The idea seemed right for district Dungarpur. nfwp began with the preparation of a five-year district perspective plan (dpp) detailing work that could be taken up at every block level and gram panchayat. The aim was to create a need-based development programme for community assets and provide food security by providing wages (and food grains) for work. The plans would also prioritise activities to ensure money was put into holistic development, rather than ad hoc and scattered work.

The programme operated by identifying projects that satisfied two criteria: they had to be labour-intensive and had to create productive assets. Labour-intensity was defined rather strictly