AGRO-ECONOMIC RESEARCH: Impact of NREGAon Wage Rates, Food Security and Rural Urban Migration in Sikkim

摘要

Since Independence the country's strength is derived from the achievements of planning. The policies and programmes have been designed with the aim of alleviation of rural poverty which has been one of the primary objectives of planned development inIndia. But employment programmes were not perceived as major instrument of poverty alleviation until the beginning of the 1980s in most states of the country. They were expanded in the sixth plan period with the introduction of the National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) and the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP). Subsequently, some other public employment programmes were adopted viz. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY), Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS), Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY), National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP). The programmes were targeted at the poor and were generally indentified with poverty alleviation programmes. Such programmes were treated as schemes which did not involve any legal entitlements. But contrast, for the first time, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 200S provides employment opportunities of rural labourers as a matter of right. The NREGA goes beyond poverty alleviation and recognizes employment as a legal right. It is a step towards legal enforcement of the right to work, as an aspect of the fundamental right to live with dignity.