Important welfare schemes

Story hook

It is 2 February 2006. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is notified — the world's first job-guarantee law at this scale. 100 days of unskilled manual work per rural household per year, at minimum wage, paid within 15 days to an Aadhaar-linked bank account, on demand. Jean Drèze + Aruna Roy + MKSS movement had spent 15 years pushing this through.

A decade later, on 25 June 2015, PM Modi launches Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) — Urban, promising housing for all by 2022 with ₹3 lakh crore outlay. A year after that, on 5 April 2016, PM Awas Yojana — Gramin absorbs the existing Indira Awas Yojana with a 2.95-crore-house target.

Then come the trinity launched in quick succession: PM-KISAN (1 Dec 2018), PMUY 2.0 (10 Aug 2021), PM SVANidhi (1 June 2020), PM-DAKSH (5 Aug 2021). Each addresses a specific vulnerability — farmer income, clean cooking fuel, street vendor credit, SC/OBC skilling. Together with MGNREGA, PMAY, PM POSHAN, NFSA, Ayushman Bharat, Jan Dhan, MUDRA, they constitute India's post-2015 welfare architecture.

The numbers are world-leading: 2.95 crore PMAY-G houses built (March 2024), 11 crore PM-KISAN beneficiaries covered, 15.6 crore MGNREGA job cards issued, 10.33 crore PMUY connections, 53 lakh PM SVANidhi loans. Combined annual outlay: ₹5+ lakh crore.

For UPSC GS-II, "important welfare schemes" is the single most-cited section in Mains GS-II answers — every essay needs a scheme reference. PYQs: 2015 (PMJDY + financial inclusion), 2017 (MGNREGA + rural distress), 2019 (PM-KISAN + farmer welfare), 2021 (PMAY + housing), 2023 (PMUY + women's welfare), 2024 (PM SVANidhi + street vendors).

Why this matters for UPSC

The 6 schemes covered here = central plank of India's 2014-2026 welfare architecture.

Outlays (BE 2024-25):

• MGNREGA ~₹86,000 cr
• PMAY-G ~₹54,500 cr + PMAY-U ~₹30,000 cr
• PM-KISAN ~₹60,000 cr
• PMUY ~₹12,000 cr (subsidy)
• PM SVANidhi ~₹1,000 cr
• PM-DAKSH ~₹400 cr

Combined: ~₹2.5 lakh cr/year = 6% of Union Budget.