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Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan YojanaPradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is a scheme forcomprehensive financial inclusion launched by the PrimeMinister of India, Narendra Modi. It is run by Department ofFinancial Services, Ministry of Finance. The scheme hasbeen started with a target to provide universal access tobanking facilities. Under the scheme, Account holders willbe provided zero-balance bank account with RuPay debitcard, in addition to accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakhand life insurance cover of Rs. 30,000. After Six months ofopening of the bank account, holders can avail 5,000 loanfrom the bank. Mobile banking would also be available forthe poor through National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP)for which all banks and mobile companies have cometogether.

Sansad Adarsh Gram YojanaSansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is a rural development andcleanliness programme broadly focusing upon thedevelopment in the villages which includes socialdevelopment, cultural development and spread motivationamong the people on social mobilization of the villagecommunity. It is a program under Ministry of RuralDevelopment, GoI. Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana wasinitiated to bring the member of parliament of all the politicalparties under the same umbrella while taking theresponsibility of developing physical and institutionalinfrastructure in villages and turn them into model villages.Under this scheme, each member of parliament needs tochoose one village each from the constituency that theyrepresent, fix parameters and make it a model village by2016.

Swachh Bharat AbhiyanIt is a national level campaign by the Government of India toclean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.This campaign aims to accomplish the vision of Clean Indiaby 2 October 2019, 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. Thiscampaign was officially launched on 2 October 2014 atRajghat, New Delhi, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thecampaign is Indias biggest ever cleanliness drive

Make In India CampaignMake in India is an international marketing campaigningslogantoattractbusinessesfromaroundtheworldtoinvestand manufacture in India. It aims at making India amanufacturing hub and seeks economic transformation inIndia while eliminating the unnecessary laws and regulations,making bureaucratic processes easier and shorter, and makegovernment more transparent, responsive and accountable. Itemphasizes on a framework which includes time-bound

project clearances through a single online portal. Themajor objective behind this initiative is to focus upon theheavy industries and public enterprises while generatingemployment in India. The sectors included areAutomobiles, Automobile Components, Aviation,Biotechnology, Chemical, Construction, DefenceManufacturing, Electrical Machinery, Electronic Systems,Food Processing, IT and BPM, Leather, Media andEntertainment, Mining, Oil and Gas, Pharmaceuticals,Ports, Railways, Renewable Energy, Roads andHighways, Space, Textile Garments, Thermal Power,Tourism and Hospitality and Wellness.

Digital India ProjectDigital India is an initiative of Government of India tointegrate the government departments and the people ofIndia and to ensure effective governance. It also aims atensuring that government services are made available tocitizens electronically by reducing paperwork. The initiativealso includes plan to connect rural areas under high-speedinternet networks. Digital India has three corecomponents. These include creation of digitalinfrastructure, delivering services digitally and digitalliteracy. The project is stated to be completed by 2019.India still lacks many crucial components including lackof legal framework, absence of privacy and data protectionlaws, civ i l liberties abuse possibi l it ies, lack ofparliamentary oversight for e-surveillance in India, lack ofintelligence related reforms in India and insecure Indiancyberspace. These hurdles have to be passed forsuccessful implementation of Digital India.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao AbhiyanIt is a campaign in India to end the gender-selectiveabortion of female foetuses, which has skewed thepopulation towards a significant under-representation ofgirls in some Indian states. Itz an initiative taken by theMinistry of Human Resource Development. An amount of100 crore rupees have been allocated for implementationof the scheme in 100 districts of country to enhance sexratio and status of girl child. It aims to sensitise peopleabout gender equality and end gender baseddiscrimination.

Unnat Bharat AbhiyanThe Abhiyan aims to evolve appropriate technologiesconverging for rural development, with focus on watermanagement, organic farming, renewable energy, frugaltechnology, infrastructure, rural livelihood and employment.The abhiyan is coordinated by IIT Delhi.

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Deen Dhayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya YojanaThe Yojana was launched during the 98th birth anniversaryof Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. Earlier the Yojana wasknown as Aajeevika Skills Development Programme(ASDP). Itz a rural skilling programme. The scheme aimsto achieve the robust target of training a million rural youthsby 2017. The minimum age for entry under the Yojana hasbeen lowered to 15 years compared to 18 years under theAajeevika Skills Programme. The skills imparted under theYojana will now be benchmarked against internationalstandards and will complement the Prime Ministers MakeIn India campaign.

UDAANUDAAN is an initiative of the Central Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) to enable disadvantaged girl studentsand other students from SC/ST & minorities to transit fromschool to post-school professional education specially inScience and Maths. It aims to reduce the quality gapbetween school education and engineering educationentrance systems by focussing on the three dimensions-curriculum design, transaction and assessment. It will dothis by enriching and supplementing teaching and learningof Science and Mathematics at Senior Secondary level.The CBSE will provide free and online resources to theentire student population with special incentives and supportto a thousand selected disadvantaged girls per year.

