BHARAT GYAN VIGYAN SAMITI

CONVERGENCE PROGRAMME

Background

For the last few years, BGVS has been practicing a change in the approach of programme implementation at the national as well as state level. BGVS has been focusing on activities related to literacy, basic education, health, gender, bal munches, science popularization, local level planning, disaster management, publication etc.While the different  programmes under different sub committees of the organization were implemented, lot of repetitions have been happening at the organizational level which reduced the effectiveness of the programmes and  increased the efforts of the activists. Evaluations suggested for more convergent and coordinated implementation strategy and hence the course correction in this regard was discussed and carried out. Our experience in the last three years shows that the change of approach was useful and it has to be strengthened further.

Lot of studies has been published on the duplication of governmental schemes especially on rural development. One of such important studies says there are more than 2700 schemes implemented by the central government, which are very much interrelated and can be implemented in a more convergent way, if needed. There are a set of centrally sponsored schemes which are qualified as flagship programmes due to their importance and the quantity of plan fund allocated to them. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Backward Region Grand Fund (BRGF), Total Sanitation Mission (TSM) and Pradhan Manthri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) are such programmes.We know all these schemes are basically implemented in villages, in close tandem with the Gram Panchayaths.Many of these schemes have similar components and hence there are chances of duplication and misuse of funds as a result. The total impact will be reduced output and increased effort. We think this has to be corrected by practically converging all the said programmes at Gram Panchayath level. We find ample possibilities for integrating the panchayth level developmental programmes with the BGVS programmes, providing mutual benefit of more effectiveness. This was tried out in about 1300 Gram Panchayath falling under 250 clusters in nine states. The programme found to be very much successful and in all places, it was well accepted by the local communities as well as the local governments. At the same time, we could identify lot of organizational deficiencies which affected the continuity and effectiveness of the programme. As we have to spread out the programme in more clusters more effectively, the present approach has to be further refined and coordinated.

As all the programmes related to convergence are implemented at the panchayath level, we need to have a plan of action at that level. This plan should be designed with maximum participation of the local community, considering the basic developmental issues of the area and the needs of the local people. At the same time, it should be at the level of their capabilities also. It is on this background, we suggest preparing a document on integrated development for every Gram Panchayath or village, which can be a basic document for further action.