‘No anganwadi centres built in 7 yrs because rural job plan was not interpreted correctly’

Rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha said MGNREGA had been misunderstood between 2006 and 2013-14, but since then, the govt has built 2 lakh centres.

Rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha speaks on day two of the WASH Futures: Subsidiarity for Service Delivery, a national workshop orgnised by CPR India, on 15 November 2019 in New Delhi.

New Delhi: A misinterpretation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has led to the abysmal state of construction of pro-poor infrastructure over the past few years, including anganwadi centres, rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha said Friday.

Speaking on Day 2 of a national workshop titled ‘WASH Futures: Subsidiarity for service delivery’, organised by the Centre for Policy Research, Sinha said his ministry will now focus on these projects.

Sinha said the common belief is that the 60:40 partnership between different government departments can only happen at the panchayat level. However, MGNREGA clearly states that the partnership can happen at the district level too.

Due to this misinterpretation, not one anganwadi building was constructed from 2006 to 2013-14. But since then, the ministry has constructed two lakh centres, Sinha said.

“Construction of anganwadi centres has not been done in line with the aim of decentralisation. Unfortunately, whereas school and hospitals get constructed, anganwadi buildings are one of the public infrastructure (projects) where a large gap continues,” Sinha said.

To address this, Sinha said the Ministry of Rural Development is roping in the Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry, which will contribute Rs 2 lakh. These funds will be clubbed with the Rs 5 lakh provided under MGNREGA.

The ministry is also reviewing all schemes under implementation to find households which are yet to get the benefits of government-implemented schemes, he said.

Sinha pointed out that nine crore rural households in the country are still deprived and under acute poverty. “On the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti on 14 April, all the gram sabhas have been asked to submit a report card of the reach of rural schemes at such households,” he said.

The ministry aims to implement at least 75 per cent of the rural development schemes across three-fourths of these deprived households, he added.

Focus on self-help groups

Apart from anganwadi centres, the rural development ministry is also going all out to promote self-help groups led by transgender and elderly people.

“We have started work to promote SHGs led by transgender and elderly people. We already have a transgender-led SHGs in Kudumbhashree, Kerala. Also, we did some experiments of elderly-based SHGs in Vellore (Tamil Nadu), wherein we felt that there is a need to promote both of them,” Sinha said.

ThePrint was a digital partner of the event.