Employment Guarantee Scheme

The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the Scheme of Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) in implementation from 1997 has been revamped recently in the year 2009. The livelihoods conditions in urban areas are vastly different from those in rural areas.

She said, in the urban areas what is perhaps more required is skill development of the urban poor as well as facilitation of sustainable self-employment opportunities for them instead of focusing on unskilled wage employment as is the case in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). The recently revised guidelines of SJSRY lays considerable focus on skill development of the urban poor to enhance their employability, so as to enable them to take advantage of increasing job opportunities in the urban areas.

Central Schemes for Empowerment of Women

Several schemes have been launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development for empowerment of women.

The Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG), or Sabla, is a centrally sponsored scheme aimed at all-round development of adolescent girls of 11-18 years. The focus is all out-of-school adolescent girls. It aims at making them ‘self-reliant’ by improving their health and nutrition status, promoting awareness about health, hygiene, nutrition, adolescent reproductive and sexual health, family and child care and facilitating access to public services through various interventions such as guidance and counselling and vocational training. It also aims towards mainstreaming out-of-school adolescent girls into formal/non-formal education. Nearly 100 lakh adolescent girls per annum are expected to be benefitted under the scheme. It has been introduced in the year 2010-11 on a pilot basis in 200 districts from all the States/UTs.

The Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) is a Conditional Maternity Benefit (CMB) centrally sponsored scheme for pregnant and lactating women. Under this scheme cash incentives are provided to for improved health and nutrition to pregnant and nursing mothers. The beneficiaries are paid Rs. 4000/-in three installments per head,  between the second trimester and till the child attains the age of 6 months, on fulfilling specific conditions related to maternal and child health. Pregnant women of 19 years of age and above are entitled for benefits under the scheme for first two live births. This does not include Government/ PSU (Central and State) employees. The scheme was introduced in October, 2010 on pilot basis in 52 selected districts and is being implemented using the platform of ICDS. The grant-in-aid is released to States/UTs, while cash transfer to beneficiaries is being made through Bank Accounts/ Post Office Accounts subject to the beneficiary fulfilling specific conditions. Around 12.5 lakhs pregnant and lactating women are expected to benefit under the scheme every year. In 2011-12, Rs 293.83crore has been released to the States/UTs for implementation of the scheme.

In addition, the Priyadarshini scheme is an IFAD assisted pilot project for Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme in the midGangetic plains. It aims at holistic empowerment of vulnerable groups of women and adolescent girls through formation of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and promotion of improved livelihood opportunities. The programme is implemented in 13 blocks spread over five districts in Uttar Pradesh i.e Baharaich, CSM Nagar, Raebareli, Shravasti and Sultanpur and two districts Madhubani and Sitamarhi in Bihar. Over 100000 households are planned to be covered under the project and 7200 SHGs will be formed during the project period ending 2016-17. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is the lead programme agency for the implementation; funds are not given to the State Governments.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has also launched the Support to Training and Employment Programme (STEP) in 1986-87 with the aim of upgrading skills of women for self and wage employment. The target group includes the marginalized assetless rural women and urban poor. Special focus is on identified focal districts in which women are particularly disadvantaged. The project duration is for 5 years with beneficiaries’ ranging from 200-10000 and a maximum per capita cost of Rs 16000. The funds are directly released to different NGOs and not to the State Governments.

The Government of India has also launched the National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) for holistic empowerment of women. This is a centrally sponsored scheme conceived as an umbrella Mission with a mandate to strengthen inter-sectoral convergence and facilitate the process of coordinating all the women’s welfare and socio-economic development programmes across ministries and departments. The Mission is mandated to facilitate the processes that contribute to economic empowerment of women, eliminate violence against women, social empowerment of women with emphasis on health and education, gender mainstreaming of policies, programmes and institutional arrangements and awareness generation and advocacy for bridging information and service gaps.

