Aspirational Blocks Programme: Building blocks of Viksit Bharat

Why in News?

• The Aspirational Blocks Programme (ABP) was launched recently by the Prime Minister of India during the Second National Conference of Chief Secretaries.

 

Background of Aspirational Blocks Programme

• An inter-ministerial committee in consultation with states had identified 500 blocks from across 28 states and four UTs for monitoring their 15 key socio-economic indicators (KSIs) based on various development parameters.
• The sectors were selected for facilitating holistic development of every block with states having the flexibility to include additional state-specific KSIs to address local challenges. 
• The ABP is built on the noteworthy success of the government’s flagship Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) launched in 2018 across 112 under-developed districts of India with a vision of a New India by 2022.
• The concept of the community development block was first introduced as part of Community Development Programme
  • It aimed to provide for a significant expansion of the nation's agricultural program as well as enhancements to communication infrastructure, rural health and hygienic practices, and rural education.

 

What is the Aspirational Blocks Programme (ABP)?

• This transformational programme focuses on improving governance to enhance the quality of life of citizens in the most difficult and underdeveloped blocks of India.
• It will be attained by converging existing schemes, defining outcomes, and monitoring them on a constant basis, enabling holistic development in areas that require added assistance.
• The KSIs under ABP are categorised under major sectors namely health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development, basic infrastructure and social development.
  • These KSIs will be tracked on a real-time basis and periodic rankings will be released across key thematic areas to foster a healthy and dynamic competition among the blocks to encourage data-driven governance.
• Over half of these blocks are in 6 states namely UP (68 blocks), Bihar (61), MP (42), Jharkhand (34), Odisha (29) and West Bengal (29).
• The states, as the key drivers of this initiative, are expected to guide, support, review and build capacity of relevant officers to drive progress under this programme.
  • Under the leadership of the district administration, the block level officers will ensure critical last mile service delivery by improving the infrastructure to aid social welfare development.
  • Also, various departments of the block administration will converge and work in unison to bridge critical administrative gaps and sustain these developments and improvements for a long period of time.

Image Caption: Aspirational Blocks Programme

 

What is the need for ABP for governance?

• The Finance Minister in her 2022 Union Budget speech highlighted that 95% of 112 aspirational districts have made significant progress in major indicators.
  • However, some blocks continue to under-perform due to reasons like difficult terrain, lack of resources, historical injustice, social marginalization and community vulnerability, etc.
  • The ABP, hence, aims to address these inequalities by improving governance and last mile service delivery at the block level.
• As an administrative and monitoring unit, the block ensures that a “one-size-fits-all” approach is not applied to every part of the country.
• By constructing social and economic infrastructure, these Blocks seek to ensure that a greater share of development reaches the vulnerable and marginalised segments of the population, by bringing the decision-making process closer to the grass roots.

 

What is the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP)?

• It was launched to quickly and effectively transform (socio-economic status of) 112 most under-developed districts across the country.
• The districts were chosen that have relatively shown lesser progress in key social areas as identified by NITI Aayog based upon composite indicators -
  • Health and Nutrition (30%)
  • Education (30%)
  • Agriculture & Water Resources (20%)
  • Financial Inclusion & Skill development (10%) and
  • Basic Infrastructure (10%) and social development which have an impact on HDI
• The broad contours of the programme were based on 3C Strategy as follows:
  • Convergence (of Central & State Schemes)
  • Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors)
  • Competition (among districts driven by a Mass Movement)

 

Success Story of ADP

• The ADP became a major accomplishment as it displayed that development led by “Jan Andolan” (mass movement) along with constantly monitored progress of each district would follow success.
• The UNDP India also lauded the ADP as a very successful model of local area development, that expedited progress in the previously neglected districts, including those affected by Left Wing Extremism.
• In the last five years, many aspirational districts have bettered their performance, across several indicators, then the state average values.
• For example, Paschimi Singbhum, a LWE affected district in Jharkhand has raised registration of pregnant women within the first trimester from just 39% in 2018 to 91% in 2022.
  • Districts such as Gumla in Jharkhand, Karauli in Rajasthan, Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh, and Dhalai in Tripura have increased the percentage of institutional deliveries from around 40% to more than 90%.
  • Kupwara in J&K has increased the percentage of secondary schools with functional electricity from less than 50% in 2018 to more than 95% in 2022.
  • The immunisation rate went up from 50% in 2018 to 90% in 2022 in Dhenkanal in Odisha.
• Other encouraging outcomes include deploying SHGs in rural Ranchi to promote financial inclusion using UPI and BHIM apps.
  • Giving additional incentives to frontline workers in Barwani (MP) to ensure institutional delivey for pregnant women.
  • Complete digitization of court services to improve speed and access to justice in rural Osmanabad (Maharashtra).
• Best Practice under the ADP - GoalMart: It is an e-commerce portal launched by Assam’s Goalpara district administration to promote rural, ethnic and agrarian products of the district in the national and global markets.

 

Conclusion

• The ABP will strive to provide a common platform for all block administrations to showcase their best practices and learnings.
• A “viksit” (developed) block is the foundation for a “viksit” Bharat. This forward-looking programme (ABP) will thus leverage the three Cs of convergence, collaboration, and competition to achieve this vision.

 

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Q1) How many aspirational districts are there?

A total of 112 Aspirational Districts (AD) across 27 states have been identified by NITI AAYOG based upon composite indicators from Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill development and Basic Infrastructure which have an impact on HDI.

 

Q2) What are some of the best practices under the ADP initiative?

GoalMart: It is an e-commerce portal launched by Assam’s Goalpara district administration to promote rural, ethnic and agrarian products of the district in the national and global markets.

 

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Source: Aspirational Blocks Programme: Building blocks of Viksit Bharat