Indias Mobile Governance Initiative (Mobile Seva) bagsUnited Nations Public Serv ice Award for 2014.Mobile Seva, the national mobile governance initiativelaunched by Department of Electronics and InformationTechnology (DeitY), Government of India aims atmainstreaming mobile governance in the country as acompelling new paradigm for delivery of public serviceselectronically through the mobile platform. As a part of thisinitiative, a centralized platform named Mobile ServiceDelivery Gateway (MSDG) has been created to provide aone-stop solution to all the central and state governmentdepartments and agencies across the nation for all theirmobile service delivery needs.

A major financial inclusion initiated: SwabhimaanA major financial inclusion initiative was formally launchedas Swabhimaan on 10 February, 2011 which aims atproviding branchless banking through the use of technology.Banks will provide basic services like deposits, withdrawaland remittances using the serv ices of BusinessCorrespondents (Banks Saathi). The initiative enablesGovernment subsidies and social security benefits to bedirectly credited to the accounts of the beneficiaries,enabling them to draw the money from the Businesscorrespondents in their village itself.

Poverty-alleviation and employment-generationProgramsWith a view to achieving inclusive development, severalpoverty-alleviation and employment-generation programsare being implemented by the Government of India. Someof the important schemes are as follows:

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme (MGNREGS):This flagship programme of the Government of India touchesthe lives of the rural poor and promotes inclusive growth.The MGNREGS aims at enhancing livelihood security ofhouseholds in rural areas of the country by providing atleast one hundred days of guaranteed wage employmentin a financial year to every household whose adult membersvolunteer to do unskilled manual work. It also mandates33 per cent participation for women. The primary objectiveof the Scheme is to augment wage employment. This is tobe done while also focusing on strengthening naturalresource management through works that address causesof chronic poverty like drought, deforestation, and soilerosion and thus encourage sustainable development. TheMGNREG Act was notified in 200 districts in the first phasewith effect from 2 February 2006 and then extended to anadditional 130 districts in the financial year 2007-08. TheAct has been notified throughout the country with effectfrom 1 April 2008. During 2009-10, 5.26 crore householdswere provided employment under this scheme as againstmore than 4.51crore during 2008-09. During 2010-11, thebudget estimate for the MGNREGS is Rs.40,100 crore outof which Rs.29,822.59 crore have been released to theStates/ UTs till February 10, 2010.

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar YojanaThe SGSY is a major ongoing scheme launched in April1999 to help poor rural families (Swarozgaris) cross thepoverty line by assisting them to take up income- generatingeconomic activities through a mix of bank credit andgovernment subsidy. The scheme involves selection of keyactivities, planning of activity clusters, organization of thepoor into self-help groups (SHGs), and building of theircapacities through training and skill development, creationof infrastructure, and technological and marketing support.The SGSY specially focuses on vulnerable sections amongthe rural poor with SCs/STs to account for at least 50 percent and women 40 per cent of the swarozgaris. The shareof minorities and disabled persons will be 15 per cent and3 per cent respectively. Also, 15 per cent of the SGSYallocation is set apart for special projects that areimplemented with different models of self-employmentgeneration and to enhance the income-generating capacityof the rural poor. Since its inception, up to December 2010,40.04 lakh SHGs have been formed under the SGSY, withwomen SHGs accounting for about 68 per cent of the total.A new initiative has also been taken up for setting up a

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Rural Self Employment Training Institute(RSETI) in eachdistrict of the country for basic and skill development trainingof rural BPL youth to enable them to undertake micro-enterprises and wage employment.

Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY)The SJSRY launched by the Government of7 India inDecember 1997 has been revamped with effect from April2009. The scheme provides gainful employment to the urbanunemployed and underemployed through encouraging thesetting up of self-employment ventures or provision of wageemployment, The revamped scheme has the following fivecomponents: (i) Urban Self Employment Programme(USEP) (II) Urban Women Self-help Programme (UWSP)(iii) Skill Training for Employment Promotion amongst UrbanPoor (STEPUP) (iv) Urban Wage Employment Programme(UWEP), and (v) Urban Community Development Network(UCDN).

Bharat NirmanThis programme, launched in 2005-06 for buildinginfrastructure and basic amenities in rural areas, has sixcomponents, namely rural housing, irrigation potential,drinking water, rural roads, electrification, and ruraltelephony. It is an important initiative for reducing the gapbetween rural and urban areas and improving the quality oflife of people in rural areas. Rural Roads have been identifiedas one of the six components of Bharat Nirman and a goalhas been set to provide connectivity to all villages with apopulation of 1000 (500 in hilly or tribal areas) with allweather roads. New connectivity is proposed to be providedto a total of 54,648 habitations under Bharat Nirman. Thiswill involve construction of 1,46,184 km of rural roads. Inaddition to new connectivity, Bharat Nirman envisagesupgradation /renewal of 1,94,130 km of existing rural roads.Under the rural roads component of Bharat Nirman, 38,575habitations have been provided all-weather road connectivityup to December 2010.

