Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)was enacted by legislation on August 25, 2005 which provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage of Rs 100/day.
The act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living in rural India, whether or not they are below the poverty line.
The act directs state governments to implement MGNREGA "schemes". Under the MGNREGA the Central Government meets the cost towards the payment of wage, 3/4 of material cost and some percentage of administrative cost. State Governments meet the cost of unemployment allowance, 1/4 of material cost and administrative cost of State council.
Provisions under NREGA
- Adult members of a rural household, willing to do unskilled manual work, are required to make registration in writing or orally to the local Gram Panchayat
- The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job Card. The Job Card will bear the photograph of all adult members of the household willing to work under NREGA and is free of cost.
- The Job Card should be issued within 15 days of application.
- A Job Card holder may submit a written application for employment to the Gram Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought. The minimum days of employment have to be at least fourteen.
- The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for employment, against which the guarantee of providing employment within 15 days operates
- Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work, if it is not then daily unemployment allowance as per the Act, has to be paid liability of payment of unemployment allowance is of the States.
- Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village. In case work is provided beyond 5 km, extra wages of 10% are payable to meet additional transportation and living expenses
- Wages are to be paid according to the Minimum Wages Act 1948 for
agricultural labourers in the State, unless the Centre notices a wage
rate which will not be less than
60 per day. Equal wages will be provided to both men and women.
Funding
MGNREGA started with an initial outlay of $2.5bn(Rs 11300cr) in year 2006–07.The funding has considerably been increased as shown in the table below:| Year | Total Outlay(TO) | Wage Expenditure(Percent of TO) |
|---|---|---|
| 2006–07 | $2.5bn | 66 |
| 2007–08 | $2.6bn | 68 |
| 2008–09 | $6.6bn | 67 |
| 2009–10 | $8.68bn | 70 |
| 2010–11 | $8.91bn | 71 |
The law was initially called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) but was renamed on 2 October 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment