Government Schemes and Impact on Rural Livelihood

In recent years a number of socio-economic development schemes have been introduced to uplift the condition of rural masses in India. In the past Govt. had sponsored several schemes to eliminate rural poverty. But the purpose of generating an all-round enhanced livelihood opportunity based on creation of an improved ambience has only partially been served by such programmes. The recent focus, therefore, has been on the assets / processes/ activity framework concerned with not only poverty reduction but also promoting sustainable livelihood enhancing strategies and access to assets. In this context a study has been made to assess the efficacy of some of these Govt. schemes and their impact on peoples' livelihood in Birbhum, district,West Bengal(India). However the sheer diversity of such schemes and differences in their accounting procedure and fund management along with various layers of implementation, often complicate the execution by making the system cumbersome. Hence an incisive analysis has also been made for mooting a proposal for the integration and consolidation of such schemes under a unique programme with uniform guidelines and flexibility in administrative order.