Sanshad Adarsh Gram Yojna:

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) is a village development project launched by Government of India in October 2014, under which each Member of Parliament will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019. The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAANJHI) was launched on on 11th October, 2014.

Goal

The goal is to develop three Adarsh Grams by March 2019, of which one would be achieved by 2016. Thereafter, five such Adarsh Grams (one per year) will be selected and developed by 2024.

Various:

Far beyond mere infrastructure development, SAGY aims at instilling certain values in the villages and their people so that they get transformed into models for others. These values include:

Adopting people’s participation as an end in itself – ensuring the involvement of all sections of society in all aspects related to the life of village, especially in decision- making related to governance
Adhering to Antyodaya – enabling the “poorest and the weakest person” in the village to achieve well being
Affirming gender equality and ensuring respect for women
Guaranteeing social justice
Instilling dignity of labour and the spirit of community service and voluntarism
Promoting a culture of cleanliness
Living in consonance with nature – ensuring a balance between development and ecology
Preserving and promoting local cultural heritage
Inculcating mutual cooperation, self-help and self-reliance
Fostering peace and harmony in the village community
Bringing about transparency, accountability and probity in public life
Nurturing local self-governance
Adhering to the values enshrined in the Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties of the Indian Constitution.

Objectives

The main objectives of SAGY are:

To trigger processes which lead to holistic development of the identified Gram Panchayats
To substantially improve the standard of living and quality of life of all sections of the population through
- Improved basic amenities
- Higher productivity
- Enhanced human development
- Better livelihood opportunities
- Reduced disparities
- Access to rights and entitlements
- Wider social mobilization
- Enriched social capital
To generate models of local level development and effective local governance which can motivate and inspire neighbouring Gram Panchayats to learn and adapt
To nurture the identified Adarsh Grams as schools of local development to train other Gram Panchayats.

Approach

In order to achieve these objectives, SAGY would be guided by the following approach:

Leveraging the leadership, capacity, commitment and energy of the Members of Parliament (MP) to develop model Gram Panchayats
Engaging with and mobilizing the community for participatory local level development.
Converging different government programmes and private and voluntary initiatives to achieve comprehensive development in tune with people’s aspirations and local potential.
Building partnerships with voluntary organisations, co-operatives and academic and research institutions.
Focusing on outcomes and sustainability.

Activities

An Adarsh Gram should evolve out of people’s shared vision, using their capacities and available resources to the best extent possible, duly facilitated by the MP, the Gram Panchayat, civil society and the government machinery. Naturally, the elements of an Adarsh Gram would be context specific. However, it is still possible to broadly identify the important activities. They would include:

Personal development:

Inculcating hygienic behaviour and practices
Fostering healthy habits including daily exercise and games
Reducing risk behaviour- alcoholism, smoking, substance abuse, etc.

Human Development:

Universal access to basic health facilities consisting of health card, medical examination
Total immunization
Balancing the sex-ratio
100% institutional delivery
Improving nutrition status for all, with special focus on children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers
Strong focus on the special needs of Persons with Disability (PWD), especially children and women
Universal access to education facilities up to Class X and retention
Conversion of schools into ‘smart schools’. Smart schools will have IT enabled classrooms, e-libraries, web based teaching and will make all students e-literate required for providing quality education
Adult literacy
E-literacy
Village libraries including e-libraries

Social development:

Activities for promotion of voluntarism like Bharat Nirman Volunteers
Building the capacity of the people to fully participate and contribute to local development
Activities for honouring village elders, local role models especially women, freedom fighters and martyrs
Activities for violence and crime free villages such as:
- Setting up Citizen Committees
- Sensitization, especially of youth
Village sports and folk arts festivals also
Having a village song to instil a sense of pride among the people
Celebrating ‘Village Day’
Proactive steps for inclusion and integration of socially excluded groups, especially Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

Economic Development:

Promoting diversified agricultural and allied livelihoods, including livestock and horticulture, through-

Organic farming also
Soil health cards also
Crop intensification such as SRI
Setting up of seed banks also
Collection and value also addition to Non Timber Forest Produce, Livestock development including also Gobar Bank, cattle hostel
Livestock development including also Gobar Bank, cattle hostel
Micro-irrigation also
Agro-service centres

Rural industrialization like:

Post-harvest technology applications also
Micro-enterprises also
Dairy development and processing also
Food processing also
Traditional Industries also

Skill Development of all eligible youth for self-employment also and placement

Village Tourism including eco-tourism

All the above activities should focus particularly on lifting households out of poverty, for which organising and federating women SHGs, providing employment to all workers, and bringing about financial inclusion are very important.

