CENTRALLY SPONSORED SCHEMES
ISSUE IN POLICIES AND PROGRAMES
Improved governance requires an integrated, long-term strategy built upon cooperation between government and citizens. This requires proper design of policies keeping all stakeholders benefits in mind alongwith proper implementation of programmes and policies at the ground level.
Thus the critical element of governance is policy making: how to design policy for problems in society, and how to manage the most complex policy phase, namely that of implementation? A. Public policy making
Public policy making is the principal function of the state. Public policy making is a complex, dynamic process whose components make different contributions to it. It decides major guidelines for action directed at the future, mainly by the governmental organs. These guidelines [policies] formally aim at achieving what is in the public interest by the best possible means. Public policy can be authoritative allocation of values by the political system, a slight variation from the previous or existing policy, equilibrium reached out of the competing group struggle, a rational choice or the preference of the governing elite.
Some of the agencies: which take part in policy formulation are legislature, cabinet, state governments, civil servants, judiciary, boards and commissions mass media, political parties, pressure groups and public. It is essential to examine the role of these agencies in the formulation of an educational policy in India.
Issues in policy making in India
Excessive Fragmentation in Thinking and Action
One of the main problems with policy-making in India is extreme fragmentation in the structure. Such fragmentation fails to recognize that actions taken in one sector have serious implications on another and may work at cross purposes with the policies of the other sector. Besides, it becomes very difficult, even for closely related sectors, to align their policies in accordance with a common overall agenda.
Excessive overlap between policy making and implementation
Another problem is the excessive overlap between implementation, program formulation and policy making which creates a tendency to focus on operational convenience rather than on public needs. Policy-making in Indian ministries occurs at the levels of Director and above, but the most important level is that of the Secretaries to the Government of India, who are their Ministers’ “policy, advisers-in-chief”. However, Secretaries spend a large part of their time bogged down on routine day-to-day administration of existing policy. Time is spent anticipating and answering parliamentary questions, attending meetings and functions on implementation issues etc. The result is that sub-optimal policies, where adequate attention has not been paid to citizen needs, tend to emerge.
Lack of non-governmental inputs and informed debate
Often public policy is made without adequate input from outside government and without adequate debate on the issues involved. The best expertise in many sectors lies outside the Government. Yet the policy processes and structures of Government have no systematic means for obtaining outside inputs, for involving those affected by policies or for debating alternatives and their impacts on different groups. Most developed countries have a system of widespread public debate before a policy is approved.
Lack of systematic analysis and integration prior to policy-making
Policy decisions are often made without adequate analysis of costs, benefits, trade-offs and consequences. There are several underlying causes for this:- I. Fragmentation has led to a widespread prevalence of the ‘blind men and the elephant’ syndrome in policy-making. II. Inadequate time spent on policy-making, mainly due to excessive overlap of policy-making and implementation and to over-centralisation of implementation authority (discussed above). III. Inadequate professionalism of policy-makers and advisers IV. Inadequate consultation of in-house specialists. V. Mediocrity of in-house specialists: While there are many outstanding specialists working for the Government, there is a widespread feeling that many in-house specialists are not on top of their specialisms. This perception of mediocrity vis-à-vis outside experts tends to worsen the problem of inadequate consultation of even the good in-house specialists who get tarred with the same brush. It also promotes an undue respect for outside specialists and the error of accepting poorly formulated prescriptions from outsiders simply because they have a more professional or expert image. B.Policy implementation
Implementation is the heart of administration as it consists of carrying out of basic policy decisions. In the policy cycle, it is critical to the successful fulfillment of policy objectives. But implementation is not automatic. The implementation phase is faced with numerous problems. Effective implementation requires a chain of command, and the capacity to coordinate and control; often there are shortfalls in this exercise, more so in a developing country like India.
