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Aspirational Districts Programme: NITI Aayog

PWOnlyIAS March 27, 2024 06:51 4297 0

Aspirational Districts Programme is an initiative of the Indian government to improve the living standards of people in under-developed districts.

Aspirational Districts Programme: NITI Aayog

Context

Recently, Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs informed that Sonbhadra is among the top five districts out of 112 in the overall performance of the Aspirational Districts Programme continuously from January 2018 to March 2024.

Aspirational Districts Programme: The Scheme

Aspirational Districts Programme is an initiative of the Indian government to improve the living standards of people in under-developed districts. Underdeveloped districts are renamed as Aspirational districts, which are affected by poor socio-economic indicators.

  • Aspirational Districts Programme Launch Year:

    • Launched in 2018, the scheme aims to transform districts that have showed relatively lesser progress in key social areas, compared to other districts.
  • Objectives of Aspirational Districts Programme

    • To identify strength of each district, identifying easily achieving targets for immediate improvement and measuring progress by ranking districts on a monthly basis.
    • Improve the living standards of the citizens living in aspirational districts and ensuring inclusive growth for all through the motto “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas aur Sabka Vishwas”.
    • To localise SDG (Sustainable Development Goals), ensuring the progress of the nation at the ground level.
    • To make aspirational districts compete with the best district within their state, and subsequently aspire to become one of the best in the country by following the spirit of competitive & cooperative federalism.

Selection of Districts Under Aspirational Districts Programme

Districts are selected under the programme through their score in Composite Index, which is calculated using data from core sectors of poverty, health & nutrition, education and basic infrastructure.

Criteria Category Weightage
Landless households dependent on manual labour Poverty 25%
Medical care during pregnancy – 4 visits for Antenatal Care (ANCs) Health and Nutrition 7.5%
Institutional delivery 7.5%
Stunting of children below 5 years 7.5%
Wasting in children below 5 years 7.5%
Elementary Dropout Rate Education  7.5%
Poor Student Teacher Ratio 7.5%
Un-electrified households Basic Infrastructure  7.5%
Rural households without individual toilets 7.5%
Un-connected habitations under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana 7.5%
Rural habitations without access to the minimum prescribed Water & Sanitation quantity of water 7.5%

Ranking Parameters

The ranking of districts is based on 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) under 5 broad socio-economic themes – 

Theme Weightage Indicators
Health & Nutrition 30% Health and Nutrition has 13 indicators covering antenatal care, postnatal care, gender parity, health of new – borns, growth of children, contagious diseases, and health infrastructure.
Education 30% Education has 8 indicators covering learning outcomes (transition from primary to upper primary, average scores in mathematics and language etc.), infrastructure (toilet access for girls, drinking water, electricity supply) and institutional indicators (Pupil-teacher ratio, timely delivery of textbooks).
Agriculture & Water Resources 20% Agriculture and Water Resources has 10 indicators, covering outputs (yield, price realisation etc.), inputs (quality seed distribution, soil health cards), and institutional support (crop insurance, artificial insemination, animal vaccination etc.).
Financial Inclusion & Skill Development 10% Financial inclusion has 6 indicators such as central government schemes (Atal Pension Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana etc.), reach of institutional banking (Jan Dhan Yojana), and institutional financing for small businesses (Mudra loans). 

Skill development has 5 indicators tracking the skilling of youth, employment, and the skilling of vulnerable/marginalized groups.

Infrastructure 10% Infrastructure has 7 indicators that include household toilets, drinking water, electricity, and road connectivity.

Implementation of the Aspirational Districts Programme

  • Authority: The NITI Aayog is responsible for steering the programme with support from Central Ministries and the State Governments. 
    • Out of the 115 districts identified from 28 states, the NITI Aayog will monitor in 30 districts, various central ministries oversee 50 districts while the Ministry of Home Affairs will be focusing on 35 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts.
  • Officers Incharge: Officers at the level of Joint Secretary / Additional Secretary will be nominated as the ‘Central Prabhari Officers’ of each district.
    • In addition, states can appoint state-nodal and Prabhari officers.

Monitoring Progress

  • Champions of Change: NITI Aayog has created a Champions of Change dashboard by partnering with the government of Andhra Pradesh to monitor progress of the programme.
  • Use: District Collectors of all the aspirational districts can use the data for course correction. The data is also available for public.

SWOT Analysis: Aspirational Districts Programme

Strength

  • Focusing on Deserving Regions: The programme focuses on districts that are in dire need of support for developing.
  • Cooperative Federalism: The programme is implemented by involving all three tiers of the government, ensuring proper success.
  • Competitive Federalism: Aspirational districts will compete with each other at state and national levels to ensure a competition-driven development.
  • Local Autonomy: Many aspects of the programme are flexible, thus ensuring autonomy at regional levels.
  • Resource Efficiency: The programme uses existing resources of several government programmes more efficiently.
  • Realtime Data Tracking: Using the real-time dashboard, decisions can be taken at the ground level after accurate feedback.

Weakness

  • Insufficient Budgetary Allocation: The existing amount is not enough to bring radical changes in aspirational districts of the country.
  • Coordination Issue: It has been observed that involvement of multiple ministries has led to lack of coordination in implementation of the programme.
  • Delta Ranking: The delta ranking focuses on assessing quantity of service rather than quality.
  • Public Involvement: For any programme to succeed, the involvement of civil society is of utmost importance.

Opportunity

  • Simplified Ranking: The existing delta ranking is complex. Instead, outcome measures that can more clearly signal national development targets must be adopted.
  • Financing: The programme is driven by the central government. There needs to be self-financing for local bodies to carry out development.
  • Independent Studies: Independent studies can be encouraged to provide a clear picture about the efficiency of the scheme.
  • Motivation: The programme seeks to motivate administration as well as public to work for the improvement of their districts.
  • Realignment: Many agencies, such as UNDP, have recommended inclusion of topics such as the environment and gender for better improvement.

Threat

  • Insufficient Focus: The programme gives less emphasis to indicators such as financial inclusion and skill development, which are major game-changers of sustainable development.
  • Lack of Stable Tenure: The officials in charge of implementing the programme need to have a stable tenure for effective results.

Aspirational Blocks Programme

It seeks to improve the performance of blocks that are lagging on various development parameters. It covers 500 districts across 31 states and Union Territories, with majority of them in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.

  • Aspirational blocks are geographically remote and backward, and receive poor rainfall. They are drought-prone and susceptible to many uncertainties and volatilities.
  • The Aspirational Blocks Programme is similar to the Aspirational District Programme, except that it is implemented at block level. 
Also Read: Multidimensional Poverty In India Since 2005-06

 

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Frequently Asked Questions

It is an initiative of the Indian government to improve the living standards of people in under-developed districts.

To improve the quality of life of people living in backward and underdeveloped districts of the country.

Through score in Composite Index, which is calculated using data from core sectors of poverty, health & nutrition, education and basic infrastructure.

NITI Aayog is responsible for steering the programme.
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