Rural Sanitation: Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)The TSC is one of the flagship programmes of theGovernment of India. The TSC follows a communityled andpeople-centered approach. It places emphasis oninformation, education, and communication (IEC) fordemand generation for sanitation facilities. It also placesemphasis on school sanitation and hygiene education(SSHE) for changing the behaviour of people from a youngage. The components of the TSC include start-up activities,IEC, individual household latrines (IHHL), communitysanitary complexes (CSC), SSHE, Anganwadi toilets,alternate delivery mechanism, in the form of rural sanitarymarts (RSMs) and production centres (PCs), andadministrative charges.

Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM)The JNNURM, a seven year programme launched inDecember 2005, provides financial assistance to cities forinfrastructure, housing development, and capacitydevelopment. Two of its four components-Basic Servicesto the Urban Poor (BSUP) for 65 select cities and IntegratedHousing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) forother cities and townsare devoted to shelter and basicservice needs of the poor. The JNNURM also emphasizesthe implementation of the following three mandatory pro-poor key reforms to enhance the capacity of urban localbodies (ULBs) - (i) internal earmarking within local bodybudgets for basic services to the urban poor;(ii) earmarkingat least 20-25 per cent of developed land in all housingprojects (both public and private agencies) for theeconomically weaker section (EWS)/lower income group(LIG) category; (iii) implementation of seven-point charterfor provision of seven basic entitlements/services. As thefirst national flagship programme for urbanization, theJNNURM has significantly triggered the creation of manyinnovative ideas in States that will increase their ability tomaintain the momentum of the urban transformation theyhave initiated.

Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY)The Government has announced the vision of a slum-freeIndia through a new scheme, the Rajiv Awas Yojana.Subsequent to this announcement, extensive consultationshave been held with various Ministries, experts, stateGovernments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),financial and urban experts, and private industry to framethe guidelines. These draft guidelines have been criticallyappraised by an expert committee. The preparatory phaseof RAY, called the Slum Free City Planning Scheme hasbeen implemented. Under this scheme an amount of 60crore has been released to States for undertaking slumsurveys, mapping of slums, developing slum informationsystems, undertaking community mobilization, preparationof slum-free city/ State plans, etc. before seeking supportunder RAY.

Skill DevelopmentAs mentioned in the Economic Survey 2009-10, a three-tier structure for coordinated action on skill developmenthas been set up. The three-tier structure consists of (i) thePrime Ministers National Council on Skill Development,(ii) the National Skill Development Coordination Board(NSDCB), and (iii) the National Skill DevelopmentCorporation (NSDC). The Prime Ministers National Councilhas outlined the core operating principles which, inter alia,advocate the need for co-created solutions for skilldevelopment based on partnerships between States, civilsociety, and community leaders. The emphasis is onmaking skills bankable for all sections of society including

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the poorest of the poor. The issue of optimum utilization ofexisting infrastructure available in the States and using thesame for skill training is also emphasized. By the endDecember 2010, 28 States and five Union Territories hadset up Skill Development Missions. As a next step, allthese States/UTs need to assess the skill gaps in the major308 Economic Survey 2010-11 Website: http://indiabudget.nic.in sectors and formulate action plans forbridging them. The NSDC, set up on 31July 2008 as anon-profit public-private partnership (PPP) in skilldevelopment for co-coordinating/ stimulating private-sectorinitiatives, has been mandated to achieve the target ofcreation of skilled workforce of 150 million persons by 2022under the National Skill Development Policy. As a first steptowards achieving the target, a comprehensive skill gapstudy for 21 high-growth sectors has been completed inorder to build a baseline for formulation of a comprehensivestrategy. This has generated a lot of interest in private sectorin investing in skill development. The corporation hasdeveloped a strong governance structure for the disbursalof funds.

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)Significant progress has been made since the UIDAI wascreated through a notification issued by the Government inJanuary 2009. Phase II of the UIDAI now referred to as theAadhaar programme has commenced with an allocation of3023.01 crore in July 2010 for enrolling 10 crore residentsthrough multiple registrars and for setting up of otherinfrastructural requirements for the project phase of fiveyears ending March 2014. The scheme was formallylaunched on 29 September 2010 at Thembali village ofNandurbar district in Maharashtra when all the residents inthe village were enrolled making it the first Aadhaar Gaon.All the 35 States and UTs have signed a memorandum ofunderstanding (MoU) with the UIDAI. MoUs have also beensigned with the Ministry of Human Resource Development,Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Petroleum andNatural Gas, Department of Posts, 23 publicsector banks,the Life Insurance Corporation of India, Indira Gandhi NationalOpen University, and the National Coalition of Organizationsfor Security of Migrant workers. The UIDAI is partneringwith financial institutions to both augment enrolmentsthrough them and to provide bank accounts to residentsduring Aadhaar enrolment. Enrolment statistics indicatethat about 80 per cent of residents have given consent foropening bank accounts during enrolment. In order tosimplify the process of opening Aadhaar-enabled bankaccounts for the marginalized population, the Aadhaar-based Know Your Resident (KYR) leading to issue ofAadhaar numbers has been accepted as equivalent tobanks Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. Further, theAadhaar letter has been declared an officially validdocument for opening of bank accounts by the Governmentin December 2010. The UIDAI is also working towards

