A V Rajwade / New Delhi February 18, 2008 Advertising for the NREGA on the BBC shows just how mindlessly the programme is being implemented.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme provides for 100 man days of work for a person a year Ariyalur Collector Xavier Chriso Nayagam (right), with students of Meenakshi Ramasami College at Thathanur in Ariyalur district enrolled under NREGP. ARIYALUR: For 200 students of Meenakshi Ramasami College tucked in Thathanur, a nondescript village near Jayamkondam in Ariyalur district,

THE National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is now in its second year. It already covers more than half of rural India

KALGACHIA, Feb 11

Union rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has advised the state governments to ensure conducive environment for the effective implementation of Centrally-sponsored rural employment schemes, like National Rural Employ ment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

A new survey of implementation of the much talked about National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Manohar Thana tehsil of Jhalawar district in Rajasthan has testified to the effectiveness of the programme in the rural areas. Despite the existence of areas of concern such as delays in payment of wages and even non-payment of minimum wages, the track record, particularly in employment generation, has been impressive, it says.

This paper follows the principles of the

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, (NREGA) was notified on September 7, 2005. The objective of the Act is to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

Around three per cent of India

Even as we celebrate 60 years of Indian democracy, with millions of our people hungry, cynical and insecure, and living under the barrel of the gun (of the state or the extremists), we need to worry about the reach and quality of our political process. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has the potential to provide a "big push" in India's regions of distress. For NREGA to be able to realise its potential, the role of civil society organisations is critical. But this calls for a new self-critical politics of fortitude, balance and restraint.

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