Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) aims at providing assets and self-employment opportunities for the rural poor. Assistance under IRDP is given to a target group of rural poor belonging to families below poverty line in the form of subsidy by the Government and term credit by financial institutions.
The target group under IRDP consists of small and marginal farmers, agricultural labourers, rural artisans, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and socially and economically backward classes having annual income below Rs. 11, 000 defined as poverty-line for the Eighth Plan.
In order to ensure that benefits under the programme the more vulnerable sectors of the society, stipulated that at least 50 per cent of assisted fa- should “be from scheduled castes and ached tribes with corresponding flow of resources tot’ Furthermore, 40 per cent of the coverage should of women beneficiaries and three per cent of co age should be of handicapped persons.
The optional strategy of IRDP intended to follow the ‘ha hold approach’ rather than ‘individual approve The poorest households are identified and the anomic upliftment of these households is soar through a package of activities involving allowing members, with particular attention being given to women.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The IRDP is implemented through Dis” Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) and Level Agencies at the grass roots level. The giving body of DRDAs includes local MP’s, ML Chairman of Zila Parishads, heads of district development departments, representatives of SCs/ and women.
At the grass-root level, the blocks is responsible for implementation of the program The State-Level Coordination committee (SL monitors the programme at State Level whereas Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment is risible for the release of Central share of funds, poll formation, overall guidance, monitoring endive’ action of the programme.
Some of the import” integrated rural development programmes inch National Rural Employment Programme (NT7 Minimum Needs Programme (MNP), Training Rural Youth for Self-employment (TRYSEM, 197 Development of women and Children in Rural A (DWCRA, 1982), Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY, 198 86),SwarnajayantiGramSwarojgarYojana, Prad Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojana and National Food for Work grammar etc.
The IRDP was first proposed in the Cent budget of 1976-77. The programme with some notifications was introduced on an expanded scale 1978-79, beginning with 2300 blocks. Another 3 blocks were added during 1979-80.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Till March 19 under IRDP. 527 lakh families have been assisted with a total investment of Rs. 30,871.79 crore. In the Tenth Five Year Plan a sum of Rs. 76,774 crore has been allocated for rural development (ef. Ninth Plan Rs. 42,874 crore). IRDP is a centrally-sponsored scheme with funds shared on 50: 50 bases between the Centre and the states. In the case of union territories, cent per cent funds are provided by the Central Government.
The programme is implemented through District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) and block-level functionaries at the grass root level. Following are some of the schemes undertaken under the IRDP.
1. Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM)
It was launched as a centrally sponsored scheme on 15 August 1979. It aims at providing basic technical and managerial skills to rural youth in the age- group of 18-35 years from families below the poverty-line to enable them to acquire skills and technology to take up vocations of self-employment in agriculture and allied activities, industry, services and business.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Liberalization of norms for expenditure under recurring assistance, greater emphasis on systematic marketing and exploring possibility of setting up groups for manufacture/ assembly of non- traditional items for which there is good demand in the market, are some of the steps taken to improve the implementation of the scheme.
After the training, the TRYSEM beneficiaries are assisted under the IRDP. Between 1980-98 a total of 41, 48,425 rural youths were trained of which 17, 74,395 belonged to SCs/STs and 19, 12,514 to women categories among these trained youths 23, 32,274 are now employed.
2. Scheme for Rural Artisans
Supply of improved tool-kits to rural artisans is also a supporting component of IRDP. The objective is to enable the rural artisans to enhance the quality of the product, increase the production and their income with use of improved tools. Between 1992-93 and 1997-98 7.46 lakh tool kits have been provided under the scheme incurring an expenditure of Rs. 147.95 lakh.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
3. Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA)
This programme aims at raising the income level of women of poor households so as to enable their organized participation in social development towards economic self- reliance.
It envisages formation of groups of 5-10 rural women each for carrying on income generating activities. Nacho group is sanctioned a ‘revolving fund’ of Rs. 15,000 which is shared equally by Centre, State government and UNICEF.
The aim is to improve women’s access to basic services of health, education, child care, nutrition, water and sanitation through the strategy of group formation. Between 1980-81 and 1997-98 a total of 2, 19,620 groups have been formed extending the benefit of the programme to 35, 00,247 women.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
4. Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology
The Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 on September 1, 1986, with headquarters in New Delhi. It aims at encouraging, promoting and assisting voluntary action for enhancement of rural prosperity.
It makes available financial assistance to voluntary organizations (VOs) under the following schemes: (i) promotion of voluntary action in rural development, (ii) development of women and children in rural areas (DWCRA), (iii) accelerated rural water supply programme (ARWSP), (i v) central rural sanitation programme (CRSP), (v) organization of beneficiaries of anti-poverty programme, (vi) integrated rural development programme(IRDP), (vii) Jawahar Rozgar Yojna (JRY) consisting of watershed conservation and development programme, village link road, rural housing and social forestry, (viii) advancement of rural technology scheme (ARTS), (ix) Panchayati Raj (PR), (x) Indira Awaas Yojna, (xi) Million wells scheme, (xii) support to NGOs / VAs, and (xiii) watershed development.
It can obtain funds from various Central and State government departments and also accept donations and contributions from other sources.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It has set up 9 regional committees at Jaipur, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar, Patna, Chandigarh, Dharwad Guwahati and Lucknow which are empowered to sanction projects up to an outlay of Rs. 10 lakhs.
5. Jawahar Rozgar Yojna
Jawahar Rozgar Yojna (JRY) is one of the major wage employment programmes of the Ministry taken up in April 1989 after merging the earlier wage employment programmes, namely, National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP).
The main objective of the programme is to generate additional gainful employment for the unemployed and under-employed men and women in the rural areas as well as creation of community assets.
