70 Years of Independence - Extend Social Protection
India’s Herculean efforts in combating poverty, illiteracy and unemployment with various timely planned social welfare schemes/programmes by Government of India are simply outstanding. These schemes could be either Central, State Specific or jointly between the Centre and the States. The total spending on social schemes was 17.6% of the total Central Government expenditure Budgeted for the 2012-13.
List of Government Schemes in India
Two massive Social Welfare Programmes that transformed India
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
It is perhaps the largest and most ambitious social security and public works programme in the world; today, about one-fourth of all rural households participate in the programme every year. MGNREGA’s quantitative achievements have been striking with Independent assessments by IIMs, IITs and UNDP from 2008 to 2012.
Since its inception in 2006, around ₹1,10,000 crore (USD$25 billion) has gone directly as wage payment to rural households and 12 billion person-days of employment has been generated. On an average, 50 million households have been provided employment every year since 2008. As a part of 2017 Union budget of India, Finance Minister announced ₹48,000 crore (USD$11 billion) to be allocated to the MGNREGA.
Eighty per cent of households are being paid directly through bank/post office accounts, and 100 million new bank/post office accounts have been opened. The average wage per person-day has gone up by 81 per cent since the Scheme’s inception, with state-level variations from ₹122 (USD$2.5) to ₹191 (USD$4). One of the objectives of MGNREGA was to improve the bargaining power of labour who often faced exploitative market conditions. Several studies have found that agricultural wages have increased significantly, especially for women since the inception of the scheme.
Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) have accounted for 51 per cent of the total person-days generated and women for 47 per cent, well above the mandatory 33 per cent as required by the Act. There is a provision for equal wages to men and women, provision for child care facilities at the worksite. Studies found that the programme indeed helped women's empowerment by providing them opportunities for paid work.
14.6 million works have been taken up since the beginning of the programme, of which about 60 per cent have been completed. 120 million Job Cards have been given and these along with the 90 million muster rolls have been uploaded on the Management Information System (MIS), available for public scrutiny. Since 2010–11, all details with regard to the expenditure of the MGNREGA are available on the MIS in the public domain.
Ex-Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh said, "The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA story in numbers is a story worth telling... the scheme scores high on inclusivness...no welfare scheme in recent memory has caught the imagination of the people as much as MGNREGA has ... "
Mid-Day Meal Scheme is a massive social welfare programme aiming at attracting children in to the educational main stream and also providing them with all the much-needed supplementary nutrition to make them healthy and worthy citizens of the country.
In 1995, the government of India introduced a centrally sponsored scheme, the national programme of nutritional support to primary education. Under this programme, cooked mid-day meals were to be introduced in all government and government aided primary schools with a view to protect children from hunger, increase school enrolment and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children.
Enrolment in primary schools (classes I – V) has steadily increased from 107.1 million in 1995-96 to 130.8 million in 2004-05. Similarly, drop-out rate (Primary) is also decreased from 42.07% in 1995-96 to 29.00% in 2004-05.
While the eleventh five-year plan allocated ₹384.9 billion (USD$6.0 billion) for the scheme, the twelfth five-year plan has allocated ₹901.55 billion (USD$14 billion), a 134% rise. The public expenditure for the Mid-Day Meal Programme has gone up from ₹73.24 billion (USD$1.1 billion) in 2007–08 to ₹132.15 billion (USD$2.1 billion) in 2013–14.
This is the world’s largest school feeding programme, reaching out to almost 150 million children daily in over 1.265 million schools across the country.
70 Years of Independence - Extend Social Protection
India’s Herculean efforts in combating poverty, illiteracy and unemployment with various timely planned social welfare schemes/programmes by Government of India are simply outstanding. These schemes could be either Central, State Specific or jointly between the Centre and the States. The total spending on social schemes was 17.6% of the total Central Government expenditure Budgeted for the 2012-13.
List of Government Schemes in India
Two massive Social Welfare Programmes that transformed India
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
It is perhaps the largest and most ambitious social security and public works programme in the world; today, about one-fourth of all rural households participate in the programme every year. MGNREGA’s quantitative achievements have been striking with Independent assessments by IIMs, IITs and UNDP from 2008 to 2012.
Since its inception in 2006, around ₹1,10,000 crore (USD$25 billion) has gone directly as wage payment to rural households and 12 billion person-days of employment has been generated. On an average, 50 million households have been provided employment every year since 2008. As a part of 2017 Union budget of India, Finance Minister announced ₹48,000 crore (USD$11 billion) to be allocated to the MGNREGA.
Eighty per cent of households are being paid directly through bank/post office accounts, and 100 million new bank/post office accounts have been opened. The average wage per person-day has gone up by 81 per cent since the Scheme’s inception, with state-level variations from ₹122 (USD$2.5) to ₹191 (USD$4). One of the objectives of MGNREGA was to improve the bargaining power of labour who often faced exploitative market conditions. Several studies have found that agricultural wages have increased significantly, especially for women since the inception of the scheme.
Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) have accounted for 51 per cent of the total person-days generated and women for 47 per cent, well above the mandatory 33 per cent as required by the Act. There is a provision for equal wages to men and women, provision for child care facilities at the worksite. Studies found that the programme indeed helped women's empowerment by providing them opportunities for paid work.
14.6 million works have been taken up since the beginning of the programme, of which about 60 per cent have been completed. 120 million Job Cards have been given and these along with the 90 million muster rolls have been uploaded on the Management Information System (MIS), available for public scrutiny. Since 2010–11, all details with regard to the expenditure of the MGNREGA are available on the MIS in the public domain.
Ex-Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh said, "The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA story in numbers is a story worth telling... the scheme scores high on inclusivness...no welfare scheme in recent memory has caught the imagination of the people as much as MGNREGA has ... "
Mid-Day Meal Scheme is a massive social welfare programme aiming at attracting children in to the educational main stream and also providing them with all the much-needed supplementary nutrition to make them healthy and worthy citizens of the country.
In 1995, the government of India introduced a centrally sponsored scheme, the national programme of nutritional support to primary education. Under this programme, cooked mid-day meals were to be introduced in all government and government aided primary schools with a view to protect children from hunger, increase school enrolment and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children.
Enrolment in primary schools (classes I – V) has steadily increased from 107.1 million in 1995-96 to 130.8 million in 2004-05. Similarly, drop-out rate (Primary) is also decreased from 42.07% in 1995-96 to 29.00% in 2004-05.
While the eleventh five-year plan allocated ₹384.9 billion (USD$6.0 billion) for the scheme, the twelfth five-year plan has allocated ₹901.55 billion (USD$14 billion), a 134% rise. The public expenditure for the Mid-Day Meal Programme has gone up from ₹73.24 billion (USD$1.1 billion) in 2007–08 to ₹132.15 billion (USD$2.1 billion) in 2013–14.
This is the world’s largest school feeding programme, reaching out to almost 150 million children daily in over 1.265 million schools across the country.