Social sector initiatives show substantive progress during last year

The Economic Survey for 2008-09 tabled in Parliament today states that in consonance with the Government’s commitment to inclusive growth and faster social sector development to remove disparities, substantial progress has been made by the Central Government on some of the major social sector initiatives during the year. 

Bharat Nirman has received an outlay of Rs. 40,900 crore in the interim budget for 2009-10 as against Rs. 31,280 crore (including NER component) in 2008-09. Up to March 2009, a total length of 2,14,281,45 kilometres of road works has been completed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) with a cumulative expenditure of Rs. 46,807.21 crore. 

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme 

The scheme has now been extended to all the districts of the country. More than 4.47 crore households were provided employment in 2008-09. This is a significant jump over the 3.39 crore households covered under the scheme during 2007-08. Out of the 215.63 crore person-days created under the scheme during this period, 29 percent and 25 percent were in favour of SC and ST population. 

Rural Sanitation 

There has also been tremendous increase in the access to sanitation facilities by rural households. The sanitation coverage among rural households has increased from 21.9 percent in 2001 to 27.3 percent in 2004 and has more than doubled since then to 63.91 per cent (of 2001 Census households) as on May 20, 2009. The total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) is one of the eight flagship programmes of the Government. TSC projects have been sanctioned in 593 rural districts of the country at a total outlay of Rs. 17,885 crore with a Central share of Rs. 11,094 crore. Since 1999, over 5,56 crore toilets have been provided for rural households under TSC. A significant achievement has also been the construction of of 8.71 lakh school toilets and 2.72 lakh Anganwadi toilets. With increasing budgetary allocations and focus on rural areas, the number of households being provided with toilets annually has increased from only 24,41 lakh in 2002-03 to 98.7 lakh in 2006-07. 

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana 

PMGSY is funded mainly from the accruals of diesel cess in the Central Road. Upto March 2009, a total length of about 2,14,281,45 kilometres of roadwork has been completed with cumulative expenditure of Rs. 46,807.21 crore. 

Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana 

It is the only self-employment programme currently being implemented for the rural poor. Up to March 2009, 34 lakh self help groups (SHGs) had been formed and 120.89 lakh swarozgaris have been assisted with a total outlay of Rs. 27,183.03 crore. 

Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana 

The fund allocation for the scheme was Rs. 515 crore during 2008-09 and Rs. 540.67 crore has been released up to March 31, 2009. With regard to the number of beneficiaries during 2008-09 9,47,390 urban poor were assisted to set up individual/group micro enterprises and 14,84,209 urban poor were imparted skill training under SJSRY as per the progress reports received up to the end of March 31, 2009.