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Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the
Nation, always cherished about India’s rural beauty,
resilient power as much he was concerned about the
poverty and living conditions. His pet phrase was
India lives in villages. Therefore, it was in
fitness of things when the Prime Minister Dr
Manmohan Singh’s government renamed its popular
flagship programme National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (NREGA) after him. The momentous
occasion coincided with completion of 50 years of
institution of Panchayati Raj in the country. It was
on October 2, way back in 1959, country’s first
Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, had
inaugurated Panchayati Raj at Naguar in Rajasthan.
India, as we know, is a country of villages and it
goes without saying that since the dawn of
Independence, concerted efforts have been made to
ameliorate the living standard of rural masses.
Rural development as an integrated concept of growth
and poverty elimination has been of paramount
concern in all the five year plans. Traditionally,
Rural Development programmes comprise of following
basic steps like infrastructure facilities in the
rural areas, namely schools, health centres, roads,
adequate drinking water and electrification. There
have been also schemes like improving agricultural
productivity, providing social services like health
and education for socio-economic development,
implementing scheme for the promotion of rural
industry and importantly providing rural employment.
All these were going on smoothly undoubtedly.
However, despite the strides the country has made in
the last six decades, it must be admitted that there
have been certain areas especially in rural India
where standard of living has been far from
satisfactory. Therefore, in 2005, the Government
undertook a major venture, which today could be
easily called the turning point of the changing face
of the Indian villages. The Government enacted a
law, under the name of, the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act 2005 whereby it says any
adult who is willing to do unskilled manual work at
the minimum wage is entitled to being employed on
local public works within 15 days of applying.
Importantly, it laid guidelines providing room for
“unemployment allowance” in which case - if
employment is not provided within 15 days, the
applicant is entitled to an unemployment allowance –
of at least one fourth of the minimum wage for the
first 30 days and at least one half of the minimum
wage thereafter. So much has been the success rate
of the NREGA in the last five years that there is
little to dispute that the Act has helped a
substantial Indian population during the last few
months despite economic meltdown. There are
statistics and surveys to suggest that NREGA has
helped those undergoing reverse migration from urban
and major metros to rural areas.
Among other things, NREGA has able to achieve
substantial results in the field of reducing
distress and seasonal migration. The Union Rural
Development Minister Dr C P Joshi has said that the
NREGA has also helped the rural and semi-urban
people and NREGA workers in particular in
“increasing” their purchasing power. It has to be
taken in that context that the Finance Minister Shri
Pranab Mukherjee remained focussed on Aam Admi and
announced a slew of provisions for inclusive
development in the budget for 2009-10 and gave a
major push to the rural development projects.
Raising the flagship scheme NREGA by whopping 144
per cent to Rs 39,100 crore, he said a key challenge
remains to broaden the agenda for inclusive
development and to ensure that no individual,
marginalized community or region is denied the
fruits of development. Officials say under NREGA, as
many as 4.49 crore households have been provided
employment in 2008-09 and 216 crore person days of
employment have been generated. In fiscal, 2009-10
up to July, Rs 2.53 crore households have been
provided work and 87.09 crore person days have been
generated.
Renaming NREGA
A decision to rename NREGA after Mahatma Gandhi was
taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet on October
1. The next day at a function at the gracious Vigyan
Bhawan in the capital to rename NREGA as Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGREGA),
the Prime Minister also rightly launched a year-long
Year of Gram Sabha. In his speech, the Prime
Minister said that the government move to rename the
NREGA is only a “humble tribute” to the Father of
the Nation on his 140th birth anniversary. The Union
Minister for Panchayati Raj and Rural Development,
Dr Joshi said it is the need of the hour for the
Panchayati Raj institutions to play a pro-active
role in the developmental process.
Gandhian Thought
A key emphasis of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy about
governance has been the task of ensuring the
inclusive growth. This is precisely an area the
where old name NREGA, has provided employment
particularly for marginalized groups. The
participation percentages were 55 per cent
(Scheduled caste /Scheduled Tribe) in 2008-09 and 53
per cent (SC/ST) up to July, 2009 are yardsticks to
measure this. Officials also say that the women
workforce participation has also surpassed the
statutory minimum requirement of 33 per cent. In
financial year, 2008-09, women participation was 48
per cent which has increased to 52 per cent up to
July this year.
Fast Forward
The Act is doing extremely well so far. However,
there have been instances of certain hurdles in
implementation.. In the words of Dr Joshi himself,
“so many ideas are being formulated and plans made
for implementation of NREGA, but panchayats which
are implementing it, have no proper place to do so”.
This has been rightly addressed with the Government
announcing setting up Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendras in
all 2.5 lakh panchayats of the country in the next
three years. “These would act as mini-secretariats
for NREGA projects implementation,” the minister
said.
The Government has also rightly started a
consultation process with the Minister Dr Joshi
himself meeting a cross section of political
leaders. After such a meeting he said the government
is working hard to address what had been mentioned
in the President’s speech to Parliament on ensuring
transparency in NREGA. Several regional parties have
also suggested that the Centre should expand the
scope of newly named Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment
Guarantee Act by including new types of work under
it and ensure more transparency and accountability
in its implementation.
The greatest strength of democracy is that under
this system of governance, the people are the
masters of the destiny and also of their own
developmental works. This is one thing, Mahatma
Gandhi had always underlined.
The rural Indian population, their welfare and the
improvement in agriculture and rural India’s other
facets were close to his heart. India always lives
in villages and still it is a rural-based society.
Yet, in a fast changing world and pressure of
urbanization has often led hundreds off the fields
taking them away from the villages. Perhaps going
back to the field would be a difficult proposition
for many Indians, but the Government’s target of
improving rural living conditions is worth
appreciating. Well, the MGREMA that way is a good
instrument of change!
Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in
this feature are entirely his own and do not
necessarily reflect the views of PIB
RTS/VN
SS-115/SF-115/13.10.2009
**Freelance Writer
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