NREGS: AN INTRODUCTION

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been launched in ,more than150 most backward districts of the country, identified by the Planning Commission in consultation with the Ministry of Rural Development and the State Governments. This Programme was formely known as National Food for Work Programmme The existing resources in the SGRY were not sufficient to meet the requirement of additional wage employment in most backward districts A need for the preparation of Perspective Plan under the NREGS was felt During the preparation of Perspective Plan, National Rural EmploymenGuarntee Act 2006, came in to force.This plan has been transformed under thelight of the said act, an act to provide, enhancement of livelihood securityof thehouseholds in rural areas of the district by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. OBJECTIVE The objective of the programme is to provide additional resources apart from the resources available in the district from different wage generating programmes to supplement wage employment to all wage seekers at village level, and providing foodsecurity through creation of need based economic, social and community assets in the district related to Soil & Water Conservation, Plantation, Land Development Works, Rural Connectivity Works and B.P.L/ST/SC/ Individual beneficiary assets. CRITERIA FOR SELECTION The Task Force constituted by the Ministry of Rural Development under the Chairmanship of Adviser (RD), Planning Commission selected three variables for computing the index of backwardness, namely,(i) agricultural productivity per worker, (ii) agricultural wage rate and (iii) SC/ST population. Within these criteria 150 most backward districts had been identified including the Bilaspur district by the Planning Commission in consultation with the Ministry of Rural Development.
WORLD BANK VIEWS:The World Bank has described the much-acclaimed National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) of the UPA government as a policy barrier hurting economic development and poverty alleviation The internal mobility, the report argued, is necessary as lifting people out of poverty requires shifting populations from villages to cities. The process of migration should be encouraged, the bank said. Negative attitudes held by (the) government and ignorance of the benefits of population mobility have caused migration to be overlooked as a force in economic development, it said.