As a part of India@75 “AzadiKaAmritMahotsav, Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) have jointly organised a meeting with all states Principal Secretaries PR, Department of Panchayati Raj (DoPR), National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), State Institute for Rural Development (SIRDs) and State Mission Directors and officials of SRLMs for initiating the process for the formation of Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) and Village Poverty Reduction Plans (VPRP) as a part of this year’s People’s Plan Campaign - SabkiYojanaSabkaVikas.

The meeting aimed to create a common platform for generating greater awareness of VPRP preparation by DAY-NRLM SHGs and their federations among all concerned stakeholders present, with a focus on its integration into the GPDP.

Referring to the PM’s interaction with SHG members on 12^th August, on the role of the SHG members in social and economic empowerment, JS MoPR emphasised that we need to acknowledge the poverty reduction plan prepared by SHG members which are really a people’s plan. She highlighted that PRI members have to be sensitised on the VPRP process and it would be included in the GPDP training by NIRDPR and SIRDs so that VPRPs can be effectively onboarded into GPDP.

A joint coordination committee of the State Rural Livelihoods Promotion Societies (SRLMs), State Institutes of Rural Development (SIRD), DoPR and other line departments were advised by JS MoRD to be set up at the state level. A minimum of 2 Gram Sabha have also been advocated to be held to complete the GPDP planning. Both the Joint Secretaries mentioned that the two Ministries will work jointly to develop mechanisms of tracking the inclusion for the demands of the community as reflected in the VPRPs, in the GPDPs and their eventual implementation.

After completion of the event, all SRLMs are expected to launch the VPRP preparation process in all the GPs and Local Self Governments (LSGs) during the upcoming 15^th August Gram Sabha. This will be followed by the initiation of national-level virtual Training of Trainers of around 14000 participants from all States/UTs on VPRP roll out from 16^th to 18^th August, ’21. This will be followed by 2 more phases of training in the months of September and November. These master trainers will in turn train the Community Resource persons at the VO level who will facilitate the process with SHGs, VOs and CLFs to prepare their demand plans through a multi-lingual mobile application.

By November 2021, the VPRPs are expected to be prepared and presented by SHGs and their VOs, through the support of trained community resource persons, in all intensive GPs across 6517 blocks of 705 districts of 34 States/UTs. The meeting marked a beginning of better convergence between the PR and RD departments at the central and state levels to achieve effective planning and implementation of the GPDP.

About Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP)

Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) is an annual exercise carried out by Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) in all Gram panchayats and other local self-governance bodies in all states and UTs from October to December months, where the GP development plans are prepared in a participatory manner under the people’s Plan Campaign.

Under Deendayal Antodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission’s (DAY-NRLM) Panchayati Raj Institutions-Community Based Organisations (PRI-CBO) convergence initiatives, all SHGs and their federations are expected to avail benefits of local economic development programmes led by the Gram Panchayats.  As per the joint advisory issued by Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) in the past few years, all SHGs promote under the DAY-NRLM and their federations are mandated to prepare a Village Poverty Reduction Plans (VPRP) and present it in Gram Sabha for integration into Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP).

DAY-NRLM, with over 70 million women organised into SHGs and federations, provides the right opportunity and platform to ensure community participation in the preparation of Gram PanchayatDevelopment Plan (GPDP) through the comprehensive and inclusive preparation and integration of Village Poverty Reduction Plans (VPRP). This initiative also focusses on promoting the organisational capabilities of the Village Organisations (VOs) and turning them into a ‘critical mass’ for local change and transformation. This is a more inclusive, participatory and comprehensive Village poverty reduction plan consisting of Entitlements, Livelihoods, Public goods, services and resource development and Social development plans. All these four components contain elements under the 29 subjects of XIth schedule and hence itcontributes towards the holistic development of villages. Centrally sponsored schemes and State sponsored schemes for social development, social security and livelihoods are included in the VPRP.

In 2020, after receiving trainings, more than 2.4 lakh  VOs have prepared VPRPs and presented or submitted in 82,084 GPs of 5,406 Blocks of 628 districts across 29 States/UT and around 1.1 crore member participated in this process.

In order to initiate the process of VPRP roll out for the year 2021, refresher trainingwill be conducted across all functional blocks with a focus on sensitising PRIs, line departments and digitisation of VPRP formats to enable tracking and follow up at various levels with GPs and line departments.

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APS/JK