In India there has been a dramatic rise in expenditure on programmes of social inclusion in the last five years but this is accompanied by growing complaints about implementation. The weaker sections of the society, for whom these schemes are primarily intended, are often not able to benefit because they are not sufficiently empowered to access the benefits due to them. This is despite the fact that there have been a number of legislations aimed at securing legally guaranteed rights to the Indian people, through the Right to Information Act, the Forest Rights Act, the Right to Education Act, the= Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the soon to be introduced National Food Security Act.
Part of the problem is that the enactment of right based schemes in an environment of illiteracy and lack of awareness and empowerment does not ensure that people will claim their rights. However, it is also true that the schemes continue to be implemented in a business-as-usual mode, while what is demanded by these programmes is an innovative break with the past. Without reforms in implementation structures, schemes aimed at social inclusion will continue to be afflicted by the poor quality syndrome.
For example:
In MGNREGA a draft report by the Comptroller and Auditor General reveals that on average only 3.2 per cent of registered households could avail of 100 days 'guaranteed' work. The average employment under MGNREGA was just 18 days. Due to Administrative deficiencies adequate work has not been accurately calculated for the local workforce. Gaps may result in a lapse of several days between short-term jobs, and there are currently limited projects with the longer-term potential to sustain a village's workforce. Shortages have led not only to “touting” of work, but also pockets where minimum wage is not being provided. This problem is exacerbated when monitoring is ineffective or absent.
In implementation Right to Education Public schools suffer from high rates of teacher absenteeism and unfilled posts, lack of resources, deficiencies in basic infrastructure, as well as an overall decline in the number of schools being established that bears no relation to rises in population.
Most schemes follow a blue print and top-down approach, with little flexibility given to field staff. Any change in the scheme requires approval from GOI which is time consuming. Uniformity of schemes all over the country from Mizoram to Kerala, without sufficient delegation to states to change the schemes to suit local conditions, leads to a situation where the states even knowing that the scheme is not doing well become indifferent to its implementation.
Many states are ruled by a political party different from that at the Centre. These governments do not put their weight behind CSSs formulated by the Union Government as they see no political advantage in successful implementation of such schemes. The successful implementation of social sector schemes requires a high degree of political commitment (mid-day meal scheme of Tamil Nadu, EGS in Maharashtra, Antyodaya in Rajasthan, and two rupee rice in Andhra are examples) and administrative coordination, which GOI cannot secure for want of control over the staff.
Routine has taken over the functioning of government at all levels. Little time is left for officers to initiate reforms or change schemes. With the best of commitment it often takes two years to get a scheme changed. In the meantime the officer gets transferred, and his efforts come to naught. Perception of short tenure dampens the enthusiasm to undertake reforms. Many schemes assume a highly committed delivery machinery which will act as ‘friend, philosopher and guide’ of the people. Even if such rare individuals existed in government they do not stay at a particular post for a long time to make lasting impact. Incentive structure is also weak.
Models proposed for reforming governance is Good Governance Model
Good governance helps create an environment in which sustained economic growth becomes achievable. Conditions of good governance allow citizens to maximize their returns on investment.
Good governance does not occur by chance. It must be demanded by citizens and nourished explicitly and consciously by the nation state. It is, therefore, necessary that the citizens are allowed to participate freely, openly and fully in the political process. The citizens must have the right to compete for office, form political party and enjoy fundamental rights and civil liberty. Good governance is accordingly associated with accountable political leadership, enlightened policy-making and a civil service imbued with a professional ethos. The presence of a strong civil society including a free press and independent judiciary are pre-conditions for good governance.
Thus for proper implementation of programmes and policies effectiveness, efficiency, equity in formulation and implementation is needed.