Details of funds released and utilized under various schemes during each of the last three years and the current year are given below:

Sl. No.	Name of Scheme	Year	Funds Released (Rs Cr)	Funds Utilized (Rs. Cr.)
1.	STEP	2008-09	16.02
		2009-10	12.28
		2010-11	24.31
		2011-12	3.71
2.	Priyadarshini	2010-11	5.82
		2011-12	15.74	1.28
3.	Indira Gandhi Matritva SahyogYojana (IGMSY)	2010-11	117.95	3.61
		2011-12	293.83	0.23
4.	SABLA	2010-11	296.73	44.28
		2011-12	558.55	329.27
5.	NMEW	2011-12	6.10	**

** Utilization Certificate is not yet due, activities under the Mission have started in some States/U.Ts

New Schemes of the Ministry of Minority Affairs in the 12th Five Year Plan

Based on the recommendations of the National Advisory Council (NAC) the Ministry of Minority Affairs has proposed to implement the following new schemes in the 12th Five Year Plan towards inclusive development to empower the minorities:

(i) Interest subsidy on educational loans for overseas studies scheme for the students belonging to minority communities with the objective of providing financial assistance by way of extending interest subsidy on education loans to students of  minority communities for pursuing higher studies abroad;

(ii) Free bicycle for Girl Students of Class IX with the objective of retention of minority girl students from Class IX onwards;

(iii) Support for students clearing Prelims Conducted by UPSC/SSC, State Public Service Commission (PSC) etc. with the objective to support candidates from the minority   communities who qualify at the preliminary Examinations conducted by Union  Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC), State             Public Service Commissions (PSCs) etc. to improve their representation in    government services;

(iv) Scheme for promotion of education in 100 minority concentration towns/cities  having substantial minority population, for empowering the minorities. This would be in the form of providing infrastructure for various levels of schools, including teaching aids and also for up-gradation and construction of infrastructure for   skill and vocational education along with hostel facility;

(v) Village development programme for villages not covered by minority concentration blocks (MCBs)/ minority concentration  districts(MCDs) to address the development needs for 1000 villages inhabited by minority communities but falling outside the  selected minority concentration districts. The main objective of the scheme is to provide infrastructure for socio-economic development and basic amenities;

(vi) Support to Districts Level institution in MCDs to give financial support for setting up and running district level institutions for minority welfare in Minority Concentration Districts; and

(vii) Skill Development Initiatives to enhance employment and livelihood skills of  minorities by providing skills and skills up-gradation to the minority communities.

Earlier, the National Advisory Council had submitted its  report titled “Towards Inclusive Development to Empower Minorities” with the following major recommendations:

(i)   For implementation of the Multi sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) and Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme, rural and urban areas with a high concentration of minorities  should be the Unit of Planning with focus on access to basic services such as ICDS services, clean drinking water, individual sanitation, sewerage and drainage;

(ii) Formal engagement of non- governmental organizations (NGOs) in all the Minority Concentration Districts for monitoring and mandatory social audits;

(iii)  Substantially enhancing allocation for MsDP in 12th Plan;

(iv)  Revision of MsDP guidelines to ensure that need based proposals have synergy with the 15- Point Programme rather than duplication;

(v)  Establishment of a credible data bank on an urgent basis for operationalisation of the Assessment and Monitoring Agency;

(vi) Expansion of the 15 Point Programme to include schemes such as small and medium industries, youth affairs, agriculture;

(vii) Scholarships  Schemes: a) Make  the Pre-Matric scholarships a 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme ; b) Make the Pre- matric and Post- matric scholarship Schemes   demand – driven and universal schemes; c) Increase the scholarship amount for Post- Matric scholarships with rationalized and differing scholarship structure for different categories (10+2, Basic Degree Courses, Professional Degree Courses); d) Increase amount and number of Merit-cum- means and Maulana Azad National Fellowships; e) Ensure a radical simplification of procedures at all levels to make schemes accessible to those who need them most; and

(viii) Establish residential social welfare hostels for minority children from class VI to XII and residential schools in minorities blocks and towns/cities.

DEPB Scheme

Government has withdrawn DEPB Scheme with effect from 1.10.2011. It was decided that revised duty drawback rates are extended to items which were in the DEPB Scheme. The Duty Drawback Scheme, which was announced for the year 2011-12 on 20.9.2011 (effective from 1.10.2011) has 1096 new items. The Scheme was earlier extended for a further period of 3 months from 30.6.2011, i.e., upto 30.9.2011 so as to facilitate a smooth transition once the DEPB Scheme is phased out. Government has received requests from various industries for extension of DEPB Scheme. The decision to phase out DEPB has not been reconsidered.

