Under the National Social Assistance Programme Government is committed towards extending direct transfers to over 30 million old age, widow and differently abled beneficiaries belonging to Below Poverty Line families. The cash transfers being facilitated under the National Social Assistance Programme are an important subset of overall social Security net including food security and health insurance extended by the Government to families facing deprivation.
Ever since the strategic decision to bring the NSAP scheme within the umbrella of ‘Core of Core’ scheme in 2016, the financial commitment towards meeting the 100% requirement of the scheme by the Central Government is continuously increasing.For the year 2018-19, an amount of Rs. 9975 crore has been allocated to NSAP schemes, which is 38% more than the budget allocation of 2014-15 which stood at Rs.7241 crore. An amount of Rs.8696 crore has been released to States/UTs under NSAP during 2017-18, which is 23% more than the releases of 2014-15.
To enhance transparency and elimination of inclusion and exclusion errors, a number of steps have been taken by the Government. Data of all the beneficiaries under NSAP has been digitized over NSAP-PPS. Further, with due consent, 173 lakh beneficiaries have got their Aadhaar numbers enrolled with the scheme. Government has decided to extend the date for adoption of Aadhar Based Payment System (ABPS)upto 30th June,2018.With rapid progress in this direction,eventually system is aiming at moving towardsAadhaar based payment mechanism(with consent) to facilitate end-to-end digital transactions with complete elimination of any possible inclusion errors.Aadhaar based payment will facilitate payment to old, widows and disabled in their own village through a banking correspondent/Post Office.
At the beginning of the Financial Year 2017-18 only six States/UTs namely Gujarat, Lakshadweep, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman& Diu, Jharkhand and Maharashtra were disbursing the NSAP assistance through digital transactions and reported 1.73 crore transactions under direct benefit transfer mode. With special efforts, in the financial year ending 31st March,2018,twentyStates/UTsi.eAndhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya,Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, have reported total transactions of 10.73 crore through DBT mode. Hence, in comParison to digital transactions through DBT in 2016-17, there has been a quantum jump of 520% in 2017-18.In the year 2017-18, value of digital transactions stood atRs.6791.70 crore, which is about 78% of the total releases in the year.
With a view to have greater impact on addressing the issue of multi- faceted deprivation, more and more eMphasis is being given to addressing the issue of convergence. Apart from extending monthly assistance to the tune of Rs. 300 to 500 per month under National Disability Pension Scheme, special provisions have been made for the persons with disabilities in other Rural Development programs as well. For providing drinking water at work sites, management of crèche etc., priority is given for handicapped persons under MGNREGA Work and to appoint worker as mate. Disabled workers are paid wages equivalent to other workers. Other priorities set for disabled persons are special discount in rates, selection of suitable work for them and organization of groups for disabled persons.Under MGNREGA in FY 2017-18, around 4.7 lakh disabled workers were provided employment; thereby generating 1.57 crorepersondays.
DDU-GrameenKaushalYojana Guidelines mandates each State has to ensure that at least 3% of State target for skilling should be ear marked for persons with disabilities (PwDs). DDU-GKY Guidelines also provides that PwD projects may have separate training centres and the unit costs may be different from those for regular projects. Accordingly, Ministry has notified a separate Framework for projects for PwD under DDU-GKY in alignment with Common Norms for Skill Development schemes. Currently, a total of 243 projects have been sanctioned under DDU-GKY in the country in which PwD candidates have also been proposed to be trained. Apart from this, 5 projects have been sanctioned exclusively under DDU-GKY for skilling 1500 PwD candidates.In the FY 2017-18 (upto February 2018), 912 PwD candidates have been trained under DDU-GKY projects, as against 662 candidates in FY in 2016-17.
Pradhan MantriAwasYojana(G) also has the provision for States to ensure that at least 3% beneficiaries are disabled persons.Under PMAY (G), 5682 houses were sanctioned for differently-abled persons; of which 1655 have been completed.
APS/SNC/AS
