NEW DELHI: Jolted by the high number of landless casual labourers struggling with poverty, the government’s social intervention schemes are set to get a reality check, especially in skill development and housing.

First up is a plan to massively scale up the skilling programme to address the widespread income deprivation thrown up in the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 released last week.

The large number of people lacking proper houses will get priority in the prime minister’s housing initiative. The rural development ministry is taking stock of the data and will make adjustments. The SECC data released last week showed that a third of India’s rural households are landless and depend on manual labour for an income, reflecting the extent of poverty that is prevalent in the villages. “The data shows how much we had underestimated poverty figures. It has to become a much larger con ..

The rural development ministry will soon present its scheme to provide housing for all in the rural areas – an improved version of the Indira Awas Yojna — for the Prime Minister’s approval. With 13% (2.37 crore) of rural households still living in houses with only one room, kuccha walls and kuccha roof, the government will have to double its target to providing 40 lakh houses annually. The new housing scheme will offer a variety of designs, based on the geographical requirements of the state, a ..

The government will increase spending on the skill development programme. The rural development ministry will ask the Centre to remove the 25% ceiling on expenditure allowed under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojna, which is aimed at developing the skills and productive capacity of rural youth from poor families. “Skills have to be augmented on a very large scale. Cultivation activity is coming down and non-farm activity needs to be taken up,” a senior government official said. Cult ..

“We have never had so much evidence for poverty reduction as we were hitting in the dark till now. There will be no favouritism as has been reported in the past,” the senior official said. The data will be used to map household-wise progress and social support needs and make evidence-based, targeted household interventions for poverty reduction possible.

Source : Ruchika Chitravanshi, ET Bureau