Awareness and benefits availed from Government Welfare Schemes in rural Punjab

Dalits in India have been given specific rights, benefits and program to uplift their low status in society. The present paper is an attempt to study the awareness and benefits availed from government-sponsored welfare-schemes by Dalits, Punjab. This paper is based on the primary data sourced from 120 respondents randomly-taken from eight villages of four districts (Amritsar, Bathinda, Fatehgarh Sahib and Jalandhar). Majority of the respondents were aware of the welfare schemes but one-fourth of them (25.83%) did not avail benefits from these schemes. Health (100.00%), education (87.50%) and Atta-dal (98.33%) schemes emerged as most popular and had benefited to the most of the households. However, a significant gap was found between the awareness-and availment of the schemes. An easy implementation procedure of the welfare schemes is essential to reach the disadvantaged population.