Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
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 …
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 …
RAMPAL Singh Yadav, 25, moves with an air of purpose on his crutches, supervising the stone-crushing work by a nearly 80-strong group laying a road in Sunela gram pan-chayat, Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh. An intermediate student, Yadav is among a handful of young men with varying physical disabilities who have …
a mutli-crore scam in the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega) recently came to light in Chhattisgarh's Naxal-affected Kanker district. The state government has suspended K P Dewangan, chief executive officer (ceo) of Kanker Janpad panchayat on August 4 and transferred Kanker district collector G S Dhananjay, …
Union minister for rural development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh defends reports of irregularities in implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in a interview with Sandip Das Problem areas in implementing NREGA We have to change the mindset of officials who have been in charge of rural development schemes since …
Kalavati Barai of Raipur Tea Estate in Jalpaiguri has been watching the consistent deterioration of her family of six over the past four years. In March this year, her husband succumbed to severe anaemia and related complications. "I couldn't feed him, so he died,' she states simply. Since the tea …
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega), 2006, is degenerating into yet another poverty alleviation scheme. At the same time, officials are congratulating themselves on the act's performance, and there is even talk of extending its scope. Their exhilaration betrays an ignorance of the contradictions between nrega's intent and ground …
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed last year primarily to strengthen the livelihood resource base of the rural poor, and enhance their social security. But within the country -- particularly in the districts targeted by this act -- there exists a vast difference in how communities perceive livelihood …
Residents of Panihari village are a happy lot. They are celebra-ting freedom from floods for the first time in living memory. Agricultural wages have increased across the district in the past one year. They say their lives have improved because of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega). Flood control …
Rajasthan's Karauli district has been reeling under droughts for the last four years. To tackle this, people of this region are reviving pokhar -- a 200-year-old traditional water harvesting system. Which is why, Prakashi Devi's village has water this year. Prakashi Devi is happy her village pond still has some …
Hope floated in drought-hit Mastapur village when people heard of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega) in 2006. Residents of this village in Madhya Pradesh's Tikamgarh district thought of the scheme as the perfect opportunity to renovate their local tank to tide over a four-year long drought. For, under …
Tikamgarh has been irrigating its lands through water tanks built by Chandela rulers during 900-1200 AD. These stored rainwater and also recharged groundwater in otherwise semi-arid areas. It's due to its 55,000 dug wells that 57 per cent of Tikamgarh's cultivated area has irrigation facilities, compared to the state average …
Social audit has been started in Santhal Pargana Region of Jharkhand with the introduction of citizen action initiatives in the year 2005. Till 2006 there had been six numbers social audit cum public hearing in the region that being carried out by citizens initiatives network.
The objective of this paper is to look at the financial and economic aspects of the NREGA. It will be studying the implications for the rural economy as a result of the minimum wage and employment instituted by the Act. Also, the greater bargaining power of the rural workforce and …
The Sahariya tribal population in Sheopur district continues to suffer from hunger and malnutrition. LIFE for the Sahariya tribal people in Madhya Pradesh is an unending struggle against hunger, malnutrition, disease and, above all, neglect. In August 2006, Frontline reported hunger-related deaths in Sheopur district, which has a high concentration …
This report highlights the importance of social protection in the struggle against global poverty. Social protection aims to enhance the capacity of poor and vulnerable persons to manage economic and social risks, such as unemployment, sickness, disability and old age.
THE National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is barely three months old on the ground. This is precisely why the mass social audit of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in Dungarpur district in southern Rajasthan in April held enormous implications for the way this ambitious piece of legislation could take …
The Employment Guarantee Scheme (egs) is supported by the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Act (mega), 1977 that provides a legal guarantee (and not mere assurance) for work to its rural population all throughout the year. As per the act, any person above 18 years of age in rural Maharashtra (and class …
