The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is a scheme launched by the Government of India to generate employment in rural areas. The main features of NREGA are:
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100 days of salaried employment: Every rural household is entitled to 100 days of salaried employment every year.
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Womens employment: One-third of the suggested occupations are reserved for women.
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Legal guarantee: The Act gives legal guarantee of a hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to adult members of a rural household who demand employment and are willing to do unskilled manual work.
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Infrastructure development: The objective of the Act is to enhance the livelihood security of the people in the rural areas by generating wage employment through works that develop the infrastructure base of that area.
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Job card: Every rural household has the right to register under NREGA and job cards are issued to every household registered under NREGA.
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Shelf of works: The village community has the right to choose works under 8 permissible categories of works, which will be identified by the village community for 5 years and can be taken up in their villages as per the job demand and entitled persondays.
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Beneficiaries: 30% of the beneficiaries should be women.
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Wage payment: Salary payment is made within a fortnight.
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Location: The project should be completed within a 5 km radius of the village. Job seekers will have to get an additional 10% of the minimum wage if the work is more than 5 km away.
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Community involvement: No one can change the proposed works of the village community unless they follow NREGA rules.
NREGA has been successful in reducing Indias poverty rate significantly and has been described as a shining example of consequent rural development.
