"Modernising of Rural India is calling, no more need for stalling"

 

Various government departments promote social welfare schemes. External stakeholders, municipal departments, and other organizations are included in these programs. The majority of social programmes are focused on reducing poverty and inequality. Among other things, these programmes also strive to create jobs in rural areas, provide health care and nourishment, employ small and marginal farmers and workers. In this article, the challenges and strategies for such are examined. Education, diet, hygiene, and healthcare, along with infrastructure, employment, social security, agriculture, and energy have been given due importance.  Early development is critical to your child's development since it allows you to acquire the capacity and knowledge to make informed decisions regarding agriculture. Enhances manpower, strength, and production by providing a skilled workforce and connecting the rural and urban sectors. These schemes were created to provide basic employment, educate girls, encourage youngsters to develop skills in order to strengthen the agriculture industry.  Social security is a provision of security for citizens and households of the country in terms of income and health. In rural areas, the need for social security schemes arises in terms of funds for women education, health and accident insurances, empowerment of women through the creation of confidence and awareness about their rights, and making them economically independent.

 

Agriculture relies heavily on energy. Agriculture utilizes energy directly (fuel) or electricity (for machinery, low or high room temperatures). Hence for this, the Indian government and the governments of different states are coming up with various energy schemes related to agriculture. Rural India includes 65% of the total population. The construction of rural infrastructure benefits agribusiness, agriculture, and Agri companies, alleviating poverty, and better access to the market and job opportunities in rural areas. Cold chain technology is essential in handling the goods that have been harvested and has a short life span. The monsoon season in India is unpredictable, causing farmers to lose a lot of money and produce. Strengthening of public health systems and restructuring key health strategies will play a major role in achieving the millennium development goals.

 

What are the current schemes in existence to cater to the above needs of Rural India?

1)      Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan satisfies one of the needs by fostering social justice by providing children with basic primary education. This scheme benefited 192 million students. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is a major accomplishment in terms of empowering female children via education while also focusing on deep-rooted misogyny in society.

2)      The Atal Innovation Mission is another initiative designed to promote an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country.

3)      The Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Livelihoods Mission addresses the issue of unemployment by encouraging self-employment and skilled wage work.

4)      Sukanya Samridhi Yojana achieves one of the above needs in terms of a fixed amount for women to use for their education or marriage when they reach 18 years of age. Thus, ownership of economic resources instills a sense of security in them.

5)      PM Suraksha Bima Yojana is another gem of a scheme that ensures the whole of rural India against any unfortunate mishaps or accidents.

6)      Swayam Sidha scheme has been successful in increasing participation of Self-Help Groups in the activities of their villages and local level planning.  Kishori Shakti is another scheme that works towards the standard of living and empowerment of women in rural India.

7)      Pradhan Mantri KUSUM yojana, JOHAR scheme in Jharkhand (2017), and Karnataka Surya Raitha Scheme (2021) strive to provide clean energy resources to over 3.5 million people in the country (solar pumps, renewable energy sources).

8)      The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (2015) had been tasked with the job of providing irrigation to each and every farm. The Har Khet Ko Pani policy relies on irrigations supplies to reach all farmers. This method aims to increase productivity while reducing water usage.

9)      The government announced two big initiatives to provide electricity for free to the rural population. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (2015) and the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) (2017).

10)   Scheme of Mid-Day Meal is an effective scheme that provides basic nutrition to children who are aged between 6 – 14 and is learning in Government/government-aided schools. On the other hand, Integrated Child Development Scheme also known as ICDS strives to improve nutrition and overall health of children and enhances the capability of mothers for nutrition through proper health education.

11)   National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was implemented whose aim was to provide accessible, inexpensive, better health care facilities to those residing in rural populations, particularly disadvantaged groups.

 

The Indian government is aware of the education sector's difficulties like even though there is a lot of emphasis on training for rural development, quality assurance mechanisms have failed to prevent training malpractices. At the same time as a large number of regulators have been accused of corruption. Some research studies have found out that in some of the national level social security schemes more than 50% of the subscribers availing the benefits are from the urban areas. Even though the percentage of awareness is high in the rural areas nevertheless they are not enrolling themselves in the scheme. The target population who are in dire need of help and reforms are still far away from the system. Certain problems related to energy schemes include proper organisation and implementation of plans, long waiting durations in certain areas, and solar pumps in India as the reason for the over-exploitation of groundwater. The areas of challenges in the health schemes are: no data is available on the technical feasibility of NRHM. The increase in budget allocation is not enough for the implementation of the scheme. In addition, the urban population which accounts for now more than 30% of the population is somewhat ignored by the NRHM.

 

Problems like gender inequality, discrimination on the basis of caste and religion are still in existence in many parts of rural India. These issues are reflected in the schemes and their implementation which acts as a hindrance to the overall development of the economy. In conclusion, these conundrums need to be addressed in order to sustain the benefits that these social welfare schemes are intended to give.  The rural economy can prosper when its population is well educated, literate, and financially independent. It may be a slow process but the government is resilient in succeeding.

 

Authors

Mr. Shubhankar Shukla (1212210082)

Ms. Mahema Ananthakrishnan (1212210085)

Ms. Bhakti Joshi (121220087)

Mr. Aditya Nair (1212210090)

Mr. Ishan Pande (1212210092)

Research Scholar’s, 

M.Sc. Economics

Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT-WPU

 

Co-Author:

Prof. Gaurav Petkar

Professor, School of Economics

Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT-WPU