The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre will complete 9 years on May 30, 2023, since it came to power after securing a large mandate in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Throughout the years, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government has undertaken a number of efforts to help the oppressed and marginalised. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision has not only revolutionised the world’s perception of India but also catapulted the country to the top of the global world order.
Despite several roadblocks and challenges thrown at him, Prime Minister Modi has relentlessly worked to improve the economic condition of India. His initiatives have been grassroots in nature, with the goal of meeting the basic needs of the downtrodden and the marginalized sections of society, one of the key factors that possibly helped the BJP to come back to power that too with a much bigger mandate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In the past nine years, the Narendra Modi government has been devoted to providing social justice, equality, respect, and equal chances for all Indian citizens. In his tenure, Modi introduced several path-breaking welfare schemes and initiatives which brought drastic changes in the lives of millions of people both in rural and urban India.
The BJP government, however, did not have an easy start as the opposition in the country was far more interested in petty politics than the welfare and upliftment of the citizens of the country. From 2014 until now, the opposition has relentlessly mocked Prime Minister Modi’s such endeavour, attempting to thwart the implementation of several initiatives and welfare measures of the Narendra Modi government. However, the upshot of disregarding these obstacles and moving ahead was that the country’s conditions, the standard of life of individuals and their thinking began to change.
While Modi’s welfare schemes have had a positive impact and elevated the standards of living of people across the country it has had a significant impact in rural India. The Narendra Modi government has achieved considerable success in the execution of marque schemes targeting rural India. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana, or the Saubhagya scheme, are all part of this initiative to empower rural India.
Har Ghar Nal Se Jal Scheme
Recognising the hardships of rural people who had to stand in lengthy queues or travel long distances for potable drinking water, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Jal Jeevan Mission on 19 March 2019, which aimed at supplying tap water to every rural family by 2024. The vision of the Jal Jeevan mission is to provide and ensure that every rural household has drinking water supply in adequate quantity on a regular and long-term basis at affordable charges and thus lead to improvement in the living standards of rural communities.
According to the government website, “Jal Jeevan Mission, is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. The programme will also implement source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through grey water management, water conservation, rain water harvesting. The Jal Jeevan Mission will be based on a community approach to water and will include extensive Information, Education and communication as a key component of the mission. JJM looks to create a jan andolan for water, thereby making it everyone’s priority.”
Last year it was reported that the Modi government allocated Rs 60,000 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to provide tap water to 3.8 crore households.
According to the dynamic Jal Jeevan Mission dashboard, as of this date, 62.20% of households in rural India have access to tap water supply. Until August 2019 only 16.64% of households in rural India had tap water supply. Moreover the total number of households that have been provided with tap water connection since the launch of the mission in March 2019 stands at 8.86 crores.
Har Ghar Shauchalay under Swachh Bharat Mission
According to a UNICEF report from 2015, as many as 524 million (52.4 crore) people in India are forced to defecate in the open due to a lack of sanitation infrastructure, which meant that even after 67 years of independence, 52 crore people, or more than 60% of our population, lacked access to basic amenities such as toilets.
Modi government decided to address this issue head-on and started building sanitation infrastructure in mission mode. The government’s relentless focus under Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) ensured that sanitation coverage started improving dramatically year after year. As per the data from Economic Survey 2017-18, only 39% population had access to toilets in 2014, when this initiative was launched by the Modi government. However, as per data published in 2022, under this scheme, more than 10 crore 93 lakh toilets had been built in rural areas of various states, while this figure has surpassed 62 lakhs in urban areas.
In fact, in March this year, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahlad Singh Patel confirmed that over 11 crore toilets and 2.23 lakh Community Sanitary Complexes have been built across All States and UTs Under Swachh Bharat Mission- Grameen.
Flagships schemes of the Narendra Modi government
Several welfare measures and initiatives launched by the Narendra Modi government in these 9 years of governance have accrued a host of direct and indirect benefits to millions of Indians.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Make in India” campaign on September 25, 2014, which increased the focus on the manufacturing sector to create a powerful growth engine to propel India’s economy. People understood the value of indigenous items and limited the utility of imported goods as a result of the Prime Minister’s efforts. Since its launch in 2014, “Make in India” has attracted some of the most prominent global manufacturers in heavy machinery, defence equipment, automobiles and electronics to name just a few.
The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has benefited millions of Indian women and also prevented them from getting sick by providing them with smoke-free and safe fuel.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the Modi government constructed more than 3 crore houses and provided them at an affordable price to the marginalised section of the country.
PM Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the world’s largest financial inclusion initiative, from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2014, with a special emphasis on the financial inclusion of Indian residents. To date, more than 45 crore bank accounts have been opened under PMJDY.
Not only this, electricity reached dark villages through the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana. Farmers are getting Rs 6000 per month as help from the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.
Besides, the Modi government also launched Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maandhan Yojana – a pension scheme for the small and marginal farmers of India in September 2019. Under this yojana, farmers in India get a minimum pension of Rs 3000 per month upon attaining the age of 60. However, those who fall in the age group of 18 to 40 years can apply for the scheme.
Further, in order to provide insurance coverage accessible to ordinary Indians, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana were launched in 2015.
Another public welfare scheme, the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, which was started during the first wave of Covid-19, gave free foodgrains to more than 80 crore people, assuring food security for millions of people. The scheme was extended during the second Covid-19 wave in the country.
During PM Modi’s nine-year tenure, the BJP government has also introduced a number of women-centric initiatives aimed at empowering women and making them socially and financially self-sufficient. ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao,’ one of the Modi government’s most talked-about programmes, was started in 2015 with the primary goal of reducing the country’s dropping sex ratio, raising social awareness, and expanding opportunities for girls.
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana and Poshan Abhiyaan are some other key women-centric initiatives of the Modi regime.
Besides, implementing several such path-breaking schemes the Modi government’s firm resolve led to the scrapping of Article 370, the construction of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the abolition of instant triple talaq, the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act and surgical strikes on terror camps across the border.
The clamour created by Opposition against Modi
It is worth mentioning that the opposition’s clamour has persisted since Narendra Modi was elected with an overwhelming majority in 2014. It started with the Opposition parties, especially the Congress using the “chaiwala” jibe in a derogatory fashion against PM Narendra Modi. Ahead of the 2014 elections, Mani Shankar Aiyar tried to target PM Modi with the ‘chaiwala’ jibe, which PM Modi then used to his massive advantage to campaign for the elections. He also referred to PM Modi as ‘neech aadmi’ and even justified it.
Since then, the veiled attacks on Modi have not only continued but have become more vicious. On several occasions, Congress has openly insulted the Modi government’s flagship scheme and politicised the significant policies and executive decisions made by his administration. In 2018, Congress senior leader and former Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation Jairam Ramesh mocked the Narendra Modi government’s Swachh Bharat Mission calling it mere propaganda. In 2022, Congress Goa Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Janardhan Bhandari called Goa’s certification as a ‘Har Ghar Jal’ state a farce.
Be it undermining the flagship initiatives undertaken by the Modi government to levelling phoney corruption charges against them to their high-pitched hyperbole about Modi ‘working for industrialists’ to using slurs like ‘nalayak’ and ‘poisonous snake’ to portraying Modi as an instigator of hatred, the Congress has tried everything in their power to demoralise PM Modi but have been unable to shake his resolve to serve the nation and remain the world’s most popular leader.