Abstract
The enactment of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005, with its rights-based approach through a time-bound employment guarantee and legal framework, has marked a paradigm shift not only from other wage-employment programmes hitherto pursued in India, but also from neo-liberal reforms undertaken since 1991. The Act came into force on 2 February 2006 and was implemented in a phased manner. In Phase I it was introduced in 200 of the most backward districts of the country; Phase II added another 130 districts in 2007-08; and in Phase III the scheme was further extended to the remaining 274 rural districts of India from 1 April 2008.
Highlights
The demand-driven approach of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) ensures that adult members of a rural household willing to do any public-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage are provided a legal guarantee for 100 days of employment for each financial year
Low level of absorption of labour in rural India According to the 11th Planning Commission’s (2007-12) estimate 27.5% of the total population of India live below the poverty line, and about 73% of these poor live in rural areas and are primarily small and marginal farmers
There is scope to converge with schemes like Pradhan Mantri Gtram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), the National Afforestation Programme (NAP), Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP), Farmers Participation Action Research Programme (FPARP) and the Common Area Development and Water Management Programme (CAD& WM)
Summary
The enactment of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005, with its rights-based approach through a time-bound employment guarantee and legal framework, has marked a paradigm shift from other wage-employment programmes hitherto pursued in India, and from neo-liberal reforms undertaken since 1991. The three pillars of the rights-based approach of NREGA (a legal guarantee of 100 days of rural employment, a statutory minimum wage, and ensuring unemployment allowances) seemed to be at stake when the 2007 report of the Comptroller of Auditor General (CAG) – the most extensive assessment of the implementation of the scheme so far – highlighted serious procedural lapses in its implementation These included lack of adequate administrative and technical manpower in rural local governments that adversely affected the preparation of plans, scrutiny, approval, monitoring and measurement of work done, as well as lack of maintenance of the stipulated records at Gram Panchayat level. Respective figures for the financial years 2007-08 and 2008-09 are 54.1% and 56.1% as evidenced from the table below
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