National Social Assistance Programme does not include the following scheme for 'Below Poverty Line' households

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojna. The National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), launched in 1995 and run by the Ministry of Rural Development, is an umbrella of exactly five sub-schemes for Below Poverty Line households: the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS), the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme (IGNWPS), the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDPS), the National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) and the Annapurna Scheme. Every one of them hands a poor household cash or grain — non-contributory social assistance, paid out of the exchequer, giving effect to Article 41 of the Directive Principles. The Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojna (usually spelt Pariyojana) is a different kind of intervention altogether: a Ministry of Rural Development programme to raise the productivity, incomes and recognition of women farmers, belonging to the rural-livelihoods stream rather than to social assistance. It is not one of NSAP's five components, so it is the scheme the question is looking for.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) NFBS is one of NSAP's five components, not an outsider. It pays a one-time lump sum of ₹20,000 to a Below Poverty Line family on the death of its primary breadwinner — a classic social-assistance transfer, exactly the kind of benefit NSAP exists to deliver.  (b) Annapurna is also inside NSAP — its food-based arm. It gives 10 kg of foodgrain free every month to indigent senior citizens who are eligible for the old-age pension but are not actually receiving it, so that no eligible elderly person is left with nothing.  (d) This would mean NSAP includes none of the three, which is plainly false: NFBS and Annapurna are both named components of the programme. Only one of the listed schemes lies outside NSAP, so a single option is correct, not all of them. In a negative question like this, finding one genuine component is enough to kill the 'All of the above' choice.

Concept: NSAP is Article 41 of the Constitution turned into a working programme. That Directive Principle asks the State, within the limits of its economic capacity, to provide public assistance in cases of old age, sickness, disablement and other undeserved want. Launched in 1995 as a centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development, NSAP delivers that assistance to Below Poverty Line households through five sub-schemes — three pensions (old age, widow, disability), one death benefit and one food entitlement. It is welfare, not insurance: the beneficiary contributes nothing.

State PCS 2019 Q66 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q66 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer