Suraji Gaon Yojana (Narva, Garuwa, Ghurwa, Bari), Chhattisgarh

What is Suraji Gaon Yojana?

Suraji Gaon Yojana is a rural development campaign of the Panchayat and Rural Development Department, Government of Chhattisgarh. The name means "a village with good governance", and the programme is best known by the four Chhattisgarhi words that make up its components: Narva, Garuwa, Ghurwa, Bari (नरवा, गरुवा, घुरवा, बाड़ी).

Suraji Gaon Yojana was not designed as a cash-transfer scheme. Rather than paying money to individuals, the programme creates village assets. A revived stream, a fenced cattle shelter, a compost pit, a kitchen garden, and then routes livelihood activity through the gram panchayat, the gauthan management committee and women's self-help groups federated under Bihan, the Chhattisgarh State Rural Livelihood Mission.

This is the single most misunderstood point about the scheme, so it is worth stating plainly: there is no individual application form and no personal cash benefit for simply living in a village covered by Suraji Gaon Yojana.

What are the four components of Suraji Gaon Yojana?

Narva, rivulets and water conservation. Narva work treats seasonal streams and their catchments so that monsoon runoff is slowed and groundwater recharges. Typical works are check dams, loose boulder structures, gabions, contour trenches, farm ponds and dug-well recharge pits. Most of this is executed as MGNREGA work, so villagers with job cards earn wages on it.

Garuwa; cattle and the gauthan. Garuwa arranges day care for village cattle in a gauthan, a fenced enclosure with fodder, water and shade, so that animals do not stray onto standing crops or onto highways. Gauthans have also become the physical base for other activity: vermicompost units, cow-dung purchase under Godhan Nyay Yojana, and small SHG enterprises.

Ghurwa: compost pits and organic manure. Ghurwa promotes composting of farm and household waste in pits, and vermicompost production in gauthans. The organic manure produced is used on village fields and sold through cooperative channels, reducing chemical fertiliser cost.

Bari; kitchen gardens. Bari develops vegetable and fruit plots on land next to houses and inside gauthans. Reported implementation ran to more than three lakh individual baris and about 4,429 community enclosures in gauthans, giving households both nutrition and a small saleable surplus.

Godhan Nyay Yojana, launched on 20 July 2020, was the best-known extension of the Garuwa component: the state purchased cow dung from villagers at a notified rate per kilogram at gauthans and converted it into vermicompost.

Who can take part in Suraji Gaon Yojana?

You can take part if:

• You live in a gram panchayat area of Chhattisgarh where the components have been taken up.
• You hold a MGNREGA job card and want wage work on Narva, gauthan or Ghurwa construction.
• You are a member of a self-help group registered under Bihan, which is how livelihood activity inside a gauthan is allotted.
• You own or occupy homestead land suitable for a bari.
• You keep cattle and want to use the village gauthan for day care.

You cannot apply or are not eligible if:

• You live in an urban local body, the programme is a rural one, run through gram panchayats.
• You want an individual cash grant. No such benefit exists under this scheme; a personal transfer only arises as MGNREGA wages for work actually done, or as SHG income.
• You are seeking a gauthan livelihood allotment as an individual rather than through a registered SHG.
• Your village has no sanctioned gauthan, in which case there is no Garuwa activity locally to join.

What documents are needed?

How to apply and take part in Suraji Gaon Yojana

1. Attend the gram sabha where the panchayat's annual action plan is discussed. Narva, gauthan, Ghurwa and Bari works are approved here, so this is the point at which a village asks for a work to be included.
2. Register work demand at the panchayat if you want wages. Give your MGNREGA job card number to the panchayat secretary or rozgar sahayak and get a dated receipt for the demand.
3. Join or form a self-help group under Bihan through the village organisation, if you want a livelihood activity inside the gauthan. Group formation is done with the help of the block-level Bihan staff.
4. Apply to the gauthan samiti — the gauthan management committee, for an activity allotment, such as vermicompost, poultry, mushroom cultivation or a vegetable unit, in the name of your group.
5. Ask the horticulture or panchayat staff for a bari if you have homestead land, and register for seed and sapling support where it is being distributed in your block.
6. Track the work on the panchayat notice board and on the MGNREGA muster roll, which must be publicly displayed at the worksite.

How to apply offline through the janpad panchayat

1. Meet the sarpanch and panchayat secretary with your request in writing, work demand, SHG activity or bari support, and take an acknowledgement.
2. If the panchayat does not act, submit the same application to the Chief Executive Officer of the janpad panchayat for your block.
3. Escalate to the district panchayat CEO for works that have been sanctioned but not started.

How do I check the status of works in my village?

1. Ask for the gram panchayat annual action plan and the list of sanctioned works, these are public documents and must be read out in the gram sabha.
2. Check the MGNREGA public portal for your panchayat to see sanctioned works, muster rolls and wage payments against your job card number.
3. Inspect the worksite board, which must state the work name, sanctioned amount and completion date.
4. For SHG activity, ask the Bihan block staff for the group's ledger and the gauthan samiti's allotment record.

Why do villagers not receive benefits under this scheme?

• The village has no sanctioned gauthan, so no Garuwa activity exists there.
• Work demand was never registered in writing, so no MGNREGA wage liability arose.
• The household is not in an SHG, and gauthan activities are allotted only to groups.
• A bari plot has no clear land record, which delays support on private land.
• Programme priorities changed. Rural development programmes in Chhattisgarh have been reorganised since 2023, and the emphasis on individual components including gauthan-based purchases has varied. Confirm what is currently active in your block with the janpad panchayat before planning around it.

Where do I complain about Suraji Gaon Yojana works?

• Gram sabha and sarpanch, the first and most effective forum, because works are approved and reviewed here.
• Panchayat secretary / rozgar sahayak for job card and wage complaints.
• CEO, janpad panchayat for block-level complaints about sanctioned works.
• CEO, zila panchayat and the District Collector for unresolved matters.
• Social audit, MGNREGA works under Narva and gauthan construction are subject to social audit, where any villager may raise an objection.

No fee is payable to register work demand, to join a self-help group, or to be listed for a bari. Any demand for money by a village-level functionary should be reported to the janpad panchayat CEO.