Housing  for  All'  under  PMAY-G,  a  total  of  1.998  crore  rural  houses  has  been constructed since 2014-2015 (including houses under Indira Awaas Yojana(IAY)).

(v) Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY): PMGSY was started in the year 2000 with the objective to provide all-weather road connectivity to eligible unconnected habitations. The mandate of the scheme was subsequently widened and new interventions viz.  PMGSY-II and PMGSY-III were added for upgradation of the existing rural road network which connect habitations to the various facilities and services. The implementation  of  the  ongoing  PMGSY  has  helped  immensely  in  lifting  the  socioeconomic conditions of rural masses by providing them access to the various services and facilities, market place and employment opportunities in various forms. Under PMGSY, a total of 3.97 lakh Kms rural roads length have been completed since 2010-2011.

(vi)  Shyama  Prasad  Mukherjee  Rurban  Mission  (SPMRM): The  Shyama  Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) launched in February 2016, is a scheme with the objective  to  stimulate  local  economic  development,  enhance  basic  services,  and  create well planned Rurban clusters. The mission takes cluster as a unit for development. 300 Clusters from all the States/ UTs are selected in the first phase of the Mission in Tribal and  Non-Tribal  categories.  SPMRM  provides  the  Critical  Gap  Funding  to  the  projects which directly or indirectly bring economic growth. SPMRM aims to provide amenities in  four  categories  viz  Basic,  Economic,  Social  and  Digital  and  promotes  economic growth  through  integrated  and  balanced  investments  with  social  inclusion.  SPMRM clusters  focus  on  21  components  under  the  aforementioned  amenities,  depending  on locally identified gaps as per the baseline survey conducted.

(vii) Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY): Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) was launched on 11 October 2014. A total of 2005 Gram Panchayats have been identified under Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana till 29.01.2021. Under the SAGY framework, the development  of  Gram  Panchayats  is  envisaged  through  effective  convergence  and implementation of existing development Schemes of Government under the administrative control of respective Ministries without allocation of any additional fund. However, the third-party evaluation of the Gram Panchayats identified during the Phase-I of SAGY has indicated that the scheme has helped in improving the accessibility to basic amenities/ institutions at Gram Panchayat levels.

Besides the above steps undertaken by the Ministry of Rural Development, various other Ministries/ Departments have also undertaken several initiatives for development of villages and provision of basic facilities in rural areas. These include:-

- i. For the benefit of farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has launched various interventions and schemes to increase production, generate remunerative returns and provide income support to farmers. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PMKISAN) was launched with a view to provide income support of Rs. 6000/- per year to farmers, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maan-Dhan Yojana (PM-KMY) provides old age pension to  small  and  marginal  farmers,  Pradhan  Mantri  Fasal  Bima  Yojana  (PMFBY) seeks to provide insurance coverage for all stages of the crop cycle  including post-harvest  risks, Paramparagat  Krishi  Vikas  Yojana  (PKVY)  was  launched  for  promoting  organic farming, launch of e-NAM initiative was for providing farmers an electronic transparent and  competitive  online  trading  platform,  Pradhan  Mantri  Annadata  Aay  Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PMAASHA) is aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers for their produces etc.
- ii. Ministry of Jal Shakti has launched  Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna-Har Khet Ko Paani-Ground  Water  Irrigation  (PMKSY-HKKP-GW)  which  aims  to  provide  financial assistance  to  States  for  assured  ground  water  irrigation  to  small  and  marginal  farmers. This scheme is applicable only in areas having  stage of ground water development less than 60%, average rainfall more tan 750 mm and with shallow ground water levels (less than 15m below ground level). This scheme has been effectively launched in 2019-20 and is  being  implemented  in  the  States  of  Assam,  Arunachal  Pradesh,  Gujarat,  Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Telengana and West Bengal.
- iii. With a view to increase banking penetration and to promote financial inclusion across the country,  Department  of  Financial  Services  (DFS)  has  launched  a  National  Mission  on Financial  Inclusion  known  as  Pradhan  Mantri  Jan  Dhan  Yojana  (PMJDY)  on  28th August, 2014 at National level. As on 29.01.2021, total of 27.44 crore beneficiaries have opened the bank account in rural/ semi urban bank branches.
- iv. National  Bank  for  Agriculture  and  Rural  Development  (NABARD)  is  also  playing important role to improve the rural economy. The following initiatives have been taken by NABARD to improve the lives of rural India:
5. Rural Infrastructure Development Fund
6. Watershed Development and Tribal Development
7. Self Help Group -Bank Linkage Programme
8. Joint Liability Group
9. Food Processing Fund
10. Warehousing Infrastructure Fund
11. Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund
- v. Department of Telecommunications has informed that a number of schemes with funding from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) have been undertaken for expansion of

telecom  services  in  rural  and  remote  areas  of  the  country  which  aims  at  the  vision  of Digital India. BharatNet project is aimed at providing broadband connectivity to all the Gram Panchayats (approx. 2.5 lakh) in the country. As on 15.01.2021, a total of 1,51,404 GPs (Including Block HQs) have been made Service Ready  in the country. Further, Last Mile  connectivity  is  being  provided  through  Wi-Fi  or  any  other  suitable  broadband technology, including Fiber to the Home (FTTH), to access broadband/internet services at  Public  places  &  Government  Institutions  such  as  school,  hospital,  post  offices, Aanganwadi,  customer  service  centres,   police  station,  etc.  As  on  15.01.2021,  Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed at 1,04,026 GPs and 4,84,506 FTTH connections have been provided.

- vi. Ministry  of  Panchayati  Raj  (MoPR)  has  been  implementing  Rashtriya  Gram  Swaraj Abhiyan  (RGSA)  w.e.f.  2018-19  for  developing  governance  capabilities  of  Panchayati Raj  Institutions  (PRI).  The  Central  Finance  Commission  recommends  devolution  of Grants to Rural Local Bodies to augment the Consolidated Fund of State to supplement the  resources  of  the  Panchayats  in  the  States.  Under  Fourteenth  Finance  Commission, grants to the tune of Rs.2,00,292.20 crores have been allotted to Gram Panchayats (GPs) for  delivering  basic  services  during  2015-2020.  A  total  of  Rs.  60,750  crore   has  been allocated  for  the  period  FY  2020-21  under  Fifteenth  Finance  Commission  for  Basic Grants  and  Tied  Grants.  The  basic  grants  are  untied  and  can  be  used  by  Rural  Local Bodies for location-specific felt needs, except for salary or other establishment expenditure.  The  tied  grants  are  to  be  used  for  the  basic  services  of  (a)  sanitation  and maintenance of open-defecation free (ODF) status and (b) supply of drinking water, rain water harvesting and water recycling.
- vii. As regards reliable power supply to rural households, Ministry of Power has informed that  all  the  States/UTs  have  signed  a  document  on  '24x7  Power  for  All'  with  the Government of India for providing 24x7 power supply to all households, industrial and commercial  consumers  from April,  2019  and  adequate  supply  of  power  to  agricultural consumers as per State policy. Further, Government of India supplements the efforts of the  States  to  provide  access  to  electricity  through  its  various  schemes  including  Deen Dayal  Upadhyaya  Gram  Jyoti  Yojana  (DDUGJY),  Integrated  Power  Development Scheme (IPDS), Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana - Saubhagya and Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY).
- viii. Similarly,  Scheme  of  Pradhan  Mantri  Kisan  Urja  Suraksha  evam  Utthan  Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM)  provides  support  for  installation  of   17.5  lac  stand  alone  solar  based irrigation pumps as also solarisation of grid connected 10 lac  pumpsets.

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