Merging several Centrally Sponsored Schemes into umbrella schemes is said to improve flexibility but dilute focus. Discuss with reference to PM-AJAY.

Umbrella schemes group several Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs) under one budget head to reduce fragmentation. PM-AJAY was launched in 2021-22 by merging three schemes for Scheduled Castes: PMAGY, SCA to SCSP and the Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojana (BJRCY) [2]. It shows both the gains and the risks of such mergers.

Flexibility gains

• Single, fully funded window: the Centre funds 100% of three components (Adarsh Gram, Grants-in-Aid and hostels). States can match funds to local needs instead of working inside rigid scheme silos [1].
• Needs-based allocation: Grants-in-Aid is shared by SC population and each State's SCSP-to-Annual-Plan ratio. States choose the livelihood, skilling and residential-school projects it funds [1].
• Area-based convergence: Adarsh Gram gap-filling works through Village Development Plans (VDPs). Over 47,200 villages and 47.79 lakh citizens are covered, and 18,093 villages had been declared Adarsh Grams by September 2026 [1].
• Unified monitoring: one portal and mobile app replace paper files with real-time tracking [1].

Dilution of focus

• Budget squeeze: the first-year allocation of ₹1,800 crore was ₹160 crore below what the three schemes together received in 2020-21 [2].
• Smaller components crowded out: hostels get only up to 2% of funds [1]. A Parliamentary Standing Committee sought a notional earmark for BJRCY, with separate amounts for boys' and girls' hostels [2].
• Outputs over outcomes: only about 38% of covered villages have been declared Adarsh Grams, and there are 27,032 VDPs for 47,000-plus villages [1]. Adarsh Gram status is self-declared, so States have been directed to verify these declarations [3].
• Thin spread: about ₹1,730 crore reached over 2.5 lakh beneficiaries in five years, roughly ₹70,000 each [1].
• Maintenance burden: States must maintain completed assets, which strains cooperative federalism [1].

PM-AJAY shows that umbrella schemes bring flexibility and convergence, but without earmarks and outcome measures, smaller priorities lose ground. Ring-fenced allocations for hostels, outcome-based dashboards, independent verification of Adarsh Grams and funded maintenance can keep the benefits of merging. Such calibrated consolidation would better serve Article 46, which directs the State to promote the educational and economic interests of SCs, and the SDG pledge to leave no one behind.