Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan

Source All India radio

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi gave its approval for restructured Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA).   

Influence: Mahatma Gandhi always highlighted the importance of villages and spoke about ‘Gram Swaraj’

Objective:

To make rural local bodies

• Self-sustainable
• Financially stable
• More efficient

Address critical gaps that hinder the success of panchayats by

• Enhancing their capacities and effectiveness
• Promoting devolution of powers and responsibilities

Presence: In all States and Union territories; will also include institutions of rural local government in non-Part IX areas, where panchayats do not exist.

Centre-State Responsibility:

• The sharing ratio for the state components will be 60:40 barring the Northeast and hilly states where it will be 90:10.
• For UTs, the central share will be 100 per cent.
• The Central component includes national level activities such as ‘National Plan of Technical Assistance’, ‘Mission Mode project on e-Panchayat’, ‘Incentivisation of Panchayats’; while the State component includes ‘Capacity Building of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)’.
• The State Governments will formulate the Annual Action Plans for seeking assistance from the Central Government.

Nature of the Scheme

• The key principles of SDGs, i.e. leaving no one behind, reaching the farthest first and universal coverage, along with gender equality will be embedded in the design of all capacity building interventions including trainings, training modules and materials.
• Priority will be given to subjects of national importance that affects the excluded groups the most, e.g. poverty, primary health services, nutrition, immunization, sanitation, education, water conservation, digital transactions etc.
• The scheme is designed keeping in view programmatic convergence with Mission Antyodaya GPs and 115 Aspirational districtsas identified by NITI Aayog. As Panchayats have representation of Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and women, and are institutions closest to the grass­roots, strengthening Panchayats will promote equity and inclusiveness, along with Social Justiceand economic development of the community.

Impact:

• Help more than 2.55 lakh Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to develop governance capabilities to deliver on SDGs through inclusive local governance with focus on optimum utilisation of available resources.
• Increased use of e-governance by PRIs will help achieve improved service delivery and transparency.
• Strengthen Gram Sabhas to function as effective institutions with social inclusion of citizens particularly the vulnerable groups
• Establish the institutional structure for capacity building of PRIs at the national, state and district level with adequate human resources and infrastructure.
• Panchayats will progressively be strengthened through incentivisation on the basis of nationally important criteria which will encourage competitive spirit among them.

Conclusion:

Individual citizens and village level institutions in rural India have the most at stake in the development of their communities. Good Rural Governance programs empower these communities by engaging citizens and members of village level institutions to actively participate in their own development. Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhyaan seeks to include and expand developmental experience at the grassroots level.

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