Significant improvement in wellbeing in many Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) villages

Hon’ble Prime Minister launched the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) on 11th October, 2014. This was aimed at improving the wellbeing of selected Gram Panchayats (GPs) through convergence of programmes under the overall guidance of Hon’ble Members of Parliament. The Yojana is about improving access to public services and community action for social and economic development so that these villages become role models worth emulation by neighboring Gram Panchayats. A total of 19732 new projects taken up as part of the Village Development Plan in SAGY villages have been completed and another 7204 are under implementation.

703 Hon’ble Members of Parliament selected their GPs and focused on overall development with community participation in these Gram Panchayats. In many States, the support of State Government facilitated convergence in programmes and activities leading to many significant improvements in indicators of social development like Open Defecation Free (ODF), 100% immunization, 100% enrolment in ICDS Centers etc. The implementation was given a thrust by States such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In other States also, initiatives were taken to improve the quality of life in the selected Gram Panchayats. As a result, an overall increase of 13% – 19% has been found in SAGY villages with regard to immunization, farmers with Soil Health Cards, women brought into SHGs and new Jan Dhan accounts.

Every Hon’ble Member of Parliament is expected to develop 3 (three) Gram Panchayats by March 2019. Presently, work is going on in 1235 Gram Panchayats. There was no timeline decided regarding selection of third Gram Panchayat. An analysis of performance of 35 development indicators in these villages shows that there has been a significant increase in provision of houses, internal village roads, household electrification, household latrines and piped water supply in many of the villages selected under SAGY. Of the data analyzed for 649 SAGY Gram Panchayats, it was found that 330 of them have reported 100% immunization in 0 to 6 age group, 300 have reported that every child has received ICDS services, 128 Gram Panchayats have become Open Defecation Free, 284 Gram Panchayats have reported no malnutrition in Grade-III or Grade-IV category and 445 Gram Panchayats have reported 100% coverage in provision of mid-day meals. Many social events like health camps, youth mobilization camps, yoga camps, plantation drives, women self-help groups, camps for support for differently abled persons etc. were organized by the initiatives of Hon’ble Members of Parliament.

Every SAGY Gram Panchayat has drawn up a Village Development Plan which is under implementation through convergence and additional prioritization by Central and State Governments. As many as 21 central schemes have already amended their guidelines or enabled priority for the SAGY Gram Panchayats. Most SAGY villages now have been taken up by State Governments as a part of Mission Antyodaya for significant improvement in sustainable livelihoods of poor households in these Gram Panchayats. All these Panchayats have been ranked for intervention to remove development gaps through a partnership of Central, State and Local Governments. It is envisaged that all these selected SAGY Gram Panchayats will have much better indicators on parameters ranging from physical infrastructure to human development and economic activities by March, 2019.