The country needs to urgently revamp its major social sector schemes, including those relating to rural jobs, health and education, as outlays for them are not being translated into outcomes because of poor delivery mechanism, Economic Survey 2013-14 showed.
Calling for a greater role for private players and detection of pilferage and ghost beneficiaries through effective use of technology, the survey stressed the need for revamp or reorganisation of schemes, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
The survey pointed out that although the MGNREGS is Panchayat-centric and demand-based, “the awareness level in the gram sabha/PRIs is very low, also resulting in lack of ownership, ill-conceived planning and shelfing of projects, and weak or even no social audit”, it added.
MGNREGS provides for not less than 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household. The outlay for the scheme in 2013-14 was R33,000 crore, compared with R29,387 crore a year before, although still less than R35,841 crore in 2010-11.
Government spending on social sector schemes witnessed a cut in recent years before picking up again in 2013-14. The Centre?s expenditure on social services as a percentage of total spend rose to 12.83% in 2013-14 from 11.83% in the previous year. “The need for community projects is becoming less important as probably such works have already been completed or are on the brink of saturation or on account of lack of common interest in public works,” it said.
“So there is an urgent need to revamp the MGNREGA to prevent its misuse and make it a development-oriented programme, creating tangible and meaningful assets and infrastructure, including tourism-related infrastructure, or some large agriculture related activities,” it added.
Regarding NRLM, the survey said the mismatch in the scope of activities and large amount of investment made in infrastructure needs to be reviewed.
Similarly, the NRHM suffers from problems like underutilisation of the well-built infrastructure. ?There is also a need to consider PPP in this sector with careful regulatory oversight,? the survey added.
The Right to Education Act, which provides for a school within 1 km radius of every habitation, also needs to be revisited as the number of students in some places does not warrant separate classrooms.
The mid-day meal scheme also needs a facelift as there are concerns about the safety of children owing to poor quality of food.
