Delivery lacunae in social schemes

DEA team does sample checks and says implementation and delivery issues need addressing to realise aims

Findings of senior officials of the finance ministry suggest many centrally-sponsored social sector programmes, including the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), suffer from delivery-related issues.

"While changes are needed in the programmes in some cases, it is the implementation and delivery-related issues that need to be addressed," says a report on the performance of major social schemes, prepared by three senior officials in the department of economic affairs.

The report, penned by senior economic advisor H A C Prasad and two others, is based on ground-level field samples and research work on some districts in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The report also carried a disclaimer that the views were of the authors and might not necessarily reflect those of the ministry.

The report had a sample survey on programmes such as MGNREGS, National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme and Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), among others. On MGNREGS, it said though the programme is panchayat-centric and demand-based, on the ground there is lack of a principal role in planning by the gram sabha and gram panchayat.

"At the sample sites, the role of the gram sabha in planning was more of a formal nature and the programme is being implemented in a supply-driven mode, as there is lack of panchayat-driven selection of work," the authors said.

"In some places, only females are interested in working through MGNREGS as market wages for males are much higher, resulting in only small work being undertaken, instead of big projects. There are also cases of procedures being not fully followed, lack of proper planning and some ill-conceived projects. There were also many instances of single beneficiaries and gram panchayats starting activities only to use the MGNREGS funds. The seasonal aspect in provision of employment was also ignored and there were delays in wage payment up to two months in some districts," the survey said. On SSA, the report said schools were set up under the stipulation of the Right to Education Act, to have these within a km radius of every habitat. The survey, which studied Bopgaon and Savkarmale villages in Pune, found the schools did not have the required number of students to have separate rooms for each class. "Four classes were operational, with only two teachers in two classrooms. Schools in nearby localities were also suffering from the same problem," the report said.

The authors recommended a single school instead of many could have served the purpose better, with optimisation of resources to augment better infrastructural facilities. "The stipulation of having schools within one km radius of a habitat needs to be reconsidered to avoid mushrooming of schools nearby without adequate infrastructure and teachers," said. It suggested delivery of foodgrain to schools under MDM, in the news after 23 students died and 12 more fell ill in Dharmashati Gandaman in Saran district of Bihar earlier this year, should be the primary responsibility of Public Distribution System dealers, under the supervision of panchayats, to ensure good quality and adequate quantity.

The scheme was found to be working well in the selected schools visited. However, some schools used gunny bags and did not have proper doors for the store rooms, the report said. And, greater involvement of teaching staff for MDM was at the cost of their primary activity of teaching. "Teaching staff should be involved only in he supervision of serving of meals to students," it said.

The survey cited a system in Mysore district, of using a special van for creating greater awareness of social sector programmes with the help of tailor-made short movies. It said this was worth emulating elsewhere.