PDO Specific Paper: Rural Development Programmes

1. Rural Employment and Livelihoods

Work and income are the base of rural development. For 20 years MGNREGA was the main rural job law; from 1 July 2026 it has been replaced by the VB-G RAM G Act. Livelihood missions build self-help groups so that poor families can earn more.

VB-G RAM G Act: key provisions

• Full name: Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025. It came into force on 1 July 2026, replacing MGNREGA, 2005.
• It guarantees 125 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work (MGNREGA gave 100 days).
• A total pause of up to 60 days in a year is allowed during peak sowing and harvesting seasons; the 125 days are provided in the rest of the year.
• Wages are to be paid weekly, or in any case within a fortnight, directly into bank or post office accounts; delayed wages attract compensation.
• Cost sharing between Centre and states is 60:40 for most states, 90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan states and Union Territories with a legislature, and full central funding for Union Territories without a legislature.
• Instead of open-ended demand-based funding, the Centre fixes a state-wise 'normative allocation' each year.

Works and planning under VB-G RAM G

• Works are grouped into four areas: water security, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure, and works to reduce the impact of extreme weather.
• Planning is bottom-up through Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans, linked to the PM Gati Shakti digital map.
• Workers get a Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Card; e-KYC-verified old job cards stay valid during the change-over.
• Gram Panchayats and PDOs play a central role in registering households, planning works and organising social audits.
• Several states, including Karnataka, have criticised the new funding pattern; the Union government says the law strengthens rural employment.

DAY-NRLM, Sanjeevini and SHGs

• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) began as NRLM in 2011 (Aajeevika). It brings at least one woman from each poor rural household into a self-help group (SHG).
• In Karnataka it is run as 'Sanjeevini' by the Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (KSRLPS).
• An SHG usually has 10 to 20 members who save regularly, lend to each other and take bank loans. SHGs join into village organisations and cluster-level federations.
• Support includes a Revolving Fund, a Community Investment Fund and bank linkage with interest subvention.
• Lakhpati Didi: an SHG member whose household earns at least Rs 1 lakh a year, sustained over time; the national goal is to create crores of such Lakhpati Didis.
• In Karnataka, SHG women are also engaged by GPs, for example to run waste collection vehicles and GP libraries (Arivu Kendras).

💡 Exam pairs: '125 days, 60-day pause, 60:40 funding, weekly wages' for VB-G RAM G. Do not confuse with MGNREGA's 100 days.

📝 5-question quiz on this lesson: enrol free to take it and track your score.

2. Housing, Drinking Water and Sanitation

A safe house, tap water at home and clean surroundings change the quality of village life. Three big central missions handle these needs, with states sharing costs and Gram Panchayats doing much of the ground work.

PMAY-G: rural housing

• Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana - Gramin (PMAY-G) began on 20 November 2016, replacing the older Indira Awaas Yojana.
• Beneficiaries are chosen from SECC 2011 data and the Awaas+ survey lists, and the Gram Sabha verifies the lists.
• Unit help is Rs 1.20 lakh in plain areas and Rs 1.30 lakh in hilly and difficult areas, plus wage days from the rural employment scheme and toilet support from SBM-G.
• The minimum house size is 25 square metres, including a clean cooking area. Money is paid in instalments to the beneficiary's account after geo-tagged inspection.
• In 2024 the Union Cabinet approved 2 crore more houses for 2024-25 to 2028-29.

Jal Jeevan Mission

• Launched on 15 August 2019 to give every rural home a Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC).
• The norm is at least 55 litres per person per day of water of prescribed quality, supplied regularly.
• Each village has a Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) or Pani Samiti, a sub-committee of the GP, with at least 50% women members.
• Five women in each village are trained to test water using Field Test Kits.
• The Union Budget 2025-26 extended the mission up to 2028, with focus on quality and maintenance.

Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) Phase II and waste management

• SBM-G Phase I (2014-2019) focused on building toilets and making villages Open Defecation Free (ODF).
• Phase II (from 2020-21) aims at ODF Plus: keeping ODF status and managing solid and liquid waste in every village.
• ODF Plus villages are graded in three steps: Aspiring, Rising and Model.
• Its components include solid waste management, plastic waste management, greywater (used water) management, faecal sludge management and GOBARdhan (turning cattle dung and biowaste into biogas and manure).
• In Karnataka, GPs run waste collection vehicles and dry waste collection centres, often with SHG women.

💡 Link numbers to schemes: 25 sq m (PMAY-G house), 55 litres (JJM), 3 ODF Plus levels (Aspiring, Rising, Model).

📝 5-question quiz on this lesson: enrol free to take it and track your score.

