kurukshetra jan 2014

8/12/2019 Kurukshetra Jan 2014

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GIST OF YOJ ANA VOL13 27

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KURUKSHETRA

NEW HOPE TO FIGHT HUNGER

The much await ed National Food Security Billhas been recent ly passed by voice vot e theParliament. It will ensure legal food entitlement to

75% of t he rural population and 50% of t he urbanpopulation across the country at reasonably cheaperprice. The scheme provides for distr ibut ion of r ice atRs. 3 per kilogram, wheat at Rs. 2 and coarse grainsat Re. 1 per person. From the date to be notif iedGovernment would provide 5 kg of food-grains perperson per month to Priority households, and 35 kgper household per month to 25 million Antyodayahouseholds.

The total number of Priority and Antyodayahousehold would be 75 per cent of the ruralpopulation and 50 per cent of t he urban population,thus covering about 180 million households as

against to only 100 mil lion households right now. Itis a welcome step and will reduce hunger andmalnut ri tion in especially from the underpr ivi legedclass in urban and rural areas.

The history of the Food Securit y Legislation inIndia dates back to 1942 when t he Publi cDistribut ion System (PDS) was evolved owing toshortage of food grains during World War II. Thethen government had started distributing food grainsthrough PDS and the intervention had beencont inued in major cities and cert ain food deficientregions. However, the policy on PDS has beenwitnessed major changes with a universal approach

in certain phases after independence. The SeventhFive Year Plan assigned t he PDS a crucial role bybringing the entire population int o its ambit andover the years. It evolved as an import antgovernment intervention towards ensuring

availabili ty of food-grains to the public at affordableprices as well as for tackling poverty However, aTargeted PDS (TPDS) for food-grains has been inplace since 1997. Under the TPDS the quantum of

provisioning of food-grains varies across BelowPovert y Line (BPL) and Above Povert y Line (APL)households with different prices.

The National Sample Survey Organizat ion(NSSO) data indi cat ed that per capi ta foodexpenditure during the period 1993 to 2010increased only by 0.2 per cent annually in ruralIndia, and decreased by 0.1 per cent per annum inthe urban areas.

The cereal int ake of the bottom 20 per cent inrural India is only 10 kg per month as against 12 kgfor the top class of the population, though the poorneed more food as they do more manual work andtheir access to f rui t s, vegetables and mi lk is

negligible. From their limit ed resources the poor areforced to spend more on health, childrenseducation, transport and fuel than before. Food issti ll needed, but not demanded for lack of resources.In the process they get stunted and malnourished.Endemic hunger cont inues to aff li ct a largeproport ion of Indian population.

The government of India took more than fouryears after the President of Indias declaration in theParl iament on 4th June 2009 to bring the NationalFood Securit y Act through an Ordinance. TheGovernment s food secur it y bil l promises t hecountrys 810 mil lion poor persons coarse grains

(such as sorghum, pearl millet or bajra, and fingermillet or ragi) at 1 per kg. These coarse cereals arerich in minerals especially micronutrients and wouldhelp to reduce the micronutr ients deficiency in thetargeted populace. The proposed National Food
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Securit y scheme will annually need 62 mill ion t onnesof food-grains (rice, wheat and coarse cereals such assorghum, pearl millet or bajra, and finger millet orragi). Last year, Government Agencies procuredaround 82 mil lion tonnes of food-grains. However,having passed the food securi t y Bill in t heParliament, its ardent proponents are promisingfreedom from hunger and malnut rit ion. The skeptics,however, believe that it will have dire consequenceson the fiscal situation, further eroding Indiasbusiness confidence, slowing down growth, furthertumbling of the rupee and higher inflation. To knowthe reali ty, however, one needs to dig a li tt le deeperand only future course of action by the governmentwil l tell the real success of the National Food Securit y

Bill.However, for this t o become a reali t y, the

government must focus on identifying Below PovertyLine (BPL) households correctly during the exerciseof income status classification for the success of theNational Food Security Bill. Once those BPLhouseholds, which currently do not have access tosubsidized food, receive an appropriate identityproof, they would be able to avail food subsidy,amounting to the difference between t he marketprices and the subsidized prices. Then theGovernment will see the real f rui ts of this passed bill .The National Food Security Bil ls success would also

be measured by the proportion of eligiblehouseholds that actually benefit from the bill,especially in states with a large BPL population. Thegovernment can leverage the Aadhar platform, andlink their Unique Identif ication Number t o incomestatus, once the deserving beneficiaries are identified.It will also pulp achieve the Millennium DevelopmentGoals (MDG) of India through implementation ofthe Nati onal Food Security Act . The successfulimplementation of the National Food Securit y Bil l bythe Government Agencies will leave more savings inthe hands of rural and urban below poverty line(BPL) households, enabling them to spend on health,education and nutritious food and ultimately toovercome the problem of malnutrition form thetargeted population of India.

At this point of t ime we can only visualize thebright future of the National Food Security Bill to

reduce the hunger and malnut ri t ion f rom t heunderprivileged Indian population in t he years tocome.2.

WATER AND SANITATION

FOR QUALITY LIFE IN RURAL INDIA

A wide rural-urban divide exists in t he quali tyof life in India. Urban people have better access toeducation, healt h, sanit ation, transport , electricit y,banking, communicat ion and many other servicesthan their rural counterparts. Due to lack ofproductive jobs, modern amenities and servicesrequired for a decent living, many of rural peoplemigrate to cit ies and towns in search of betteremployment opportunit ies and basic amenit ies,

however, most of them could get employment in theinformal sector that does not have any social securit yprovision for t hem. A majority of them lives in slumswithout having adequate basic civic amenit ies. Theseare the rural migrants who, by and large, increase theurban poverty and put more pressure on urban civicservices.

