PM-AJAY Drives Inclusive Development Through Adarsh Grams, Socio-Economic Projects and Educational Infrastructure

1. At a Glance

• PM-AJAY (Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana) is the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment's umbrella scheme for Scheduled Caste (SC) communities. It covers village infrastructure, livelihoods, skilling and education [1].
• It has three components: (i) turning SC-majority villages into Adarsh Grams (model villages); (ii) Grants-in-Aid for socio-economic projects at the State and District levels; (iii) construction and repair of hostels [1].
• It is 100% Centrally Funded. States and UTs may add their own money [1].
• UPSC relevance: it covers welfare schemes for vulnerable sections, cooperative federalism, the SC Sub-Plan (SCSP), area-based development versus individual-beneficiary schemes, and digital governance in welfare delivery.

2. Why in the News

• 16 Oct 2026: a PIB release reported that 18,093 villages had been declared Adarsh Grams as of 8 Sep 2026. It also reported that over 47,200 villages with more than 47.79 lakh citizens have been covered [1].
• About ₹1,730 crore was released directly to States under the Grants-in-Aid component from FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26 [1].
• 785 student hostels had been completed as of Sep 2026 [1].
• In a Rajya Sabha reply, MoS Ramdas Athawale said 47,328 villages had been selected under the Adarsh Gram component, including 435 in Telangana. States and UTs have been told to verify self-declared Adarsh Grams through a third-party audit [6].

3. Background & Evolution

• 2009-10: the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) began as a pilot in 1,000 villages across Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Assam [8].
• Original PMAGY eligibility: total village population of at least 500 and more than 50% SC population [8].
• 2018-19 onwards: a newer phase of village selection began; 29,851 villages had been selected by Dec 2024 [5].
• 2021-22: PM-AJAY was launched by merging three schemes: PMAGY, Special Central Assistance to Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCA to SCSP), and Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojana (BJRCY), a hostel scheme [2][5].
• Eligibility cut-off lowered from >50% to >40% SC population, with total population still ≥500 [8][9]. PIB sources disagree on the year of this change (2021-22 or 2022-23) [8].
• Adarsh Gram declarations by year: 215 (2021-22), 3,609 (2022-23), 2,489 (2023-24) [7].
• By Dec 2025: 12,964 villages declared Adarsh Gram since inception [3].
• By 8 Sep 2026: 18,093 villages declared Adarsh Gram [1].
• PM-AJAY Mobile App and Portal launched to move from paper files to fully digital, real-time processing [1].

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Ministry	Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (Department of Social Justice & Empowerment) [1][3]
Funding	100% Centrally Funded; States/UTs may supplement [1]
Launch	2021-22, merging PMAGY + SCA to SCSP + BJRCY [2][3]
Components	Adarsh Gram; Grants-in-Aid (State/District projects); Hostels [1]
Adarsh Gram eligibility	>40% SC population and total population ≥500; villages selected in descending order of SC population [9]
Adarsh Gram concept	A village where people have basic services, the minimum needs of all sections are met, and disparities are kept to a minimum [1]
Share of funds: Adarsh Gram	Up to 50% for gap-filling in selected villages [1]
Share of funds: admin	Up to 5% for Technical Support Groups and Project Implementation Units at Central, State and District levels [1]
Share of funds: hostels	Up to 2% for construction and repair of hostels, including support to Central Institutions [1]
Share of funds: Grants-in-Aid	The rest, for District and State-level projects [1]
How Grants-in-Aid is shared among States	Based on SC population and the ratio of State SCSP to Annual Plan, relative to the State/UT's SC population [1]
Village coverage	>47,200 villages, >47.79 lakh citizens [1]; 47,328 villages selected (Rajya Sabha reply) [6]
Works	46,944 works completed; 27,032 Village Development Plans (VDPs) prepared [1]; 3.28 lakh works identified [6]
Adarsh Grams declared	18,093 as of 8 Sep 2026 [1]
Grants-in-Aid released	About ₹1,730 crore (FY22–FY26); >2.5 lakh individual and group beneficiaries reached [1]
Hostels	785 completed as of Sep 2026; FY 2026-27: ₹61.46 crore for 2 hostels (one girls', one boys') housing 264 students [1]
Maintenance	State Govts or implementing agencies maintain completed infrastructure; the Centre also funds hostel maintenance [1]
First-year budget	₹1,800 crore in 2021-22, which was ₹160 crore less than the three merged schemes got in 2020-21 [4]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Social

• It targets SC-majority villages, aiming to reduce disparities and meet the minimum needs of all sections [1].
• Hostels help SC students from rural and remote areas get access to education. The FY 2026-27 allocation explicitly includes a girls' hostel [1].
• Grants-in-Aid also aims to raise literacy and school enrolment among SC students through residential schools where needed [1].

