University of Mumbai & UN Women

National Consultation on

Gender Empowerment through Physical Infrastructure

Key-note address

by

Union Minister for Rural Development

Mr. Jairam Ramesh

Sunday, April 8, 2012

University of Mumbai, Kalina

(Media Coverage Report)

PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU

MUMBAI

Rural India would banish open defecation in 10 years: Jairam Ramesh

MUMBAI: Union rural development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said that the

rural areas of the country would be free of open defecation within a decade.

"All the 2,65,000 gram panchayats in the country will be open defecation-free in ten

years," Ramesh said, speaking at a seminar here.

He agreed that Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan should be considered more than just a toilet-

building programme. "It highlights the concerns about privacy, security and dignity of

women," he said, and assured that the campaign would be revamped.

In the past, toilet-building programmes of governments were half-hearted endeavours,

with the exception of Maharashtra where a third of the gram panchayats are "open

defecation free", Ramesh said. But now even a state such as Haryana, considered to be

having "a patriarchal" society, had taken up the challenge in a big way with the slogan

"sauchalaya nahi to dulhan nahi" (no bride if there is no toilet), he said.

Quoting 2011 census data, the minister said 60 per cent of village households still do not

have access to proper toilet facilities. He praised the success of Sikkim and Himachal

Pradesh on this front, apart from that of Maharashtra.

‘50% of rural development ministry’s funds for states’ In a bid to give states a greater say in rural development, the Centre has decided to allot 50% of the rural development ministry’s funds to state governments, who can spend it on

projects they deem fit. “By the end of the 12th five-year plan in 2017, we will be allocating

50% of rural development funds directly to the states,” rural development minister Jairam

Ramesh said at a function organised by Mumbai University on Sunday.

The rural development ministry monitors some of the UPA government’s key flagship

schemes, such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

It has an annual budget of nearly Rs99,000 crore, second only to the country’s defence

spending.

The minister claimed that state governments were not taking up the responsibility of augmenting the infrastructure in their respective areas.

For instance, the state government should ideally take up the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana, a centrally funded project to make all-weather roads for villages with a population

of 500 or more.

“The Centre should be taking up real infrastructure projects such as power and ports, while the state should be responsible for constructing rural roads,” he said.

The minister also said that a new scheme called the Mukhya Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana

would be launched in the state, which will connect villages with a population of 250 habitants through all-weather roads.

Be sensitive to women's requirements: Jairam Ramesh

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday called upon the bureaucracy to be more

gender sensitive while constructing low cost toilet blocks in villages as it is linked to the empowerment of women.

The minister pulled up the administrative machinery across the country for half-heartedly implementing the scheme.

He said that as per Census 2011, 60 percent of village households did not have access to proper toilets and urged the need for greater “gender sensitivity” in implementing the total sanitation

campaign to end defecation in the open.

Ramesh was delivering the keynote address at a two-day National Consultation on Gender Empowerment, organised by the Univeristy of Mumbai and UN Women, at the varsity’s Kalina

Campus here.

The minister appreciated the success of the scheme in Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh and said that

around 35 percent of villages in Maharashtra had also become free from open defecation.

Referring to gender empowerment, Ramesh said that it was a built-in component in most top

programmes of his ministry.

"Rural roads have improved mobility of women, increased continuation of schooling by adolescent girls who now cycle on better paved roads and made delivery of health services more

efficient," Ramesh said.

Ritu Dewan, professor, centre for gender economics in University of Mumbai, introduced the

subject with a concept note at the two-day consultation which attracted policy makers, academics, NGOs, civil society activists and activists.

Be sensitive to women's requirements: Ramesh

Mumbai Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh Sunday called upon the bureaucracy to be

more gender sensitive while constructing low cost toilet blocks in villages as it is linked to the

empowerment of women.The minister pulled up the administrative machinery across the country

for half- heartedly implementing the scheme.

He also said that he was considering extending the benefit of pension for widows to those in

under- 40 age group, as " widows in the age group of less than 40 are among the most

unprivileged". Currently, only those in 40- 49 age group are eligible.He said that as per Census

2011, 60 percent of village households did not have access to proper toilets and urged the need

for greater 'gender sensitivity'in implementing the total sanitation campaign to end defecation in

the open.

" All the 2,65,000 gram panchayats in the country will be open defecation- free in ten years,"

Ramesh said, speaking at a seminar here.He agreed that Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan should be

considered more than just a toilet- building programme.