In order to control the undesirable flow ofrural workforce to urban area and to improve thequality of life in rural areas, central and stategovernments have implemented a number of socio-economic development programmes in rural areas.The most recent among them are Bharat Nirman,

NRHM, TSC, MGNREGS, IWDP, NRLM, etc. Schemeslike PURA (Provision of Urban Amenit ies in RuralAreas) indent t o remove the rural-urban divide inthe quali ty of l ife and ensure that rural people mayget basic amenities and facilitates at par with thatare received by the urban people. However, thePURA scheme, due to it s limited coverage, could notbring desired change in the quali ty of l if e in ruralIndia. Although, these various rural developmentschemes have improved the socio-economic andphysical infrastructure and quali ty of life, however,rural India is still far behind the urban India in t ermsof various socio-economic development indicators.

India spends a lit tle more than 4% of GDP onhealt hcare .services of which publ ic sectorconstitutes only one-forth. About 80% of privateexpenditure on the healthcare is out-of-pocketexpendit ure. Inadequate and i neff icient public


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healthcare infrastructure and inadequate access tosafe drinking water and sanitation has put enormousburden of medical and health expenditure on ruralhouseholds. Economically marginalized groups suffermore due to contaminated water and poor sanitationand hygiene condit ions as they cannot afford to buycostly water purifiers and other sanitary and hygienerelated facili ties. Therefore, prevent ive measures canbe more cost effective than the curative measures asthey would ensure better healt h of the people andalso prevent loss of productivity and missededucational opportunity that may occur due tomorbidi ty among the workers and school goingchildren. A large sum of public and privateexpenditure on water-borne diseases could be saved

if quality of water and sanitation is improved. It is inthis context that this article attempts to examine therole of water and sanitation in improving the qualityof life in rural areas.

Progress in Water and Sanitation

As per the Census data, drinking water fromthree sources-tap, well , and hand pump/ tube-well-is considered safe drinking water. India has madesignif icant progress in providing access of safedrinking water to the rural households. The numberof rural households having access to safe water hasincreased from 26.5% in 1981 to 82.7% in 2011.Although at the national level percentage of ruralhouseholds having tap water has increased from 24.3in 2001 to 30.8 in 2011, it varies signif icantly acrossstates. It was as high as 88.7 in Himachal Pradesh andas low as 2.6 in Bihar in 2011. Percentage of ruralhouseholds having access to tap water was observedmuch above the average in t he states like TamilNadu, Maharasht ra, Karnataka, Gujarat, AndhraPradesh, while i t was much below t he nat ionalaverage in the states like, Bihar, Jharkhand,Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, etc. Itmay be relevant to note that providing tap/handpump water to the households may not always beconsidered as safe if the very source of the water is

polluted and contaminated due to point and non-point of sources of pollut ion.

Population Census 2011 also providesinformat ion on whether the tap water is f romtreated or untreated sources. At the national level

out of 30.8% rural households having tap water only17.9% have it from the treated sources, while inurban areas, out of 70.6% households having tapwater, 62% get it from the treated sources. Thisshows that there is a huge gap between rural andurban areas as far as access to safe drinking water isconsidered. Some households also reported t o treatwater before its use. Out of total 14.32 crore ruralhouseholds of India, only 2.86 crore (19.9%) reportedto treat the water before its use. Furt her, 2.23 lakhrural households (0.78% of t hose who treated thewater) reported to use ROs (Reverse Osmosis) topurify water. Contrary to this, in urban areas, out of5.57 crores total households, 2.08 crore (37.5%) usedthe treated water. The share of ROs was 5.32% in

the total water treating households. In some part ofthe country, quality of water is so poor that thehouseholds have to purchase even the bottled waterfor drinking. At the national level, l0 per 1000households in rural areas and 31 per 1000households in urban areas used the bottled water. Asreport ed in a study by Ni li ma Das on FactorsAffect ing Consumer Purchase Decision of WaterPurifier in 2013, water purifier market in India isgrowing at a compounded annual growth rate ofabout 25% and is likely to touch Rs.70000 mill ion by2015 from the current level of about Rs.32000million.

Rural-urban divide is more visible in case ofaccess to sanit ary facil it ies than the drinking water.Although there has been some improvement in theaccess to toilets in rural areas in 2011 over 2001 stil l69.3% of rural households do not have any toiletfacili ty in t heir houses. The percentage of suchhouseholds in urban areas was only 18.6. Thepercentage of households having access to watercloset latrine has increased signif icantly f rom 7.1 in2001 to 19.4 in 2011 in rural areas and from 46.1 to72.6 in urban areas, while percentage share of otherlatr ine has declined during the same period. It maybe mentioned here that under t he Total Sanit ationCampaign (TSC) programme (1999) and NirmalGram Puraskar (2003L coverage of rural sanitationgot a boost during the last one decade. However,there is a wide inter-state disparity in this regardalso. For example, percentage of rural households


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without toilet facility in 2011 was high as 92.4 inJharkhand and as low as 6.8 in Kerala. Similarly, inurban areas also, the percentage of householdswithout toilet facility was as low as 1.5 in Mizoramand as high as 39.8 in Chhat t isgarh. Populati onCensus 2011 also classifies the households usingwater closet toilets into three categories, namely,piped sewer system, seotic tank and other system.Toilet liked to thepiped sewer system is consideredsafest for sanit ary and environment points of views.The percentage of households having access to suchfacility was only 2.2 in rural areas, while thecorresponding percentage in urban India was 32.7.

