A. Background:

1. Scheduled Castes (SCs), who constitute 16.6% of our population as per 2011 Census, have historically suffered social and educational disabilities and economic deprivation arising therefrom. With a view to bring them in the mainstream by socially and to economically strengthen them, special provisions have been enshrined in the Constitution for advancement of their interests. These provisions range from measures to remove any kind of social disabilities imposed on them to ensure equality of opportunity in every sphere, to measures of positive discrimination to bring them on par with rest of the population.
2. Article 46 of Part IV ("Directive Principles of State Policy") of the Constitution enjoins upon the State to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Article 38(2) in the same Part also enjoins upon the State to minimize inequities in income and to endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities, not only amongst individuals but also amongst groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations.
3. Since Independence, the Government had taken a number of initiatives for development of SCs, which had yielded positive outcomes, and had also resulted in narrowing the gap between the Scheduled Castes and rest of the population. However, the focus of most of the welfare Schemes of SCs had been mainly centred on individual beneficiaries, rather than on the integrated development of SC pockets.

B. Brief of the Scheme:

1. With a view to enable an area based development approach, a new scheme Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) was launched during 2009-10. The Scheme aims at integrated development of Scheduled Castes majority villages.
2. Objective of Schemes: The principal objective of the Scheme is integrated development of SC majority Villages:

   (a) Primarily through convergent implementation of the relevant Central and State/UT Government Schemes; and

   (b) By taking up identified activities, which do not get covered under the existing Central and State Government Schemes, through ‘Gap-filling’ funds provided as Central Assistance to the extent of Rs.20.00 lakh per village.

3. The implementation of the Scheme was started on Pilot basis in 2009-10 and a total of 1000 villages was selected from 05 States namely Tamil Nadu (225), Rajasthan (225), Bihar (225), Himachal Pradesh (225) and Assam (100) were selected for this phase. All these 1000 villages have so far been declared as ‘Adarsh Gram’ by the respective State Governments.
4. During 2014-15, PMAGY was further extended (Phase-I) to cover another 1500 villages across 11 States namely Andhra Pradesh (7), Assam (75), Chhattisgarh (175), Jharkhand (100), Haryana (12), Karnataka (201), Madhya Pradesh (327), Odisha (175), Punjab (162), Telangana (6) and Uttar Pradesh (260). Out of 75 villages selected in Assam, 68 villages were found eligible and out of 12 villages selected in Haryana, only 09 villages found eligible for implementation of scheme. So far, a total of 1184 villages have been declared as ‘Adarsh Gram’ by the respective State Governments.

C. Implementation of Scheme since 2018-19:

1. In light of the benefits accruing to the residents of the villages through successful implementation of this Scheme, it was decided in 2018-19 to extend the Scheme further as a continuous scheme by taking up certain number of villages every year for development. For this, it was decided to consider inclusion of all those districts which have villages having total population ≥500 and with more than 50% persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes. The villages in descending order of SC population are proposed to be selected from each such district for implementation of the Scheme. As per this selection criteria there are a total of 27000 villages (approx) which are proposed to be covered under the Scheme by the end of 2024-25.
2. Revision of Scheme Guidelines: To ensure all round development of the selected villages, so that they can indeed become ‘Adarsh Grams’, the existing Scheme guidelines were revised to capture the Gaps in critical socio-economic ‘Monitorable Indicators’ as part of various sectors/domains. These domains are: i) Drinking water and Sanitation ii) Education iii) Health and Nutrition iv) Social Security v) Rural Roads and Housing vi) Electricity and Clean Fuel vii) Agricultural Practices etc. viii) Financial Inclusion ix) Digitization x) Livelihood and Skill Development. A total of 50 socio-economic monitorable indicators have been identified for saturation in selected villages under these 10 domains.
3. New Approach for implementation: The identification of Needs or Gaps with regard to the identified ‘Monitorable Indicators’ are to be done on a comprehensive Need Assessment exercise and accordingly the ‘Village Development Plans’ (VDPs) are generated showing the critical gaps and proposed source of funding to fulfil the gaps. The Scheme relies heavily on convergence with other initiatives of the Central and State/UT Governments for ensuring that the minimum infrastructure and critical services are made available to all the persons in the village, especially those belonging to the Scheduled Castes. PMAGY provides the platform for convergent implementation of other Schemes with the aim to achieve saturation in the various domains. Whereas it is expected that the major portion of the funds requirement for implementation would be met from other Central or State/UT Schemes, the ‘Gap-filling’ funds are provided under the Scheme, for those areas which cannot be covered otherwise.
4. Funding under the Scheme: For every new village selected, the Scheme provides for a total of Rs. 21 lakh of which Rs.20.00 lakh is for the ‘Gap-filling’ component and Rs.1.00 lakh is meant for ‘administrative expenses’ to be utilized at the Centre, State, District and Village level in the ratio of 1:1:1:2.

   Further, for continuous development of the villages already covered under the earlier phases, there is a component of ‘additional round of funding’ of Rs. 10 lakh per village. Out of this, Rs.9.50 lakh per village would be utilized for ‘Gap-filling’ component and Rs.0.50 lakh per village are to be utilized amongst the Centre, State, District and Village in a ratio of 1:1:1:2 for Administrative and other expenses.

   Initially, the State Government/UT Administration will release the entire admissible funds under ‘Administrative Expenses’ to the District Administrations for carrying out capacity building, administrative expenses, awareness generation and initiating non cost based activities. Thereafter the entire admissible funds under the ‘Gap-filling’ component i.e. Rs.20.00 lakh per village will be released by the State Government to the District Administration once the VDP of the selected villages is approved by their DLCC so that the planned works can be executed without any delay.

D. Project Monitoring:

1. The Scheme provides for setting up of Committees at various levels for guidance, monitoring and implementation of the scheme at their respective level. These Committees, especially the Convergence Committees at the Village, District and State levels, are crucial to the implementation as they would assess the requirements as well as plan and execute the works/services that are needed to be undertaken under various Schemes for the wholesome development of the villages.
2. The Government of India has also developed a well-defined structure for Planning, Implementation and Monitoring of the Scheme execution. A website with the facility of collection of Household level data, assessment of village needs, prioritising the works, preparing the Village Development Plan and periodic monitoring of the Scheme has been made operational. The web link of the site is https://pmagy.gov.in .

E. Financial Year-wise releases under the Scheme (Rs. in Crore):

F. Pilot Phase: (2009-10 to 2013-14)

G. Phase-I: (2014-15)

H. Financial Progress under phase-I:

I. Status of implementation of scheme in villages selected since 2018-19:

1. The year-wise list of the villages selected and found eligible: 

5. In Bihar, a total of 616 villages have been selected till date. The State Govt. of Bihar is yet to start implementation of the scheme in these villages.

2. Fund Released Since 2018-19 under the Scheme:

5. The State Govt. of Bihar had been released an amounting to Rs. 6513.50 lakh for implementation of 616 villages but the State Govt. is not implementing the scheme.

3. Status of UC submitted and unspent balance (Amount in Rs Lakh):

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