Policies and Programmes of Rural Development

Name: Sabawoon Gahiz Father Name: Mohammad Yasin Enrollment No: 32SRD00805-12 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Declaration

I Sabawoon Gahiz hereby declare that the present assignment entitled on Policies and Programmes for

Rural Development is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree course of Post

Graduate Diploma Programme in Sustainable Rural Development (A Distance Mode Programme of

NIRD and UoH), is a bonafide record of work done by me.

I further state that no part of the assignment has been submitted for a degree or diploma or any other

similar title of this or any other university.

Place: AIRD/MRRD, Kabul Afghanistan

Date: June-2012

Sabawoon Gahiz


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POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT

(PGD-SRD) 3rd Batch (2012), 1st Semester

Course SRD - 503: Policies and Programmes of Rural Development ASSIGNMENT

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Block - 1: Vision for India’s Rural Development

1. Describe the salient features of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee

Scheme (MGNREGS)?

Answer: It is better first we know about the scheme then the features will be explained later on;

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act:

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is an Indian job

guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on August 25, 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for

one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing

to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage of 120 (US$2.39) per

day in 2009 prices.

The act directs state governments to implement MGNREGA "schemes". Under the MGNREGA the

Central Government meets the cost towards the payment of wage, 3/4 of material cost and some

percentage of administrative cost. State Governments meet the cost of unemployment allowance, 1/4 of

material cost and administrative cost of State council. Since the State Governments pay the

unemployment allowance, they are heavily incentivized to offer employment to workers.

However, it is up to the State Government to decide the amount of unemployment allowance, subject to

the stipulation that it not be less than 1/4 the minimum wage for the first 30 days, and not less than 1/2 the

minimum wage thereafter. 100 days of employment (or unemployment allowance) per household must be

provided to able and willing workers every financial year.

Features

• Adult members of a rural household, willing to do unskilled manual work, are required to make

registration in writing or orally to the local Gram Panchayat

• The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job Card. The Job Card will bear the

photograph of all adult members of the household willing to work under NREGA and is free of

cost.

• The Job Card should be issued within 15 days of application.

• A Job Card holder may submit a written application for employment to the Gram Panchayat,

stating the time and duration for which work is sought. The minimum days of employment have

to be at least fourteen.


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• The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for employment, against

which the guarantee of providing employment within 15 days operates

• Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work, if it is not then daily

unemployment allowance as per the Act, has to be paid liability of payment of unemployment

allowance is of the States.

• Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village. In case work is provided

beyond 5 km, extra wages of 10% are payable to meet additional transportation and living

expenses

• Wages are to be paid according to the Minimum Wages Act 1948 for agricultural laborers in the

State, unless the Centre notices a wage rate which will not be less than 60 (US$1.2) per day.

Equal wages will be provided to both men and women.

Note: The original version of the Act was passed with Rs 60/ day as the minimum wage that needs to be

paid under NREGA. However, a lot of states in India already have wage regulations with minimum wages

set at more than 100 (US$2) per day. NREGA's minimum wage has since been changed to 130

(US$2.59) per day.

• Wages are to be paid according to piece rate or daily rate. Disbursement of wages has to be done

on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight in any case.

• At least one-third beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested work under the

scheme.

• Work site facilities such as crèche, drinking water, shade have to be provided

• The shelf of project for a village will be recommended by the gram sabha and approved by the

zilla panchayat.

• At least 50% of works will be allotted to Gram Panchayats for execution

• Permissible works predominantly include water and soil conservation, afforestation and land

development works

• A 60:40 wage and material ratio has to be maintained. No contractors and machinery is allowed

• The Central Govt. bears the 100 percent wage cost of unskilled manual labour and 75 percent of

the material cost including the wages of skilled and semi skilled workers

• Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha

• Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive implementation

process

• All accounts and records relating to the Scheme should be available for public scrutiny

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Of course, the programme is still very young, and is only just being started in many districts. Chart 1

shows that there has been significant expansion of the official coverage of the NREGS in several states in

the current year, including Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar

Pradesh.

However, as field reports have shown, the mere expansion to more districts often does not actually mean

that the scheme is implemented on the ground, as the local officialdom may not be prepared to take it on

or to fulfill all the conditions of transparency and accountability that are stated in the Act.

