Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his Independence Day speech about a scheme whereby every Member of Parliament shall adopt one village in his/her constituency and develop the village to be called an ‘Adarsh Gram’ – ideal village. This scheme came into effect last month and various MPs have started adopting their villages. In this blog-post, we shall know the details about this scheme and how the government intends to put this plan in action.

The basic idea of this scheme is give an impetus to rural development in India and also to ensure an involvement of all the Members of Parliament (and not just those of the ruling party). Secondly, as per the guidelines issued on this scheme, all the villagers are themselves to be involved to generate basic ideas that can help their villages to develop.  

What is the meaning of ‘Adarsh Gram’?

The following parameters are suggested by the guidelines.

Personal Development	-          Personal hygiene and cleanliness -          Daily Exercises and Games -          Reducing alcoholism and addiction
Human Development	-          Health -      Basic health care, medical examination -      Improved sex ratio, child nutrition -          Education -      Universal education upto class X -     Smart schools, e-libraries, web based teaching, IT enabled classrooms etc.
Social Development	-          Encouraging volunteers in development agenda -          Village activities for elderly, women empowerment -          Social clubs, meetings, sports teams etc.
Economic Development	-          Agriculture -      Organic farming, soil testing, seed banks, agro service centres -      Livestock development, micro irrigation facilities -          Rural industrialisation -      Dairy development, food processing, traditional industries -      Post-harvest technology, micro enterprises -          Other activities -      Skill development to make unemployed youth fit for work requirement -      Encouraging village tourism etc.
Environmental Development	-          Clean toilets in every household, waste management -          Afforestation, social forestry, roadside tree plantations -          Rainwater harvesting, reducing pollution, water management
Basic Amenities	-          Pucca houses, drinking water, electricity to all households -          Encouraging renewable energy, solar powered street lights etc. -          Road connectivity to major highways, -          Village markets, banks, post offices, CCTVs -          Broadband internet connection, major customer service centres -          Pension, insurance, effective Public Distribution System (PDS)
Good Governance	-          Strengthening local democracy, e-governance -          UIDAI cards to all, development of citizen’s charter -          ‘Gram Sabha’, ‘Bal Sabha’ to be held every quarter -          Timely addressing of public grievances etc.

As we can see, the above chart covers all major aspects of having a meaningful and happy livelihood in the villages of India.

Which villages will be selected for this scheme?

Lok Sabha members can choose any village from their constituency, and Rajya Sabha members can choose any village from their state. The village must have a population of 3000-5000 (in case of tribal regions or hilly areas, the limit is 1000-3000). MPs of urban areas where there are no villages are to select any village from any nearby constituency.

The government aims to convert one village in every constituency to an ‘ideal village’ by 2016. By 2019, the target is 3. Thereafter, every year 5 more villages will follow suit.

What is the plan of action in this regard?

A village development plan will be prepared for every selected village. This will follow a discussion with the people of the village through a ‘gram sabha’ and ‘bal sabha’. In order to collect ideas of development, there will be video presentations, writings on the walls, painting competition etc. Thereafter, the plan shall be as follows:

Stage one:

- Involvement of local people in behavioural changes, tree plantations, health camps, local cleanliness drives, animal health camps etc.

- Establishment of self-help groups (SHGs), as-is analysis of the existing situation in the village

- The first stage aims to identify the present social situation and the availability of resources in the village itself.

Stage two:

- Based on the observations above, some experts will be consulted to suggest improvement areas which will involve participation of the villagers themselves.

- Here, volunteers and SHGs will be encouraged to come forward and own responsibility of various improvement areas

Stage three:

- All the work which requires government approvals and sanctions (like construction of roads and public infrastructure) will be undertaken in this stage.

- The responsibility of overseeing various stages shall lie within the leadership of the Member of Parliament.

Where will the funds for this scheme come from?

There is no separately allocated fund for this scheme. There are various other schemes such as Indira Awas Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana etc. that have allocated funds. The same would generally be directed towards this cause. Secondly, the revenue of the local Panchayat shall also be used for this purpose. As discussed, a number of ‘volunteers’ are encouraged for this purpose which will require a huge public participation for development.

Who will own the responsibility for this work?

Various entities have been given responsibility to oversee various parts of the scheme. The general idea is summarised below:

Member of Parliament	Identification of the village, facilitate planning, mobilise the funds and monitor the scheme
Chief Secretary	Provide the central guidelines for the scheme, outline several mechanisms, design grievance redressal mechanism etc.
District Collector	Conduct the survey, development of the plan, monthly progress review etc.
Gram Panchayat	Implementation of the scheme, identification of village needs, allocation of resources to tasks, ensure public participation in the scheme

What is the target timeline?

So, these were the most important features of the scheme as envisaged by the Central Government. Let us hope all the action as planned is undertaken for the development of villages and upliftment of the rural population in the country.

The detailed guideline for the scheme as issued by the Ministry of Rural Development can be found here.