Five Star Villages Scheme: Outreaching Postal Products in Rural Areas

To ensure the ubiquitous coverage of postal schemes in the country, the Department of Posts (DoP) launched the Five Star Villages Scheme on September 11, 2020. The Department of Posts is a government-operated postal system in India that is considered a subsidiary of the Ministry of Communications. Generally referred to as “the Post Office” in India, DoP is a broadly distributed postal system in the world.

Five Star Villages Scheme has been launched to ensure that there should be a universal distribution and coverage of flagship portal schemes in the country’s rural areas. This scheme seeks to fill in the gap in public awareness and reach of postal products and services. In addition to this, the scheme aims to outreach the postal products and its services in small towns of the villages. 

For your Reference

This is how the Home Page of the DoP website looks. Link of the website:-

https://www.indiapost.gov.in/vas/Pages/IndiaPostHome.aspx

Objective of Five Star Villages Scheme

The objective of Five Star Villages Scheme is listed below: –

• To ensure the universal coverage of postal schemes in the rural areas of the country.
• To ensure the ubiquitous coverage of flagship postal schemes in the rural areas of the country
• All postal products & services will be made accessible to all the people
• Under the Five Star Villages Scheme, these services will be advertised and publicized at the village level
• Under this scheme all the branch offices will function as one-stop shop to provide all the post office related needs of the villagers

Scheme name and its Details
Name of the Scheme	Five Star Villages Scheme
Launched by	The Department of Posts (DoP)
Benefits of the Scheme	Interior Village areas
Beneficiaries	Small and lower-middle-class workers

Schemes that are Covered

• Recurring Deposit Accounts, Savings Bank Accounts, NSC/KVP certificates
• Sukanya Samriddhi Account/ PPF Accounts
• Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana Account/ Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana Account
• Funded Post Office Savings Account linked India Post Payments Bank Accounts
• Postal Life Insurance Policy/Rural Postal Life Insurance Policy

Note:- From the above mentioned five schemes, if a village attains universal coverage for four schemes, then that village gets four-star status, if a village completes three schemes, then that village get three-star status and gets 5 star status if covers all the 5 schemes.

Important Definitions

• Recurring Deposit– The term recurring deposit or RD refers to an investment plan which is meant for the long-term wealth creation. Under this deposit, the investment is made in small instalments at fixed intervals systematically.


• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana– It is a small savings yojana which is introduced by the government. This yojana revolves around the welfare of women and girl child in India.


• Public Provident Fund (PPF) – The term PPF is referred to as a tax-free saving scheme which is regularised by the Government of India. Under the PPF scheme the interest on the account is specified for each quarter and is paid by the Government.

Here is a tabular representation:-

Parameters	Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana	Public Provident Fund (PPF)
Interest Rate	7.1% (Q3, Oct-Dec. 2020)	7.6% (Q3, Oct-Dec. 2020)
Age	15 Years
Amount Payable on entry	₹100	₹1000
Minimum Deposit	₹500	₹250
Maximum Deposit	₹1,50,000	₹1,50,000
Tax Benefit	₹1,50,000	₹1,50,000
Maturity	15 years	21 years

Background of the Five Star Villages Scheme from the Official Statement

• While launching the scheme, the Union Minister of State for Communications, Shri Sanjay Dhotre declared that the scheme is being launched on a pilot basis in Maharashtra; based on the experience here, it will be implemented nation-wide.
• “Postman and Postal Department” plays a vital role in the lives of ordinary citizens.
• India Post has been assisting the people in an exceptional way in the arduous situation which has emerged due to COVID-19.
• The Indian Post has been helping the people fight this difficult situation by providing medicines and granting financial assistance.
• Our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi not only brought schemes into existence, but has been ensuring their proper implementation as well.
• The Postal Department has been playing a vital role in the implementation of all such Government schemes, supporting the immense strength of its huge network.
• Also, the entire state of Maharashtra will be covered under the scheme.

Strategy behind the Yojana

The strategy applied is to cover a total of 50 villages in each district. The idea is to identify the districts/areas for each region and two rural districts / areas.

List of the Areas that will be Covered under Five Star Villages Scheme

• Akola and Washim in Nagpur Region
• Parbhani and Hingoli in Aurangabad Region
• Solapur and Pandharpur in Pune Region
• Kolhapur and Sangli in Goa Region
• Malegaon and Palghar in Navi Mumbai Region

Strategy Implementation

• As per the government, the Five Star Villages Scheme will be implemented by a team of five Gramin Dak Sevaks.
• These Gramin Dak Sevaks will be assigned with a village for doing the marketing of all the postal products, services, savings & insurance schemes of the Department of Posts.
• This team will be governed by the Branch Post Master of the concerned Branch Office.
• The team will be supervised by Mail overseers.
• The reports will be submitted on daily basis.

Beneficiaries of the Scheme

• Based on the nature of this scheme, the benefits of the 5 post office schemes will be expanded to the people of rural areas.
• The offices in these areas will serve as a one-stop shop to cater to all the concerned needs of the villagers.
• The entire state of Maharashtra will be encompassed under the scheme.

Campaign of the Scheme

• The team of the 5 Gramin Dak Sevaks will conduct door-to-door awareness campaign on all the schemes, covering all the eligible villagers.
• The information related to all the schemes will be publicized extensively be displaying the information on notice board of the Branch Office.
• Important places of targeted villages like: – the schools, Panchayat Offices, bus depots, village dispensaries, and markets will also be used for advertising.

Training and Monitoring

Appropriate training and infrastructure covering all the schemes would be granted to all the branch offices in identified villages. Progress of the scheme and the achievement of the targets would be monitored by the Circle, Regional and Divisional levels. Whereas, the Chief Post Master General will review the Monthly progress.

Role of Aatmnirbhar Sena

As the name says, Aatmnirbhar Sena is a unit of people working to make the citizens of our country self-reliant. To support the people belonging to the backward areas of our society, Aatmnirbhar Sena works relentlessly. We never fail to support our government in implementing the several schemes by contributing to making them a success.

Conclusion

Launched by the Department of Posts, Five Star Villages scheme is a ray of hope for the citizens of rural areas of the country.  The motive behind initiating this scheme is to ensure the universal coverage of postal schemes in the country. The scheme aims at filling the gaps in public awareness and reach of postal products and services.