MGNREGA latest in series of UPA schemes renamed

New Delhi: The govt’s move to replace the rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, with VB-G RAM G is the latest in a series of UPA-era flagship schemes that have been renamed and restructured over the past 11 years. During the Covid-19, the National Food Security Scheme was rebranded as Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). Similarly, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana replaced the earlier Indira Awas Yojana; AMRUT became the successor to urban rejuvenation mission JNNURM; and Swachh Bharat Mission replaced Nirmal Gram Yojana.

However, the schemes have not undergone just change of nomenclatures. Govt has restructured and expanded the ambit of schemes to make the changes significant and more impactful. “There has been an almost complete overhaul of schemes and programmes. If you consider the PM Awas Yojna, both in rural and urban areas, it’s a mammoth programme compared what the Indira Awas Yojna of 2004 envisaged for rural poor and Rajiv Awas Yojna of 2009 to make cities slum-free,” said a former urban development secretary.




PMAY-Urban was launched in April 2016 and the rural segment was rolled out in April 2016 with a combined target to build over four crore houses under the Housing for All programme. The second phase of PMAY has a target to construct three crore additional rural and urban houses.

Similarly, govt in 2020 carried out overhauling of National Food Security Scheme launched in Sept 2013, just months before the 2014 LS election, which entitled around 81 crore poor to get subsidised foodgrains of 5 kg per person at Rs 3, Rs 2 and Re 1 a kg for rice, wheat, and coarse grains respectively. During Covid-19 pandemic, Modi govt decided to make the foodgrains available for free. In Nov 2023, govt approved extension of the free foodgrain scheme under PMGKAY for five years till Dec 2029 with an approximate cost of Rs 11.8 lakh crore.

One of the most successful flagship schemes of Modi govt, the Swachh Bharat Mission launched in Oct 2014, succeeded the earlier Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) scheme, an incentive for villages achieving 100% sanitation launched in Oct 2003. “But the mission launched in 2014 by PM Modi was of a different scale with a set target to get rid of open defecation, which was achieved within the timeframe. This was the world’s largest behaviour change programme and can’t be compared with an earlier version,” said a former secretary involved in this mission.

The other such major transformation of schemes included the National Rural Livelihood Mission of 2011, which was restructured and renamed as Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana — National Rural Livelihood Mission with effect from March 2016, to focus on poverty alleviation by empowering rural poor women through Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and financial access.

New nomenclatures also are not just for the sake of renaming but are meant to convey a political message. The new names are in Hindi and their choice seems to be part of PM Modi’s push for de-colonisation or a push against the persisting influence of Macaulay to to fill Indians with a sense of inferiority towards everything non-English.

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