SKILL INDIA MISSION
Introduction India is passing through the phase of demographic transition which could be the biggest opportunity or the biggest concern of the country depending upon the utilization of its huge work force. India adds 12 million people to its workforce annually, but very few have any formal skill training. Today, less than four per cent of the Indian workforce is skilled, in contrast to the 42 per cent in US, 76 per cent in Germany, 80 per cent in Japan and 96 per cent in South Korea. Our workforce readiness is one of the lowest in the world and a large chunk of existing training infrastructure is irrelevant to industry needs. Without proper skills this huge youth population would be a demographic liability instead of demographic dividend, However, this could change if we reach out to more people with quality learning opportunities, revamp our existing infrastructure and execute plans more efficiently by making better use of monetary and resource support available. Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country. Countries with higher and better levels of skills adjust more effectively to the challenges and opportunities of world of work. India is facing several skill development issues which are hampering its’ progress & economic growth. Why India needs Skill Development? In the words of the Mahatma,“The brain must be educated through the hand. The teacher must learn the craft and correlate his knowledge to the craft. The craft cannot be separated from education.” A. Demographic Dividend: 1. Demographic dividend does not mean just people; it means skilled, educated or employed people. 2. The ‘demographic window’ is only a span of few decades. The skilled youth is required to save demographic dividend from becoming demographic disaster. 3. It is worth mentioning here that India has 54 per cent of its total population below 25 years of age. Over the next 20 years, the labour force in the industrialised world is expected to decline by 4 per cent, while in India it will increase by 32 per cent who are not sufficiently skilled and employable. 4. A conservative estimated figure shows that 104.62 million fresh entrants to the workforce need to be skilled by 2022 in addition to the 298.25 million working persons needing skill training. B. Sectoral mobilization: 1. Less number of people will be required to work in farming as productivity improves. This would result in sectoral mobilization of workforce from agriculture to secondary and tertiary activities. 2. Skills are the bridge between good jobs and the workforce .Setting standards and quality of training is a pre requisite for skilling and its utilization. C. New schemes: 1. Only a skilled workforce would lead to the success of initiatives like Make in India and Digital India and smart cities. D. Skill Capital of World: 1. To convert this vision into reality, India needs to create a skilled and productive workforce matching international standards of quality and productivity through integration of skills and training along with education. E. Better Employment: 1. Skills are needed to those currently in colleges for them to be better employed. F. Skill availability and accessibility to avenues for successful ventures can enhance the livelihoods of many. Objectives of ‘Skill India’
The main goal is to create opportunities, space and scope for the development of the talents of the Indian youth and to develop more of those sectors which have already been put under skill development for the last so many years and also to identify new sectors for skill development. The new programme aims at providing training and skill development to 500 million youth of our country by 2020, covering each and every village. Various schemes are also proposed to achieve this objective.
Features of ‘Skill India ‘
The emphasis is to skill the youths in such a way so that they get employment and also improve entrepreneurship. Provides training, support and guidance for all occupations that were of traditional type like carpenters, cobblers, welders, blacksmiths, masons, nurses, tailors, weavers etc. More emphasis will be given on new areas like real estate, construction, transportation, textile, gem industry, jewellery designing, banking, tourism and various other sectors, where skill development is inadequate or nil.
The training programmes would be on the lines of international level so that the youths of our country can not only meet the domestic demands but also of other countries like the US, Japan, China, Germany, Russia and those in the West Asia. Another remarkable feature of the ‘Skill India’ programme would be to create a hallmark called ‘Rural India Skill’, so as to standardise and certify the training process.
Tailor-made, need-based programmes would be initiated for specific age groups which can be like language and communication skills, life and positive thinking skills, personality development skills, management skills, behavioural skills, including job and employability skills.
Programme seeks to create an end-to-end implementation framework for skill development, which provides opportunities for life-long learning. This includes incorporation of skilling in the school curriculum, providing opportunities for quality long and short-term skill training, by providing gainful employment and ensuring career progression that meets the aspirations of trainees.
It will align employer/industry demand and workforce productivity with trainees’ aspirations for sustainable livelihoods, by creating a framework for outcome focused training.
It will build capacity for skill development in critical un-organized sectors (such as the construction sector, where there few opportunities for skill training) and provide pathways for re-skilling and up-skilling workers in these identified sectors, to enable them to transition into formal sector employment.
It also seeks to develop a network of quality instructors/trainers in the skill development ecosystem by establishing high quality teacher training institutions. Maintain a national database, known as the Labour Market Information System (LMIS), which will act as a portal for matching the demand and supply of skilled workforce in the country.
