The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) on Monday launched the PM-AJAY portal and AJAY mobile app to digitize the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Anussuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana, a 100% centrally funded scheme targeting socio-economic development of Scheduled Caste communities nationwide.
Union Minister Dr Virendra Kumar conducted the launch in the presence of Minister of State BL Verma and Ministry Secretary Sudhansh Pant, with officials from all states and union territories joining virtually.
PM-AJAY, which was launched in the financial year 2021-22, merges three earlier centrally sponsored schemes — the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana, the Central Special Assistance Sub-Scheme for Scheduled Castes, and the Babu Jagjivan Ram Chhatrawas Yojana. It works through three components: Adarsh Gram Village Development, granting aid for skills and livelihoods, and construction of hostels in educational institutions.
The portal tracks progress across more than 47,000 ST-majority villages and more than four million beneficiaries. For the Adarsh Gram component, paper-based village-level planning will be replaced by digital workflow, with a national dashboard to monitor development against 50 socio-economic indicators across 10 development areas. Fund releases will be linked to milestones, and will be triggered automatically when village development plans are digitally approved.
For grant-in-aid, the portal acts as a central management information system that collects state-level financial data on livelihood and skills initiatives. The lodge component will use the platform to monitor the physical and financial progress of construction and repair work.
The AJAY mobile app extends the portal’s functionality to field users, enabling offline door-to-door surveys, digital beneficiary registration, and real-time VDP generation. For lodge work, field inspectors can provide geotagged and time-stamped photographs of project sites to verify infrastructure features. The app features role-based access control, single sign-on, and integration with existing government portals.
