Transformation of Aspirational District Programme

News: National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is visiting 117 Aspirational Districts across 28 states to hold public meetings on complaints affecting children pertaining to education, health and nutrition as well as lack of infrastructure.

Facts:

About Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ programme

• The programme was launched in January 2018. It is coordinated by Niti Aayog with support from Central Ministries and the State Governments.
• Aim: Quickly and effectively transform underdeveloped districts. It seeks to focus on the strength of each district, identify easy achievable areas for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.
• Features: it is based on three broad principles:
  • Convergence (of Central & State Schemes),
  • Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors), and
  • Competition among districts driven by a mass Movement.
• The programme focuses on 5 main themes:
  • Nutrition,
  • Education,
  • Agriculture & Water Resources,
  • Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and
  • Basic Infrastructure.
• Ranking: Each district is ranked based 49 Key performance indicators identified across the 5 core themes. The main objective of the rankings is to measure progress and rank districts to spur a sense of competition among states.
• Funding:
  • The programme relies on convergence of existing schemes for its funding.
  • In addition, funds and other resources made available by the private sector under Corporate Social Responsibility, and some local funds like the District Mineral Funds are utilised for critical gap funding.

Additional Information:

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)

• It is a statutory body established in 2007 under the Protection of Child Rights Act (CPCR), 2005.
• It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women & Child Development.
• Mandate: to ensure that all laws, policies, programmes, and administrative mechanisms are in accordance with the child rights perspective as put forward in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

• It is a UN convention which puts forward civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. It was signed in 1989 and became effective in 1990.
• It defines child as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group.