Manpower crunch may hit govt's aspirational districts plan: UNDP report

Challenge of getting trained hands at ground level could be overcome by providing dedicated personnel at each aspirational district and making hiring more flexible, study says

Though it has positively impacted the development target, some of the key challenges being faced by the Centre’s Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) are lack of trained human resource and technical capacities at the district and block levels, an appraisal done by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said.

The challenge of getting trained human resources at the ground level could be overcome by providing dedicated personnel at each of the aspirational districts. And, also by adopting more flexible hiring methods, the UNDP assessment said.

“Even though districts have been provided support from the ‘Prabhari officers’ (officers in-charge) and NITI Aayog, there is a need for capacity building at the grassroots level. This can be resolved by providing districts with dedicated personnel such as aspirational district fellows or representatives of the programme,” the report said.

UNDP has based its appraisal on the period between 2018 and 2020.

The report said that additional manpower will bring in additional accountability and ownership to the programme, while providing support to the district magistrates and district officers, as they are already tasked with several responsibilities.

Besides lack of manpower, the UNDP report also highlighted discrepancy in data collected and recorded from the districts as being the other main challenge.

It said discussions with different stakeholders have highlighted the need to revise indicators, as well as reduce focus on a competitive approach, as they are likely to result in misreporting of data by the districts.

Launched in 2018, the ADP is one of flagship schemes of the Modi government. It aimed to expedite the transformation of the 112 most backward districts across 28 states through a convergence of government schemes

The districts have been chosen by senior officials of the Union government in consultation with state officials. It was based on a composite index of deprivation using a range of socio-economic indicators.

Many districts that have made it to the list are from smaller states or states ranking lower in the development spectrum. These include Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.

The programme largely focuses on development across five sectors of healthcare and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, basic infrastructure, and skills development and financial inclusion.

ADP is anchored by the NITI Aayog, which works in collaboration with central and state governments to streamline its effectiveness.

The UNDP report also said that there exists a wide disparity among the identified sectors and this needs a fresh realignment and focus.

“While the ADP has helped strengthen crucial healthcare and education sectors, those with lesser weightage need significant focus and improvement,” the report said.

“The districts could further be grouped based on their common characteristics and be supported accordingly,” the report said.

The report also harped on the need for more collaboration between different organisations to provide immediate support to the districts, particularly those in remote areas.

It also suggested inclusion of more themes centered around the environment and gender to the already existing ones as indicators of inclusive and sustainable growth.