PMGSY and Rural Employment: World Bank Study

On 10^th July, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) headed by the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has approved the third phase of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY-III).

PMGSY-III

• PMGSY-III focuses on the consolidation of 1.25-lakh km of existing rural roads connecting villages to rural agricultural markets, higher secondary schools and hospitals.
• Plastic waste will be used during work on these roads.
• As against the existing provisions of 75 m and 100 m in plain areas and Himalayan and north-eastern states respectively, PMGSY-III provides for Construction of bridges of up to 150m in plain areas and 200 m in Himalayan and northeastern states.
• To avail grants under the scheme, State governments are required to enter into Memorandum of Understanding to provide adequate funds for maintenance of roads in the five-year period after construction.
• The scheme entails an estimated cost of Rs 80,250 crore over the next five years.
• The cost would be shared in the ratio of 60:40 between the Centre and states and In case of eight north-eastern and three Himalayan states the ratio will be 90:10.
• Since Ninety-seven per cent, of all the eligible and feasible habitations, have already been connected by all-weather roads under this scheme in earlier phases, the PMGSY-III is more focused on consolidation.

PMGSY launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in December 2000 aims to provide single all-weather road connectivity to eligible unconnected habitation of the designated population size of more than 500 in plain areas and 250 in north-east, hilly, tribal and desert areas as per the census of 2001.

World Bank assessment of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

• The PMGSY triggered the shift from farm to non-farm employment in the habitations studied between 2009 and 2017 as with roads in place, people chose employment opportunities outside their habitations over expanding their farming.
• As a result of better road connectivity, the rate of primary employment in the non-farm sector increased by about 12 percentage points and it represented a 33 per cent increase over the average share of non-farm primary employment in 2009 in the habitations that were connected after 2009.
• As men switched to non-farm employment women stepped in to take care of the farms. The entry of women into the workforce was the main reason for the 5.5 per cent increase in employment in connected habitations. The shift to non-farm employment was more pronounced in hilly areas.

Impact on Health

• The World Bank Study has also shown on the positive impact of PMGSY on child immunisation, childbirths in hospitals, and schooling of both boys and girls in rural areas.
• The share of babies delivered at home reduced by as much as 30 per cent in the connected habitations. This decrease was much greater in habitations that are more remote from urban agglomerations.
• The study also showed 0.7 more years of schooling in 2017 in the connected habitations and also showed that young children were less likely to fall ill owing to vaccination take-up in children under 4 years increasing by 15 percentage points.

The World Bank study has shown that improved connectivity in rural areas mainly resulted in people looking for employment opportunities outside their habitations instead of improving and expanding their farming to take full advantage of improved access to input and output markets. Hence India must institute complementary programmes to support the development of agricultural value chains to make more efficient use of agriculture land.