About the Saubhagya Yojana Program:-
Saubhagya Yojana is a Government scheme announced by the Prime minister of our country, Shree Narendra Modi which is also known as Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana. On September 25, 2017 Saubhagya Yojana was announced and it aimed to complete the electrification process till the end of 2018. There were certain eligibility criteria under this Saubhagya Yojana which was selected to choose the houses who truly are weaker and need this welfare scheme.
The budget which was outlayed for this scheme, Saubhagya Yojana implementation was Rupees 16,320 crore. This government also launched a website to campaign and educate people about this scheme’s objectives and eligibility. The main ministry which was involved in this Saubhagya scheme’s implementation is under Ministry of Power. The houses which were selected to give the benefits of this scheme was from 2011 data of The Socio Economic and Caste Census.
The agency which was responsible for this scheme implementation throughout the country is Rural Electrification Corporate (REC) Limited. This Saubhagya scheme was not for non-poor urban household. Earlier too, such kinds of schemes were implemented before Saubhagya Yojana. These were:- Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana.
Aims and Objectives of this scheme:-
There are many aims and objectives which were kept in mind during the launch and implementation of this Saubhagya Yojana scheme – Saubhagya Yojana. Some of these aims and objectives are written below:-
- Welfare Scheme:- A person needs some basic things in his or her life so that they can live with a comfort and those things absence don’t affect in their productivity. The aim of this scheme was to provide the economically weaker section with basic facility of electricity. As it is so much crucial to do daily activities and someway affect people’s living too.
- Reforming rural and Urban Areas:- This scheme was not only for the rural areas but also for the urban areas too. For those who are not earning enough to get it. It provided the electricity connection to all the rural and urban households who are not electrified.
- Raising the Standard of living of people:- These issues of water, electricity, food, poverty, pension and education are so crucial pillars in making a country economically strong. The basic advantage and aim of this scheme was to provide people with basic facility so that they do not lose their hope and productivity.
- Solar Photo Voltaic:- This scheme objective was to provide SPV based standalone system for un-electrified houses located in both rural and urban areas where the grid extensions is not feasible and can be more cost-effective.
- Women Empowerment:- Generally it is seen in poor household that the roles of women is to stay at home and nurture their family and males to go out and work. But this is now changing, even a woman from poor background like to support her husband financially and contribute to the family’s development. When they will get proper basic facility of electricity they can work in their efficiently and productively, it will be more safe and women can also do business endeavors and work easily and in convenience. This will increase their will to work and contribute.
Benefits of This scheme Saubhagya Yojana:-
This Saubhagya Yojana have various advantages after getting implemented:-
- It reduces the Indoor pollution of the household by giving them electricity so that they do not use the kerosene for the electricity and lighting purposes. In this way, they can not be affected by the health issues which also decreases their chances of getting any respiratory issues.
- The household might be having students who might have to study long hours. After giving they electrified houses they can study in night too which will benefit their productivity in studies and in this education will get promoted and this empowered children.
- They get the better access to media devices like mobile phones, Television and radio which will help them to stay updated with the latest news happening everywhere and get information regarding everything. This do helped children too to take the advantages of these devices in learning something new and doing something online.
- Women do not need to struggle a lot without the electricity in cooking or doing any such rolled work or they can start something of their own. Light and electricity is so much important in every such cases. And this helped them to raised their standard of living and work with productivity and efficiently.
- Facilitates in the socio-economic conditions of the people and helped them in the growth of this country. This scheme also helped in integration of renewable energy and facilitating in sustainable power generation.
Progress:-
This Saubhagya Yojana scheme is important for progress of people and pulling them out of the absolute poverty and here are some facts which can show how well it got implemented among the poor households of urban and rural people.
The total number of the states who participated in the implementation of this scheme were 29. According to the scheme, total of 2.86 household got electrified with the use of this scheme.
The total number of households who got electrified in these years in Uttar Pradesh were 9,180,571, Rajasthan were 2127,728, Odisha were 2,452,444 etc. these figures are noted from the source PIB. These information were released by the Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, Shri RK Singh in a written reply to the question of rajya Sabha which is dated August 2, 2023.
Way Forward:-
The scheme was so important to raise the standard of living of people and women and children empowerment and a good welfare scheme. Here written some of the suggestions to make under this scheme of Saubhagya Yojana. These are:-
- Expanding people literacy about the scheme and helping more people to get this scheme advantages and a proper campaigning too.
- Realizing women what they home business initiatives they can take after getting this scheme’s benefits.
- Making the system more digitalized so that it can be more transparent and only those needy family get this benefits.