A Study on Time, Cost & Challenges to Access Social Protection Schemes in Rural Rajasthan

Government of Rajasthan spent 42% of state budget on social sector. Majority of this amount is use to provide social security safety net to the poor and poorest families living in outreach areas of the state through various social protection schemes. While increase in number of social protection schemes have helped poor and vulnerable families to attain the basic human need of food, shelter and livelihood, there is an increasing concern about the poor coverage,time and cost involved for accessing these schemes by the targeted beneficiaries. Poor targeting, lack of awareness, procedural difficulties, poor delivery mechanism, long approval processes inadequate infrastructure, capacity gaps in human resource and attitude of the community & service providers have emerged as major disabling factors affecting the coverage of social protection schemes in the community. This paper tried to understand the time and cost factor restricting a beneficiary to avail the benefits of a social protection scheme. In order to attain this objective, the study covered 100 respondents across 16 Gram Panchayats in Dungarpur district of Rajasthan state. The study examines 4 major flagship schemes of the Government of Rajasthan and reviewed the cost and time required by a beneficiary to avail the benefit of any of these social protection schemes. Using mix method approach, the study finds that 45% of the respondents availed scheme benefits within the stipulated time of 3 months from the submitting the application, while 41% respondent have taken 3 to 6 months' time to find the actual benefit of social protection schemes, whereas number of respondent who were able to receive benefits only after 6 months of application were as less as 14%.In terms of cost, majority 56% of the respondents stated to have spent INR 1-500 followed by 23% who spent INR 500-1000 and 21% respondents who have spent more than INR 1000 in the entire process to avail the benefit of the social protection scheme. These results are important for Government of Rajasthan, as long approval process and high out of pocket expenditure is one of the main reasons behind the low coverage of social protection schemes in state and a cause for concern