linking MNREGS payments with the Aadhaar number ofthe resident and routing the payments through his/herAadhaar enabled bank account. The stage is now set forrealizing the service-delivery potential of Aadhaar. In additionto help in cleaning up databases by ensuring that thereare no duplicates and fakes, Aadhaar can help in bettertargeting and delivery of services and reducing the cost ofdelivery. Transformation in the delivery of services isexpected through the use of Aadhaar authenticationservices.

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory EducationAct 2009 (RTE Act)Free education for all children between the age of 6 and 14years has been made a fundamental right under the RTEAct 2009. While the RTE Act was notified on 27 August2009 for general information, the notification for enforcingthe provisions of the Act with effect from 1 April 2010 wasissued on 16 February 2010. The Ministry of HRD had setup a committee to identify Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA)norms that require to be brought in conformity with RTEnorms and standards, Human Development, Equity andEnvironment including, for example, pupil-teacher ratio andteacher-classroom ratio. On the basis of therecommendation of this committee, SSA norms have beenmodified to align them with the requirement of the RTE Act2009. The main changes made in the norms relate toopening of new primary and upper primary schools as perneighborhood norms, upgradation of all alternate schoolingfacilities provided through centres under the EducationGuarantee Scheme (EGS), revised pupil-teacher ratio (PTR)norms, provision of special training for out-of-school anddrop-out children to facilitate age-appropriate admission,provision of grant and teaching learning equipment tofacilitate States to merge Classes V and VIII in primaryand upper primary cycle stage and approval of additional1073 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) foreducationally backward blocks (EBBs).

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)The programme is being implemented in partnership withthe States to address the needs of children in the agegroup of 6-14. The goals of the SSA inter alia includeenrolment of all children in school, education guaranteecentres (EGCs), alternate schools, back-to-school camp,retention of all children till the upper primary stage by 2010,bridging of gender and social category gaps in enrolmentwith retention and learning, and ensuring that there issignificant enhancement in the learning achievement levelsof children at the primary and upper primary stages. Theachievements under the SSA till September 2010 includeopening of 309,727 new schools, construction of 254,935school buildings, construction of 1,166,868 additionalclassrooms, 190,961 drinking water facilities, constructionof 347,857 toilets, supply of free textbooks to 8.70 crore

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children, and appointment of 11.13 lakh teachers. Moreover,around 14.02 lakh teachers have received in service trainingunder this programme. There has been significant reductionin the number of out-of- school children on account of SSAinterventions. An independent study states that the numberof out-of-school children has come down from 134.6 lakhin 2005 to 81.5 lakh in 2009.

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs)The KGBV is a scheme for setting up residential schoolsat upper primary level for girls belonging predominantly tothe SC/ ST, OBC, and minority communities. The schemeis being implemented in the EBBs where rural femaleliteracy is below 30 per cent and in select urban areaswhere female literacy is below the national average. TheKGBV scheme was merged with the (SSA) with effect from1 April 2007. The scheme provides for minimum reservationof 75 per cent of the seats for girls belonging to SCs, STs,OBCs or minority communities and priority for the remaining25 per cent to girls from BPL families. The scheme is beingimplemented in 27 States. The Government of India hassanctioned 2573 KGBVs up to 31 March 2010 and 2565KGBVs are reported to be functional in the states.

National Programme for Education of Girls atElementary Level (NPEGEL)The NPEGEL, is a focused intervention of the Governmentof India to reach the Hardest to Reach girls. It is animportant component of the SSA, which provides additionalsupport for enhancing girls education over and above thenormal SSA interventions. The programme provides forsetting up of a model school in every cluster with moreintense community mobilization and supervision of girlsenrolment in schools. Gender sensitisation of teachers,development of gender-sensitive learning materials, andprovision of need-based incentives like escorts, stationery,workbooks, and uniforms are some of the endeavours underthe programme. The scheme is being implemented in theEBBs where the level of rural female literacy is less thanthe national average and gender gap is above the nationalaverage; in blocks of districts which are not covered underEBBs but where at least 5 per cent of population is SC/STand where SC/ST female literacy is below 10 per cent; andalso in select urban slums. About 3286 educationallybackward blocks are National Programme of Midday Mealsin schools: Under the National Programme of Midday Mealsin schools, cooked mid-day meal is provided to all thechildren attending Classes I-VIII in Government, local body,Government aided and National Child Labour Projectschools. EGCs/alternate and innovative education centresincluding madarsas/maqtabs supported under the SSAacross the country are also covered under this programme.At present the cooked midday meal provides an energycontent of 450 calories and protein content of 12 grams atprimary stage and an energy content of 700 calories and

protein content of 20 grams at upper primary stage.Adequate quantity of micro-nutrients like iron, folic acidand vitamin A are also recommended for convergence withthe NRHM. During 2009- 10, the budget allocation underthis program was Rs.7359.15 crore against which the totalexpenditure incurred was Rs.6937.79 crore. A total numberof 11.04 crore children (7.85 crore in primary and 3.19 crorein upper primary stages) have been benefitted under theprogramme during 2009-10.