Access to drainage facilit y is another importantindicator of quali ty of l if e. As per the Census 2011,

63.2% of rural households did not have any drainagefacult ies, while the corresponding percentage inurban areas was only 18.2. Further, 31% of ruralhouseholds had open drainage, which is notconsidered safe for t he healt h of the people. Only5.7% of rural households had the closed drainagefacility, while in urban areas, the percentage of suchhouseholds was much higher (44.7%).

Linkage of

Water and Sanitation with Health

Water, sanit at ion, and healt h are the inter-related issues that are required to be addressed in an

int egrated and holistic manner. Improved water,sanitation and drainage facil it ies help to prevent thewater-borne/water r elated diseases and makepossible for t he people to have a healthy and decentli fe. Contaminated water, open defecation, lack ofpersonal and food hygiene and improper disposal ofsolid and liquid waste are key factors responsible formorbidit y. Since, victor-borne diseases are mostlycommunicable in nature and have negativeexternalit ies; these can be effectively controlled onlyif all the rural people have access to these basicamenities. It is estimated that around 37.7 millionpeople of I ndia are affected by these diseasesannually; 1.5 million children are estimated to die of

diarrhoea alone and 73 mill ion working days are losteach year due to waterborne diseases. The result ingeconomic burden is estimated at $600 mil lion a year(www.wateraid.org). It has been est imated that

diarrheal diseases can be reduced by an average of 6-20 per cent with improvements in water supply andby 32 per cent wit h improvements in sanitation.

Total Sanit ation Campaign (1999) intends toprovide good sanit ation facil it ies in rural areas toimprove the overall healt h status of the people andreduce the mortali ty rates, including IMR and CMRAssessment Study of Impact and Sustainabil it y ofNirmal Gram Puraskar conducted by CMS ResearchHouse, New Delhi for Department of Drinking Waterand Sanitat ion, Ministry of Rural Development in2011 shows that aft er construction of sanitary toiletsin the sample households, intensity of water-bornediseases has declined. Sixty one percent ofhouseholds report ed a reduction in the occurrence of

water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, andjaundice. Further, 50% households also report edweight-gain among their children after constructionof latrines. The construction of latrines had led toless number of man-days lost of t he working adultsdue to illness, as reported by 51 % of the householdrespondents Another 52% households reported areduction the annual medical expenses.

Rural-urban divide in the access to these basicamenit ies also explains, t o a great er extent ,differences in the health status of rural and urbanhouseholds. As per the latest estimates, IMR in ruralareas was 51 per 1000, whi le corresponding rate in

the urban areas was only 31. Similarly, CMR was 15.7in rural areas and only 8.7 in urban areas. Bir th anddeath rates were also observed higher in rural thanurban areas. Life expectation at birth in rural areaswas 62.1 years, whi le it was 68.8 years in urban areas.Partly the rural-urban difference in the heathoutcome may be due to the difference in monthlyper capit a consumption expenditure (MPCE), whichis considered as a proxy for t he level of living. Forexample, as per the NSSO 68thRound (July 2011-June 2012), average MPCE in rural areas wasRs.1281.45, whi le it was Rs. Rs.2408.68 in urbanareas.

NSS 61st Round (January- June, 2004)provides information on morbidity in India. Thesurvey finds a broad positive association betweenMPCE and proportion of ail ing persons (PAP) in bothrural and urban areas. Similarly, MPCE was also
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found positively associated with number of cases ofhospitalization. However, it may not necessari ly bethe case that t he poor are less prone to diseases thanthe rich, it may be due to underreport ing of ailingcases by the poor or poor households could notaff ord to admit their ail ing members to hospitals.Although on an average, expenditure perhospitalization was higher in urban (Rs.8851) thanrural (Rs. 5695) areas; rural people spent moreamount of money on transport , escort , lodging etcrelated to the patient treatment than their urbancounterparts. According to the 61t round, diarrhoeaaccounted for the third largest number of cases ofhospitalisation in India. It accounted for 7.6% of allhospitalized cases in rural and 6.2% cases in urban

areas. This implies that intensity of diarrhoea washigher in rural than the urban areas. Thus,prevention of morbidly would not only reduce theburden of medical expenditure on t he householdsbut also help to reduce the loss of income andproductivity that occurs due to morbidity.

Role of

Local Self-Government Institutions

Under the 73d Consti tut ional AmendmentAct, drinking water, sewage and sanitation are thesubjects of Gram Panchayat (GP). These institutionscan playa vital role in preventing the water-borne

diseases by improving the water, sanitat ion anddrainage system in their jurisdiction. With thetechnical support from the government officials andlocal NGOs, they can prepare and execute villagemaster plan for water supply, sewage and drainage.However, it is dismal to note that even after twodecades of new Panchayati Raj System in India; PRlshave not yet become the eff ect ive inst it utions oflocal self governance in most of t he states. The mainreason for this state of affair seems to be the art icle243G of the Act which provides discretionary powerto the state governments to transfer or not totransfer 29 subjects of local importance to theseinstitutions. Provisions of this art icle create inter-

state dif ferences in the power and functions of PRls.Some states have devolved more funds, functions andfunctionaries to these bodies, while others have notdone much progress in this regard.

