The flagship programmes of the UPA government in the social sector have had little impact. Spending has been between 25 and 75 per cent in many schemes like the Indira Awas Yojana, the rural housing scheme, the rural electrification scheme and the rural health programme.
Irrigation statistics have come under scrutiny. Some education initiatives have managed to achieve physical targets but several NGOs have raised issues concerning the quality.
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which has one of the highest allocation among all social sector schemes, was low on spending and achievement this financial year compared to previous years. It spent 56 per cent of its Budget allocation of Rs 40,000 crore, meant to provide 100 days of wage employment to rural poor. Last year, it was 76 per cent, while it was 72 per cent the previous year. The number of days each household got this year has been low at 35. It has spent Rs 20,854 crore so far this year.
Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, which has a target of covering 50,000 villages in the 11th Plan, had a target of 17,500 villages this year. So far, only 11,419 villages have been covered. Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have been far behind target. The scheme was allocated Rs 5,500 crore out of the Rs 60,000-crore power ministry Budget.
This was double the Rs 2,230-crore allocation it got in the previous year. The scheme, with a target of covering 118,000 unelectrified villages, has a 11th Plan Budget of Rs 16,000 crore. The original cost of covering all unelectrified villages was Rs 26,000 crore in 2000 but this has risen to Rs 32,000 crore, with targets yet to be reached and just one year to go.
The sanctioned amount for the scheme within the 11th Plan period alone has gone up from Rs 16,620 crore to Rs 19,276 crore.
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The Indira Awas Yojana is the government’s only scheme for housing the rural poor and is required to provide about 2.5 million houses (or four houses in every village) every year. However, it was able to build 900,000 houses in 2010. During 2010-11, of a central allocation of Rs 10,053 crore, Rs 4,070 crore has been utilised and of the targeted 2,909,000 houses, 904,000 houses have been constructed till September 2010.
AIBP or Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme
This was the programme started by the government in 1996-97 to meet the irrigation requirements of the country. The target was to provide “irrigation potential” in one crore hectares in the country through major, medium and small projects by 2009.
It achieved 72 per cent during the four-year drive called Bharat Nirman which ended in 2009. While it spent Rs 7,000 crore on these projects in 2010, it claimed to have created 750,000 hectares of irrigation potential through major and medium, and 200,000 hectares through minor projects in 2010. However, these achievements have been found to be non-existent with the statistics on canal irrigated area showing a sharp dip in the period of the scheme.
The targets have been achieved thanks to ground water irrigation. This has been acknowledged by the Planning Commission recently in the mid term review of the 11th Plan. That puts a question mark on the achievements under the scheme in this financial year as well as under the set of five schemes under the umbrella of Bharat Nirman which have been getting dedicated funding.
The programme to extend rural road connectivity under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, another flag ship scheme under Bharat Nirman aims to connect by all-weather roads all habitations of population of 1,000 or more in the plain areas and of 500 or more in hilly or tribal areas in a time-bound manner by 2012.
In the current financial year, there has been a 70 per cent achievement of targets as far as connectivity of new villages by roads are concerned. Of the 3,000 targeted habitations, 1,727 have been covered. So far 37,839 habitations have been provided connectivity which is nearly 69 per cent achievement.
National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) aimed at providing safe drinking water to all households in rural areas has been left with fund surpluses this year. Under the NRDWP, 17,200 habitations have been covered so far. During 2010-11, the allocation for the programme was Rs 8,460 crore out of which only Rs 1,207.55 crore has been utilised so far.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been the biggest intervention of the central government in education and this year it merged with the Right to Education and under the revised estimates got additional funds.
The targets are an additional 2 million teachers trained or untrained to effectively implement the Right to Education.
This financial year by December, 1,311,000 teachers had been appointed under RTE and 1.4 million teachers got in-service training. Of the total allocation of Rs 19,000 crore, an amount of Rs 15,212 crore had been released to states by November 2010.
Centre’s intervention in health in the form of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has seen allocation of funds rise last year marginally from Rs 14,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore in 2010-11.
The focus has been to improve the health delivery system at the rural level mainly with a view to reducing maternal and infant mortality rates.
However, the 600,000 villages in the country have just 1,45,920 sub-centres and while 7,700 are without even an accredited nurse midwife (ANM), 1,38,129 have two ANMs and 50,000 have three ANMs according to the latest data of the ministry of health.
The number of primary health centres is just 23,000, while the target under NRHM is 27,000. The only numbers that tally with the number of villages in the country are the number of ASHAs or volunteers recruited under the scheme mainly to spread awareness and to get women to hospitals for deliveries and examination.
About Rs 49,000 crore has been spent under the scheme since 2005 and there is a cumulative unspent amount with the states worth Rs 10,000 crore according to the ministry.
Jawahar Swasthya Yojana, which provides remuneration to pregnant women for hospital delivery has been the most popular component of the NRHM. It provides Rs 1,400 to women who give birth in a hospital. The numbers as of November 2010 show only half the number of beneficiaries as in the previous year. It was 4.6 million as against 10.2 million the previous year.