Aspirational Districts Programme

What is Aspirational Districts Programme?

It aims to quickly and effectively transform some of India's most underdeveloped districts.
It will identify areas of immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.
The broad ideas of the programme include -

convergence of central and state schemes
collaboration of central, state level ‘Prabhari’ (in-charge) officers and district collectors
competition among districts

The states are the main drivers in the programme.
Deliberately, the districts have been described as aspirational rather than backward.
The motive is to view them as areas of opportunity and hope rather than of distress and hopelessness.

How are the Aspirational districts selected?

The 115 districts were chosen by senior officials of the Union government.
This was in consultation with State officials on the basis of a composite index.
The parameters included are -

deprivation enumerated under Socio-Economic Caste Census
key health and education performance indicators
state of basic infrastructure

What is the present ranking on?

The present ranking is based on 49 indicators across 5 sectors.
These sectors are areas that have been targeted for transformation -

health and nutrition
education
agriculture and water resources
financial inclusion and skill development
basic infrastructure

A minimum of one district was chosen from every State.

Source: PIB

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