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)The RMSA was launched in March 2009 with the objectiveof enhancing access to secondary education and improvingits quality. The implementation of the scheme started from2009-10. It envisages raising the enrolment rate at secondarystage from 52.26 per cent in 2005- 06 to 75 per cent withinfive years by providing a secondary school within reasonabledistance of any habitation. The other objectives includeimproving quality of education imparted at secondary levelby ensuring that all secondary schools conform toprescribed norms, removing gender, socio-economic anddisability barriers, providing universal access to secondary-level education by 2017, i.e. by the end of the Twelfth FiveYear Plan, and achieving universal retention by 2020. TheCentral Government and State Government bear 75 percent and 25 per cent of the project expenditure respectivelyduring the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The funding pattern isin the ratio of 90:10 for the north-eastern States.

Inclusive Education for the Disabled at SecondaryStage (IEDSS)The IEDSS scheme was launched in 2009-10 replacingthe earlier scheme of Integrated Education for DisabledChildren (IEDC). It provides 100 per cent Central assistancefor inclusive education of disabled children studying inClasses IX-XII in Government, local body, and Government-aided schools. The aim of the scheme is to facilitatecontinuation of education of children with special needs upto higher secondary level. The scheme provides for personalrequirements of the children in the form of assistive devices,helpers, transport, hostel, learning material, scholarshipfor the girl child, etc up to 3000 per disabled child perannum. A budget of Rs.70.00 crore was allocated for thisscheme during 2010-11. Over 1.30 lakh disabled childrenare proposed to be covered with the assistance of 3000teachers in 20,000 Government secondary and highersecondary schools in 2010-11.The scheme is extremelyimportant as a natural corollary to the success achieved inenrolment and retention of children at elementary stage(SSA).

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Saakshar BharatIn the context of the Governments overall policy aimed atempowerment of women and in recognition of the fact thatliteracy is a prerequisite for socioeconomic development,the National Literacy Mission has been recast as SaaksharBharat with prime focus on female literacy. This flagshipprogramme of the Government will cover all adults in theage group of 15 and above though its primary focus will beon women. Several new features have been added to thescheme and basic literacy, post literacy, and continuingeducation programmes, will now form a continuum, ratherthan sequential segments under this programme. Besidesthe volunteer-based mass campaign approach, provisionhas been made for alternative approaches to adult education.The Jan Shiksha Kendras (adult education centres-AECs)will be set up to coordinate and manage all programmeswithin their territorial jurisdiction. The state governments,as against the districts in the earlier versions, and PanchyatiRaj institutions, along with communities, will be the valuedstakeholders. The budgetary support has also beensubstantially enhanced. To minimize regional, social, andgender disparities, the programme in its first phase, that isduring the Eleventh Plan period will remain confined to 365districts with female adult literacy rates of 50 per cent orbelow as per the 2001 census.

Health Programmes

National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)The NRHM was launched in 2005 to provide accessible,affordable, and accountable quality health services to ruralareas with emphasis on poor persons and remote areas. Itis being operationalized throughout the country, with specialfocus on 18 states, which include 8 empowered actiongroup States (Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Orissa, andRajasthan), 8 north-eastern States, Himachal Pradesh, andJammu and Kashmir. The NRHM aims to provide anoverarching umbrella to the existing programmes of Healthand Family Welfare including the Reproductive Child HealthProject (RCH-II) and Malaria, Blindness, Iodine Deficiency,Filaria, Kala Azar, T.B., Leprosy and Integrated DiseaseSurveillance programmes by strengthening the public healthdelivery system at all levels. The Sub-centres, PHCs, andCHCs are being revitalized through better human resourcemanagement, including provision of additional manpower,clear quality standards, revamping of existing medicalinfrastructure, better community support, and throughuntied funds to facilitate local planning and action. Flexible,decentralized planning is the pivot on which the Missionrotates. Further, the Mission addresses the issue of healthin the context of a sector-wide approach addressingsanitation and hygiene, nutrition, and safe drinking wateras the basic determinants of good health. Keeping this inview, it seeks greater convergence among the related social-

sector departments, namely AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga andNaturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy), Women& Child Development, Sanitation, Elementary Education,Panchayati Raj, and Rural Development.