" It highlights the concerns about privacy, security and dignity of women," he said, and assured

that the campaign would be revamped.Ramesh was delivering the keynote address at a two- day

National Consultation on Gender Empowerment, organised by the Univeristy of Mumbai and UN

Women, at the varsitys Kalina Campus here.

The minister appreciated the success of the scheme in Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh and said

that around 35 percent of villages in Maharashtra had also become free from open

defecation.Referring to gender empowerment, Ramesh said that it was a built- in component in

most top programmes of his ministry.

" Rural roads have improved mobility of women, increased continuation of schooling by

adolescent girls who now cycle on better paved roads and made delivery of health services more

efficient," Ramesh said.Adding further, he said that, building roads in the rural areas is the job of

the state governments, and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana ( PMGSY) could not be a long-

term solution to the problem of lack of roads.

" If the central government focused on construction of rural roads and their repairs and

maintenance, then it will have no money to spend on creating other infrastructure," the minister

said Ritu Dewan, professor, centre for gender economics in University of Mumbai, introduced the

subject with a concept note at the two- day consultation which attracted policy makers,

academics, NGOs, civil society activists.

Jairam favours flexi funds for States to develop rural areas

PTI Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh interacts with delegates during the

inauguration of a seminar on 'Engendering Physical Infrastructure via PMGSY', in Mumbai on Sunday.

Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh on Sunday advocated flexi funds for States and said

that by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan, 50 per cent of the Ministry's outlay should be handed over to

the States in phases for roads and development activities based on local needs and realities.

He was delivering the keynote address at a national consultation on ‘Engendering Physical Infrastructure

via Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY),' organised by the Centre for Gender Economics,

University of Mumbai, and UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the

Empowerment of Women.

Mr. Ramesh said the PMGSY was doing what the States should have done, but did not. The Centre was

geared for building bigger infrastructure and not rural roads, he said, and this was a complete perversion

of constitutional imperatives. The PMGSY could not be a permanent solution; it was the responsibility of

the States to build roads. The programme also had its limitations, and it was not possible to provide funds

for maintenance too. While some State governments were targeting the Centre for putting the federal

structure at risk by proposing the creation of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, they didn't mind the

Centre spending for rural roads.

Sometimes, national guidelines for programmes didn't fit into the specifics of the States and didn't permit

either innovation or variation or flexibility, he said. For instance, Rajasthan demanded funds for

connecting faraway hamlets, and flexi funds would address those needs. The role of gram panchayats

must be strengthened; this year, one per cent of all rural development expenditure — Rs. 990 crore —

would be diverted to the Ministry for panchayati raj to put in place a system for the purpose.

However, he said, the pace of the implementation of the PMGSY was slow: Phase I would be competed

only in 2017, 10 years behind schedule. A big issue was the pace in the Naxal-dominated areas, where the

habitations were small, and the construction could be handed over to gram panchayats. Maharashtra was

among some States to launch its own rural roads programme.

Launched in 2000, the PMGSY led to better connectivity in rural areas, and a survey of seven States

showed that this connectivity had led to a growth of 17.6 per cent in agricultural income, Husain Dalwai,

MP, said. Focus on education was important, he said, and the PMGSY had made markets, schools and

health more accessible, especially to women.

The Ministry of Rural Development, with a budget of Rs. 91,000 crore, was second only to the Defence

Ministry in funds, and had nine flagship programmes. The PMGSY was the one programme which did not

have any explicit gender bias, Mr. Ramesh said. About 1.6 lakh habitations of 500 people were to be

connected with all-weather roads, and 60 per cent of them had so far been covered. Bihar, Odisha,

Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal had a long way to go, while Maharashtra,

Karnataka and Gujarat had made a major expansion in rural roads.

He admitted that some programmes were not so gender sensitive as they should be. A case in point was

sanitation, which was a half-hearted campaign. It was a shame that the world's third largest economy had

60 per cent of its population defecating in the open, he said. Another issue, he said, quoting the 2011

Census report, was the large prevalence of manual scavenging. He promised a new total sanitation

programme, with revised norms, targeting the 2,65,000 gram panchayats over the next 10 years.

He lauded Maharashtra for achieving total sanitation in 9,000 of the 28,000 gram panchayats. Sikkim was

the first State to be free of open defecation. With a highly patriarchal society, Haryana coined a slogan

shauchalya nahin to dulhan nahin (No brides, if there are no toilets).

Over two days, the national consultation will focus on PMGSY as a special study, said Ritu Dewan,

Professor, Centre for Gender Economics. The major concern was understanding and incorporating a

gender perspective at several levels which includes broad evaluation of the impacts and fulfillment of the

objectives of the programme.

