On 28th June 2023, Kapil Moreshwar Patil, Minister of State (MoS) for the Ministry of Panchayati Raj(MoPR) released the Report on Panchayat Development Index(PDI) during the National Workshop on PDI held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, Delhi.
National Workshop on PDI:
Main focus:
i.To develop a strategic plan and roadmap for the integration of the Ministry’s portal /dashboard to build a data ecosystem.
ii.Assess the schematic progress in alignment with LSDGs at Panchayat and institutional mechanisms for implementation of the Panchayat Development Index with the active support of different Ministries / Departments, Panchayats and Knowledge Partners
Participants:
Senior officials from various Ministries and departments, Principal Secretaries and officials from the departments under the MoPR, Directors of SIRD&PRs, Senior Technical Officers of State NIC and Officials of SDG Cell and other stakeholders participated in the national workshop.
About PDI Report:
i.PDI was formulated to evaluate different indicators responsible for ensuring targeted development in villages.
ii.PDI Report comes with 144 local targets, 577 local indicators and 688 data points on 9 themes of Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs), which aggregates the 17 Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) of the United Nations.
- The 9 themes include poverty-free and enhanced livelihood in villages, healthy villages, child-friendly villages, water-sufficient villages, clean and green villages, villages with self-sufficient infrastructure, socially just and socially secured villages, village with good governance, and women-friendly village.
iii.This will act as a statistical tool to measure and monitor the development at the panchayat Level.
iv.This will provide a baseline for Panchayat to set up local targets and local action points with measurable indicators in preparation of the thematic Gram Panchayat Development Plan.
v.This will also help to reflect the current status of the Panchayats to take the required actions to achieve the development goals by building institutional mechanisms.
Pilot PDI:
On a pilot basis, data from 4 districts (Pune, Sangli, Satara and Solapur) of Maharashtra were compiled.
i.The PDI ranks panchayats on the basis of scores and categorises them into different grades
- Panchayats with scores above 90% will be categorised as A+, 75 to 90% will be grade A, 60-75% will be grade B, 40-60% will be grade C and below 40% will be grade D.
ii.Based on the pilot index,
- 70% of the panchayats in the 4 districts of Maharashtra are in Category C, while 27% are in B.
- Around 36% of panchayats fall in grade D and around 53% fall under grade D, in the case of water sufficiency.
- 30% of panchayats are in grade B in being clean and green villages, and 30% in grade C when it comes to being women-friendly.
Key points:
i.PDI Committee chaired by Jayashree Raghunandan, Former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, interacted with 19 States on their efforts to develop LIFs for implementation of LSDGs;
ii.During the workshop, MoS Kapil Moreshwar Patil presented the certificate of appreciation to the team of Maharashtra for their significant contribution to PDI.
iii.The MoPR has also approved revamping the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan for implementation from 2022-23 to 2025-26 with a focus on capacity building and training of elected representatives and functionaries to strengthen the Panchayati Raj Institutions.
Background:
i.India is a signatory to the UN 2030 Agenda for achieving inclusive; people-centric and holistic Sustainable Development through 17 SDGs.
NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) is the Nodal institution for the implementation of SDGs in India.
ii.More than 70% Indian population resides in rural areas and the attainment of SDGs at the national level requires actions at the grassroots level through Panchayati Raj Institutions.
iii.MoPR initiated a thematic approach by aggregating 17 SDG goals into 9 broad themes for LSDGs to empower Panchayats & other stakeholders in rural areas.
Additional info:
i.MoPR is organizing the People’s Plan Campaign (PPC) for the preparation of the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) as ‘Sabki Yojana SabkaVikas’ throughout India.
ii.Gram Panchayats are directed to prepare a holistic Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) through the lens of 9 themes.
About Ministry of Panchayati Raj(MoPR):
Union Minister– Giriraj Singh (Constituency- Begusarai, Bihar)
Minister of State– Kapil Moreshwar Patil(Constituency- Bhiwandi, Maharashtra)
