The Hindu : National : `Rural Employment Guarantee Act safety net for poor in rural areas'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 01, 2005

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National

`Rural Employment Guarantee Act safety net for poor in rural areas'

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 28. Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), has welcomed the Union Finance Minister's announcement on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

"This Act will be the social safety net required by the poorest in the rural areas," she said in a statement issued here. The problem faced by a large number of rural folk was lack of employment, especially during the dry season. In dry and drought-prone areas, many communities had to habitually migrate to other parts of the country in search of work, a painful and disruptive process. It destroyed the fabric of the community, the family lives of the migrants, the possibility for education of the children and perhaps, worst of all, the possibility for development of their own area, she said.

These forced migrants were subject to some of the worst exploitation in their new workplaces . Those left behind did not have enough to eat or the barest of money for other basic necessities, and although there may be no famine, there was surely slow malnutrition and starvation, Ms. Bhatt said.

Limited approach

However, the Guarantee Act had a limited approach. Employment must not been seen as mere manual labour. The Act must include works other than only digging and carrying mud and stones. Even the poorest in the rural areas had some skills by which they earned their livelihood. "Therefore, the Act can include the skilled work so that the employment generated is not only temporary for the 100 days but could also become of a sustained nature which could include agro-processing, on-farm processing, embroidery, weaving and printing," Ms. Bhatt said.

Suggesting de-centralisation of the Act, Ms. Bhatt said the best way to ensure its success was to include the people in its implementation.

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