Discuss how digital monitoring tools can improve accountability in centrally sponsored schemes for marginalised groups, citing recent initiatives.

Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs) for marginalised groups often fail at the last mile. The Centre releases funds and assets are reported on paper, but few check whether anything reached the beneficiaries. Digital monitoring can replace paper claims with verifiable proof. The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment's PM-AJAY Portal and AJAY Mobile App show this well [1].

How digital tools improve accountability

• Verifiable assets: photos must be geo-tagged and time-stamped at key building stages. This makes "ghost assets" and inflated progress reports harder to pass off [2].
• Real-time, paperless workflow: the Portal moves the scheme from paper files to one real-time digital workflow. The Centre and all States/UTs work on the same platform [1].
• Last-mile inclusion: field surveys run in 24 Indian languages, so local officials can record village needs directly [2].
• Evidence-based review: the Central Advisory Committee, chaired by the Union Minister, reviewed progress and set out a future roadmap [2].
• Tracking the saturation gap: only 18,093 of 47,243 covered villages had been declared Adarsh Gram as on 8 Sep 2026. Dashboards make such lags visible and push officials to fix them [3].
• Single platform: merging three schemes (PMAGY, SCA to SCSP, BJRCY) into PM-AJAY allowed one monitoring system [3].

Limits of digital monitoring

• Inputs, not use: a photo proves that a building exists, not that it works. Only 366 of 662 completed BJRCY hostels were functional [4].
• Uneven State capacity: States with weak planning capacity propose fewer projects. The Standing Committee found Punjab and Bihar under-served in hostel sanctions [4].
• Data without consequence: a dashboard alone does not enforce anything. The Committee called for a dedicated Hostel Management/Monitoring Committee with penalties for breaking norms [4].
• Digital divide: poor connectivity and weak digital skills in remote areas can delay uploads or weaken them.

Digital tools move accountability from paper to proof, but they currently prove that assets were built, not that they are used. The next steps are to add occupancy and attendance data to the app, pair it with gram sabha social audits, and back it with enforceable review committees. This would make PM-AJAY's monitoring a model for inclusive, outcome-based governance, in line with Article 46 and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities).