Report on a Civil Society dialogue with Members of Parliament on the issue of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 is a law whereby: 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. It aims to enhance the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Against this background, the purpose of organizing the Civil Society Dialogue with the Parliamentarians was to share with them the experiences of NREGS implementation of the past two years and bring back the issue to the agenda of good governance at the local level. For good governance there is the need of finding out the ways in which states can ensure that wage employment scheme is delivered effectively in an environment with ensured accountability and continuous efforts to eradicate corruption and minimize inefficiency.