The course methodology of ‘Skill India’ would be innovative, which would include games, group discussions, brainstorming sessions, practical experiences, case studies etc.
However, a government-appointed panel has found that the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) – spent over Rs 1,500 crore in skilling over 18 lakh people but failed to achieve key objectives. . This puts in context the various facets of this flagship mission and the various issues concerned with it along with way forward.
Issues in implementation of Skill India Mission: • The targets allocated to them were very high and without regard to any sectoral requirement. Everybody was chasing numbers without providing employment to the youth or meeting sectoral industry needs. • No evaluation was conducted of PMKVY 2015 (the first version of the scheme) to find out the outcomes of the scheme and whether it was serving the twin purpose of providing employment to youth and meeting the skill needs of the industry before launching such an ambitious scheme. • The focus of PMKVY has been largely on the short-term skill courses, resulting in low placements. There has been an over emphasis on this scheme and hence it is seen as the answer to all skill-related issues. • The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) have pointed out flaws in the design and operations of the NSDC and National Skill Development Fund which has resulted in falling short of skill development goals. Majority of them also could not achieve the placement targets for the trained persons. • The Sharada Prasad Committee, held the NSDC responsible for poor implementation of the Standard Training Assessment and Reward (STAR) programme. It highlighted that only 8.5 per cent of the persons trained were able to get employment. That is what has been claimed by NSDC. • The government report has found fault with the STAR scheme on several counts. STAR offered school dropouts financial incentives to acquire new skills, but the report said that “of those who got their results, only 24% have received certificates and less than 18% have received monetary rewards. This is despite the fact that 80% candidates reported having bank accounts, and 91.3% stated they had Aadhaar numbers”. • The Report also cites “serious conflict of interests” in the functioning of the National Skill Development Corporation. • NSDC has not been able to discharge its responsibilities for setting up sector skill councils (SSCs) owing to lots of instances of serious conflict of interest and unethical practices. • As per its original mandate, the NSDC should be mobilizing resources for skill development from the industry, financial institutions, multilateral and bilateral external aid agencies, private equity providers and ministries and departments of the central government and states. But the committee said found that the NSDC did not follow any standard criteria for creation of SSCs which not only increased their number but created overlapping jurisdictions. • Another concern that arose was that the targets allocated to them were very high and without regard to any sectoral requirement. Everybody was chasing numbers without providing employment to the youth or meeting sectoral industry needs. • There have been apprehensions on how many of the 11.7 million trained in the past two years are really in jobs. Solutions It is a path that needs to be treading carefully as it involves the future of our youth. Steps needed are: • We need to have a holistic approach to vocational education and skill development by having a defined approach for both short-term and long-term training courses to meet the objectives of the Skill India programme. • In respect of NSRD's activities i.e. core research, evaluation, data analytics and international partnerships need efficient handling, as a mere collection of raw data on various repositories may not portray the proper insights or serve any purpose. • Merely sharing with the international expert or just importing overseas concepts followed in developed nation may not fetch us with any desired goal, but a clear understanding of trends in national economy, demographic parameters, heritage, culture and tradition(region-wise) and aspiration of people and other relevant indicators are essential before correlating the same for formulating new skilling strategies. • More and more Indian Skill Development Services officers are to be recruited to work in the frontline administration, instead of engaging other services officers who do not possess the technical expertise vis-à-vis industry experience to supervise the skill development process in the country. ISDS service needs to be extended to the State's training directorates also. • In NSDA for core research and data analytics job, a collaboration of core experts (from relevant occupations) with statistician and data analysts would probably fetch desirable outcome based on an in-depth understanding of futuristic direction. • Establishing a Skill Development University to offer specialized degree programs which will provide advance skills. • Online learning system could be utilized to impart skill/craft along with using fixed infrastructure. An open platform for e-content on skill development should be created where content can be