Efforts are, therefore, required to build thecapacity of these instit utions. Apart from equippingthem with trained staff and suff icient funds, electedmembers of these institutions be sensitized andmade aware of the tangible and non-tangible benefitsof proper operation, construction, management andmaintenance of safe drinking water and sanit ationservices. A clean hygienic envi ronment can beensured only when the people make demand for i t.Therefore, with the involvement of civil societyorganizations, local demand for improved water andsanitation services may be created. Approach Paperto the 12th Plan highlights that: An important reasonfor t he relati ve lack of success of many f lagship

programmes in India is that t he local insti tutions that

should r un t hese programmes are not adequatelyempowered.

It is good to not e that t he 13th FinanceCommission of India recommended separate grantsto PRls, which could be part ly used to meet t heoperation and maintenance expenditure incurred bythem on ensuring potable drinking water supply.During the 12th Plan, the Ministry of Panchayat Rajproposed to introduce Rajeev Gandhi PanchayatSashakti karan Abhi yan (RGPSA), a 100% cent rallysponsored scheme to improving their administrativeand technical capacit ies, promoting democratic andparticipative decision making and putting in place

accountability process of social audit. These effortsmay be more effect ive if Gram Sabha (GS) is alsoempowered along with the GP. Without a vibrant,enlightened and motivated GS, activities of GP mayremain Pradhan-centric. Active involvement ofmembers of GS, particularly those of disadvantagedgroups, in the decision-making, planning, executionand benefit sharing is quite essent ial. More crucial isto develop the capacity of local CBOs (CommunityBased Organization) and institutions so that theymay take active participation in the functioning ofGP which has now become the hub of almost alldevelopment activit ies in the rural areas.

Monitoring the quality of water and sanitationservices by the government machinery may not beeconomically viable in the rural areas. There is needto train at group of young persons (4-5) in each GPso that they may periodically monitor the quali ty of


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drinking water, educate the households about thebenefits of safe drinking water and improvedsanitat ion. These trained youths should also beinvolved in maintaining the socio-economic,demographic and health related database at thevillage level. Maintenance of such GP-Ievel databaseis necessary to design, formulate and implementef fect ive grass root s level planning for t hesustainable development of the village community.These tr ained youths should be given somehonorarium by the GP for this purpose.

Summing Up

Quali ty of l ife is the function of various socio-economic-cultural, environmental and physical

development indicators. This article focuses mainlyon the role of water, sanit at ion and drainage inimproving the quality of l ife of rural households. Dueto lack of safe water, sanitary and drainage system,the intensit y of water-borne diseases is higher inrural than urban areas. Inadequate and inefficientdelivery of these basic amenities in the rural areasput enormous burden of diseases on ruralhouseholds, especially the poor households who arenot able to afford to have cost ly water-purif yingsystem. Huge amount of out-of-pocket expendit ureon medical treatments by the rural households canbe saved if all the households have access touncontaminated drinking water and sanitary toiletsproperly linked with the sewer system. It is,therefore, necessary to protect the water bodies ingeneral and drinking water sources in particular fromboth point and non-point sources of pollution. In thisregard, rural community should be made aware ofthe tangible and non-tangible benefits of havingclean water, no open-air defecation and covereddrainage system. Healt h benefits of the improvedwater, sanitat ion and drainage system would beoptimized when the entire community adopts thesystem.3.

MEASURES TO

IMPROVES RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Inf rast ructure Development is crit ical forIndias economic growt h and for sustainabledevelopment. Building world class infrastructure is apre-condition for attaining a sustained growth of 7%

to 8% per annum, which is needed to improve thequalit y of l ife of the cit izens.

Infrastructure has been defined as comprisingthose basic services wit hout which pr imary,secondary and tert iary productive activi t ies cannotfunction. Also referred to as Social Overhead Capital,investment in infrastructure is meant to encourageinvestment later, other directly productive activities.Simply stating, infrastructure includes transportationservices such as roads, railways, ports and civilaviation, t elecommuni cat ion, power, wat ermanagement.

India st il l l ives in i ts vi llages. It s economicgrowth and development depends to a large extentupon the development of i ts 700- mil lion strong

rural population. Majori ty of thepopulation lives inabout 600,000 small villages and is engaged primarilyin agriculture, directly or indirectly. According to aNational Sample Survey report, a majority of ourvillages do not have basic inf rastructural facil ities likeelectr icit y, drinking water, post off ices and even pre-primary schools.

Therefore development of rural infrastructureis important for achieving a higher rate of growthand improving the overall quality of life.

Rural infrastructure may be defined as thosewide ranges of public facilities or infrastructuralarrangements designed exclusively f or t he

betterment of rural life and init iated mostly by theGovernment and made available within rural areas.For example, provisioning of all -weather roadconnectivi ty to rural areas, elect ricit y distr ibutionfacili t ies and telecommunication networks will act asa catalyt ic int ervention for the rural population byensuring their access to a vast range of economicallygainful activi ties, regulated and fair market, healt h,education and other public services; availabili ty ofwarehouses and god owns in rural areas canameliorate food securi ty concerns; irrigation facili tiescan boost up agricultural productivity, reducevulnerabil it y to drought, and stabilize yields. Thus, aconcerted effort towards building ruralinfrastructure, to a great extent, can bridge therural-urban development gap by accelerating thegrowth of rural economy and increasing the qualityof li fe of the rural people.


