The Battle for Employment Guarantee

Description

India's National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) is a unique initiative in the history of social security that guarantees employment on local public works to anyone who applies for it. It is the world's largest public works programme ever, with some 50 million women and men employed every year. This volume provides the first comprehensive and objective account of the ground realities of NREGA. Based on field studies conducted between 2006 and 2010, the essays in this volume cover four broad areas: - A brief history of the Act and a comparative summary of official NREGA statistics - The socio-economic impact of NREGA on a wide range of issues such as women's empowerment, mobilization of unorganized workers, and corruption - A comparative analysis of the challenges and successes in the implementation of NREGA in several states, from Orissa in the east to Rajasthan in the west and Himachal Pradesh in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south - Recent setbacks and ‘trouble spots' including the lack of proper grievance redressal mechanisms and of accountability in the system This volume is a chronicle of the various ‘battles' for employment guarantee, from the enactment of the law to the fight against corruption and workers' struggles to organize and defend their rights.