Economic

• Grants-in-Aid funds comprehensive livelihood projects, skill development and related infrastructure, with the aim of raising incomes [1].
• About ₹1,730 crore released over five years has reached more than 2.5 lakh beneficiaries [1]. That is roughly ₹70,000 per beneficiary, which raises the question of whether the support is deep enough.
• Hostels were allotted only up to 2% of funds, and the first-year allocation was cut by ₹160 crore compared with the three merged schemes [1][4].

Administrative

• Implementation units exist at three levels (Central, State and District TSGs/PIUs, funded from up to 5% of the scheme) [1].
• Selected vs declared gap: about 47,200 villages covered but only 18,093 declared Adarsh Grams (~38%) [1], which suggests slow saturation.
• Village Development Plans (27,032) lag well behind the number of villages covered [1].
• Because Adarsh Gram status is self-declared, the Centre now requires third-party audit verification [6].

Ethical / Governance

• The PM-AJAY App and Portal support real-time monitoring, transparency and accountability [1].
• Once assets are built, States must maintain them, which brings risks under cooperative federalism (unfunded maintenance burden) [1].
• Third-party audits respond to the incentive problem in self-certification [6].

Scientific / Technological

• The scheme has moved from paper-based work to fully digital, real-time processing, with data-driven decisions [1].

6. Recent Developments (last 12-18 months)

• 1 Apr – 10 Dec 2025: 3,952 VDPs generated and 2,311 villages declared Adarsh Gram [3].
• Dec 2025: cumulative declarations since 2021-22 reached 12,964 [3].
• 2026 (Rajya Sabha reply): 47,328 villages selected; third-party audit of self-declared Adarsh Grams ordered [6].
• 8 Sep 2026: 18,093 villages declared Adarsh Grams [1].
• Sep 2026: 785 hostels completed; ₹61.46 crore approved for 2 hostels (264 seats) in FY 2026-27 [1].
• 16 Oct 2026: PIB progress release linking the scheme to Viksit Bharat @2047 [1].

7. Prelims Hooks

• PM-AJAY is implemented by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, not the Ministry of Tribal Affairs [1].
• PM-AJAY is a 100% Centrally Funded Scheme [1].
• It merged PMAGY, SCA to SCSP and BJRCY in 2021-22 [2][5].
• PMAGY started in 2009-10 with 1,000 pilot villages in 5 States [8].
• Adarsh Gram eligibility: >40% SC population and total population ≥500 [9].
• Villages are selected in descending order of SC population [9].
• Up to 50% of funds go to Adarsh Gram gap-filling; up to 5% to TSGs/PIUs; up to 2% to hostels [1].
• Grants-in-Aid is shared among States using SC population and the SCSP-to-Annual-Plan ratio [1].
• 18,093 villages declared Adarsh Grams as of 8 Sep 2026 [1].
• 785 student hostels completed as of Sep 2026 [1].
• About ₹1,730 crore in Grants-in-Aid released FY22–FY26, reaching >2.5 lakh beneficiaries [1].
• FY 2026-27: ₹61.46 crore for 2 hostels / 264 students [1].
• First-year (2021-22) budget: ₹1,800 crore [4].

8. What 18,093 'Model Villages' Does and Does Not Prove

• A village is declared 'Adarsh' before most of its planned work is done
• 3.28 lakh works have been identified across the selected villages [6]. Only 46,944 are complete, which is about 14% [1][6].
• That is about 7 planned works for each selected village (3.28 lakh ÷ 47,328), but only about 2.6 completed works for each declared village (46,944 ÷ 18,093) [1][6].

• So many villages carry the 'Adarsh' label while less than half of their own plan is finished. The two counts come from releases of different dates, so treat this as a rough comparison only.

• Declarations sped up sharply just before the audit order

• From 1 Apr to 10 Dec 2025, about 8 months, 2,311 villages were declared [3].
• From Dec 2025 (12,964) to 8 Sep 2026 (18,093), about 9 months, 5,129 villages were declared [3][1]. That is more than twice the earlier pace.

• Each State declares its own villages. When the State that gets judged on the count is also the one doing the counting, the count rises quickly. This is why the Centre ordered a third-party audit [6].