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Rural Infrastructure - a Five-fold Impact

on the Economy Development of rural infrastructure has a

five-fold impact on the economy. Creating better access to employment and

providing further earning opportunit ies. Increase in production eff iciency. Creating access to previously inaccessible

commodities and services. Time saving which can be better uti lized in

productive activities. Better health and physical condit ion of the

rural population.For providing a concerted effort towards

strengthening t he base of rural inf rast ructure, at ime-bound comprehensive plan call ed BharatNirman was initiated in 2005 by the Government ofIndia, with its six major areas of intervention like

(1) improving rural housing,(2) boosting irr igation,(3) developing road-connectivity in villages,(4) strengthening rural water supply,(5) promoting rural electr if ication and(6) expanding rural telecommunicat ion

connectivity.Currently, quite a few number of Centrally

Sponsored schemes and programs are in operation toachieve the overall goal of Bharat Nirman.

Indira Awaas Yojana (lAY): aims atprovisioning free houses for Scheduled Castes (SC)/Scheduled Tribes (ST) population living belowpovert y l ine. During 2009-10, against the physicaltarget of 40.52 lakh houses - 21.18 lakhs houseshave been constructed til l January, 2010 and 27.53lakh houses are under construction. New target of1.2 crore houses by 2014 has been adopted.

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana(PMGSY):Int roduced as a fully funded CentrallySponsored Scheme on 25thDecember 2000, PradhanMant r i Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) t argets toprovide all weather road connectivity across rural

parts of the nation. Till December 2009, a total of33,812 habitations have been connected byconst ructing 97,583 KM, rural roads; in addit ion,1,84,353 KM. existing rural roads have beenupgraded.

Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC):TheTotal Sanitat ion Campaign (TSC) was start ed in1999; by adopting a part icipatory approach t opromote rural sanitation, has shown some amazingresults in the last few years by encouraging thestakeholder-ships of Gram panchayats inmaintenance of sanitation and hygiene in vil lages. Forcoverage under TSC, projects in 606 dist ricts ofdif ferent States in the country have been sanctionedduring 2009-10. The campaign has been successful inthe construction of 125.2 lakh individual householdslatrines and 1.44 lakh school toilets.

National Drinking Water Mission(NDWM):adopts an integrated approach to providesustainable supply of safe drinking water to the rural

population. Against the target of covering 586 notcovered 1.23 lakh slipped back and 34,595 qualit yaffected habitations ... 253 not covered and 1.18lakh slipped back habitations were covered and32,129 quali ty affected habitations were addressedduring the year 2009-10 by NRDWP and about4,500 rural schools have reportedly been providedwith drinking water facilit ies.

Rajiv Gandhi Grameen VidyutikaranYojana (RGGVY):was launched in April, 2005 foraccelerating the process of rural electrif ication in thecountry. For the year 2009-10, RGGVY set a targetto electri fy 17,500 un-electrif ied villages and 47 lakhBelow Poverty Line (BPL) Households against which18,374 villages and 47.18 lakh Households wereprovided access to electricity.

Rural Infrastructure Development Fund(RIDF):a NABARD assisted init iative, is also playingan imperati ve role in li nking rural vi ll ages byproviding road-connectivit y across rural India. As aresult of the telecom penetration which has beenevident across vill ages in recent years, rural tele-density has increased from 2006's figure of 2 percent to 33.79 per cent as of March 2011; statisticsalso shows that t he number of rural wi relesssubscriber has drastically grown up to 282.23 millionas on March 2011, from March 2010's figure of 200

mil lion. As far as facili tating irrigation is concerned,til l 2009 - 6.5 mil lion hectares of rural land has beenbrought under assured irrigation and it has also beenplanned to cover the remaining 3.5 million hectaresby 2012


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Mahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA):Aimingat ensuring 100 days guaranteed employment forevery rural household in a financial year - has put amajor emphasis on creation of durable communityassets as well as social and economic infrastructure inrural areas. Since it s inception, in September 2005,the program has been instrumental in enhancementof rural livelihood opportunit ies on a sustained basis,by developing need-based rural infrastructures.During financial year 2009-10, 36.511akh works wereundert aken, of which 51% const it uted waterconservation, 16% rural connectivity, 14% landdevelopment and provision of irrigation facil it y toindividual beneficiaries constituted around 17%.

Rural Health:The National Rural HealthMission (NRHM) was launched by the Governmentof India in April 2005, with a view to brining aboutdramatic improvement in the healt h system and thehealt h status of the people, especially those who livein the rural areas of t he countr y. The Mission seeksto provide universal access to equitable, affordableand quality healt h care which is accountable and atthe same time responsive to the needs of the people.The NRHM also aims to achieve the goals set outunder the National Health Policy and the MillenniumDevelopment Goals during the Mission period.

Education:A National Mission on Education

through Information and CommunicationTechnology was launched in February 2009. Theproposed Mission aims at ensuring connectivity ofthe learners to the World of Knowledge in cyberspaceand enhance their self -learning skills and capabilit iesfor online problem solving and to work for creationof knowledge modules with right contents to addressthe personalized needs of learners; certification ofcompetencies of the learners; acquired throughformal or non-formal means; and to develop andmaintain t he database having prof il e of humanresources.