3. Rural Infrastructure, Planning and Karnataka's Own Schemes

Roads, property records and good village plans are the backbone of rural growth. This lesson covers central infrastructure programmes, the planning process in Gram Panchayats and some of Karnataka's own RDPR initiatives.

Central infrastructure schemes

• Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY): launched on 25 December 2000 to give all-weather road connectivity to unconnected habitations.
• PMGSY-IV (2024-25 to 2028-29) aims to connect about 25,000 more unconnected habitations with about 62,500 km of roads.
• Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (launched February 2016): aimed to develop about 300 'Rurban' clusters of villages with urban-like facilities.
• SVAMITVA (launched 24 April 2020): drone surveys of inhabited village areas (abadi) to give owners legal property cards. By mid-2026 over 3 crore property cards had been prepared (PIB).
• Property cards help villagers take bank loans, reduce disputes and help GPs assess property tax.

GPDP and Mission Antyodaya

• Every GP must prepare a Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) each year, matching local needs with available funds (Finance Commission grants, schemes and own revenue).
• Since 2 October 2018 the People's Plan Campaign ('Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas') runs each year to prepare GPDPs through Gram Sabhas.
• GPDPs of GPs across India are uploaded on eGramSwaraj.
• Mission Antyodaya (2017-18) is an annual survey that ranks GPs on infrastructure and services and points out gaps to fill in the GPDP.
• Taluk and district plans are built from GP plans and approved by the District Planning Committee (Article 243ZD).

Karnataka's own RDPR initiatives

• Pragathi Patha: a rural road programme of about Rs 5,190 crore for about 7,110 km of rural roads, approved by the state cabinet in June 2024 and executed constituency-wise.
• Kalyana Patha: a companion rural road programme for the Kalyana Karnataka region.
• Arivu Kendras: Gram Panchayat libraries turned into knowledge centres with digital resources.
• Bapuji Seva Kendras, Panchatantra 2.0 and e-Swathu (see the e-governance lesson) are also RDPR initiatives that a PDO uses daily.

💡 SVAMITVA and eGramSwaraj were both launched on National Panchayati Raj Day, 24 April 2020. One date, two answers.

📝 5-question quiz on this lesson: enrol free to take it and track your score.

4. Development Concepts: Poverty, SDGs, Planning, Credit and Watersheds

A PDO needs to understand the ideas behind schemes, not just the schemes. This lesson covers how poverty is measured, how SDGs are brought to the village, why planning is decentralised, how villages get credit and how watersheds are developed.

Measuring poverty: MPI

• Poverty is not only low income. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) looks at deprivations in health, education and standard of living.
• India's National MPI by NITI Aayog uses 12 indicators. It adds maternal health and bank accounts to the 10 indicators of the global MPI.
• NITI Aayog estimated in January 2024 that about 24.82 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23.
• Indicators include nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets.

Localising SDGs: the 9 LSDG themes

• The UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be met by 2030. MoPR has grouped them into 9 themes for panchayats (Localisation of SDGs, LSDG).
• Themes 1-3: Poverty-free and enhanced livelihoods village; Healthy village; Child-friendly village.
• Themes 4-6: Water-sufficient village; Clean and green village; Village with self-sufficient infrastructure.
• Themes 7-9: Socially just and socially secured village; Village with good governance; Women-friendly village.
• GPs choose themes in the Gram Sabha and build their GPDP around them. The Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) measures progress on these themes.

Decentralised planning and rural credit

• Decentralised planning means plans are made from below (GP, then taluk, then district) by the people who know local needs.
• Article 243G asks states to give panchayats powers to plan and implement schemes for economic development and social justice, including Eleventh Schedule subjects.
• NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) was set up on 12 July 1982, on the recommendation of the B. Sivaraman committee (CRAFICARD).
• NABARD refinances banks for rural lending, supports SHG-bank linkage, and funds rural infrastructure through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).
• Rural credit also comes from Regional Rural Banks, co-operative banks and commercial banks; the Kisan Credit Card (1998) gives farmers short-term crop credit.

Watershed development

• A watershed is an area of land from which all rainwater drains to a common point, such as a stream or tank.
• Watershed development treats the whole area from 'ridge to valley' with bunds, trenches, check dams, farm ponds and tree planting.
• Benefits: more groundwater, less soil erosion, better crops and fodder, and fewer migrations in drought years.
• Nationally it runs as the Watershed Development Component of PMKSY (WDC-PMKSY 2.0, 2021-26) under the Department of Land Resources.
• Water-conservation works are also a main category of rural employment works, so PDOs often plan them with the GP.

💡 For LSDG questions, list the 9 themes on your fingers: poverty, health, child, water, clean-green, infrastructure, social justice, governance, women.

📝 5-question quiz on this lesson: enrol free to take it and track your score.