Local governments are required by the Indian Constitution to design and implement plans for “economic development and social justice” (Articles 243G and 243W).
The Gram Sabha was established to allow people’s participation, the District Planning Committee (DPC) was established to generate bottom-up and spatial development plans, and the State Finance Commission (SFC) was established to assure vertical and horizontal equity.
Read the article more to find out its history and verdict.
Mission Ayodhya UPSC
The Ministry of Rural Development has envisioned Mission Antyodaya as a mission mode initiative. It’s a framework for achieving measurable, effective outcomes on criteria that change people’s lives and livelihoods.
The major goal of Mission Antyodaya is to make the best use of resources by bringing together numerous initiatives that address multiple forms of poverty and making the gramme panchayat the centre of a development plan.
This planning process is aided by an annual survey that collects data on the 29 themes (good governance, health and nutrition, social security, water management, and so on) designated to panchayats by the Indian Constitution’s Eleventh Schedule.
Launch of Mission Antyodaya
The Planning Commission’s religious pursuit of the conventional poverty line connected to the calorie-income measure proved inane and ineffective as a policy tool.
Surprisingly, this occurred in a country that annually spends more than $3 trillion on the rural poor through the federal and state budgets, as well as bank-credit-linked self-help programmes.
The statistics released by the SocioEconomic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 ‘demanded’ that remedial action be taken. It was discovered that:
UPSC Notes
#Landlessness, shelterless, homes headed by single women, ST/SC households, or families with a disabled member are among the 8.88 crore households that are underprivileged and destitute on several levels.
#90% of rural households do not have salaried employment.
#Landlessness affects 53.7 million families.
#There are no adult members in 6.89 million female-headed households.
#Multiple deprivations affect 49% of people.
#Manual casual labour provides subsistence to 51.4 per cent of the population.
#There are 23.73 million people who have no or only one room to live in.
UPSC Preparation: Challenges and Way Forward
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Challenges
In 2019-20, the ‘Mission Antyodaya’ study collected data on infrastructure inadequacies from 2.67 lakh gramme panchayats, covering 6.48 lakh villages with a population of 1.03 million people for the first time.
Even after 30 years of decentralisation measures and nearly 75 years of independence, the gap report and composite index reveal unequivocally that achieving “economic progress and social fairness” remains a distant objective.
The process of producing complete GPDPs has been hampered by a missing link or connection between the GPDPs developed and the gaps shown by the Mission Antyodaya (MA) Survey findings.
Way Forward
Integration of Resources: There is a lot of potential for reducing the rising rural-urban divide. Given the Ministry of Panchayati Raj’s “saturation strategy” (100 per cent targets on certain goods), the prospects for universal literacy, primary health care, and drinking water provision are enormous.
Gram Sabha’s and Leaders’ Roles: Gram Sabha is a venue for grassroots engagement in governance. It allows rural residents to participate in their village’s development programmes and makes the administration more open.
The failure to use data on India’s fiscal federalism, notably to improve the transfer system and horizontal equity in the delivery of public goods at the sub-State level, is a negative.
Conclusion
For Prelims: Articles 243, SocioEconomic and Caste Census (SECC), National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Mission Antyodaya, Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs), National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), Eleventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution, District Planning Committee (DPC), State Finance Commission (SFC), MGNREGA, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
For Mains: Mission Antyodaya – Analysis, Gram Panchayats – Challenges, Challenges to India’s Fiscal Federalism, Issues related to the bringing up rural India.
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