Given the scale of UPA-II's proposed food security programme, getting the recipe right was never going to be easy. But even accounting for their differences, the National Advisory Council (nac) and the government are having more problems than expected pushing the right to food legislation. Two nac proposals have been rejected by the ministry for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, with the result that a fresh draft may need...

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which has revitalised the rural landscape across the country, stands diminished in the land of its birth, Rajasthan, hijacked and held to ransom by vested interests and stripped of its backbone of an open social audit. As the Andhra experience has shown, there is one ingredient that can bring back its vitality: institutionalising citizen audits. But, is the Rajasthan government up to...

  The sea change that India’s national scheme for rural employment guarantee has accomplished is hard to fathom, its vastness touching the lives or more than 100 million people. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (NREGA, subsequently renamed after Mahatma Gandhi, or MGNREGA) was a landmark in Indian legislation. Under the act, as of April 2008, for the first time in India’s history, all rural citizens have a legal right...

The registrar of trade unions in Rajasthan has refused permission to National Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) workers to form a union, on the grounds that they do not qualify as workmen. When the Majdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti – formed by NREGA workers under the guidance of nac member Aruna Roy – approached the registration office, they were told that NREGA workers don't qualify as 'workmen' as defined in the Industrial Disputes...

The Sonia Gandhi-led nac, the political interface between the Congress party and the UPA government, is likely to “listen to the government’s side” before finalizing its recommendations for the legislation The prospects for legislation on food security brightened as the National Advisory Council (nac) may consider a compromise with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) over the terms of the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA). The Sonia Gandhi-led nac, the political interface...