Non Conventional Energy: India hasdeveloped one of the worlds largest programmesfor renewable energy, covering the entire gamut oftechnologies including biogas, biomass, solar energy,wind energy, small hydro power, geothermal energyand other emerging technologies.

Bharat Nirman:Int ensifying Effort towardsAchieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)Targets for Rural India Bharat Nirman has appearedto be a key player boosting rural Indias journeytowards achievement of MDG-targets. Some of t hekey goals addressed by this programme may beenumerated as follows:

1. Poverty and Hunger Reduction-Studiesby Planning Commission have revealed thatinadequate rural infrastructure has beeninstrumental in accelerating the growth of ruralpovert y; and poor purchasing power among ruralpopulation ultimately leads to wide-spread hungerand food insecurity across rural India. Under BharatNirman-a major impetus towards need based

development of rural infr astructure and focus onirrigation has shown some tangible changes in thisdirection.

2. Universalisation of Primary Education-Infrastructure has been a major barrier in access toeducation across rural India. Under Bharat Nirman,electr icity, accessible roads and safe drinking waterprovisions have been promoted. This has encouragedmore and more children and youth specially girls tocome forward and avail education facilit ies across thecountr y.

3. Health Related Goals -Provisioning ofsafe drinking water and facil it ating water supply inunder-served areas is appearing to be a boon forboosting up the health related goals underMillennium Commitments - be it child or mentalhealt h and f ight ing diseases like HIV. Studies bydevelopmental organisations like WHO and Water -Aid have brought into light that at any given pointof t ime 20% of people around the world are effectedby water borne diseases. Hence access to clean andsafe drinking water under Bharat Nirman has been aposit ive init iative towards this direction. Accessibili tyto roads have helped in promot ing inst it utionaldelivery across rural India reducing percentage ofmaternal and child mortali ty t o a considerablenumber.

4. Ensuring Environmental Sustaina-bility- Safe and adequate wat er supply haspromoted hygienic sanitation practices across ruralIndia. This has created a positive impact onenvironment sustainability.


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Facing The Ground Reality:The Task AheadFollowing are the few strategies that can be followedfor ensuring greater reach ability of the programme:

4. Promoting Public Private Partnershipin Infrastructure Building- Development ofInfrastructure is the sole objective of thisprogramme. This can be fur t her boosted byencouraging appropriate public-private partnership.Since the financial resource of the government islimit ed, private investments in t he sector willincrease fund-f low and wil l help reach the targets ofBharat Nirman.

2. Setting area-specific targets-Requirement of every rural area is unique anddif ferent. Sectoral allocation of resources could be an

important step so that resources are well utilized.Therefore steps can be taken to identify area specificneeds in collaboration with local Panchayats of thearea. Chalking out essential requirements will help inproviding effective int ervention and reduce wastageof resources under this programme.

3. Initiating suitable measures/mechanisms for regular monitoring andevaluation at the grassroots level - Everyprogramme and scheme implemented across thecountry appears to very effective in pen and papers;however there are gaps in implementation due tolimitations in every region. Suitable monitoring

mechanisms could be formulated so that everyscheme under the programme could be evaluated,role of stakeholders can be re-analysed and theprogramme can be upgraded and implemented in abetter way.

4. Reducing the inequality in Regionalgrowth - Generally it is observed that compared tomainstream area development, many backward areaslike the North-East are often left devoid ofdevelopment. Steps should be taken so that thisregional balance in development can be reduced anda holistic approach should be adopted.

5. Encouraging role of civil societyinstitutions -Civil Societies can be involved in

dif ferent aspects or programme implementation.They can playa support ive role to panchayat i rajinstitutions like for example - need basedmonitoring, follow up which may be instrumental infurther up-gradation of the programme.

6. Proper utilization of communityresources under Bharat Nirman Plan -Keeping inview the financial and human resources of theGovernment, steps should be taken so that differentcommunity level resources are util ized at dif ferentstages of programme implementation.

7. Capacity building and training ofPanchayat officials - Panchayat and othergovernment representatives specially the newlyelected leaders, women leaders should be providedadequate training from time to t ime to ensure betterperformance as they are t he key players at thegrassroots level for implementation of theprogramme. The members should be providedsuitable orientation regarding proper usage of

Part icipatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and ParticipatoryLearning and Action (PLA) while allocating resourcefor identif ication of rural inf rastructure needs.

8. Encouraging more autonomy to GramSabha for a transparent planning at the villagelevel-Being the executing unit of Gram Panchayat;Gram Sabha should be given more autonomy indesigning the layout of different ini tiatives underBharat Nirman. Autonomous functioning of GramSabha wil l boost up peoples participation promotingstakeholder ship in t he programme.

The infrastructure sector has both backwardand forward linkages with the agricultural and the

industr ial sectors and therefore the development ofthis sector i s a prerequisit e for t he overalldevelopment of the economy. Infrastructure, ingeneral, and rural infrastructure in particular,cont r ibutes to economic development both byincreasing productivi ty and by providing amenitieswhich enhance the qualit y of l ife. The problem ofinadequate infrastructure in rural areas can also beint erpreted in terms of access rather than availabilit yof services. Bharat Nirman with its time-boundintegrated approach can help build sustainableinfrastructure which will help in asset creation for t heNation as well as to bridge the ban rural divide in thecontext of development.4.

