By Anvitha Parvathareddy and Rajvi Mulani
“This pandemic has thrown at us new challenges and problems which we have never imagined, but it also taught us an outstanding lesson with a strong message,” said Modi in an address through video conference to India’s 2,50,000-gram panchayat heads on National Panchayati Raj Day. He said that the pandemic has made us realise how vital being self-sufficient is.
Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign or Self-reliant India campaign has been a vision of the honourable prime minister to make India self-reliant for a very long time. The campaign was announced during the announcement of economic policies for the pandemic in May 2020. The campaign primarily focuses on the “Make in India” initiative. The campaign includes a package of about Rs. 2o Lakh crore to help India reach the stage of self-reliance. While most people think being self-reliant might mean cutting off or isolating from the world, it instead focuses on being a more significant part of the global economy.
Restrictions and bans on travel for a very long time significantly affected the economy, that is driven by imports and exports. This not only affected the national economy but also directly affected the employment of the wage workers.
“Every village has to be self-sufficient enough to provide for its basic needs. Similarly, every district has to be self-sufficient at its level, every state has to be self-reliant at its level, and the whole country has to be self-reliant at its level,” he said.
The five pillars of the campaign are Economy, Infrastructure, System, Demography, and Demand. The campaign's basic implementation was seen when the rural population started producing handmade sanitizers and masks through local machinery.
Under this campaign, the government also announced ‘Atma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan’, a campaign that benefits the migrant workers who lost their employment due to the reverse migration. This is a 125-day campaign which will provide employment to 1.25 crore migrant workers covering 31 districts in Uttar Pradesh. This campaign is also a part of Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan and mainly focuses on providing jobs, promoting local entrepreneurship, and creating partnership with industrial association and other organization to create employment opportunities. Various departments are appointed to focus on 25 categories of work.
All in all, this campaign has a great scope of bringing migrant workers back to their feet if implemented thoroughly. It will also prove to be and economic booster for our country.
References
· Ray. M (2020). “ PM Modi launches Atma Nirbhar UP Rojgar Abhiyan to provide jobs to 1.25 crore migrant workers.” Retrieved from https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pm-modi-launches-atma-nirbhar-up-rojgar-abhiyan-a-125-day-campaign-to-provide-employment-to-1-25-crore-migrant-workers/story-WkOGOkFT2C3ifhLhoOXaPI_amp.html