Lok Sabha Question No. 1800 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-27
Subject: Aspirational Districts
Ministry: PLANNING
Asked by: Mahesh Sahoo, Sarmistha Sethi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PLANNING

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1800 TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.07.2022

## ASPIRATIONAL DISTRICTS

## 1800.   SHRI MAHESH SAHOO: SHRIMATI SARMISTHA SETHI:

Will the Minister of PLANNING be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  any  plan  to  identify/  designate  more  districts/blocks  as Aspirational district;
- (b) if so, whether districts/blocks of Odisha have been included in this scheme, particularly Angul district; and
- (c) if not, the reason therefor?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION; MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS

## (RAO INDERJIT SINGH)

- (a) At  present,  there  is  no  proposal  to  include  more  districts  under  the  Aspirational Districts  Programme.  In  the  recently  held  conference  of  the  Chief  Secretaries  in Dharamshala  from  June  15  to  June  17,  2022,  States  were  requested  to  extend  the template  of  the  Aspirational  Districts  programme  for  accelerating  development  in backward blocks. As the blocks are the administrative units, working directly under the State Governments, they are to be identified by the States concerned.
- (b) Under the on-going Aspirational Districts Programme out of 112 districts identified all  over  the  country,  10  districts  are  from  Odisha.  A  list  of  these  10  Districts  is provided in Annexure-I.
- (c) In 2018, 112 Aspirational Districts, were selected through a transparent process on the basis of published data. List of data sets and the weight attached to them for selection of  these  districts  is  attached  in Annexure  -  II . As  stated,  based  on  this  selection process,  10  Districts  of  Odisha  were  covered  under  the  Programme.  Angul  district was not included because at the time of selection of the Districts, other districts had shown lesser development than Angul District.

## Annexure-I

- List of all Aspirational Districts in Odisha

|   S. No. | State   | District    |
|----------|---------|-------------|
|        1 | Odisha  | Dhenkanal   |
|        2 | Odisha  | Rayagada    |
|        3 | Odisha  | Kalahandi   |
|        4 | Odisha  | Koraput     |
|        5 | Odisha  | Balangir    |
|        6 | Odisha  | Nuapada     |
|        7 | Odisha  | Nawarangpur |
|        8 | Odisha  | Malkangiri  |
|        9 | Odisha  | Kandhamal   |
|       10 | Odisha  | Gajapati    |

## Annexure-II

## List of data sets and weights used for selection of Aspirational Districts

| DATABASES                                                                                    | SECTOR                  | WEIGHT   |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------|----------|
| Landless households dependent on Manual labour (Socio Economic Caste Census - Deprivation 7) | Deprivation (25%)       | 25%      |
| Ante natal care (National Health and Family Survey (NHFS) - 4)                               | Health& Nutrition (30%) | 7.5%     |
| Institutional delivery (NHFS-4)                                                              | Health& Nutrition (30%) | 7.5%     |
| Stunting of children below 5 years (NHFS-4)                                                  | Health& Nutrition (30%) | 7.5%     |
| Wasting in children below 5 years (NHFS-4)                                                   | Health& Nutrition (30%) | 7.5%     |
| Elementary dropout rate (Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2015-16) | Education (15%)         | 7.5%     |
| Adverse pupil teacher ratio (U-DISE 2015-16)                                                 | Education (15%)         | 7.5%     |
| Un-electrified households (Ministry of Power)                                                | Infra (30%)             | 7.5%     |
| Households without individual toilets (Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation)            | Infra (30%)             | 7.5%     |
| Un-connected PMGSYvillage (Ministry of Rural Development)                                    | Infra (30%)             | 7.5%     |
| Rural Household without access to water (Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation)          | Infra (30%)             | 7.5%     |
| Total                                                                                        |                         | 100%     |