Doddakombai tribal settlement in Erode district gets government bus facility
Residents had to walk nearly 10 km through the forest area to reach Kallipatti, the nearest location with bus services, to access hospitals, buy essential commodities, and attend school. Students often risked their safety walking long distances through the forest daily.
Responding to the community's long-standing demand, the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) extended its Gobichettipalayam–Athani bus service from Karumbarai Pudur to Doddakombai. The service will operate in the morning and evening, catering to the needs of both students and the public.
The new service was flagged off on Tuesday by Minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare M. Mathiventhan. He was joined by Rajya Sabha MP Anthiyur P. Selvaraj, Anthiyur MLA G. Venkatachalam, District Revenue Officer S. Santhakumar, and other officials, who travelled in the bus and received an enthusiastic welcome from the local residents.
Doddakombai's residents primarily depend on collecting minor forest produce such as honey and broom grass for their livelihood. However, restrictions from the Forest Department had limited their access to forest resources, forcing many to rely on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and farm labour.
The newly introduced bus service is seen as a major step toward improving mobility and access to essential services, marking a significant milestone in addressing the needs of the tribal population.
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The Hindu
3 hours ago
- The Hindu
Kerala blazes a digital trail by achieving 100% digital literacy
With practised ease, Sarasu's finger glides over the smartphone screen from one video to the next, as she lists out the things she learned to do with the phone. For a while, the septuagenarian worker of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) even had a YouTube channel featuring her folk songs, which accidentally got deleted when her phone developed a technical snag. Standing in front of her modest house in the deep interiors of Pullampara panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram, she speaks of the joy of video calling her grandchild and taking photographs. In another ward in the same panchayat, S. Boban, a veteran farmer, has just prepared the ground for black pepper cultivation using PVC pipes, a novel method he learned from YouTube. His only complaint is that now he gets to see too many videos on black pepper cultivation on his timeline, due to the algorithms. Both of them until recently belonged to the vast number of 'digitally illiterate' citizens, sometimes left behind in a world moving along unfamiliar trajectories. But now they are part of the 21.87 lakh people across Kerala who have completed the State government's Digi Kerala digital literacy programme, making Kerala the first State to achieve total digital literacy. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made the official declaration on Thursday (August 21). In a grassroots-level movement akin to the landmark total literacy campaign of the late 1980s, the State utilised its strong local self-government mechanism to the hilt to bridge the digital divide. The story begins in 2021 at Pullampara, a hilly rural region located approximately 25 km from Thiruvananthapuram, the State capital. A group of government officials native to Pullampara began noticing long queues regularly in front of one of the few banks in the panchayat. Many of them were MGNREGS labourers who had travelled long distances just to check their account balance. Sajina Sathar, then a district women's welfare officer and an assistant director in the Local Self-Government department at present, says that the travails of those who kept aside their daily work for something as simple as an account balance check kindled a thought about teaching them to use the basic digital technology required in daily life. Thus was born the project 'Digi Pullampara', the precursor to Digi Kerala. The plans to impart digital literacy to all residents of the panchayat began in August 2021 under a five-member core team led by panchayat president P.V. Rajesh. The team had Sajina, MGNREGS district engineer Dinesh Pappen, and S. Sanob, a trainee of the Kerala Administrative Service, and a technical education department employee Shamnad Pullampara as its members. A survey was soon carried out across all wards to identify those who are digitally illiterate. Out of 3,917 people thus identified, training was provided to 3,300 as the rest were bedridden. 'We trained our volunteers on ways to convince senior citizens who were reluctant to adopt digital technology and smartphones about the benefits and possibilities of adopting the new technology. We convinced them that they could video call their grandchildren, watch an episode of a television serial they might have missed, the wide variety of helpful videos available on YouTube to learn new skills, and the benefits of Internet searching,' says Sajina. The core team designed 15 activities in three modules for training, ranging from basic smartphone usage to navigating social media applications to bill payments and accessing government services. APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University vetted the modules that were used to train in the panchayat as well as across the State, says Sajina. While the National Digital Literacy Mission's guidelines for digital literacy require training to be imparted only for those up to 60 years of age, the Digi Pullampara and later the Digi Kerala programme included people of all ages, even those above the age of 100. Instead of the focus on computer literacy at the national level, the programmes at the panchayat and State levels were tweaked to make people proficient in using smartphones. Students from the National Service Scheme (NSS) units of five engineering colleges in the region and a higher secondary school aided in the training programme, along with Kudumbashree volunteers, SC/ST promoters, and library council members. The training was carried out in three ways — in places like MGNREGS worksites and Kudumbashree neighbourhood groups where people come together in considerable numbers, through volunteers visiting households, and through the younger generation in households with senior citizens. 