Q8 · UPPSC PCS Mains 2025 · GS VI (UP) · 8 marks · ~125 words in the hall · 2 min read

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What is Drone Didi Yojana of Uttar Pradesh? How does this scheme contribute to the empowerment of women in rural area?

Topic: Schemes, skill and investment. Syllabus: UP Government Schemes, Projects and Planned Development for the welfare of People, Human Resources and Skill Development. Investment in UP — Issues and Impact. Same official PYQ from year-wise 2025 and Schemes, skill and investment.

Revision summary

Namo Drone Didi is the Union scheme that trains women SHGs on farm drones. U.P. pushes training and hiring through agriculture and livelihood networks. Income comes from spraying and allied services sold to farmers. Empowerment is a billed technical role, not unpaid field labour. It needs seasonal hiring demand and safety compliance, not only a handover event.

Model answer

Introduction

Drone Didi is a central scheme, Namo Drone Didi, that trains women in self-help groups to fly agricultural drones. Uttar Pradesh has pushed the same model through its rural and agriculture machinery network so that spraying and mapping are a women’s paid service, not only a male operator’s toy.

Body

The scheme

  • Namo Drone Didi, under the Union agriculture and rural frame, aims to put drones with women SHGs for nano-fertilizer and pesticide spraying and for allied farm services.
  • U.P. implements training, demonstration, and hiring through state agriculture, rural livelihood, and Krishi Vigyan Kendra networks.
  • A group that owns or hires a drone sells a service to neighbouring farmers, which is the income path, not a one-time photograph with the machine.
  • Safety, licence, and pesticide rules still bind the operator; a drone is not a licence to spray banned chemicals.

Rural women empowerment

  • The skill is technical and public, which shifts women from unpaid farm labour to a billed service role.
  • SHG credit and livelihood missions already exist; the drone is a new asset class on that platform.
  • Mobility and night-safety limits remain, so empowerment is real only where hiring demand, repair, and police-verified flying areas exist.
  • The honest limit is density: a few trained didis do not change a district unless custom-hiring actually runs through the season.

Flow diagram

flowchart TD
  C[Namo Drone Didi] --> T[SHG training]
  UP[UP agri rural push] --> T
  T --> S[Spray and map service]
  S --> I[Women income]

Conclusion

Drone Didi in U.P. is the central Namo Drone Didi model with a state rural push: women SHGs fly and hire farm drones. Empowerment is the paid service, not the device. It works where training, hiring demand, and safety rules meet; it fails if the drone stays in a store-room.

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