Manav Vikas Mission (

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

: मानव विकास मिशन) (translation: Human Development Mission) is an initiative of the

Government of Maharashtra The Government of Maharashtra is the state governing authority for the state of Maharashtra, India. It is a democratically elected government with 288 MLAs elected to the Vidhan Sabha for a five-year term. Maharashtra has a Maharashtra Legisla ...

to increase

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...

of backward districts of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India. The programme was launched in 2006. Currently 125 tehsils/blocks from 23 districts come under this mission. The initiative focuses mainly on the health, income generation and education of populations in rural areas. Village students do not usually have appropriate facilities to study in the villages; the initiative provides free study rooms for village students. After observing that village girls abandon their educations midway because of the lengthy distance between high schools and villages, the state government also started providing free bus services to transport village girls from their native villages to high schools.

Organisation and selection

The mission was established in 2006 in 25 ''talukas'' ("blocks") of 12 districts. In the 2010 budget it was decided to implement this mission at block level rather than at district level. In 2011, the number of blocks was further increased to 125 from 22 districts, based upon the 2001 census. Blocks were selected on the basis of two parameters; the percentage of female literacy in the block and the percentage of families living below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

in the block on the basis of a 2002 survey. 125 blocks were selected from a tentative list of 175 blocks.

Aspects

Health

The health aspect mainly focuses on mother and child health (MCH). It also has provisions for maintenance work on government hospital buildings in villages. Pregnant women are motivated to deliver their babies in hospitals rather than in their homes. Rural women usually work on farms until the ninth month of their pregnancies; in this scheme government provides to women who deliver in hospital as "lost wages"—the income that a woman loses because of her stay in hospital during pregnancy.

Education

The educational aspect includes the creation of study centres for village students, free bus services for girls, installing solar-powered lighting in village schools and providing books. The scheme also provides for the creation of '' Balbhavan'' at the block level. Study rooms are made available mainly for students from 8th standard to 12th standard. Students whose educational standards are low are especially invited to the centres and more focus is given to them by teachers.

Income generation

Under the scheme, modern agriculture instruments are made available to farmers.

Effects

According to analysts, free bus services for village girls have been effective in reducing dropout rates of female students. Provision of the "lost wages" has increased the rate of hospital deliveries, which have reduced the local

maternal mortality rate Maternal death or maternal mortality is defined in slightly different ways by several different health organizations. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternal death as the death of a pregnant mother due to complications related to pre ...

and

infant mortality rate Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of 1. This death toll is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the probability of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births. The under-five morta ...

. However, many study centres exists only "on paper" because of bureaucracy. Officials of the education department also seem to ignore the inspection of such study centres. The state government has reduced the scheme's budget in 2015. The Human Development Index (HDI) has not improved much from 2001 to 2011. There is also only a slight improvement in ''per capita'' incomes.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Government of Maharashtra Rural development organisations in India 2006 introductions Human Development Indexbr>Bihar Vikas Mission