Women and Child Development

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)SchemeThis was launched in 1975 for holistic development ofchildren below 6 years of age and for proper nutrition andhealth education of pregnant and lactating mothers with33 projects and 4891 anganwadi centres (AWCs). It hasbeen continuously expanded to uncovered areas and hasnow been universalized with the Government of Indiacumulatively approving 7076 projects and 14 lakh AWCsincluding 20,000 anganwadis ondemand. Apart fromuniversalizing the ICDS Scheme, the Government has takenvarious steps, such as revision in financial norms of existinginterventions including the Supplementary NutritionProgramme (SNP), revision in nutritional and feeding normsof supplementary nutrition, and introduction of new WHOgrowth standards. In addition, the Government of India alsointroduced cost-sharing between the Centre and Statesfrom 2009-10 in the ratio of 90:10 for all componentsincluding the SNP for the north-east. This ratio will be 50:50for the SNP and 90:10 for all other components for all Statesother than north-east. Alongside gradual expansion of thescheme, its budgetary allocation has alsoincreased.

Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of AdolescentGirls (RGSEAG)This scheme was launched on 19 November 2010 with theobjective of empowering adolescent girls in the age group11-18 years by bringing improvement in their nutritionaland health status and upgrading various skills like homeskills, life skills, and vocational skills. To start with, it willbe implemented in 200 selected districts across thecountry on a pilot basis. RGSEAG would be implementedthrough State Governments / UT Administrations with 100per cent financial assistance from the Central Governmentfor all inputs other than nutrition provision for which 50 percent Central assistance to states/UTs would be provided.Anganwadi centres will be the focal points for delivery ofservices. Nearly 100 lakh adolescent girls in 200 districtsare expected to be benefited per annum under the scheme.In these 200 districts, Kishori Shakti Yojna (KSY) and theNutrition Programme for Adolescent Girls (NPAG) havebeen merged in the RGSEAG. In the remaining districts,the KSY will continue as before.

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The Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme forChildren of Working MothersThis scheme provides for day-care facilities to 0-6 year-oldchildren of working mothers by opening crches anddevelopment services, i.e., supplementary nutrition, health-care inputs like immunization, polio drops, basic healthmonitoring, and recreation. The combined monthly incomeof both the parents should not exceed 12000 for availing ofthe facilities. The scheme is presently being implementedthrough the Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) andIndian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW). As of now 22,599crches are functional and the number of beneficiarychildren is 5,64,975. Under the revised scheme, an amountof Rs.1.70 lakh per annum per crche has been proposedagainst Rs.42,384 per annum per crche in the existingscheme. This will provide for better nutritional support aswell as better services for children.

Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS)This scheme was launched in 2009-10 with the objectiveof prov iding a safe and secure environment forcomprehensive development of children in the country whoare in need of care and protection as well as children inconflict with the law. The ICPS provides preventive andstatutory care and rehabilitation services to any vulnerablechild including, but not limited to, children of potentiallyvulnerable families and families at risk, children of sociallyexcluded groups like migrant families, families living inextreme poverty, families subjected to or affected bydiscrimination and minorities, children infected and / oraffected by HIV / AIDS, orphans, child drug abusers, childrenof substance abusers, child beggars, trafficked or sexuallyexploited children, children of prisoners, and street andworking children. The allocation of funds under this schemefor 2010-11 is Rs.300 crore. The Scheme is CentrallySponsored and is being mainly implemented through StateGovernments / UT Administrations from 2009-10 and 33states/UTs have signed the MOUs for implementation ofthis scheme. During 2010-11, Rs.82.37 crore have beenreleased under the scheme upto 11 February, 2011. Thirteenmore States/ UTs have agreed to implement this it and areat various stage of preparation of plans including financialproposals.

Support to Training and Employment Programme forWomen (STEP) SchemeThis scheme seeks to provide updated skills and newknowledge to poor women in 10 traditional sectors forenhancing their productivity and income generation. It isbeing implemented through public-sector organizations,State corporations, cooperatives, federations, and registeredvoluntary organizations with minimum existence of threeyears. With a view to expanding the reach of the programmeand further strengthening implementation and monitoring,the norms and parameters of this scheme have been revised

in November 2009. The major changes in the norms relateto the number of beneficiaries to be covered, project duration,and per capita cost and the scheme now provides forintroduction of locally appropriate sectors in consultationwith State governments. The number of beneficiaries ineach project may now vary from 200 to 10,000 with thefunding ceiling at Rs.16,000 per beneficiary up to a periodof five years. During 2010-11, a total number of 91 STEPprojects were ongoing and 196 more were underconsideration at various stages as on 30 November 2010.A sum of Rs.25 crore has been allocated in the financialyear 2010-11 to achieve a target of 35,000 beneficiaries.