Table 1 provides a summary of the official evidence on implementation, based on the data from the

NREGA website. It calculates the proportion of households that have received job cards or employment

by estimating total rural households in each state (dividing the projections of rural population from the

Census of India with the average household size estimated by the NSSO).


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Table 1: Evidence on Implementation Per cent of households

with job cards Per cent of households

that have received some work

Per cent that received 100

days of employment

2007-08 2008-09 (till latest month)

2007-08 2008-09 (till latest month)

2008-09 (till latest month)

Andhra Pradesh 58.32 70.70 31.65 32.87 2.85 Bihar 52.91 57.52 25.56 12.01 0.35

Chhattisgarh 83.12 92.98 66.04 34.58 7.40 Gujarat 13.63 32.51 4.58 5.50 0.18 Haryana 5.35 8.46 2.35 1.51 0.25

Jharkhand 69.13 73.94 39.25 19.90 1.16 Karnataka 19.50 28.55 7.04 3.62 0.30

Kerala 8.45 16.34 3.27 3.23 1.05 Madhya Pradesh 78.17 119.67 46.94 35.92 9.96

Maharashtra 25.01 31.90 3.79 2.66 0.07 Orissa 55.78 65.91 14.95 7.42 0.52 Punjab 3.11 8.19 1.58 0.72 0.08

Rajasthan 32.53 87.01 24.61 52.70 10.33 Tamil Nadu 24.98 55.84 14.02 27.48 0.87

Uttar Pradesh 29.50 39.21 16.52 8.21 1.76 West Bengal 65.13 65.51 29.18 15.15 0.24

Table 2 shows, the gap between the number of households that demanded work and those that received it

is very small, often zero, suggesting that either workers are not made aware that they need to separately

demand work or that states and local authorities are simply allowing workers to fill in their demand for

work when the work is already being provided. This is a major lacuna that needs to be addressed.

Table 2: Demand For Work and Provision of Work 2007-08 2008-09 (till latest month) Households

that demanded

work

Households that

received work

Shortfall Households that

demanded work

Households that

received work

Shortfall

Andhra Pradesh

4803892 4803892 0 5041648 5041648 0

Bihar 3975545 3859630 115915 1936239 1843390 92849 Chhattisgarh 2297042 2284963 12079 1228045 1210200 17845

Gujarat 290691 290691 0 368359 353359 15000 Haryana 70869 70869 0 46433 46080 353

Jharkhand 1679978 1679868 110 863756 863454 302 Karnataka 554002 549994 4008 687113 284890 402223

Kerala 259275 185392 73883 189106 184817 4289 Madhya Pradesh

4347079 4346916 163 3388456 3383754 4702

Maharashtra 474695 474695 0 335918 335639 279


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Orissa 1138432 1100497 37935 579130 546105 33025 Punjab 49690 49690 0 29188 22676 6512

Rajasthan 2173122 2170460 2662 4742390 4732561 9829 Tamil Nadu 1234818 1234818 0 2391103 2391103 0

Uttar Pradesh

4104283 4096408 7875 2115548 2070578 44970

West Bengal 3919996 3843335 76661 2033171 2016868 16303

Despite this and several other gaps, there is already some evidence of success. Field reports suggest that

there has been some improvement in consumption of the poor, reduction of distress migration and slight

increases in lean season wage rates (especially for women) in the areas where the programme has

functioned successfully. Also, the NREGS has led to the disproportionate involvement of women

workers, far above expectation. As Chart 2 shows, in Kerala women account for as much as 85 per cent of

the total employment under the scheme. This proportion is also high in the other southern states and in

Rajasthan. While the other southern states have had high rural work force participation of women already,

Kerala and Rajasthan had had very low rates, so this greater involvement of women in the NREGS must

also be leading to social changes.


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Block - 2: Planned Rural Development

2. Give the salient features of Scheme on “Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA)?

Answer: To explain directly about the features it is better first we explain the DWCRA then will illustrate

the features.