Ramesh thumbs down to road scheme

Building roads in rural areas is the job of state governments and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana is not a

long-term solution to the problem of lack of roads, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Sunday.

“If the Central government focused on construction of rural roads and their repairs and maintenance, then it

will have no money to spend on creating other infrastructure,” the minister said. “We have to recognise its

limitations”.

Ramesh was speaking at the inauguration of a seminar on Engendering Physical Infrastructure via PMGSY

here. He said since the Central government schemes were devised at the national level, there was no scope

of variation to fit the local needs.Though PMGSY was conceptualised ten years ago, the actual

implementation started only six years ago, he said.

“State governments are asking for funds for repairs and maintenance of PMGSY roads, and at the same

time they raise a cry about federal structure,” he said, in an apparent reference to the states who have

opposed the proposed counter-terrorism centre.

Ramesh said 50 per cent of the rural development funds will be given to the state governments by the end of

the 12th five year plan, so that the spending could be as per the states’ own priorities.

PMGSY is for the villages which have a population of 500 or more. Ramesh said states such as Madhya

Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra had launched similar schemes to connect habitations which have less

population, which was a welcome step. He said he was considering extending the benefit of pension for

widows under-40 age group, as “widows in the age group of less than 40 are among the most unprivileged”.

Currently, only those in 40-49 age group are eligible.

States’ handling of Central schemes irks Jairam

Lamenting that 60 per cent of villagers do not have access to proper toilet facilities, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday decried the “half-hearted” efforts put in by the

administrative machinery in implementing the total sanitation campaign.

In his key-note address at the “National Consultation on Gender Empowerment through physical

infrastructure”, organised by the University of Mumbai and UN Women, Ramesh called for greater

gender sensitivity in implementing the total sanitation campaign aimed at ending open defecation.

Maintaining that the issue was far more sensitive and directly affected the empowerment of women,

Ramesh said that his Ministry would soon come out with a revamped campaign.

While praising the success of Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh in the implementation of the total

sanitation campaign, the Minister said that nearly one-third of gram panchayats in Maharashtra had

become free of open defecation.

He said the gender empowerment was a built in component in most of the flagship programmes of

his Ministry. “The rural roads have improved mobility for women, increased continuation of

schooling for adolescent girls, who can now cycle on better paved roads and made the delivery of

health services by ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers more efficient,” Ramesh said.

Not given to mincing words, Ramesh made no bones about his dissatisfaction over the progress of

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), a nation-wide scheme to provide good all-weather

road connectivity to unconnected villages with 500 people.

Ramesh said that though the PMGSY should have been implemented by 2007, only 60 per cent of the

work had been completed so far. He identified the States of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and

Chhattisgarh as the laggards in the implementation of the scheme.

The Minister said that India being a country with great diversity, and all nationally conceived

programmes, which are subject to guidelines, suffered from inflexibility. He went onto to cite the example of PMGSY, which had not been able to address the problem of connectivity in most tribal

areas as well as in the desert areas of Rajasthan.

“This has affected service delivery, where it is most essential” Ramesh said, adding that some of the

State Governments like Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, and lately Maharashtra had taken upon

themselves to connect smaller habitations left out of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

Ramesh, however, hastened to remind the State Governments that building rural roads was primarily

their job and because that did not happen, the Centre had to introduce the PMGSY scheme.

Ramesh said that as part of the 12th five-year plan innovation, his Ministry had planned to introduce

flexibility in implementation of its flagship programmes across the country. “In a phased manner, 50

per cent of the funds earmarked for rural development programmes will be transferred to State

Governments to implement the schemes as per their requirements, subject to broad guidelines. Rest of the funds will be spent as per the national guidelines prescribed for each of the programmes,” he

said.

Earlier, Ritu Dewan, Professor, Centre for Gender Economics, University of Mumbai introduced the

subject with her concept note.

During the two-day event, policymakers, academicians, civil society activists and grass root level

functionaries will debate and come out with measures to increase women’s participation and

decision making in community infrastructure management.

Allow states flexiblity in implementing rural projects: Jairam Ramesh

The Union ministry of rural development proposes to introduce flexibility in implementation of its flagship

programmes across the country.

Minister Jairam Ramesh said, “In a phased manner, 50 per cent of the funds earmarked for rural development programmes will be transferred to state governments to implement the schemes as per their

requirements, subject to broad guidelines. The rest of the funds will be spent as per the national guidelines

prescribed for each programme.”