Some of the other schemes implemented by theMinistry of Women and Child Development, include:(i) Dhanlakshmi, which is a conditional cash transferscheme for the girl child which was launched as a pilotproject in March 2008. The objective is to encouragefamilies to educate girl children and to prevent childmarriage. The scheme provides for cash transfers to thefamily of a girl child on fulfilling certain specificconditionalit ies relating to birth and registration,immunization, and enrolment and retention in school up toClass VIII. The Scheme is being implemented in 11 blocksof seven States on pilot basis.(ii) Scheme for the Welfare of Working Children inNeed of Care and Protection providing for nonformaleducation, vocational training, etc. to working children tofacilitate their entry/re-entry into mainstream education.There are 120 projects of 100 children each currently beingfunded under the Scheme.(iii) Bal Bandhu Scheme for protection of children in areasof civil unrest is being implemented through the NationalCommission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) withthe grant sanctioned from the Prime Ministers NationalRelief Fund.(iv) Swadhar scheme for prov iding temporaryaccommodation, maintenance, and rehabilitative servicesto women and girls rendered homeless and women indifficult circumstances(v) Short Stay Home (SSH) scheme being implementedby the Central Social Welfare Board with similar objectives/target group as in case of the Swadhar scheme.(vi) Ujjawala, a comprehensive scheme for prevention oftrafficking with five specific componentsprevention, rescue,rehabilitation, reintegration, and repatriation of victimswaslaunched on 4 December 2007. Under this scheme, 134projects including 73 rehabilitation homes,spread over 16States, have been sanctioned.

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Scheme for Gender Budgeting: This Scheme for GenderBudgeting has been included in the Eleventh Plan. Atpresent, 56 Ministries / Departments have set up genderbudget cells and a number of Ministries / Departmentshave reflected allocation for women in the Gender BudgetStatement of the Union Budget.

National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW)This has been set up with a view to empowering womensocially, economically, and educationally. The Mission aimsto achieve empowerment of women on all these fronts bysecuring convergence of schemes / programmes of differentMinistries / Departments of the Government of India aswell as State Governments. Alongside, the Mission shallmonitor and review gender budgeting by Ministries /Departments as well as effective implementation of variouslaws concerning women.

Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK)This was created in 1993 with a corpus fund of 31crore.Since, its creation, the RMK has established itself as apremier micro-credit agency of the country, with its focuson poor women and their empowerment through theprovision of credit for livelihood-related activities. The RMKprovides microcredit in a quasi-informal manner, lending tointermediate micro-credit organizations (IMOs) (for exampleNGOs/voluntary organizations, women developmentcorporations, womens cooperative societies, and suitableGovernment / local bodies). The IMOs in turn lend to self-help groups (SHGs), which, in turn, lend to individualmembers at a rate not above the ceiling prescribed by theRMK, i.e. 18 per cent per annum on reducing balancemethod.

Schedule castesA number of schemes are being implemented to encourageSC students to continue their studies from school to highereducation level. During the year 2010-11, the physical targetunder the Scheme of Pre-Matric Scholarship for thosestudents whose parents are engaged in uncleanoccupations was eight lakh beneficiaries/students. Thescheme of Post-Matric Scholarships for students belongingto SCs for studying in India has been revised with effectfrom 1 July 2010 so as to (i) raise the parental annualincome ceiling for eligibility from one lakh to two lakh, (ii)rationalize the grouping of courses, and (iii) upwardly revisemaintenance and other allowances by 60 per cent. TheRajiv Gandhi National Fellowship Scheme was launchedin 2006 to provide financial assistance to SC studentspursuing M Phil and Ph D courses. The earlier Centrallysponsored scheme for hostels for SC boys and girls wasrevised and renamed Babu Jagjiwan Ram ChhatrawasYojana with effect from 1 January 2008. As part of thisrevision, Central assistance for the construction of girlshostels was raised from 50 per cent to 100 per cent.

During 2010-11, the National Scheduled Castes Financeand Development Corporation (NSCFDC) has givenconcessional loans amounting to Rs.121 crore to 33,659beneficiaries as on 31 December 2010.Two new IITs (Indore and Mandi) and three new IIMs (Ranchi,Raipur, and Rohtak) have been added in the notified list ofpremier institutions under the Scheme with 12 scholarshipslots per annum per institute, with effect from the currentfinancial year.

