In Danta village, 15km from Bhilwara city, 30-odd women start filing in at 8.30 am daily to resume work on building a concrete water reservoir. The women are among the 2,000 people in the village who have got work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) since the scheme, promising 100 days of work a year to one adult member of every rural family, was launched two years ago...

A difference of opinion between two ministries has put paid to a six-month-old proposal to extend a government health insurance scheme for the poor to those working under the government’s flagship job guarantee programme. The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) offers cashless hospitalization benefit up to Rs30,000 for a poor family of five. Nearly 11 million families have been issued smart cards since the scheme was introduced through the labour ministry...

To assist the poor in entitlements under Act  Lok Karmi should not have affiliation with political bodies 12th Standard pass will be preferable The Centre has set in motion the process to appoint Lok Karmis and Lok Sevaks for the proper implementation of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGREGA). In view of disparities in rural social structures and inequalities in functional capabilities of the poor and marginalised sections lacking literacy skill...

Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy, members of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) — governing body for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme — on Tuesday kept away from ‘MNREGS Sammelan 2010’ here, describing it as a “ceremonial function.” In their joint letter to Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi, the social activists, who had played a crucial role in shaping the manual job guaranteeing law, said, “We see little...

After deliberating for well over seven months, the Union government has eventually evolved a scheme to extend the scope of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) on individual land holdings with Rs. 1.5 lakh as the upper limit of expenditure. The Rural Development Ministry has prepared a draft guideline, detailing not only the works that could be taken up for implementation but also the conditions to govern the...