the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill (nregb) 2004 passed by Parliament in August 2005, makes India the only developing country to have legislation ensuring livelihood. Once it is notified, an Employment Guarantee Scheme (egs) will come into being under which one person in each rural household will be assured employment for 100 days per year.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh calls it a "path-breaking' legislation. By involving the panchayat in its planning, monitoring and implementation, egs will empower the common people. Work taken up under egs will streng then the rural infrastructure through activities such as building roads, check dams, irrigation systems and health facilities. Union minister for rural development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said in Parliament that egs should not be seen as a substitute to agriculture. The income from egs will be in addition to that from agriculture (for farm workers during the lean season) and can help improve the quality of rural life and reduce migration to urban areas.

egs also requires one-third of the employment be reserved for women. This will accrue benefits like improvement in health and primary education. But not everyone thinks egs will work.

Breeds corruption Critics give the example of Maharashtra, which has an Employment Guarantee Act since 1977. Similar to egs, the act, according to Sharad A Joshi, member of Parliament from Maharashtra, is synonymous with corruption. "Corruption is not unexpected when money is involved and the transaction is between officials who control the funds, and the poor, unemployed labour who would be willing to take only a share of whatever is due to him or her,' says Atanu Dey, a development economist. egs provides an important role to panchayats in its implementation. But the block level programme officer and district coordinators, who will handle the funds under egs , are not accountable to panchayats. To make the scheme transparent, "Names of persons employed under egs, hours worked, wages paid and the assets built must be posted for public scrutiny,' suggests Kamal A Mitra Chenoy, professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Other experts believe that for egs to be successful, it should replace existing poverty alleviation programmes like National Food for Work, which are mired in corruption (see