Ministry of Rural Development Focuses on Demand Generation with Enhanced Resource Allocation
Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) is implementing a number of rural development schemes namely, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Deendayal Upadhayay – Gramin Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) and National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) to alleviate poverty and to bring about overall improvement in the quality of life of the people in rural areas, strengthening of livelihood opportunities, providing minimum guaranteed employment, promoting self-employment, skilling of youths in various useful trades and entrepreneurship qualities, infrastructure development and provision of social assistance in alignment with the ‘India@100 Vision’. Allocation of resources under these schemes is a continuous process and funds are released to the States/UTs taking into account adherence of the schematic guidelines and assessing the actual requirement at ground level.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is a demand driven wage employment programme which envisages for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. It offers rural households fall back livelihood options when better employment opportunities are unavailable. Additionally, it mandates an extra 50 days of wage employment for Scheduled Tribe households in forest areas and provides for an additional 50 days of wage employment in drought or natural calamity-affected rural areas. State Governments have the option to allocate additional days of employment beyond the guaranteed period using their funds
PMGSY is a one-time special intervention of the Central Government to improve the Rural Infrastructure through the construction of roads. PMGSY has been allocated a budget of Rs.19,000 crore for the current Financial Year. Out of this, Rs. 1,292.22 crore has been released to the States till 30.07.2024. Under PMGSY, the project proposals for 8,31,453 Km have been sanctioned with a value of Rs. 3,89,606.49 till 30.07.2024, and out of this, 7,65,719 Km of road length have been constructed at an expenditure of Rs. 3,24,993.65 crore. 20 to 25 % of the above spending is towards labour component which has created substantial employment opportunities in the rural area. Further in the Budget Speech 2024-25, the Government announced to launch of the fourth phase of PMGSY to provide connectivity to 25,000 rural habitations. When the roads and bridges to connect these habitations are sanctioned and construction starts on the ground substantial direct and indirect employment opportunities will be created in the rural area.
In order to achieve the target of “Housing for All” in rural areas, the Ministry of Rural Development is implementing Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G) with effect from 1st April, 2016 to construct 2.95 crore houses by providing assistance to eligible rural households with basic amenities. Under PMAY-G, out of the overall mandated target of 2.95 crore houses allocated to States/UTs, more than 2.94 crore houses have already been sanctioned to the beneficiaries and 2.64 crore houses have already been completed as on 29.07.2024. Government of India announced 2 Crore more houses to be constructed in the next five years till FY 2028-29 under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G).
The construction of a house under PMAY-G generates direct employment of approximately 201 person-days, which includes 56 skilled, 34 Semi-skilled, and 111 unskilled person-days. Accordingly, the construction of 2.64 Crore houses under the scheme has generated employment of around 531 crores of person-days. Further, constructing the remaining 0.31 crores of houses and the proposed 2 crore new houses are expected to generate employment of 464 crore person-days. Under the Rural Mason Training program of PMAY-G so far 2.7 lakh candidates have been trained. Further, some of the well-trained certified masons also got opportunities to work abroad in the construction field. The PMAY-G has been converged with MGNREGA under which the beneficiary is entitled to 90/95 person-days of unskilled labour from MGNREGA for construction of house, over and above the unit assistance. Under PMAY-G, the indirect employment is also generated through the production of building materials and their transportation for the house construction.