crowd source. • It is important to vocationalize the current education system by developing curricula in the lines with industry needs, creating infrastructure for skill training, involving the industry in all aspects of curricula development, training delivery, student assessments and creating a model where students can obtain skills and at the same time get a degree. • Skills on Wheel type initiatives could be used to address infrastructure and transport constraints. There are shining examples of Skill Trucks operated in Brazil that take skills training to the rural, remote parts of the country. • There should be increasing role of industry in all aspects of vocational training – providing latest machinery for training, governance, providing trainers from industry and doing assessment to ensure quality at each stage. Industry should emphasize on formal vocational training and certification at the time of hiring and for career advancement. • Creating standard curricula and assessment across various agencies offering vocational courses. Formal training programs for vocational faculty and trainers so that they understand this pedagogy. Skill development alone is not sufficient to address the unemployment problem; there is need for availability of job opportunities for those skills. It is not the time to produce people with skill training certificates; rather we need to produce people who are actually employable. For the people with skill certificates the industry must give a premium and preference to that certificate while hiring. If industry does not show traction towards this the entire ecosystem won’t be complete. We need to bring industries to the forefront of skill development rather than creating centres of skill development across India. For any skill development effort to succeed, markets and industry need to play a large role in determining courses, curriculum and relevance. For this, employers need to be put in the driving seat, with the government acting as a regulator and not the implementer. The government has its task cut out. What is needed is a willingness to act, and to take the difficult decisions that can help realise the ‘Skill India’ dream.
PRADHAN MANTRI JAN-DHAN YOJANA (PMJDY)
Financial inclusion is delivery of financial services at an affordable cost to the vast sections of the disadvantaged and low-income groups, providing them with timely and adequate access to the financial products, services like Bank Accounts, Savings Products, Remittances & Payment services, Insurance, advisory services, Entrepreneurial and Micro credit, Micro finance.
“Financial Inclusion” is the way the Governments strive to take the common man along by bringing them into the formal channel of economy thereby ensuring that even the person standing in the last is not left out from the benefits of the economic growth and is added in the mainstream economy thereby encouraging the poor person to save, safely invest in various financial products and to borrow from the formal channel when he need to borrow.
NSSO data reveal that 45.9 million farmer households in the country (51.4%), out of a total of 89.3 million households do not access credit, either from institutional or non-institutional sources. Further, despite the vast network of bank branches, only 27% of total farm households are indebted to formal sources (of which one-third also borrow from informal sources). Thus to improve the financial inclusion in India government has launched Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana.
It is National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, Banking/ Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner.
Account can be opened in any bank branch or Business Correspondent (Bank Mitr) outlet. PMJDY accounts are being opened with Zero balance. However, if the account-holder wishes to get cheque book, he/she will have to fulfill minimum balance criteria.
The mission mode objective of the PMJDY consists of 6 pillars. During the 1st year of implementation under Phase I (15th August, 2014-14th August,2015), three Pillars namely:
(1) Universal access to banking facilities
(2) Financial Literacy Programme and
(3) Providing Basic Banking Accounts with overdraft facility of Rs.5000 after six months and RuPay Debit card with inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh and RuPay Kisan card, will be implemented.
Phase II, beginning from 15th August 2015 upto15th August, 2018 will address:
(1) Creation of Credit Guarantee Fund for coverage of defaults in overdraft A/Cs
(2) Micro Insurance and
(3) Unorganized sector Pension schemes like Swalamban.
In addition, in this phase coverage of households in hilly, tribal and difficult areas would be carried out. Moreover, this phase would focus on coverage of remaining adults in the households and students.
The implementation strategy of the plan is to utilize the existing banking infrastructure as well as expand the same to cover all households. While the existing banking network would be fully geared up to open bank accounts of the uncovered households in both rural and urban areas, the banking sector would also be expanding itself to set up an additional 50,000 Business correspondents (BCs), more than 7000 branches and more than 20000 new ATMs in the first phase .