'For years, I have used a basic mobilephone, as my idea of a phone was that it was meant for calling only. I used to think of smartphones as some kind of luxury. But these kids told me how knowing this would be helpful in the future. Now, it is helping me in farming, in paying bills from home, and in video calling my daughter who is abroad,' says Boban. Karunaka Panicker learned the basics of using a smartphone at the age of 99, along with his son, Rajan, then 69. Now at 103, his failing eyesight prevents him from using it on his own, but he joins his son in listening to the news and songs on the phone. Sarasu, on completion of her classes, bought a smartphone using savings from her MGNREGS wages. S.R. Aswathi, vice president of Pullampara panchayat, talks about one of the biggest challenges for the project, with six wards out of the 15 in the panchayat not having mobile network coverage. 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As a Koran scholar, I use Google to clear some of my doubts regarding the scriptures, while YouTube is a good source of news,' says Baqavi, who along with Sarasu has become the face of the digital literacy campaign. Out of those who passed the evaluation, 7.77 lakh people are between the ages of 60 and 75, 1.35 lakh between the ages of 76 and 90, and 15,221 above the age of 90. Over 13 lakh women, eight lakh men and 1,644 transgender persons completed the programme successfully, claim the authorities. Internet as a basic right On November 7, 2019 the then Left Democratic Front government in Kerala announced that Internet connection would be a basic right in the State, becoming the first State in the country to do so. In 2023, the government commissioned the first phase of the Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON) project aimed at ensuring universal Internet access and narrowing the digital divide. With an aim to provide Internet free of cost to 20 lakh below the poverty line (BPL) families, the project has till now reached over 14,000 BPL families, in addition to 74,203 commercial home connections, according to KFON sources. In 2024, the government also launched K-Smart, an ambitious project to make available all services of local self-government bodies digitally over a uniform platform. This includes marriage registration over videoconferencing and self-certification for building permits for smaller constructions. According to its proponents, the Digi Kerala project, which is aimed at equipping everyone with knowledge of handling basic digital tools, fits right into this structured plan to bridge the digital divide and enable people to access government services without queuing up in front of offices. 'This is the beginning of our efforts to bridge the digital divide. But we are not stopping at this. As part of Digi Kerala 2.0, we will train everyone to access government services, provide awareness classes on cyber fraud, and equip them to identify and reject fake news, thus enabling them to lead a responsible and safe digital citizenship,' says Minister for Local Self-Government M. B. Rajesh. Kerala is once again setting benchmarks for others to follow.
Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Indian Express
What does the story of India's rural development say?
— Ritwika Patgiri The government's decision to cap the spending under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) at 60 per cent for the FY 2025-26 came even as the Ministry of Rural Development sought an increased outlay of Rs 5.23 lakh crore for the MGNREGS till 2029-30. Data shows that India has been witnessing a decline in budget allocation for essential social sectors. For instance, the budget allocations for different programmes under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) have seen a steady decline since before 2019. While MGNREGS has seen a minimal increase in its allocated budget, the number of families working under the scheme has come down from 7.25 crore in 2021-22 to 5.79 crore in 2024-25. With around 65 per cent of the country's population living in rural areas, alongside the ongoing rural distress, such declining welfare allocations have serious implications for rural development. Rural development as a concept gained traction in the 1970s with renewed emphasis on rural policies and programmes. This stemmed from the failure of state-led modernisation projects and industrialisation policies that fell short of expectations. With growth concentrated in certain areas and widespread rural poverty persisting in the 1970s, it was recognised that the dispersion of basic services is central to equitable distribution of resources and poverty alleviation. Thus, rural development can be understood as a package of policies that aim to foster socio-economic development in rural areas. Notably, agriculture is crucial to both rural growth and development. According to economic theories on development, agricultural development is a pre-requisite for rural industrial growth. These theories further suggest that as agriculture grows, the relative size of farms declines. Hence, a high growth agricultural sector along with a declining farm size are seen as markers of agricultural development. Structural transformation is, thus, shaped by the movement of both output and labour away from agriculture to the modern industrial sector. In the Indian context, it is often noted that the nature of the structural transformation has been slow and has been linked to 'premature' service-led growth. At the same time, the employment share of the manufacturing sector has failed to increase. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data, this is primarily because of the rapid growth of the service sector, which has restrained the growth of the secondary sector. Another interesting observation about the Indian economy is that most of the service sector is led by self-employment rather than wage employment. Rural development policies need to be understood against this backdrop. Two important schemes – the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) and the National Rural Employment Programme (later became MGNREGS) – can be discussed in this context. The IRDP was launched in 1978-79 and implemented from 1980 until it was merged with five other rural development programmes in 1999. As a self-employment programme for poverty alleviation, the core objective of the IRDP was to enable identified rural poor families to increase their incomes and cross the poverty line through the acquisition of credit-based productive assets. The MGNREGS, on the other hand, provides a one-off wage payment to the workers for developing infrastructure such as roads and irrigation works that can generate long-term benefits for the propertied classes. While IRDP was focused on self-employment, MGNREGS emerged as a guarantor of 100 days of wage employment to rural