Historical Background

MNREGA is a result of a long struggle by various social movements. It was a

long standing demand of the labour movement but it had never made much
headway. The various political traditions that converged to make this Act possible
were: employment-based drought relief programmes launched in 2001 and 2003
in Rajasthan, the anti-globalisation movement, Gram Swaraj and the Ecological
movements. In early 2004, it was included in the election manifesto of the
Congress Party. In May 2004, Congress supported by the Left Parties UPA I
( United Progressive Alliance) came to power which was committed to the
enactment of NREGA . This commitment led to the drafting of NREGA in August
2004 by the National Advisory Council. The Bill was tabled in the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Rural Development. In the meantime there was a
countrywide campaign to repair the Bill which was supported by the National
Advisory Council, the Left Parties and a wide range of organizations committed
to the Right to Work. This led to a series of amendments in the Bill paving the
way for finally passing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in 2005.
The old name NREGA has been used to refer to the MNREGA as well in this
essay.

MNREGA has evolved from various set of Wage-Employment Programmes:

Rural Man Power (RMP) in 1960 -61

Crash Scheme for Rural Employment (CRSE) in 1971-71

Pilot Intensive Rural Employment Program (PIREP) in 1972

Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA)

Marginal Farmers and Agriculture Labour Scheme (MFAL)

Food For Work Program (FWP) in 1977

National Rural Employment Program (NREP) in 1980

Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP) in 1983

Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) in 1993

Jawahar Rojgar Yojana (JRY) in 1993-94

Jawahar Gram Samriddi Yojana (JGSY) in 1999-2000

Sampoorn Grameen Rojgar Yojana (SGRY) in 2001-02

National Food For Work Program (NFFWP) in 2005

Although when compared with the above programmes, NREGA indicates a paradigm
shift that is all the previous Wage-Employment Programmes are Schemes, whereas
NREGA is an Act. There is a difference between a Scheme and an Act: