-Live Mint Rural livelihoods have improved because of MGNREGA. It is wrong to say the scheme has not worked If some recent news articles are to be believed, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a scheme that costs less than 0.35% of India's gross domestic product (GDP), has crashed the country's economy. The latest to join this bandwagon of criticism is an editorial in Mint. ("MGNREGA: A tale...

-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Women and Child Development) The Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) in the country are part of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme which is a centrally sponsored Scheme. At the AWCs, six services namely (i) Supplementary nutrition (ii) Pre-school non-formal education (iii) Nutrition and health Education (iv) Immunization (v) Health check-up and (vi) Referral services are provided for holistic development of 0-6 years of children. Pregnant &...

-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Women and Child Development) The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted during the U.N. Millennium Summit, 2000 by 189 countries including India consists of eight goals which are sought to be achieved during the period 1990 to 2015. The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) -1 is regarding Eradication of Extreme Poverty and Hunger, which have 2 targets namely, (i) Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the percentage of population...

-The Hindu Three months after the Ministry of Rural Development launched ‘Kaam Maango Abhiyan', aimed at capturing demand effectively for its flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the impact is beginning to become clear in several select districts of the country. The focus has been in six districts - Sitapur (Uttar Pradesh), Nashik (Maharashtra), Raichur (Karnataka), Katihar (Bihar), West Singhbum (Jharkhand) and Sundergarh (Odisha). The campaign covered...

-Live Mint The scheme represents Rs.2.3 trillion spent on wasteful rural consumption This week marked the eighth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's key rural intervention, launched in 200 districts initially in February 2006. To the extent that such populist schemes helped raise wages without raising productivity. They have contributed more to inflation than to rural wealth. Worse, such schemes have...