Mahatma Gandhi NREGA Sammelan–2010

1200 participants from across the country, gather at Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi. The Prime Minister terms Mahatma Gandhi NREGA as a path breaking phenomena with its pro-poor vision and promise of the right to work, inclusive growth and social security and says that act has helped the rural poor to tide over the hardships and acted as an important social safety net during the economic downturn.


Management of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme:- Issues and Challenges
Vice President releases report prepared by Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005. Some points from the Vice president's message:

NREGA has been a game-changer in the governance of the country.
It has for the first time, both nationally and internationally, articulated a rights-based approach to guaranteeing wage employment at such a vast scale.
In 2008-09, around 45 million households have been provided with wage employment and 2160 million person days of employment have been generated;
Average wage paid in 2008-09 has increased to Rs. 84, an increase of around a third as compared to 2006-07;
In 2008-09, participation of SCs and STs has been 55 per cent and women workforce participation has surpassed the statutory minimum requirement of one third and has increased to 48 per cent.


However Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze, who are widely regarded as architects of the National Rural Employment Guarantees Programme (NREGP) boycotted its fourth anniversary celebrations at Vigyan Bhavan as a protest against the manner in which the programme had been implemented.Both of them are members of a Central Employment Guarantee Council that is supposed to monitor implementation of the programme. However they say that the executive council had not been activated and this was hampering the efficient rollout of the scheme.