When compared to the western world; rural India is way behind in terms of employment, basic amenities and the overall lifestyle of the people. Some would argue that it’s inappropriate to compare the conditions of a developing country to that of an already developed one; however, the comparison only exists because the ultimate goal is to uplift the country and bring it at par with that of the rest of the developed world.
In this post we will take a brief look at 3 government initiatives which have been developed to change the fate of rural India and bring the rural populace out of their misery and bring them at par with their urban counterparts.
Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana
Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is a rural development programme broadly focusing upon the development in the villages which includes social development, cultural development and spread motivation among the people on social mobilization of the village community. The programme was launched by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan, on 11 October 2014.
The scheme encourages members of the parliament to adopt one village and work towards its development. This is a very noble scheme as not only will it help the parliamentarians understand the ground realities, but also force them to act. India is still a country where corruption is widespread and often the money released by the government towards the welfare of the people doesn’t actually reach them. Therefore, the scheme appears noble as it will help the MP who’s adopted a village to plug all loopholes which currently exists and speed up development projects which have been stuck in a limbo due to bureaucratic interventions or the dreaded infamous red tape.
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana
The DDUGJY scheme will enable to initiate much awaited reforms in the rural areas. It focuses on feeder separation (rural households & agricultural) and strengthening of sub-transmission & distribution infrastructure including metering at all levels in rural areas. This will help in providing round the clock power to rural households and adequate power to agricultural consumers’ .The earlier scheme for rural electrification viz. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) has been subsumed in the new scheme as its rural electrification component.
Much of rural India has been shrouded in darkness as places still exist which are yet to see electricity. In fact, there are places which are seeing light bulbs coming on for the first time since independence, such is the condition of country which is on its way towards achieving global superpower status in the coming decades.
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana
The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is a nationwide plan in India to provide good all-weather road connectivity to unconnected villages. The scheme was conceived as the need for proper roads was felt at the highest levels. It is a fact that in order for a country to truly grow economically, there has to be a solid road network, because unless there are proper roads, it will keep hampering the movement of goods across the country, which is not at all good for a growing economy like ours. The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna has been instrumental in helping solve this issue.
(Writer, Sanoj Kumar Chauhan is living in India. Sanoj Kumar Chauhan is part of our authors community).