The expenditure of the programme is shared in the ratio of 80: 20 between the centre and the states. 22.5 per cent funds are earmarked for SCs/ STs at all levels of Panchayati Raj institutions. Preference to parents of child labour withdrawn from hazardous/ non-hazardous occupation who are below the poverty line, to persons with disabilities, distribution of food grains as part of wages are other typical features of the Yojna.
6. Indira Awaas Yojna
This Yojna aims at providing dwelling units free of cost to the members of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and freed bonded labourers living below the poverty line in rural areas.
After 1993-94 non-SC/ST people and the families of the servicemen of the armed and paramilitary forces killed in action have also been brought under the Yojana. Funds of the IAY are allocated to the districts in proportion to the SC/ST population in the district. IAY funds are operated by the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs)/Zila Parishads (ZPs) at the district level.
The allotment of the house is done in the name of the female member of the beneficiary household. As far as possible houses are built in clusters so as to facilitate provision of common facilities. The permissible construction assistance per house is Rs,.25,000 in plain areas and Rs.27,500 in hilly or difficult areas. A total of about 129 lakh houses have been constructed since its inception with an estimated cost of Rs.23, 149 crore.
7. Ganga Kalyan Yojana
This is a centrally- sponsored scheme w has been launched with effect from I February 1 The objective of the scheme is to provide irrigate through exploitation of ground-water (bore-w and tub-wells) to individuals and groups of s and marginal farmers living below poverty-line, assistance is provided through a mix of subsidy Government and term credit by financial intuitions. Special safeguards by way of earmarking 50 per cent of total funds as well as higher percent age of subsidies have been provided for the SCs/S the funding pattern is 80:20 between the Cent and the state government.
8. National Social Assistance Programme
The National Social Assistance Program (NSAP) came into force on 15 August 1995 provide social assistance to poor households, includes three benefits through (i) National Old A Pension Scheme (NOAPS)-Central assistance available at the rate of Rs.75 per month to person who are aged 65 years or more and are destitute; (iii National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS)-Centre assistance is available as a lump sum family benefit for households below the poverty-line on the dead of the primary bread winner in the bereaved family.
The amount of benefit is up to Rs. 5,000 in the case of death due to natural causes and unto Rs. 10,000 in the case of death due to accidental causes; and (iii) National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS)-Central assistance is available to pregnant women belonging to households below poverty-line up to the first two live births, provided they are 19 years of age and above. The amount of benefit is up to Rs.300to be disbursed in one installment 12-8 weeks prior to delivery.
9. Rural Sanitation Programme
This is a centrally- sponsored programme whose main objective is to improve rural sanitation through the construction of sanitation toilets. It includes subsidy for the construction of sanitary latrines and for the conversion of dry latrines into sanitary latrines. The amount of subsidy is increased to 80 per cent for persons below the poverty- line and is shared equally by the Central Government and the State Government.
10. Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)
The SGSY is an integrated programme for self-employment of the rural poor which was started on l April 1999. Its objective is to bring the assisted poor families above the poverty line. The focus of the programme is on establishing a large number of micro enterprises in rural areas based on the ability of the poor and potential of each area for a sustainable income generation.
The subsidy allowed is 30 per cent of the total project cost, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 7500/- (for SCs/STs subsidy 50% and ceiling Rs. 10, 00/-). Half of the Swarozgaris would be from SCs/STs, 40 per cent from women and 3 per cent from disabled person. The SGSY lays special emphasis on the development of Swarozgaris through well designed training courses and is financed on 75: 25 cost-sharing bases between the centre and the state. Since the inception of the programme 19.94 lakh Self-Help Groups have been formed covering 55.98 lakh Swarozgaris. During 2005-06 the central allocation for the scheme is Rs. 960 crore.
11. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)
It is a 100 per cent centrally sponsored scheme launched on 25 December 2000. Its prime objective is to provide connectivity to all unconnected habitations in the rural areas with a population of more than 500 persons (in hill, desert and tribal areas population 250) through all weather roads by the end of Tenth Plan (2007).
So far 41,068 road works of length 1, 24,792.83 km, and covering 39,574 habitations have been cleared for taking up under the programme. Out of the, 25,478 road works covering 69,013 km have been completed. A cumulative expenditure of Rs. 9,882 crore has been incurred so far.
12. Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY)
The SGRY was launched on September 2001 by merging the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) and the Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana with the objective of providing additional wage employment in the rural areas as also food security, alongside the creation of durable community assets.
The programme is self-targeting with special emphasis on women, SCs, STs and parents of children withdrawn from hazardous occupations. The annual outlay is Rs. 1 0,000 crore which includes 50 lakh tones on food grains. The cash component is shared between the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25. Minimum wages are paid to the workers through a mix of 5 kg of food grains and at least 25 per cent of wages in cash.
The programme is implemented through district, intermediate and Gram Panchayats. Fifty per cent of the funds are to be utilised for infrastructure development works in SC/ST localities. No contractors are permitted to be engaged. The programme is regularly monitored by reputed institutions and organisations sponsored by the Central/ State Governments.
13. National Food for Work Programme (NFWP)
It was launched in November 2004 in 150 most backward districts of the country, identified by the Planning Commission in consultation with the Ministry of Rural Development and the State Governments. The objective of the programme is to provide wage employment and food-security through the creation of need based economic, social and community assets. The scheme is 100 per cent centrally sponsored.
It provides 5 kg of food grains per man-day along with wages in cash. Under the programme priority is giving to the works on water conservation, drought-proofing and land development. The Panchayat concerned has a right to inspect and review the progress of the works. The programme is expected to provide 100 days of supplementary wage employment to one member of each poor family in rural areas of identified 150 districts of the country.