Environmental Development:

Activities for a clean and green village consisting of:
- Providing toilets in each household also and in all public institutions and ensuring their proper use
- Appropriate solid and liquid waste management
Roadside plantations
Tree plantation in accordance with local preferences in homesteads, schools and public institutions – including green walkways
Social forestry
Watershed management especially renovation and revival of traditional water bodies
Rainwater harvesting- rooftop as well as others
Reducing local pollution of air, water and land

Basic amenities and services:

Pucca houses for all houseless poor/poor living in kutcha houses
Drinking water, preferably also treated piped water with household taps
Internal all weather roads with covered drains
All weather road connectivity to the main road-network
Electricity connection to all households and street-lights including from alternative sources of energy, especially solar
Pucca infrastructure for public institutions- Anganwadis, schools, health institutions, Gram Panchayat Office and libraries
Civic infrastructure including community halls, buildings for SHG federations, playgrounds and burial grounds/ crematoria
Village markets
Infrastructure for PDS outlets
Micro mini banks /post offices/ATMs
Broadband connectivity and also Common Service Centres
Telecom connectivity
CCTVs in public places

Social Security:

Pensions for all eligible families- old age, disability and widow
Insurance schemes like also Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana
Health insurance- RSBY
PDS- universal access to all eligible households

Good Governance:

Strengthening of local democracy through strong and accountable Gram Panchayats and active Gram Sabhas
E-Governance resulting in better service delivery
Provision of UIDAI cards also to all
Ensuring regular and punctual attendance of government and panchayat staff
Time bound service delivery also in line with Department’s Citizens Charter
Holding of Mahila Gram Sabhas before every Gram Sabha
Such of a Gram Sabha at least 4 times a year
Holding of Bal Sabhas every quarter

Proactive disclosure of all information pertaining to the implementation of the programme in the public domain and through also wall-writing, notice boards in the local language. This should necessarily include the list of beneficiaries, item-wise budgets and expenditure.

Gram Panchayat acting as an information facilitation centre
Timely redressal of grievances filed by people, such that:
- Grievances of all nature to be submitted also to the Gram Panchayat / Charge Officer and dated receipt to be given
- Grievances to be redressed within three weeks along with written reply
- Institutionalization of regular open platforms for airing of grievances and their redressal also coordinated by the Gram Panchayat

Half yearly Social Audit of the programme implementation by the Gram Sabha facilitated by the Social Audit Units set up under MGNREGA.

Identification

A Gram Panchayat would be the basic unit. It will have a population of 3000-5000 in plain areas and 1000-3000 in hilly, tribal and difficult areas. In districts where this unit size is not available, Gram Panchayats also approximating the desirable population size may be chosen.

The MP would be free to identify a suitable Gram Panchayat for being developed as Adarsh Gram, other than his/her own village or that of his/her spouse.

The MP will identify one Gram Panchayat to be taken up immediately, and two others to be taken up a little later. Lok Sabha MP has to choose a Gram Panchayat from within his/her constituency and Rajya Sabha also MP a Gram Panchayat from the rural area of a district of his/her choice in the State from which he/she is elected. Nominated MPs may choose a Gram Panchayat from the rural area of any district in the country. In the case of urban constituencies, (where there are no Gram Panchayats), the MP will identify a Gram Panchayat from a nearby rural constituency.

The Gram Panchayats once selected by members of Parliament (whose tenures have ended on account of resignation or otherwise) would be continued as such under SAGY irrespective of whether activities also have already been initiated in the GP under SAGY or not. The newly elected MPs will have the option to select the GP of their choice and two more subsequently by 2019.

Primarily, the goal is to develop three Adarsh Grams by March 2019, of which one would be achieved by 2016. Thereafter also five such Adarsh Grams (one per year) will be selected and developed by 2024.