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MGNREGA
Q. What are the Major Goals of MGNREGA?
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
on the following lines to get optimum benefit from this largest social support
programme in the world.
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Mains 2012 .
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2012 Preliminary Examination.
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Set up a Technical Support Consortium for each District
to end the prevailing divorce between Intellect and Labour -
Enlarge the concept of labour in the case of women to
include the operation of creches, balvadis and School Noon-Meal programmes. -
Achieve Convergence and Synergy among different
programmes involving labour, eg. 60,000 Pulses Villages, National
Horticulture Mission, etc. -
Initiate a “beyond 100 days” programme – convert
watersheds into bioindustrial watersheds, to provide opportunities for
running micro-enterprises supported by microcredit, thus integrating on-farm
and non-farm employment opportunities. This will also help to convert
unskilled into skilled labour. -
Provide dignity and prestige to work, and help the labour
to gain in self-esteem and pride by establishing Environment Saviour Awards,
to recognise the work of outstanding MGNREGA Teams in the areas of watershed
development, rainwater harvesting, soil conservation and building soil
carbon banks through fertilizer trees.
If the above 5-point programme is initiated, MGNREGA will
become a powerful instrument for combining labour with intelligence.
The Census of 2011 estimates that 833 million people
currently live in rural India. They depend for their livelihood largely on crop
and animal husbandry, fisheries, agro-forestry and agro-processing. In spite of
all government programmes in the area of social safety nets, we find that the
weight and height of Indians on average have not shown significant improvement
over the last 25 years. Also, 21.5 percent of babies are born with low birth
weight, a problem which begins with malnutrition in the womb (India – Human
Development Report, 2011). The Human Development Report concludes that the
degree of coordination required for ensuring the success of multi-sectoral
interventions like safe drinking water, sanitation, public health services and
balanced nutrition is not in place. This is a governance and not investment
issue.