Development of women and children in Rural Areas (DWCRA):

Development of women and children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) was launched as a sub scheme of IRDP

during the year 1982-83 in 50 districts. It subsequently extended to cover all the districts in the country by

1994-95. The flow of benefits to poor women, in spite of reservation, under various poverty alleviation

programmes viz. IRDP and TRYSEM were found to be not making much impact. Therefore, in order to

overcome this situation and to involve the rural women more intensely in economic activities and matters

that concerns the rural community. One of the initiatives taken by this ministry was the introduction of an

exclusive programme for women viz. Development of women & children in rural areas. DWCRA with

exclusive focus on economic empowerment of women provides all these inputs by considering women as

critical to development. This intervention aims at not only raising the incomes of rural women of poor

households, but also enabling organized participation of groups of women provides all these inputs by

considering women as critical to development: also enabling organized participation of groups of women

in the programmes of credit, skill training and infrastructure support for self-employment. DWCRA was

introduced for ensuring that the benefits of IRDP reach to women directly. The programme seeks to

improve the access of rural women to health, education, safe drinking water, sanitation, nutrition etc;

thereby bringing about an enhancement in the quality of general well being of women & children.

Strategy:

The basic unit under DWCRA is a group of 10-15 poor women who have come together to help each

other in order to use their collective strength to break social bonds that have denied them income

generating and self-fulfilling opportunities. The group size may be smaller in difficult terrain and far-

flung areas. One woman amongst the members functions as the group organizer who helps in the choice

of activity, procurement of raw material, marketing of products. Before undertaking the activities women

were made aware of the objectives and benefits of group information under the scheme; undertaking their

potential and recognizing their strength. At the operational level inputs/coaching for such an exercise by

the group is given by gram sevika for a period of two years, who not only creates a group but also

nurtures the group and orients them in availing of benefits of various other programmes/schemes.

Implementing Agency and Staffing Pattern:

DWCRA is being implemented by the district Rural Development Agencies to facilitate the

implementation of scheme one post of Assistant Project officer (Woman) has been sanctioned to be part


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of the DRDA team. One additional post of Gram Sevika has also been sanctioned at the block level to

look after the activities of the groups. This is addition to the two Gram Sevika in the normal block pattern.

The Assistant Project officer (APO), the additional Gram Sevika along with two Gram Sevikas and

Mukhya Sevika already available with CD Block from a team to help in the implementation of DWCRA.

The conduct preliminary surveys of the area, and establish contacts with the rural women, identifying

their constraints and needs. The team is responsible for monitoring and follow up. The APO is to help in

establishing contracts with different agencies, in mobilisation of resources and training facilities, also to

look after the day to day administration of the scheme within the DRDA. Implementation of the entire

DRDA is the overall responsibility of the entire DRDA team headed by the project officer or Project

Director.

FEATURES:

Community Based Convergent Services:

The Community Based Convergent Services (CBCS), as a component of DWCRA was started in 1991 in

a few districts of the country is a pilot programme. The objective was to create greater awareness among

the village communities to enable them to demand social services provided by the state in a better manner

and also share responsibilities in the management and implementation of these services, thus, leading to

sustainable development. Traditional methods like visuals, role play, folk art, puppetry, dance and drama

etc, are some of the means employed for sensitizing the community to the basic needs. The Programme

seeks to strengthen existing organization of rural poor women, encourage the level of social and economic

status of women. The programmes of ICDS, Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, and

National Literacy Mission (NLM) are some of the programmes which are sought to be converged at the

grass roots level- 298 districts community based convergent Services (CBCS) with cent per cent Central

assistance at Rs. 5.00 Lakhs per district.

Child Care Activities

Child Care Activities (CCA) has been incorporated in DWCRA Programme during 1995-96 with the

following objectives:

• To provide crèche services for children of working DWCRA women.

• Setting up of literacy centres of DWCRA women with specific emphasis on girl child dropouts

and illiterate members of the DWCRA groups.

• Filling up critical gaps in the areas of immunization, nutrition etc. for the children of DWCRA

members with special focus and emphasis on the girl child to reduce gender disparities in the

infant girl child care.


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• To provide some relief to the physically handicapped children of DWCRA members. To provide

immediate relief and pay for legal assistance in case of redressal of physical abuse of the girl

child.

• Children below 6 years are the target group under child Care Activities. Each DRDA is to receive

Rs. 1.50 lakhs (Rs. 1.00 lakhs Central Share and Rs. 50,000 as state share) for child care

Activities.