Scheduled Tribes (STs)During 2010-11, Rs.960.50 crore has been provided asSpecial Central Assistance (SCA) to the Tribal Sub-Plan(TSP), which includes Rs.60.50 crore for development offorest villages. The SCA to TSP is a 100 per cent grantextended to States as additional funding to their TSP forfamily-oriented income-generating schemes, creation ofincidental infrastructure, extending financial assistance toSHGs, communitybased activities, and development offorest villages. Under the Scheme for Post-MatricScholarships, 100 per cent financial assistance is providedto ST students whose family income is less than or equalto Rs.1.45 lakh per annum to pursue post-matric-leveleducation including professional and graduate andpostgraduate courses in recognized institutions. TheScheme of Top Class Education for STs provides financialassistance for quality education to 625 ST students perannum to pursue studies at degree and post-degree levelin any of 125 identified Institutes. The family income of thebeneficiary ST student from all sources should not exceedRs.2 lakh per annum.Financial assistance is also provided to 15 eligible STstudents for pursuing higher studies abroad in specifiedfields at Masters and Ph D level under the NationalOverseas Scholarship Scheme. The economicempowerment of STs by means of extension of financialsupport through the National Scheduled Tribes Financeand Development Corporation (NSTFDC) continued.Financial support is extended to ST beneficiaries/entrepreneurs in the form of loans and micro-credit atconcessional rates of interest for income-generatingactivities. The Tribal Cooperative Marketing DevelopmentFederation of India Limited (TRIFED) is engaged inmarketing development of tribal products and their retailmarketing through its sales outlets.

MinoritiesFive communities-Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists,and Parsis-were notified by the Government as minoritycommunities under Section 2 (c) of the NationalCommission for Minorities Act 1992 As per the 2001Census, minority communities constitute 18.42 per centof total population. Three scholarship schemes, namelyPre-Matric, Post-Matric, and Merit-cum-means-based, arebeing implemented exclusively for the minorities with the

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total provision enhanced from Rs.450 crore in 2009-10 to 850 crore in 2010-11. A Multi-sectoral DevelopmentProgramme to address the development deficits,especially in education, skill development, employment,health and sanitation, housing, and drinking water, in 90minority concentration districts (MCDs) was launched in2008- 09Work on implementation of this programme to improve theselected development indices in the MCDs has picked upmomentum. The corpus of the Maulana Azad EducationFoundation (MAEF) has been enhanced from Rs.00 crorein 2005-06 to Rs.550 crore in 2010-11 to expand itsactivities for implementation of educational schemes foreducationally backward minorities. The authorized sharecapital of theNational Minorities Development and FinanceCorporation (NMDFC) has been raised from Rs.650 crorein 2006-07 to Rs.1500 crore in 2010-11 for expanding itsloan and micro-f inance operations to promoteselfemployment and other economic ventures amongbackward sections of the minority communities. Theprogress of the Prime Ministers New 15 Point Programmefor Welfare of Minorities is being reviewed once in six monthsby the Government. The programme has been enlarged bycovering more schemesand its monitoring mechanism hasbeen strengthened by including elected representatives ofState Assemblies and Parliament. Two schemes, namelythe (i) Maulana Azad National Fellowship for MinorityStudents with an allocation of Rs.30 crore in 2010-11 and(ii)Computerization of Records of State Wakf Boards withan allocation of Rs.13 crore in 2010-11, has been underimplementation since 2009-10. Another scheme, namelyLeadership Development of Minority Women launched in2009-10 is also being implemented with an allocation of15 crore for 2010-11. National Level Monitors have beendeputed to monitor the progress of the schemes of theMinistry. Efforts are being made to improve themanagement of wakf properties and a scheme for thecomputerization of records of the Wakf Board is a step inthis direction. The Wakf Amendment Bill 2010 was passedby the Lok Sabha on 7 May 2010. The Bill was referred tothe Rajya Sabha on 18 May 2010. The Rajya Sabha hasreferred the matter to the Select Committee on 31 August2010 to examine the Bill.

Other Backward Classes (OBCs)The Government provides Central Assistance to StateGovernments /UT Administrations for educationaldevelopment of OBCs. During 2010-11, the Scheme of Pre-Matric Scholarships for OBC, proposes to providescholarships to 14 lakh OBC students. Under the Schemeof Post-Matric Scholarships for OBCs, it is proposed toprovide scholarships to 15 lakh OBC students. In order toprovide hostel facilities to OBC students studying in middleand secondary schools, colleges, and universities to enablethem to pursue higher studies, an amount of 7.83 crorewas released up to December 2010 against an allocationof 45 crore for 5000 additional hostel seats. During 2010-11, the National Backward Class Finance and DevelopmentCorporation (NBCFDC) has given concessional loansamounting to Rs.106 crore to 80,660 beneficiaries as on31 December 2010.

Social Defence SectorUnder the Integrated Programme for Older Persons (IPOP)scheme, grants-in-aid are given to NGOs for running oldage homes (OAH), day care centres (DCCs), and mobilemedical units (MMUs. The Scheme has been revised witheffect from 1 April 2008. Besides an increase in the amountof financial assistance for existing projects, several newprojects have been made eligible for financial assistanceunder the scheme The Maintenance and Welfare of Parentsand Senior Citizens Act 2007 was enacted in order to ensureneed-based maintenance for parents and welfare measuresfor senior citizens Grants-in-aid are provided to NGOs forrunning Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts,Regional Resource and Training Centres, and other projects.For effective implementation of social defence schemes,personnel engaged in delivery of services in this area arebeing trained under various programmes being organizedby the National Institute of Social Defence (NISD).