individuals. MGNREGS, however, has faced an inadequate budget allocation in the last few years, even as there has been a renewed interest in policies and schemes around self-employment. Examples of some schemes and initiatives include: — The Pradhan Mantri Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP): It offers subsidies to establish micro-enterprises. — The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY): It facilitates self-employment through loans to micro and small businesses. — Initiatives like the Rural Self-Employment and Training Institutes (RSETIs) and the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY): Here, the focus is on skill development and entrepreneurship training, etc. States like Assam have also launched schemes like the Chief Minister's Atmanirbhar Asom Abhijan (CMAAA) to promote self-employment among youth through grants. In the context of such rural policies, self-employment is perceived as dynamic and capable of generating further employment. However, the other side of the debate views India's persistent reliance on self-employment as a sign of distress, not very different from wage-employment, and an alternative in the absence of wage or other gainful employment. Rural development can also be understood in terms of social indicators like access to electricity, drinking water, health, and education. While data from the National Family Health Survey 2019-21 suggests improvement in these indicators compared to 2015-16, a deeper analysis shows a different picture. For instance, rural health care is often marked by informal private doctors or providers, which national-level data sets often fail to capture. While numbers suggest that people in rural areas do visit doctors and seek medical care, the quality of this healthcare needs to be discussed. Similarly, a comparative analysis of indicators for rural and urban India shows a higher prevalence of stunting among children (37.3%) in rural areas as compared to urban areas (30.1%). Children from Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes are more likely to be seen as disproportionately affected in these indicators. Education presents similar challenges. The findings of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 reflect serious structural and quality issues in rural education. The report shows that many students in rural India are more likely to have progressed through the education system without acquiring foundational learning skills. Huge shortage of teachers and human resources further exacerbates the problems. Moreover, PLFS data also suggests that despite the focus on skill-building and training programmes in rural India, meaningful rural employment generation has yet to materialise. What then can be understood from India's story of rural development? While skill and entrepreneurship development are important, they cannot deliver full benefits without adequate investment in social sectors such as health, education, and nutrition. Livelihood generation needs to be aligned with a deeper understanding of the rural economy's structure. A sustainable rural policy must integrate welfare and employment generation by strengthening budgetary support for social infrastructure. At the same time, investments in rural infrastructure can expand economic opportunities, support human development, and promote more inclusive and equitable growth. How did the early modernisation projects shape the rural development policies in India from the 1970s onwards? Can rural development be effectively measured through social indicators such as health, education, nutrition, or through purely economic growth metrics? The welfare schemes like MGNREGS and self-employment schemes like PMEGP, Mudra Yojana reflect different models of rural development. Discuss. What do persistent gaps in health and education outcomes between rural and urban India reveal about the existing rural development programmes? (Ritwika Patgiri is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Economics, South Asian University.) Share your thoughts and ideas on UPSC Special articles with Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.
New Indian Express
12 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Karnataka lags in PMAY-G with 30 per cent houses completed
MANGALURU: One of the slowest states in completing rural housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), Karnataka has proved to be a real laggard in the field. This was highlighted by several Members of Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament. According to queries by multiple MPs, the primary reason cited is the low unit cost sanctioned for house construction, which they argue is insufficient to meet current material and labour costs. According to sources, the lack of available land is also cited as one of the major reasons behind the poor performance. According to data shared by the Ministry of Rural Development in response to a Lok Sabha query, Karnataka was allocated 9.44 lakh houses under PMAY-G since its launch in April 2016. However, as of August 13, 2025, only 5.25 lakh houses have been sanctioned, and a mere 1.58 lakh completed. This reflects a completion rate of just 30.28%, significantly lower than the national average of 73.5%. Other southern states have shown relatively better performance. Tamil Nadu where free land is provided to landless labourers has completed around 6.48 lakh houses out of 7.42 lakh sanctioned, achieving a completion rate of approximately 87.3%. Andhra Pradesh, though allocated fewer houses, has a completion rate of about 36% with 89,061 homes built out of 2.46 lakh sanctioned. Kerala, on the other hand, has lagged significantly with just 34,388 houses completed out of 76,278 sanctioned, reflecting a rate of around 45%. The MPs expressed concern that the scheme's financial support - currently around Rs 1.2 lakh per unit in plain areas does not reflect the real cost of construction in today's economy. They pointed out that rising prices of building materials, transportation, among others have made it nearly impossible for rural beneficiaries to build livable homes within the current outlay. Despite these concerns, the Ministry of Rural Development clarified in its official response that there is no proposal under consideration to increase the unit cost of houses under PMAY-G. The government maintains that the scheme functions through convergence with other rural welfare initiatives such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which offers additional unskilled labour, and Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin for toilet construction.
