2 years of Modi govt: Most schemes escape notice; only few including Swachh Bharat visible, says study

Only a few, including Jan Dhan and Swachh Bharat, have caught “imagination” of the country in the first two years of the Modi government while most of its other schemes have escaped notice, a CMS study finds out. In all, there are about 40 schemes being implemented since Modi took power in May 2014, including those from earlier governments. Nearly Rs 1,000 crore has been spent over the last two years by the NDA government to publicise these programmes.

According to the study, hardly 3 per cent of respondents are aware of some 25 schemes out of the 40 being implemented. It was only 6 or 7 schemes in all that are acknowledged as being implemented by about a quarter of respondents, which include Jan Dhan Yojana, Swachh Bharat, Atal Pension Scheme and Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak.

Swachh Bharat and Jan Dhan grabbed more eyeballs across clusters, regardless of party in power across states. In terms of visibility, of the five idea-based schemes, Digital India and Make in India fared better than Smart City or Startup India or even Bullet Train.

“Those schemes which involved local civil society, engaged individuals across age groups and the ones which are visible on the ground have caught attention of people across the country,” the study said, adding that schemes which have employment and game-changing potential also made the cut.

As per the study, there are others that made little headway, including the finance scheme to minorities, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, the pension scheme to the physically challenged, Marubhumi Vikas Yojana, Soil Health Card, Baal Vikas Yojana and Namami Gange, among others.

The other interesting finding was that some of the Yojanas failed to go the distance despite the Pradhan Mantri title prefixed to them. Eight out of about 40 schemes are with the nomenclature starting Pradhan Mantri, but except Gramin Sadak and Rozgar Yojana, most others go barely acknowledged. The study, which has a sample size of 4,000, tried to find out the extent of the awareness of the schemes and their implementation.