Funding Pattern:

Each DWCRA group gets Rs. 25,000 as Revolving Fund to meet capital expenditure requirement of

economic activities. Expenditure on revolving fund was being shared equally by the central government,

state Government and UNICEF till 1994-95. UNICEF assistance was not available from 1.1.96. The

revolving fund has been increased from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 25,000 during 1995-96. Presently, the

expenditure for revolving fund is being shared by the centre and state on 50:50 bases.

Coverage:

Initially no specific coverage of vulnerable groups such as SC/STs was fixed. However, during the year

1997-98, it has been made compulsory that 50% of the groups have to be women belonging to SC/ST.

Priority has to be given to physically handicapped persons and also girls and women rehabilitated from

prostitution.

Block - 3: Rural Development Programmes for Sustainable Development and Poverty Alleviation

3. What are the characteristics of self employment ?

Answer: First we will know the meaning of self employment then we will explain the characteristics of self-

employment;

Meaning and definition of Self-employment:

You know that earning is necessary for a living. Your father, mother, brothers, sisters and others may be

engaged in different economic activities through which they earn their livelihood. Have you ever observed

their activities? What exactly do they do? Possibly some of them may be working for others in factories,

shops, agricultural field etc. and get a fixed amount from their employers for the service rendered by them.

These persons are engaged in an economic activity which is termed as wage employment or paid

employment. But there are many persons who engage themselves in an occupation or some business which

they start and manage on their own. They put in their best effort and take all types of risks to pursue their

careers successfully. The entire earning of their work goes to them. All of us have seen small grocery shops,

tailoring shops, medical stores etc. in our locality. These are owned and managed by a person, with or without

the help of some assistants. Their economic activities are termed as self-employment. So when an individual

engages in any economic activity and manages it on his own, it is known as self-employment.


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From the above discussion we can analyze the characteristics of self-employment.

Following are the characteristics of self-employment:

1. Self-employment involves doing something on one’s own to earn one’s livelihood.

2. It involves ownership and management of activities by a person although he/she may take the help of

one or two persons to assist him/her. Thus, self-employment may provide employment to other

persons as well.

3. The earning from self-employment is not fixed. It depends on the income one can earn by producing

or buying and selling goods or providing services to others at a price.

4. In self-employment, the owner alone has to take the profit and bear the risk of loss. So, we find a

direct link between the effort and reward in self-employment.

5. It requires some amount of capital investment, although it may be small.

6. In self-employment, a person is free to take decisions in respect of running his business

7. Profitably and avail of any opportunity that may come up for expansion of his business. It gives

complete freedom to work as per one’s own will and within the parameters of the prevailing laws.

Thus, self-employment may be defined as, an economic activity which one may perform on his own as a

gainful occupation, and this may consist of producing and selling goods, buying and selling goods, or

rendering services for a price.

Block - 4: Vulnerable Groups and Rural Development

4. What is gender based budgeting and what are its important objectives ?

Answer:

Gender budgeting emerges as a powerful tool for empowerment of women. it is a means to ensure

adequate focus on resource allocation for women and to track utilization of public funds of funds and

implementation of programmes. the best of intentions and commitments requires dedication of funds and

efforts. Gender budgeting addresses both . it helps to bring in greater transparency and accountability in

the development initiative and processes.

Gender Budgeting - definition

Gender budget initiatives analyze how governments raise and spend public money, with the aim of

securing gender equality in decision-making about public resource allocation; and gender equality in the

distribution of the impact of government budgets, both in their benefits and in their burdens. The impact

of government budgets on the most disadvantaged groups of women is a focus of special attention.


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Gender budgeting is not a separate budget for women; rather it is a dissection of the government budget to

establish its gender-differential impacts and to translate gender commitments into budgetary

commitments. the main objective of a gender-sensitive budget is to improve the analysis of incidence of

budgets, attain more effective targeting of public expenditure and offset any undesirable gender-specific

consequences of previous budgetary measures.

Australia was the first country to develop a gender-sensitive budget, with the federal government

publishing in 1984 the first comprehensive audit of a government budget for its impact on women and

girls. women's budget exercises were also undertaken by each of the Australian state and territory

governments at various times during the 1980s and 1990s. South Africa followed and initiated formation

of gender sensitive budget in 1995, through a participatory process of involving parliamentarians and

NGOs. The Commonwealth initiative to integrate gender into national budgetary processes was started in

1997 in four countries other than South Africa such as Fiji, St Kitts and Nevis, Barbados and Sri Lanka.