He said so during his address at a ‘National Consultation on Gender Empowerment’ here today. Ramesh

said India was a country with great diversity. And, all nationally conceived programmes, which are subject

to guidelines, suffer from inflexibility. For instance, he said, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

(PMGSY), to connect all habitations with at least 500 people each by all-weather roads, hadn’t been able to

address the problem of connectivity in most tribal areas as well as in the desert areas of Rajasthan. “This

has affected service delivery, where it is most essential,” he observed.

Some state governments, he said, as in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and, lately, Maharashtra, had taken on

themselves to connect the smaller habitations left out of the PMGSY. He reminded state governments that

building rural roads was primarily their job and because that had not happened adequately, the Centre had

to introduce the PMGSY.

Ramesh asserted gender empowerment was a built-in component in most flagship programmes of his

ministry. He said rural roads had improved the mobility of women, increased continuation of schooling by

adolescent girls, who can now cycle on better paved roads, and made the delivery of health services by

accredited activist-workers more efficient.

On the PMGSY, he said, only 60 per cent of the work was complete, whereas the programme should have ended in 2007; it would now take till 2017. He named West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh as the

laggards.

Ramesh, called for greater gender sensitivity in the implementation of the total sanitation campaign, aimed

at ending open defecation. Quoting 2011 census data, the minister said 60 per cent of village households

did not have access to proper toilet facilities. He praised the success of Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh and

said about a third of gram panchayats in Maharashtra had become free of open defecation.

The minister pulled up the administrative machinery for implementing it half-heartedly, mainly aimed at

constructing low-cost toilet blocks. He said the issue was far more sensitive and directly affected

empowerment of women.

Minister calls for more to be done about sanitation

Mumbai:Revealing that still 60 per cent of village households in India do not have access to

proper toilet facilities, federal Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh yesterday called

for greater gender sensitivity in the implementation of the total sanitation campaign aimed

at ending open defecation.

Delivering a keynote address on gender empowerment through physical infrastructure,

Ramesh criticised the administrative machinery for implementing it as a half-hearted

campaign which constructed low-cost toilet blocks. He said the issue was far more sensitive and directly affected the empowerment of women.

Ramesh, however, complimented the northern states of Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim for their relative success in the implementation of the total sanitation campaign. He said one

third of gram panchayats (village councils) in Maharashtra had become free of open

defecation.

According to Ramesh, the gender empowerment is a built-in component in most of the

flagship programmes of the federal Ministry of Rural Development.

Rural roads

The minister said the rural roads had improved the mobility of women, increased

continuation of schooling by adolescent girls, who could now cycle on better paved roads, and made the delivery of health services by Asha (Accredited Social Health Activist)

workers more efficient.

Ramesh said India was a country with great diversity, and all nationally conceived

programmes, which were subject to guidelines, were inflexible.

Citing the example of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), a plan in India to

provide good all-weather road connectivity to unconnected villages with a population of

500 people, Ramesh said the scheme had not been able to address the problem of connectivity in most tribal areas as well as in the desert areas of Rajasthan.

The minister said the progress of PMGSY was not satisfactory as only 60 per cent of the work was complete so far, whereas the programme should have ended in 2007.

'More autonomy for states to implement rural schemes'

Mumbai: As part of innovations in the 12th Five Year Plan, the centre plans to introduce flexibility in implementing its flagship rural development programmes all over the country,

a top official said here on Sunday.

Under this, the centre plans to transfer 50 percent of funds earmarked for rural development programmes to the states, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said,

delivering the keynote address at a two-day National Consultation on Gender

Empowerment, organised by University of Mumbai and UN Women, the varsity's Kalina

Campus, here on Sunday.

"The states can utilize these (50 Percent) funds to implement schemes as per their

requirements, subject to broad guidelines, while the rest of the funds would be spent as per national guidelines prescribed for each such programme," Ramesh said.

India is a country with great diversity and all nationally conceived programmes, which are

subject to guidelines, suffer from inflexibility, he said.

He cited the instance of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), which connects all

villages with 500 people by all-weather (navigable round the year) roads, which has not

been able to address the problems of connectivity in most tribal areas as well as desert

regions of Rajasthan.

"This has affect service delivery, where it is most essential," Ramesh pointed out, adding

that some states like Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, and recently Maharashtra have taken

the initiative to connect smaller habitations left out of the PMGSY.

However, he pointed out to the state government that constructing rural roads was their

(the states') primary responsibility, but because that did not happen, especially in states like West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh, the centre had to introduce PMGSY.

Ramesh said that though PMGSY was scheduled to be completed 2007, till date only 60

percent of the work has been completed. The rest of the work is expected to be completed only by 2017.