Aspirational Districts Programme : MP’s Barwani Gets First Rank in State, Secures Place among Top Ten Districts in Country

BHOPAL / Madhya Pradesh’s tribal district Barwani which has been selected under the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) of the Centre government has shown maximum progress in the state, it has also got the place under the top ten best performer districts of the country in Health and Nutrition sectors.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has discussed the aspirational districts in his recent visit to Madhya Pradesh while attending a mega tribal convention that was celebrated as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas to mark the birth anniversary of the community leader and freedom fighter Birsa Munda. In his speech, PM had said that development is now taking place in the aspirational districts which remained backward during the earlier regime.

According to the recently released grading of the ADP by the State Policy and Planning Commission, Barwani has shown overall maximum progress as compared to the remaining seven districts of the state with an improvement score of 30.25 per cent. In the report, it has also said that since the inception of the ADP, Barwani has become the best performing district in the country in the sense of progress in the development works in the month of August and September this year in the Health and Nutrition sectors. “The District has got the place under the ten best performing districts of the country”, the report stated.

The district has also performed excellently in the fields of agriculture and water resources among the other districts of the country as it has secured a good rank in the August and September months. NITI Aayog has recently allocated additional Rs 3 crore to the district.
Barwani has received these honours due to efforts made by the collector of the district, Shivraj Singh especially focusing on the tribal welfare schemes of the state and central governments.

Before July 2020, Barwani was the worst-performing district among the others in the state in the progress of key performer indicators of the ADP but after joining Shivraj Singh as the collector of Barwani, since then the district has consecutively been witnessing good progress.

Barwani has more than 70 per cent tribal population and is one of the districts of the country that are selected under the ADP scheme of the NITI Aayog.

NITI Aayog has chosen 112 tribal districts across the country under the ADP scheme. MP’s eight tribal districts including Barwani have been included under the programme, they are; Chhatarpur, Damoh, Guna, Khandwa, Rajgarh, Singrauli and Vidisha.

PM launched the transformation of the Aspirational Districts Programme also known as the ADP under the aegis of NITI Aayog in 2018. The ADP aims to quickly and effectively stimulate local development and transform most backward districts based on the 49 key performance indicators spread across sectors including; Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.