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37 Soc. Change 1 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/sclcnge37 and id is 1 raw text is: 1-16 Social Change : March 2007: Vol. 37 No. 1 The reluctant guarantee K. R.Venugopal* One year of implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which is of great importance to the poor is nearing completion. In view of this the subject is topical and relevant. It is vital to analyse critically the problems in the law itself. The author traces a comparative account of the Employment Assurance Scheme and NREGA. Many shortcomings of the NREGA are pointed out. It is argued that the crucial provisions in NREGA 2005 undermine the proclaimed guarantee and it would be idle to pretend that this Act would change the geography of poverty in India. The author treats this analysis of NREGA as a mode of raising our voices on behalf of the poor to expand their rights. Rural poverty and the solution to it in the employment context have been discussed for years in independent India. Rural unemployment being the crux of the problem of poverty, employment for the rural masses has been thought about by the Government of India in various ways but typically perfunctorily over the past 30 years. By far the best answer ostensibly to emerge so far has been the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA or Act hereafter) that promises to guarantee at least 100 days of unskilled manual wage amployment in every financial year to every rural household in select districts of the country with a daily wage rate of not less than Rs. 60. Andhra Pradesh offers Rs. 80 as the daily wage rate. The Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes (REGS) drawn up by the State Governments according to the Operational Guidelines issued by the Government of India under this Act have been under implementation for about a year now. We already have considerable grassroots level feedback of the implementation of the Scheme from various states of India such as what we got recently at the National Tribunal on NREGA organised by the Wada Na Todo Abhiyan at the India Social Forum in November 2006 in Delhi. That hearing highlighted the issues * 79, Road 14, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad-500034. <krvenu@sancharnet.com> <vkasba@hotmail.com>

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