The Indian government has launched one of the huge countrys most ambitious efforts to tackle rural poverty, BBC Online reports Wednesday.
Under the National Rural Guarantee Scheme one member from each of Indias 60 million rural households is guaranteed 100 days of work each year. They will receive a minimum wage of 60 rupees (8,35 DKR) or an unemployment allowance if there is no work.
More than a third of Indias population of more than one billion people lives on less than one dollar (6,20 DKR) a day.
The first phase of the programme will cover 200 of the countrys poorest and least developed districts. Hundreds of thousands of villagers have been lining up in all 200 districts hoping to benefit from the scheme.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the scheme in a village in the drought-prone Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh by handing out job cards to five villagers. The president of the governing Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, was also present and described the programme as “an important and a revolutionary step”.
The programme will be extended to the entire country over the next four years and is being seen as an important effort to curb the migration of villagers to Indias overcrowded cities.
Analysts say this is the most ambitious pro-poor scheme launched by an Indian government, in a country where nearly 70 per cent of the population lives in villages. – It is the biggest social security net ever provided in India, the countrys Rural Development Minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, told the BBC.
People employed by the scheme will work on projects such as building roads, improving rural infrastructure, constructing canals or working on water conservation schemes. The government says special priority will be given to women.
However, critics say the scheme is too expensive and question whether the government has the funds for a programme expected to cost anywhere between 5 billion and 25 billion US dollar.
They say rather than paying for unskilled manual labour, the government should invest in improving rural infrastructure – especially in health care and education.
Others say there is little transparency, which may lead to red tape and corruption, BBC adds.
