Dr S Saraswathi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) a week ago for creating model villages throughout the country. Under this, all Members of Parliament are required to develop a village of their choice for all-round development.
True to its commitment to move fast on every front, the NDA government has announced this scheme closely after the Smart City project. It will intentionally or unintentionally silence for a while criticism of any urban bias in development and help alter the image of the Government as pro-big business.
The project requires every MP to identify within a month one village with population ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 in the plains and 1,000 to 3,000 in the hills for promoting development models. By convergence and efficient execution of all development and welfare schemes currently in operation, the selected village is expected to achieve socio-economic development by 2016. Two more villages will have to be covered by 2019.
No criteria is prescribed for selection of the villages except these shouldn’t be of the concerned MP or of his/her spouse. By 2019, around 2,500 villages of the total over six lakh could be covered. An insignificant number indeed, but a big responsibility for most MPs living away from rural areas.
“Whether you get votes or not from the village, whether the village community supports you or not, you will have to work for the village and its community and work as a facilitator, as a catalyst for its change”, stated the PM in an obvious attempt to delink development from party politics and electoral contests or say depoliticisation of development in principle and practice badly needed in this country.
The MPs’ role has thus been expanded by involving them in the task of ensuring implementation of plans and programmes as well as helping them know the ground reality and interact with workers at the grassroots.
This strategy to build model villages has many precedents at the State and national levels. For example, the Ambedkar Gram Sabha Vikas Yojana (AGSVY) was launched in Uttar Pradesh in 1991 for convergence of all village development schemes. It was revised in 2008 by another Government. In 2010, the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana came in villages with a Dalit majority. In 2012, UP’s Samajwadi Party Government introduced Ram Manohar Lohia Samagra Gram Vikas Yojana to replace the AGSVY.
Now, SAGY is in letter and spirit far different from the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi or Jayaprakash Narayan, who had firm faith in villages and villagers. Concepts like self-sufficiency of villages, self-governing village republics, community life, and back to village to stall rural-urban migration have given place to transformation of villages with urban facilities. Urbanization and industrialization was going on even in Gandhiji’s days, encouraging sceptics to question the relevance of his concept of village-based economy and polity.The impact of globalization is received by villages as much as by cities. Today, villages have no separate economy and existence or lifestyle. Technological revolution has penetrated deep into villages. It forces reformulation of village development models.
Remember, former President Abdul Kalam enunciated the concept known as PURA – Provision of Urban Facilities in Rural Areas — a strategy for rural development largely centred on construction of infrastructure, introduced as a pilot project in the 10th Plan period.
The central idea is to bridge rural-urban divide by creating economic opportunities outside cities and in rural areas. Physical connectivity by roads, electronic connectivity by communication network, and knowledge connectivity by establishing professional and technical institutions are promoted in an integrated way to achieve economic connectivity.
These four connectivities are to be established through “holistic and accelerated development of compact areas around a potential growth centre in a gram panchayat or a group of gram panchayats through public-private partnership framework for providing livelihood opportunities and urban amenities to improve the quality of life in rural areas”.
In keeping with the aim of bridging the gap between rural and urban areas, a key feature of PURA is enforcement of standard of delivery of services in rural areas on par with those in urban areas, and inclusion of a legally binding arrangement for maintaining these.
From Community Development Scheme and National Extension Service introduced in the early 1950s for village development with people’s participation, the nation has reached the stage of installing urban life in villages as a Central government scheme. Firka development, village development, extension service, village level officers, gram sevaks and sevikas and so on, villages have seen many administrative initiatives for village uplift. Along with this, local boards, panchayati raj, gram sabhas are in existence from pre-independence days.
Indeed, the amount of literature on village development schemes under CD Programme is so vast that one may feel there is nothing more to add by way of fresh information. There is no dearth of schemes but achievements are inadequate. Today, rural-urban divide is far bigger than gender inequality.
Creating model villages and adoption of villages for general or specific development are often undertaken by various agencies. Volunteers of National Service Scheme could choose the programme of adoption of a village for regular activities for 120 hours. Some banks have set examples by adopting some villages for development. Selected villages are provided with credit-cum-development plan for basic needs in rural infrastructure, production, investment, and consumption.
Village adoption scheme is an age-old project tested world over with different results. It is mostly a scheme for energizing rural economy and lessening rural-urban gap. The programme sponsored by NABARD is said to be a unique sustainable development model built on five key pillars – education, clean water and sanitation, health, alternative income and livelihood, agriculture and food security. The goal is to ensure better future for children and empower community members to come out of recurring poverty.
This scheme of adoption of a village for integrated development is going on in Kenya, China, Ecuador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Ghana and many other countries. A primary objective is to eradicate child labour and protect girl children through partnership with local community.
The Prime Minister’s Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) was launched in 2009-10 by the UPA government for development of villages with over 50% SC population. The object was to provide adequate physical and institutional infrastructure that would satisfy the minimum needs of all sections of the society.
Provision for holding Gram Sabhas constituted by all members in the electoral rolls is made in the Panchayati Raj. But, in reality, these are not really effective bodies. “Active Gram Sabhas for empowered people and Accountable Panchayats” is a catchy slogan used in government advertisements, but Panchayats are to be reminded to hold meetings of gram sabhas to approve plans and budget, select works and beneficiaries, and conduct social audit.
The situation proves that energizing existing agencies and encouraging these to fulfil their role are more important than adding further work on others. Interaction between MPs and villagers has to grow spontaneously. It cannot be enforced by thrusting village level work on those members who hardly visit their own constituencies after elections.
Despite doubts over the efficacy of SAGY, one has to admit that it can be welcomed as a device to free village development from petty local politics and factional fights. MPs also have to train themselves to look beyond their political career and handle village development as their duty towards the nation. (INFA)
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