MGNREGS under RSBY

The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), providing for smart card based cashless health insurance cover of Rs. 30000/- per annum per family ( a unit of five) to BPL families in the unorganized sector, has been extended to such Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) beneficiaries who have worked more than 15 days during the preceding financial year.

The premium is shared between Central and State Government in the ratio of 75:25 and in case of States in North Eastern Region and Jammu & Kashmir, the ratio of sharing of premium is 90:10. The beneficiaries are required to pay registration/ renewal fee of Rs. 30 per annum only.

The numbers of beneficiaries under RSBY, Health insurance scheme for handloom weavers, Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthaya Bima Yojana (RGSSBY) for handicraft artisans, Universal Health Insurance Scheme (UHIS) are at Annexure- I to IV respectively.

The RSBY has also been extended to building and other construction workers registered under the Building and other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Act, 1996 and street vendors, beedi workers and domestic workers. It is the endeavour of the Government to extend RSBY to other occupational groups in the unorganized sector in a phased manner.

This information was given by Minister of Labour and Employment Shri Mallikarjun Kharge in reply in reply to a written question a)whether the Government is planning to bring Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) workers under Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY); if so, the details thereof; the premium, required to be paid by the workers under the revised scheme; the number of workers from unorganised sectors benefited from various health insurance schemes so far during the last three years, State-wise including Uttarakhand; and whether there is any proposal to provide health insurance to all citizens for basic health under the scheme; and the steps taken by the Government to cover more such workers under the RSBY

Centre launches two new schemes for rural poor from Kerala

The centre has launched two new rural development schemes from the Thrissur district of Kerala aimed at helping the women working in farm sector through the intervention and integration of other such schemes. The second scheme launched from Thrissur and Malapuram districts is rechristened as new PURA( Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas), which is aimed at creating physical infrastructure in rural areas of the country in the Public-Private Partnership mode. Launching both the schemes, the Union Minister of Rural Development Sh Jairam Ramesh said here that the government is embarking on a very important journey by launching the two national projects, whose results will be visible to the common man in the coming three to four years. The first project called Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Yojana has two components with a budgetary provision of Rs 80 crore each and is designed for improving the economic status of about three lakh women workers in the state of Kerala. The scheme will be launched in the entire country based on the feedbacks as is being done in the case of Kutumbshri scheme, which is highly successful in Kerala and other states are demanding for replicating the same self-help group model. Responding to the queries of the Kerala Chief Minister that timing for MGNREGA scheme for women workers should be fixed from 9.AM to 4. PM, Shri Ramesh assured that the Centre will seriously look into the matter as the women have other family responsibilities also. He also informed the Chief Minister, present on the occasion that dairy related works will be included in the MGNREGA from 1st of April this year as an expert committee has recommended the same in this regard. It is pertinent to mention here that women constitute more than 90 percent of the all MGNREGA workers in the state.

Launching the PURA project from the Thrissur and Malapuram districts of Kerala, the Rural Development Minister said this is different from the PURA conceived by the former President Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, as the new project deals with water supply, sanitation and improvement of roads as key focus areas and is not related to the Knowledge connectivity idea of Dr Kalam. Moreover, under this all central government schemes will be integrated under the Gram Panchayat as nodal agency and there will be Public-private partnership between the Central Government, State Government and the private players to build and improve upon the physical infrastructure. Shri Ramesh said, initially there will be eight PURA projects in the country which can be extended to 500 centres known as census towns (semi-urban & semi-rural) as the latest census talks about over 3500 such areas in the country.

Integrated Low Cost Sanitation Scheme

Integrated Low Cost Sanitation (ILCS) Scheme started with the objective of eradicating all dry latrines and thereby liberating manual scavengers from inhuman practice of carrying night soil. The scheme also has provision for construction of new latrines for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) households who have no latrine facility.

Sanctions have been made and funds have been released for conversion of all reported dry latrines to the States. Out of the funds available for construction of sanitary latrines to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) households, funds have been fully committed and projects sanctioned for construction of 1,70,337 new latrines and States have reported that work is in progress.

ILCS scheme is in its final year of implementation and the mandate of the scheme was conversion of dry latrines which has been fully achieved with total sanction of projects for conversion of all dry latrines reported by State Governments.