For Sonia Gandhi, the change could not have been more dramatic. Just last year, her contribution in pushing for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was hailed as the single largest reason for the fresh mandate received by a government avowedly dedicated to the aam aadmi. Yet, last week, Gandhi, as chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC) was reduced to lodging a complaint with Prime Minister...

3,344 acres of barren land to be converted into farmland An agriculture development scheme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGP) is being launched in 154 of the 187 tribal hamlets in the Attappady Hills in Palakkad. As much as 3,344 acres of barren land will be converted into farmland under 10,405 works with the implementation of the Rs.64-crore scheme, considered a first of its kind. The salient...

A meticulous study of the agrarian relations in three villages. ONE of our senior sociologists once drew my attention to the distinction between economics and other social sciences. Other social sciences – sociology and anthropology, for instance – he said, pay a great deal of attention to gathering primary data and interpreting them, whereas economics relies on secondary data for its analysis. This is, to a large extent, a fair...

Can the government break its own laws? That seems to be the case when it comes to minimum wages in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which makes the government the employer of the world’s largest workforce of close to 35 million job-card holders. In 19 states, the workers are getting less than the minimum wages in their areas, with the rural development ministry and the labour ministry looking the...

In the fight against poverty, India seems to be winning - in some parts of the country at least. Vimla Sharma lives in Suwana Village in Rajasthan. Her life has been dramatically improved by a government scheme called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Launched in 2005, it guarantees every rural family 100 days of work a year at a wage of 100 rupees a day. She can now send...