• Some villages are being declared without a plan at all

• 47,328 villages are selected, but only 27,032 Village Development Plans (VDPs, the list of gaps and works for each village) are ready [6][1].
• So about 20,000 selected villages do not yet have the basic plan that the gap-filling money is supposed to follow.

9. Read the Coverage Numbers With Care

• The '47.79 lakh citizens' figure cannot be the population of the covered villages
• Every eligible village must have at least 500 people [9].
• But 47.79 lakh people across more than 47,200 villages works out to about 100 people per village [1].
• Under the old PMAGY, 19,094 villages held about 2.54 crore people, which is roughly 1,330 per village [10].

• So the 47.79 lakh figure probably counts something narrower, such as direct beneficiaries. In an answer, do not write that it is the population covered.

• The year-wise numbers do not join up neatly

• The three year-wise counts add up to 6,313 declared villages by March 2024 (215 + 3,609 + 2,489) [7].
• The total then jumps to 12,964 by Dec 2025 [3].
• Different releases use different start points ('since inception', 'since 2021-22'). Quote one release's figure with its date. Do not mix totals from different releases.

10. Why the Hostel Component Has Almost Stopped Growing

• The 2% cap pays for only one or two hostels a year
• Hostels can get at most 2% of PM-AJAY funds [1]. Take the 2021-22 budget of ₹1,800 crore as a guide [4]. Then 2% is about ₹36 crore a year.

• The two hostels approved for FY 2026-27 cost ₹61.46 crore for 264 seats [1]. That is about ₹23 lakh per seat, and more than 2% of that budget.

• Most of the 785 hostels come from the old scheme

• BJRCY (Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojana) was a full scheme of its own, built only for hostels. After the merger it became a 2% line inside PM-AJAY [2][4].

• At the current rate of 2 new hostels a year, the stock of hostels will barely grow.

• This matters most for SC girls from remote villages

• The scheme's own logic is that a hostel is what lets a rural SC student reach a school or college [1].
• Scholarships pay the fees, but they do not give the student a place to live.

11. What the Merger Did to the Old SCSP Money

• Money that was once free for States to use is now mostly tied to villages
• SCA to SCSP (Special Central Assistance to the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan) began in 1980. It was a 100% grant, added on top of the States' own spending on SCs [11].

• Under PM-AJAY, up to 50% now goes to Adarsh Gram villages. The Grants-in-Aid component, which is the old SCA, gets only what is left after the 50% + 5% + 2% shares [1].

• The village component seems to take more than its share

• Adarsh Gram got ₹1,017.07 crore in 2021-22 [7]. That is about 56% of that year's ₹1,800 crore budget [4], above the 50% ceiling.

• The two figures may be measured differently (budget vs release), but the direction is clear.

• Grants-in-Aid releases look thin

• Grants-in-Aid should get at least 43% of the scheme (what is left after 50% + 5% + 2%). At ₹1,800 crore a year, that would be about ₹770 crore a year.
• The actual release was about ₹1,730 crore over five years, or about ₹346 crore a year [1].
• Either the budget fell, or the States did not use the money and so did not get the next instalment. The release does not say which. Ask this question before you praise the figure.

12. The Case for Village-Level Spending, and Its Limits

• The strongest case for the Adarsh Gram approach
• A road, a drain or a water supply cannot be given to one family. It has to be built for the whole settlement.
• SC-majority villages have historically lagged behind in these shared services. Choosing villages in descending order of SC population sends money to where SCs are most concentrated [9].

• The approach is sound to this extent: individual schemes alone cannot fix a village that has no road.

• What the 40% rule leaves out

• Only villages with more than 40% SC population and at least 500 people qualify [9].
• An SC family in a village with 30% SC population, or in a town, gets nothing from this component, even if it is poorer.

• Lowering the cut-off from 50% to 40% widened coverage [8], but the method stays the same: it reaches villages, not people.

• Fair conclusion

• Village saturation works only when strong individual schemes for SCs run alongside it, such as scholarships and hostels.
• Taking money from the hostel and Grants-in-Aid parts to fund villages weakens that pairing (see the section above).

13. What Should Change, and Who Should Do It

• MoSJE should audit villages before declaring them, not after
• Third-party checks now come after a State has already declared a village [6].

• Make a declaration valid only once the village's VDP is complete and most of its identified works are done. Publish the completion share for each village on the PM-AJAY portal [1].

• NITI Aayog should judge outcomes, not the number of declarations

• NITI Aayog's 2017 guidelines make it responsible for evaluating the Development Action Plan for SCs (DAPSC) [12]. PM-AJAY's Grants-in-Aid formula is built on that framework [1].

