Fact Sheet

‘Growth with Social justice’ has been the basic objective of planning in India. Government of India views Rural Development as critical to India’s economic and social development. The policy objective is to achieve "Samagra Gramin Vikas", addressing all the issues of basic needs of the people in the rural areas. In this direction, the Ministry of Rural Development plays a pivotal role, through a number of programmes, aimed at improving the life – both individual and community – of the rural people.

Department of Land Resources :

CAPART: Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) was set up in September, 1986 by merging two organizations, namely, People’s Action for Development of India (PADI) and Council for Advancement of Rural Technology (CART) with the mandate to promote voluntary action and to propagate appropriate rural technologies among the rural people.

NIRD: The National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad is recognized as an apex for training, research and consultancy in rural development.

    The Plan outlay for the Ministry of Rural Development has been stepped up from Rs.30,000 crore in the Eighth Plan to Rs.42,874 crore in the Ninth Plan. The Budget for year 2000-2001 proposes to put India on a sustained, equitable and job creating growth path. The Ministry of Rural Development has a Plan outlay of Rs.9760 crore for the year 2000-2001 as against Rs.9751 crore during the previous year.

(i) Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY): In the year 2000, the Government have decided to introduce a new initiative in the form of Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) to achieve the objective of sustainable human development at the village level. PMGY envisages allocation of Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to the tune of Rs.5000 crore to the States and Union Territories during 2000-2001. PMGY would have two components, namely, rural roads with an allocation of Rs.2500 crore of ACA and other programmes of PMGY, namely, Primary health, Primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking water and nutrition with an allocation of another Rs.2500 crores.

National Rural Connectivity Programme (NRCP): Government is keen that all villages with a population of more than 1000 are connected with an all-weather road. In this direction, a Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri Nitin Gadkari has been constituted in January 2000.

(ii) Rural Housing Schemes: Government announced, in 1998, a National Housing and Habitat Policy which aims at providing ‘Housing for All’. The Action Plan which went on stream w.e..f., 1.4.1999., consists of :Construction of permanent houses and conversion of unserviceable kutcha houses under Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY); Credit-cum- Subsidy Scheme for Rural Housing; Innovative Stream for Rural Housing & Habitat Development; Rural Building Centres; Enhancement of equity contribution by Ministry of Rural Development to HUDCO; Samagra Awaas Yojana; National Mission for Rural Housing & Habitat.

(iii) Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) :The Central Government endeavours to supplement the efforts of the States by providing assistance under the Centrally Sponsored Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme(ARWSP). Powers have been delegated to the States to plan and implement the rural water supply schemes.

(iv) Centrally Sponsored Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP): Rural Sanitation is a State subject and is being implemented by the State/UT Governments under the State Sector Minimum Needs Programme (MNP). The efforts of the States are supplemented by the Central Government through technical and financial assistance, under the Centrally Sponsored Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP).

(v) Self-employment Programmes: The Self-employment Programmes have been revamped w.e.f 1.4.99 by merging Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Supply of Improved Tool-Kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA), Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) and Million Wells Scheme (MWS) into a holistic scheme called Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) with the objective of establishing a large number of micro-enterprises in the rural areas and building upon the potential of the rural poor.

The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) has been restructured as Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) with the primary objective of creating demand driven village infrastructure, including durable assets to enable the rural poor to increase the opportunities for sustained employment.

The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) has now been made an allocation based scheme. The modified Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme aims at institutionalizing community based demand driven rural water supply programme with cost sharing instruments by Communities, gradually replacing the current supply-driven, Centrally maintained rural water supply programme to a participatory programme.

(vi) National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP): The NSAP aims at ensuring minimum national standard of social assistance to the poor households, in addition to the benefits provided by the States. The programme, which came into effect from August 15, 1995, represents a significant step towards the fulfilment of the Directive Principles in Article 41 and 42 of the Constitution of India. The programme consists of three schemes, viz., the National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS), the National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) and the National Maternity benefit Scheme (NMBS).

"Annapurna" : this is a 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme. The scheme will provide food security to senior citizens who have no income of their own and none to take care of them.

(vii) Land Development Schemes: The programmes aim at increasing the incomes of the poor people who make a living on wastelands/degraded lands.

(a)Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP)

(b) Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP)

© Desert Development Programme (DDP)

(viii) Land Reforms Schemes: Consolidation of Land Holdings: Computerisation of Land Records (CLR); Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA&ULR); Amendment of Land Acquisition Act; Drafting National Policy on Resettlement and Rehabilitation

(ix) DRDA Administration: The scheme provides for appropriate staffing structure and personnel policies to be followed in the DRDAs. This scheme has come into force from 1.4.1999. The scheme of DRDA Administration envisages the strengthening and professionalisation of the DRDAs.

(x) Decentralisation And Panchayati Raj Institutions: The passage of the Constitution (73^rd Amendment) Act, 1992 provided a constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The Ministry has introduced the Constitution (Eighty-Sixth Amendment) Bill, 1999 in Parliament for amending Article 243-M of the Constitution to exempt Arunachal Pradesh from the requirement of providing for Scheduled Castes reservation.. The Government also introduced Constitution (Eighty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 1999 in Parliament to amend Article 243-C (2) and (5) of the Constitution to enable the State Legislatures to decide the methodology for election of members and chairpersons of Panchayats at the intermediate level and the district level. The provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 have come into force on December 24, 1996

(A) The first edition of India Rural Development Report-1999 brought out by NIRD focuses on the theme of "Regional Disparities in Development and Poverty". This is a maiden effort to comprehensively analyse various facets of rural development: agriculture, labour, infrastructure, gender and environment to capture the variations in development at sub-state level covering all the 78 National Sample Survey Regions across the country.

(B) Vasundhara – an anthology of land resources in India, compiled by Department of Land Resources.

(C) The Wastelands Atlas of India, the first of its kind, by the Department of Land Resources, in collaboration with the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad, represents an important landmark in the ongoing efforts aimed at identifying the nature and extent of wastelands/degraded lands. For the first time, an authoritative figure of 63.85 million ha. has been provided for the extent of Wastelands in the country, grouped into 13 categories. In percentage terms this accounts for 20.17% of total geographical area.

(D) Annual Report of the Ministry