‘Mission Antyodaya’ & its progress

Given the right momentum, the ‘Mission Antyodaya’ project of the Government of India bears great promise to revive the objectives of these great democratic reforms. 

What is Mission Antyodaya?

• Mission Antyodaya was adopted in Union Budget 2017-18.
• It is a convergence and accountability framework aiming to bring optimum use and management of resources allocated by 27 Ministries/ Department of the Government of India under various programmes for the development of rural areas.
• It is a comprehensive and accountability framework which aims to bring transparency and targeted convergence of resources towards development of rural areas. 
• It is envisaged as state-led initiative with Gram Panchayats as focal points of convergence efforts.
• Annual survey in Gram Panchayats across the country is an important aspect of Mission Antyodaya framework.
  • It is carried out coterminous with the People’s Plan Campaign (PPC) of Ministry of Panchayat Raj and its’ purpose is to lend support to the process of participatory planning for Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP).
• Mission Antyodaya therefore is focused on ensuring the deliverance of social justice to the people of India through local bodies.
• Nodal Agency: The Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the Ministry of Rural Development act as the nodal agents to take this mission forward.

People’s Plan Campaign (PPC): The People’s Plan Campaign is an effective strategy for ensuring the preparation of GPDP in a campaign mode.

PPC will be rolled out as ‘Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas’ in 2020.

What provisions of the Indian Constitution make local bodies the vector for Socio-Economic Development?

• Articles 243G and 243W of the Constitution of India mandates the local governments to prepare and implement plans for economic development and social justice.
• The creation of local self-governing bodies themselves, through the 73^rd and 74^th Constitutional Amendment Act, were done to take economic growth and social justice to the doors of people.
• Several institutions have been created and measures taken by the government of India (such as the gram sabha, the District Planning committee (DPC), the State Finance Commission (SFC) etc to achieve the dream of social justice for all.

District Planning Committee: It is a committee created as per Article 243ZD of the Constitution of India at the district level for planning at the district and below.

The Committee in each district should consolidate the plans prepared by the Panchayats and the Municipalities in the district and prepare a draft development plan for the district.

What circumstances made it necessary for the government to launch Mission Antyodaya?

• The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 showed a very unpleasant picture of rural India.
• Most of the rural households had no salaried jobs, were landless, many had no adult memberto support (female-headed households), suffered multiple deprivations, engaged in manual casual labour, no room or only one room to live, and so on. 

What were the findings of Mission Antyodaya Survey 2019-20?

• Gap Report and the Composite Index (which calculates Human Development) of Antyodaya Survey 2019-20 show that the goal Economic Development and Social Justice remains far from being achieved.
• This implies that the time line set to make 50,000 gram panchayats poverty free has to be extended beyond 2022.

Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced that 50,000 gram panchayats will be poverty free by October 2019 (150^th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi).

But the same could not be achieved and the time for achieving this target had to be revised to August 2022 (75^th Anniversary of Indian Independence).

What is the way forward?

• The data collected by Mission Antyodaya clearly shows that more efforts needs to be put in if rural-urban disparity has to be reduced.
• A better convergence of different Ministries and co-ordination between state and centre is required for welfare schemes to bear fruits and hence benefit the rural population of India.
• Only strong policy interventionscan help in the attainment of the constitutional goal of planning and implementing economic development and social justice in India through which Gandhiji’s dream of Gram Swaraj can be realised.