In the past experience large number of accounts opened remained dormant, resulting in costs incurred for banks and no benefits to the beneficiaries. The plan, therefore, proposes to channel all Government benefits (from Centre/State/Local body) to the beneficiaries to such accounts and pushing the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Union Government including restarting the DBT in LPG scheme. MGNREGS sponsored by Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD, GoI) is also likely to be included in Direct Benefit Transfer scheme.
Impact of Jan Dhan Yojana
For Common Man
Anyone who does not have an account will get an account in bank.
Common man will get direct benefit of government subsidies.
Common man will also have a financial and credit history on government records.
It will be easy to get loan directly from financial institutions instead of other modes that charge heavy interest rate.
For Business
More and more people will be doing shopping via debit cards reducing time, manpower and risk involved in managing cash transactions.
More relevant data will be available to perform various analyses to create marketing plans.
For Government
It will be a great milestone achieved after linking with Aadhaar card to make direct financial transactions, subsidies transfer and lot more.
It will be easy to monitor transactions and collect financial data as more people will be using recorded mode of payments.
For Banking Institutions
Banks will get new customers that directly means more money inflow.
These customers may result in potential clients for other banking services like loans.
Further, PMJDY promotes differential banking, allowing new entrants to innovate without the legacy constraints older banks might face. It was envisioned that PMJDY would account for social-security errors, alleviate the problem of asymmetric information via cashless payments, and tackle black money.
Achievements under PMJDY (as on 21st December,2016)
(i) 26.03 crore accounts have been opened under PMJDY out of which 15.86 crore accounts are in rural areas and 10.17 crore in urban areas.
(ii) Deposits of Rs. 71,557.90 crore has been mobilized.
(iii) 19.93 crore RuPay Debit cards have been issued under PMJDY.
(iv) Aadhaar seeding in PMJDY accounts 14.43 crore
(v) Zero balance accounts has been reduced to 23.86%
(vi) Household Coverage: 99.99% households out of the 21.22 crore households surveyed have been covered under PMJDY.
As on 23rd December, 2016, out of total requirement of 1,27,198 fixed location Bank Mitras in Sub Service Areas (SSAs), 1,26,985 Bank Mitras have been deployed by banks.
Overdraft (OD) in PMJDY accounts: As on 23rd December, 2016, 44.28 lakh accounts have been sanctioned OD facility of which 23.85 lakh account-holders have availed this facility involving an amount of Rs.316.56 crore.
Insurance Claims settled
(i) As on 23rd December, 2016, out of 1712 claims lodged, 1626 claims have been disposed off under accidental insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh under RuPay debit card .
(ii) As on 23rd December, 2016, out of 3936 claim lodged, 3421 claims paid under Life Cover of Rs.30,000/- to those beneficiaries who opened their accounts for the first time from 15.08.2014 to 31.01.2015.
Challenges before Jan Dhan Yojana
JDY relies heavily on the BC model for expanding the banking network in both the rural and urban areas. One of the primary reasons behind the unsatisfactory performance of the BC model is the poor remuneration (Rs 2000-3000 per month) paid to business correspondents.
For such a meager amount, it is unfair to expect a BC to visit villages or slums at regular intervals, open new bank accounts for the poor people, process financial trans-actions, educate customers about banking services and answer all queries of the customers. Under the JDY, the BCs will get a minimum compensation of Rs.5000 per month.
There are several other important factors which act as a barrier in the delivery of banking services through the BC model. Some of these factors include
Inordinate delay in issuing smart cards to customers (three to six months);
Limited utility of smart cards as services such as remittance are not loaded;
Inadequate cash handling limit given to bcs;
Devices not working properly due to technical problems or poor network connectivity;
Lack of trust in bcs;
Lack of customer-centric banking products and services;
Poor governance and inadequate supervision of bcs;
Absence of a comprehensive strategy for financial education.
The expanded financial architecture will need personnel, which is lacking, and could be important supply side deficit. Banks have been advised under the PMJDY to open 200 accounts a day in each of their existing rural branches, but they are wary, as the existing infrastructure in those branches cannot handle the extra load.