• An independent evaluation should compare declared villages with similar non-selected villages on water, roads, school enrolment and income. It should not simply count labels.

• The Centre should review the 2% hostel cap

• At current costs, 2% pays for one or two hostels a year (see the hostel section) [1][4].

• A separate floor for hostel funding, especially for girls' hostels, would bring back the dedicated role that BJRCY had before the merger [2].

• MoSJE should publish State-wise Grants-in-Aid releases and spending

• Without this, nobody can tell whether the low ₹346 crore a year is due to budget cuts or to States not using the money [1].

14. Anchors for Answers

• Data: 46,944 works completed against 3.28 lakh identified, about 14% [1][6]
• Data: 18,093 villages declared Adarsh Gram vs 47,328 selected, about 38%; declarations more than doubled in pace between Dec 2025 and Sep 2026 [1][3][6]
• Data: 27,032 VDPs for 47,328 selected villages, so about 20,000 villages have no plan yet [1][6]
• Data: ₹61.46 crore for 264 hostel seats (about ₹23 lakh per seat), against a 2% cap on hostel funds [1]
• Data: Old PMAGY covered 19,094 villages and about 2.54 crore people across 529 districts (Dec 2021) [10]
• Report/Committee: NITI Aayog Guidelines for SCSP/TSP, 2017: NITI is responsible for evaluating DAPSC [12]
• Law/Case: Article 46 (Directive Principle: the State shall promote the educational and economic interests of SCs and STs)
• Scheme: SCA to SCSP (1980): a 100% additive grant to States, now merged into PM-AJAY's Grants-in-Aid component [11]
• Scheme: Post-Matric Scholarship for SCs: pays fees but not housing, which is why hostels matter alongside it

15. Mains Relevance

• GS-II: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States, and how well they work; mechanisms, laws and bodies set up to protect and improve these sections.
• GS-II: Government policies and interventions for development; e-governance; transparency and accountability.
• GS-III: Inclusive growth; rural infrastructure.
• Possible question stems: 1. "Area-based saturation approaches like PM-AJAY's Adarsh Gram component complement but cannot substitute individual-entitlement schemes for Scheduled Castes." Critically examine. 2. Merging several Centrally Sponsored Schemes into umbrella schemes is said to improve flexibility but dilute focus. Discuss with reference to PM-AJAY. 3. How can digital monitoring and third-party verification make SC welfare schemes more accountable? Illustrate.

16. Related Topics to Study Next

• Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY): another "model village" scheme with a different ministry and different selection criteria.
• Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana: the Ministry of Tribal Affairs' counterpart for tribal-majority villages.
• Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) / Development Action Plan for SCs: used in PM-AJAY's Grants-in-Aid formula.
• Post-Matric Scholarship for SCs: an individual-beneficiary education scheme that complements PM-AJAY hostels.
• SHREYAS / PM-YASASVI: other umbrella schemes for SC and OBC education.
• National Commission for Scheduled Castes: the constitutional body that oversees SC safeguards.
• PM-JANMAN / Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan: comparable saturation-based schemes for tribal habitations.

17. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Scheduled Castes (Polity): The scheme targets SC-majority villages; knowing who SCs are and their constitutional safeguards frames the whole scheme.
• Grants-in-aid (Economy): One of the three components; explains how the Centre transfers money to states beyond tax devolution.
• Centrally sponsored schemes (Economy): Helps you contrast this fully centre-funded scheme with shared-funding schemes, a common trap in the note.
• Cooperative federalism (Polity): Centre funds and states implement and maintain assets, raising Centre-state partnership and unfunded maintenance burden questions.
• Social justice (Polity): The scheme's aim of reducing disparities for SCs through hostels, livelihoods and village infrastructure is a social justice goal.
• Inclusive growth (Economy): Mains angle: saturation of SC-majority villages and livelihood support are tools for growth that reaches marginalised groups.

18. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Wrong ministry: PM-AJAY belongs to MoSJE. Do not confuse it with PM Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana (Tribal Affairs) or SAGY (Rural Development) [1].
• Wrong funding pattern: it is 100% central under the release's framework, not a 60:40 split [1].
• Old eligibility threshold: the current threshold is >40% SC (originally >50%). The 500 figure is total population, not SC population [8][9].
• Mixing up counts: about 47,200–47,328 villages are selected/covered, but only 18,093 are declared Adarsh Grams [1][6].
• Merger list: PM-AJAY merged PMAGY, SCA to SCSP and BJRCY. It did not merge post-matric scholarships [2].