INITIATIVE FOR

RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

Rural India is the real face of our country as itrepresents 68.9 per cent of our population. We need


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continuous efforts to accelerate the growthtrajectory to maintain the rural landscape of ourcountry. It is important to note here that ruraldemography is very important to food security ofour country because it provide the important humanresource to propel the various efforts. According tothe National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO),the nominal per capita expendit ure growth in ruralIndia has been nearly 38 per cent.

This is for the first time the per capitaexpendit ure growth has been signif icant ly higher inthe rural areas compared to a lit tle over 34 per centin urban India. In 2012, rural areas in India laid claimto 56 per cent of Indias income, 64 per cent ofconsumer expendit ure and 33 per cent of Indias

savings. Rural Indias share of consumption ofpopular consumer goods and durables stood at 30-60 percent, and sales to rural India are growingsteadily. Per capita rural consumption in India grewannually at 19 percent between 2009-10 and 2011-12 which was two percentage points higher than it surban counterpart. In incremental terms, spendingby rural India during these two years reached Rs.3,750 bil lion, signif icantly higher than the Rs. 2,994billion spent by urbanites.

The concer ted eff ort s of t he Cent ralGovernment have changed the life of the people inthe rural areas. People below the poverty line have

been reduced by 137 mil lion in the last 8 years inabsolute number according to the criteria fixed bythe Tendulkar Commit tee. In 2011-12, our countryhad 270 mil lion persons below t he povert y line ascompared to 407 mil lion in 2004-5. The percentageof persons below the Poverty Line has been reducedfrom 41.8 to 25.7 per cent in rural areas and from37.2 to 21.9 per cent for the country as a whole. Thedevelopment is consistent as 50.1 per cent in ruralareas and 45.3 per cent for t he country as a wholewere below poverty line in 1993-94. There arenumber of factors responsible for this stimulus.Education is one of them. Mobile telephony is alsothe indicator of our development to some extentand out of total 861 million mobile phone users inthe countr y, 333 million are from rural India.

Rural Literacy

Education plays the role of foundation stone in

the overall socio-economic development of acountr y. It is an effective tool for t he empowermentof a community. In 1901 only five per cent of ourtotal population was li terate. The rural lit eracy ratewhich was 24.48 per cent in 1961, improved to 68.91per cent in 2011 ref lecting an average growth rate of0.89 per cent per annum during the last 50 yearsunder context. On the other hand, urban literacy ratealso went up from 58.59 per cent to 84.99 per cent,showing the average annual growth rate of 0.53 percent during 1961-2011. A posit ive developmentduring the reference period has been that the lit eracyrate improved at a faster rate in rural as comparedto urban areas. As a result, the gap in rural-urbanli teracy rate narrowed down from 34.11 percentage

points in 1961 t o 16.06 percentage points in 2011.

Improvement in Other Vital Statistics

Healt h is another important indicator ofqualit y of li fe and various health indicators have alsoshown signif icant improvement. Crude birth rate inrural India declined from 38.9 per thousand in 1971to 23.7 per thousand in 2010. On the other hand,urban areas of the country also witnessed a declinein birth rate from 30.1 per thousand to 18.0 perthousand during the same period. It is evident thatbirth rate in rural areas came down at a faster rateas compared to urban areas. Death rate in rural areasalso came down from 16.4 per thousand to 7.7 perthousand during 1971-2010. Due to the extension ofmedical and healt h facilities at an accelerated pace inrural areas of the country, the rural urban gap indeath rate came down from 6.7 per thousand to 1.9per thousand during the period 1971-2010. Infantmortali ty rate is also an important indicator of levelof economic development of a country. There hasbeen a sharp decline in rural infant mortali ty ratefrom 138 per t housand in 1971 to 51 per thousandin 2010. Urban areas also witnessed a decline from82 to 31 per thousand in infant mortality rate duringthis period. Infant mortali ty rate is high in rural areaswhich are matter of concern but t he National Rural

Health Mission will help immensely to overcome thisbottleneck. The rural urban dif ferentials in infantmortality rate narrowed down from 56 to 20 perthousand during the period under context. NationalRural Health Mission was launched in 2005. There


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has been a dramatic decline in Indias child andmaternal mortality figures since 2008 after theNRHM was rolled out. In fact, the decline in Indiasunder-f ive mortali ty and Maternal Mortali ty Ratio{MMR} has been sharper than the global f igures. In1990, Indias under-five mortality was 114 deathsper 1,000 live births whereas the global average was87. According to the 2011 off icial statistics, only 55Indian children die in the first five years of their lifeand globally the figure is 51. Similarly on the MotherMortality Rate front, 600 women died for every1,00,000 live birt hs in 1990, while the global f igurewas 400. Now, it has decreased to 212 whereas theglobal average is 260. Again, the decline is 65 per centin India whereas it is 35 per cent globally. Encouraged

by these result s, now the Central government hasidentified 184 high priority districts, based oncomposite health index across States and announced30 per cent higher allocations, better infrastructureand incentives for human resources to bring these atpar with the rest.

Rural Employment

Traditionally agriculture is the main occupationof t he people in the rural areas. The share ofagriculture to overall GDP in India has come down to14 percent, while 66.2 percent of rural males and81.6 percent of rural females are engaged inagriculture as cult ivators or labourers. Inadequatediversif ication has taken place in rural occupations asmany 66.2 percent of rural males and 81.6 percentof r ural females, report ing agricult ure as theirprincipal economic activit y. Rural India remain thefocus of policymakers as 10.1 per cent of its labourforce is unemployed compared with 7.3 per cent inurban areas. In rural areas, agriculture cont inues tobe the dominant employer (52 per cent), followed byconstruction (7.2 per cent), manufacturing (6.7 percent ), and communi t y services {6.3 per cent }.Although there is a case for strengthening well-conceived schemes guaranteeing minimumemployment, they could at best be bridge solutions.