Therefore, banking reach should be increased gradually and along with the capacity of banking infrastructure, so that the customer base at any time can be serviced well and the system is not pressurized at any time.
Other ambiguities and problems with the scheme and suggestions to tackle them are:
People may open multiple accounts using different ID proofs on the lure of getting insurance covers. Monitoring has to be done in this regard. All banks must have a centralised information sharing system so that this loophole can be countered.
If a bank is being set up, it must be set up at a place with road connectivity and must be situated at the heart of the villages and towns, especially at areas where trade .It is necessary that the bank also fulfills its other purposes such that it is viable as well as profitable to operate in a given area.
Even if it is a zero balance account, credibility of the account holder has to be checked. The Overdraft facility to the account holder may turn into a sub-standard or Non- Performing Asset for the banker. Thus, credit should be made available by the banker only after due diligence and not by just going by the scheme.
The financial literacy centre is to be held by the banker so as to keep customer aware of the services available and when and how to use them and to keep them updated of the new financial products available to her/him.
Apart from th above stated issues, privacy and security issues have cropped up, new light is shed on the scheme’s susceptibility to frauds, and ‘present bias’ is increasingly being examined, i.e. whether the number of bank accounts opened are actually being used. Additionally, several features of the scheme remain ambiguous. For instance, the promising overdraft facility is left to the discretion of banks, which creates prejudices as banks will avoid such situations that could potentially lead to NPAs.
Conclusion
Financial inclusion cannot be achieved only by meeting the target numbers. The RBI Governor, Raghuram Rajan had cautioned banks on the risks involved in just hunting for number with regard to Jan-Dhan Scheme, asking them not to compromise on core objective of the programme. ”When we roll out the scheme, we have to make sure it does not go off the track. The target is universality, not just speed and numbers.” The scheme can be a “waste” if it leads to duplication of accounts, if no transaction happens on the new accounts and if the new users get bad experiences.
ANALYSIS OF SWATCHH BHARAT MISSION
Introduction
The World Health Organization states that: Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feces. Inadequate sanitation is a major cause of disease world-wide and improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on health both in households and across communities. The word 'sanitation' also refers to the maintenance of hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection and wastewater disposal.
Inadequate sanitation is a major cause of disease world-wide and improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on health both in households and across communities.
Thus to meet the need, government has initiated Swatchh Bharat Mission.
The Swachh Bharat Mission, launched in October 2014, consists of two sub-missions – the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) (SBM-G), which will be implemented in rural areas, and the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), which will be implemented in urban areas. SBM-G seeks to eliminate open defecation in rural areas by 2019 through improving access to sanitation. It also seeks to generate awareness to motivate communities to adopt sustainable sanitation practices, and encourage the use of appropriate technologies for sanitation.
Swatchch Bharat Abhiyan Gramin
Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin SBM (G) endeavours to accelerate rural sanitation coverage, reduce open defecation and improve management of solid and liquid wastes. It focuses on ensuring usage of toilets along with their construction. There is a strong emphasis on behaviour change, including a focus on interpersonal communication; strengthening implementation and delivery mechanisms down to the village level; and giving states flexibility to design delivery mechanisms that take into account local cultures, practices, sensibilities and demands.
The focus of the Strategy is to move towards a ‘Swachh Bharat’ by providing flexibility to State Governments, as Sanitation is a state subject, to decide on their implementation policy and mechanisms, taking into account State specific requirements. This is focused to enable States to develop an Implementation Framework that can utilise the provisions under the Mission effectively and maximize the impact of the interventions. The Government of India’s role would be to complement the efforts of the State Governments through the focused programme being given the status of a Mission, recognizing its dire need for the country.
The suggested approach would be to adopt the Community led and Community Saturation approaches focusing heavily on collective behavioral change. Emphasis is to be placed on awareness generation, triggering behaviour change and demand generation for sanitary facilities in Houses, Schools, Anganwadis, places of Community congregation, and for Solid and Liquid Waste Management activities. Focus will be on Inter Personal Communication (IP