Analysing welfare schemes: Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh wants concurrent evaluation

NEW DELHI: It was in the mid-eighties that former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi said if the Centre released a rupee for the poor, only 15 paisa reached them. Decades later, not much has changed. With leakages, delays, and uneven implementation of welfare schemes like NREGA, blunting benefits to the poor, the rural development ministry is proposing to put in place a system to assess the effectiveness of the schemes even as they are implemented.

A Cabinet note outlining the mechanism for concurrent evaluation is being circulated for inter-ministerial consultation.

The proposed system of concurrent evaluation would be a departure from the current assessment methods, which are in the nature of post mortems. At present, Comptroller and Auditor General and social audits are undertaken after the scheme has already been implemented.

The mechanism proposed by the ministry comprises an independent organisation, the Concurrent Evaluation Office (CEO), which will facilitate a systemic rapid and rigorous simultaneous assessment. The CEO will undertake real-time evaluation through a concurrent evaluation network, comprising a panel of reputed independent research and other institutions.

The proposed system will be an 'as it happens' evaluation. Or as rural development minister Jairam Ramesh describes it, "something like an OPD compared to the post mortem". Concurrent evaluation will help policy makers to intervene on a real-time basis, as it will identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies, suggest innovations and remedies.

The government hopes that this move will bolster its accountability quotient - allowing for greater public accountability of the rural development portfolio, which has an annual budget that comes second only to defence.