Upgrading the skills of the rural workforce to enableit to match the requirements of the manufacturingand services sectors would provide more last ingresults. Agriculture is the most importantcomponent of development in the rural areas.

Agricult ure accounts for about 10 per cent of t hetotal export earnings and provides raw material t o alarge number of industries. Agricult ure in India uses52 per cent of t he work force, contributes 14 percent of Gross Domestic Product of the country. Oneof t he most important factors for employmentgeneration in the agriculture is to maintain t he highgrowth rate. Agriculture provides the principal meansof livelihood for over 52 per cent of our populationwhich lives in the rural areas. But, of late thetransit ion away from agriculture has accelerated. Thetransition from agriculture to industry and serviceshas been rapid in rural India over the past decade.This change has been possible because almost 75 percent of the new factories during the last decade came

up in rural India, contributing to 70 per cent of allnew manufacturing jobs created. As a result,manufacturing GDP in rural India wit nessed an 18per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR)during 1999-09, and is now 55 per cent of Indiasmanufacturing GDP. Present ly, The Mahatma GandhiNati onal Rural Employment Guarantee Act(MGNREGA) i s a f lagship programme ofGovernment of India for providing employment tothe rural people. In 2012-13, 4.48 crore householdswere provided employment and 163.38 crore persondays of employment were generated. During theperiod, 64.54 lakh works were undertaken, of which

58 per cent for water conservation, 12 per cent forthe provision of irrigation facility, 18 per cent forrural connectivity and 8 per cent for landdevelopment.

Non-farm Employment Opportunities

According to the 68thround of the NSSO, 13.9mil lion jobs were created in two years from June2010 til l January 2012. It is import ant because theincrease in employment during 2004-05 to 2009-10was merely 1.1 million. It may be interpreted as aremarkable achievement , more so when the sharpincrease in addit ional jobs came about at a timewhen the Indian economy was experiencing a

downturn with the GDP growth slipping from 9.3 percent in 2010-11 to 6.2 per cent in 2011-12.Significant finding is that rural women are shif tingtowards self-help groups and self-employment, whichis clear from the percentage of women taking up self-


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employment rising to 59 per cent in 2011-12 from56 per cent in 2009-10. Non-farm employmentopportunit ies are very import ant for increasing theincome of people in the rural areas. There have beenperiodic initiatives of the Central Government inint roducing innovat ive schemes to engage ruralyouth in non-farm employment. Rural Self-Employment Training Instit utes (RESTI) are one ofsuch recent init iatives.

These insti tutes are promoted for the purposeof providing opportunit ies to the rural youth fortheir skill upgradation leading to self -employment.The Ministry of Rural Development has establishedRSETls in all the rural distr icts of t he country. Theseinst itutes are managed and run by the public/private

sector banks with active support of the State andCentral Governments. The RESTls core offeringincludes its free, unique and intensive short-termresidential t raining designed for rural youth. Theseinsti tutes primarily focuses on below povert y linerural youth and are based on demand dr ivenapproach which provide a wide choice of vocationsand cont inued hand holding to ensure sustainabilityof micro enterpr ise and credit linkage after t raining.So far, more than 190 RSETls have been establishedin di ff erent Stat es of t he count ry wi th act iveparticipation of 35 public/pr ivate banks, and theseinsti tutes have trained more than 1.5 lakh ruralyouth on various trades. In a bid to further reach out

to rural youth in the countrys 24 most crit ical Left-Wing-Extremism-affected districts, the Centre

has int roduced a placement-or ient ed ski ll -development scheme called Roshni, targeting 50,000

persons, mostly tribals. In this scheme, at least SOper cent of the candidates would be women. Central

Government is cont inuously making efforts tost rengthen the rural economy. New direct cashtransfer scheme current ly being implemented in t hecountry will also create savings for poor people byreducing the hidden t ransaction costs, such astransport, that recipients often face when trying toaccess and receive benefits. Under this initiative,government subsidies for 29 of 42 welfare schemeswill be transferred directly into beneficiaries bankaccounts. The electronic cash transfers will be basedon the 12-digit unique identification number(Aadhaar). This scheme will enhance the efficiency ofwelfare schemes, because it wi ll enable the

government to reach out to ident if ied beneficiariesand ensure that they receive the services and supportowed them. Through this cash transfer program, thegovernment plans to deposit Rs. 3.2lakh crore in thebank accounts of 10 crore poor families by 2014.

There is concerted view with the planners atthe Central Government that the rural developmentshould be inclusive and sustainable in order toalleviate the poverty. The tentative Gross BudgetarySupport (GBS) for the Ministry of Rural Developmentfor the Twelft h Five Year Plan (2012-17) is Rs.44,3261 crore (against the Rs. 29,1682 crores ofEleventh Plan period) which includes the majorprograms. Such init iatives wil l certainly give boost to

the growth trajectory in the rural India. In the vastlandscape of t his count ry such effort s shouldcont inue to a point when the dream of MahatGandhi of self reliant vi llage li fe is fully achieved.

kurukshetra jan 2014

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