Several other nations have also taken steps to engender their national budget (Canada, UK, Mozambique,

Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda). Gender budget initiatives are currently being attempted in 35 countries

following divers trajectories in terms of the process and partners involved in undertaking the activities.

Block - 5: Rural Development and Quality of Life

5. What are the Self Help Groups (SHGs) and what are major constraints in their functioning ?

Answer:

Self Help Group (SHG) are small, economically and socially homogenous groups of poor (in urban and

rural areas) and the members are not exceeding 20-25, voluntarily formed to save an mutually agree to

contribute to a common fund to be lent to its members as per the group decision. These groups are

promoted by both government and NGOs with emphasis on thrift and credit activities. all financial

decisions are taken by the group through a consensual approach. or SHG’s are small associations formed

within a defined set of participants. Funds are initially raised through public borrowing and upon certain

duration of maturity, yields surpass the rate of borrowing. The funds raised are collectively distributed

among the participants of the SHG. Regular deposition of earned income into the associative banks allows

the participant to enjoy savings. With a large rural population and untapped cultural and regional

attributes, India is among the few countries in world to have a robust upside economy even in turbulent

times as the Bubble burst of 2008. The Graph below estimates the No. of SHG’s financed in India from

2001-2007.


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The Impact of SHG‘s

• Reduction in levels of poverty with increased per capita income.

• Asset creation at the bottom of societal hierarchy.

• Empowering woman with disposable income considering their better decision making abilities.

• Growth in literacy rate due to exposure to concepts otherwise alien among rural masses.

• Reduction in dependency upon informal money lenders.

Constraints of SHG

Though the SHGs become credible and effective partners to many, they themselves are facing a number

of constraints and challenges. These include: (a) Uneven spread of the SHGs across the country, (b)

Inability to take up livelihood promotion, (c) Inability to take up larger issues of gender and social

inequality and women empowerment, etc, (d) Limitations of promoters to provide capacity building and

other necessary inputs at a desired scale, and (e) Inability of banks to understand and accommodate the

needs of the SHGs in some parts of the country, especially in under serviced regions. These are briefly

explained.


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• Uneven spread of the SHGs

While the SHG - bank linkage model has experienced exponential growth over the past decade,

there remain large regional disparities in the growth of the SHG movement with limited progress

in the north and northeast. In the total cumulative number of SHGs, as of March 2006, over 40%

are in Southern region followed by the Central (21.46%) and Eastern (18.76%) regions. The

northern region accounts for only 5% and north eastern region accounts for less than 4% of total

SHGs. The inter-regional variations are even larger in case of bank linkage groups.

• Inability to take up livelihood promotion

It is a well known and established fact that micro-finance is a necessary but not sufficient

condition for the promotion of livelihoods (Mahajan, Vijay 2003). Livelihood promotions need

procurement of inputs, organizing many support services and marketing of output. A small group

of 10 to 20 members, illiterate and uninformed, cannot take up these complex tasks.

• Inability to Address the Larger Issues

Though SHGs have contributed to social issues like women's mobility, interactions with the

outside world, access to financial resources, and leadership qualities, to some extent they are

unable to address the issues like women empowerment and social and gender equity

(NIRANTAR, 2007).

• Promoters Limitations

Any outside agency has limitations to get involved in community development work perpetually

and at an ever increasing scale. The limitations include staff, financial resources, etc. Further

facilitation by outside agencies is more expensive. As a result the promoters reduce their level of

support at some point of time. This results in the quality of SHGs is coming down with age

(APMAS, 2007c). Even in new areas, where the program is implemented in a target-oriented

approach quality is suffering (APMAS and CmF, 2006).

• Inability of Bankers to Understand and Accommodate SHGs' Needs

In many states and regions, particularly in under serviced states, banks are unable to understand

fully the commercial importance of SHG lending and they feel that the SHG lending is being

carried to fulfill the social obligations and/ or official targets. Even, when the banks realized the

potentials of SHG, they could not attend the SHG needs as required because of staff shortage,

mind set and procedural bottlenecks. The net result of different actions of banks is that groups

face three big uncertainties, viz.

o Whether they get loan or not

o Whether they get the amount requested or not

o When they get loan or how much time it takes for them to get a loan

Policies and Programmes of Rural Development

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