On 21 December 2004, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the Union Rural Development Minister, introduced the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill in the Lok Sabha. The Bill, termed as a dilution of the United Progressive Alliance`s National Common Minimum Programme promises, invited serious criticism from political parties as well as people`s movements across the country. The government was forced to refer the Bill to the Standing Committee on Rural Development under the leadership of Kalyan Singh for a detailed scrutiny.

The months that followed witnessed fervent debates and heated discussions on the Bill on three major points of discrepancies. One, the burden of the financial expenses for the implementation of Bill was with the State Governments; two, it was nothing other than an extension of the existing rural development programmes; and three, its application was restricted to rural areas.

Taking into consideration the views expressed by the experts, representatives of various governmental and non governmental organisations and the public at large, the Standing Committee on Rural Development submitted its report on the Bill on 27 July 2005. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on 23 and 24 August 2005, respectively, and received the President`s assent on 5 September 2006. According to the notification issued on 2 February 2006, every State government should, within six months from the date of commencement of the Act, prepare a scheme for providing not less than 100 days of guaranteed employment in a financial year.

On 2 February 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, along with the National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi, launched the implementation of the Act by handing over job cards to five workers at Bandlapalli in Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh. During the launch, the Prime Minister said that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) transferred power to the people, making the government accountable and responsible for providing employment wherever there was a need. He emphasised the need for full transparency and accountability in the implementation of Act. NREGA, presumably, will create new rural infrastructure and better road connectivity, school buildings and water supply to villages. The government claims that the NREGA focuses on the poorest of the poor, provides livelihood security and reduces distress migration; the Act will help get rid of the scourge of poverty, disease and indebtedness.

The main objective of the NREGA is to ensure local employment to every rural household for 100 days in a financial year. In the first phase, 200 districts have been identified (chosen by the Planning Commission based on certain criteria of backwardness) for the implementation of the Act. The notification for the implementation of the Act (with effect from 2nd February 2006) was issued in 183 districts. The remaining 17 districts include 3 from Jammu and Kashmir, 2 from Meghalaya and 12 from Maharashtra. In Meghalaya, in view of the bye-election on 16th February and the applicability of the model code of conduct, the government suggested that the Act be made applicable only from 1 April 2006. Since Maharashtra has had its own Employment Guarantee Act from 1972, the government decided only to amend it so that the entitlements of the workers under the Central Act are ensured in the State Scheme. The Central government will share the expenditure in 12 identified districts of Maharashtra as per NREGA. The Act will cover the entire country within a period of five years.

To enlist under NREGA, the adult members of a household are required to submit their name, age, sex and address to the Gram Panchayat for registration. The registration, valid for five years, is open throughout the year. The details submitted will be verified by the Gram Panchayat and later job cards with photographs will be issued with a unique registration number. Employment will be provided to the individuals within 15 days of submitting the application. If employment is not provided, the applicant is entitled to receive unemployment allowance as per the  terms and conditions laid down.

The NREGA is claimed as the first step towards realising the right to work as enshrined in the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution. Article 39 states that “the State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing… (a) that the citizen, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood”.

There are still serious unresolved issues regarding the NREGA. One major issue of concern is the wage rate prescribed for the work. The rate, fixed according to the Act, is Rs 60 per day irrespective of the work they do. This, in many cases, is much lower than the minimum wages fixed for agricultural labourers; for example, in Tamil Nadu, an agricultural labourer gets Rs 80 as minimum wage.

NREGA is newly born. This issue of Labour File attempts to prepare the ground for future discussions and debates. The cover story by Sandhya Iyer and Sarthi Acharya examines the effectiveness of the scheme in Maharashtra.  The article by the MKSS Collective establishes that the NREGA can never meet its objectives without the active participation of people in its implementation. And it is here that another legislation - the Right to Information Act 2005, becomes an indispensable tool in the hands of the poor to fight leakages, claim entitlements and make the NREGA meaningful for themselves. Reshmi Shetty, dwelling upon the Right to Information Act, calls upon the civil society to carry forward the goals of the Act with vigour and maturity. Those who invoke the Act must also promote the values of transparency and freedom of information and make it an abiding contribution to governance rather than seek hasty prosecution, which might even erode the legislative intention and produce counter-productive results.

Arun Kumar, through his article emphasises that the return on investment in the Employment Guarantee Scheme will be much higher than in any other conceivable project since the dignity of our citizens is involved; to any democrat, dignity will have a higher value than anything else. Jeemol Unni, while discussing the Act and its relevance to the proposed social security for the unorganised workers Bill, points out that many schemes of the Central and State governments currently address the issues of social security in a piecemeal fashion. The schemes, for her, without legislative backing, tend to get withdrawn as and when the concerned government faces a crunch in resources.

Looking at the road ahead for the NREGA, C.P. Chandrasekhar cautions that the track record of the current government and the dominance in it of neo-liberal ideologues (who justify tax breaks for the rich while invoking fiscal prudence when it comes to delivering on the rights of the poor) give cause to believe that behind the “human face” lies the same agenda. Padmini Swaminathan, argues that isolated projects, such as the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, however well meaning and well administered, is nevertheless way off the mark as a solution to the problems faced by the rural poor and the rural poor women in particular. Parth J. Shah and Renu Vinod state that if the idea of the NREGA is to free people from the clutches of poverty, then more than employment, it is the real money they receive that counts. According to Suneet Chopra, the Act with enough supporting labour legislation can become a powerful instrument in the hands of the rural labour and prevent their marginalisation.

With strong commitment from various stakeholders, with enough public monitoring and transparency of administrative functioning and with minimal corruption, the NREGA can transform the lives of the rural poor.