National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) gets its extension across the country at the beginning of 2008-9 financial year from today.
Earlier, Union Minister for Rural Development Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had insisted all Members of Parliament to implement the scheme from April one in all districts and gram panchayats, this act provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage.
He also stressed that government is looking into considering more than one person of same household under the scheme.
The programme which encircles all 604 districts of the country is an attempt to provide livelihood security to that 22 percent of people who belong to Below Poverty Line.
The scheme was enacted in 2005 and implemented from February 2, 2006 in 200 districts across the country but later it was extended to 330 districts in 2007-8. It is estimated that its further extension will provide social security to 60 million household.
Though the programme which is one of its kind, focused largely to benefit the poor by creating employment opportunity and strengthening the natural resource base of rural livelihood by promoting measures for water conservation, drought proofing, irrigation, land development, flood protection and rural connectivity, it has been under scan continuously regarding the implementation.
Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its performance audit of the implementation of NREGA had found large-scale scarcity of jobs and also the issue of unsatisfactory wage scheme, and hence advised government to address those issues before its further extension.
The Rural Development Minister also said that government will take initiative to ensure corruption free implementation of this scheme and admitted irregularities and leakage of funds at different levels.
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Reports
The study on NREGA conducted by CSE says that though the scheme has a huge potential to generate jobs for the millions of needy and poor but the programme has failed at several level. The study was conducted in 12 districts in 9 states across the countries.
Sunita Narain, director, CSE said, “The Act brings with it huge possibilities of making a difference to the lives of 45 million rural households of our country. Over the two years that it has been in existence, NREGA has already created half-a-million assets and provided jobs to around three per cent of India’s population. Our study shows that people essentially want two things – productive assets and regular wages. Wherever the Act has failed to meet these needs, its implementation has collapsed.”
“This is the world’s largest ecological regeneration programme for building assets – water conservation structures and afforestation – for economic change and we have to realise its potential and make it work,” she recommended.
It recommended effective implementation of the programme along with making the wage payment and development people friendly. The reports also draw emphasis on water conservation, afforestation and on strengthening the decision making bodies by equipping them with required funds.
The programme which has a potential to uplift one of the major part of our society needs more serious administrative and political commitment.
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