Saturday 7 June 2008

Productivity = Sustainability

The NREG Scheme, India’s flagship welfare initiative, promises at least 100 days of work in a year to one member of a poor rural family. In the 2008 Budget, the programme was extended to all 596 districts. Four-fifths of jobs created under NREGS are in the area of water conservation, land development and drought-proofing.

Now the government has decided that such jobs must be lined to productivity - currently some States are creating the jobs but getting little useful and productive work from them ... they thus become a form of charity ... and become unsustainable.

1 comment:

aditya said...

The scheme can be effective but only if implemented properly, as you said giving away wages without getting work done has sustainability issues and is also a waste of taxpayer’s money. It would be a good idea to use this scheme to create a better rural infrastructure which can provide employment and also help in long term development. We at Mahindra consider sustainability to be one of our primary objectives.