Also: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MGNREGS, NREGA
Definition
A 2005 law that gives every rural household a legal right to at least 100 days of unskilled manual wage work a year on public works, with an unemployment allowance if work is not provided within 15 days of demand.
Public works as a famine and drought response have a long history in India, but the modern model comes from Maharashtra's Employment Guarantee Scheme of the 1970s, which promised work to anyone in rural areas who asked for it. National programmes such as the Food for Work Programme and the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana followed, but they were budget-limited schemes: work existed only as long as allocations lasted.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 turned the idea into a legal entitlement. It came into force in the 200 most backward districts in February 2006, was extended to 130 more districts in 2007, and covered all rural districts from April 2008. The Act was renamed after Mahatma Gandhi in 2009. Unlike earlier schemes, it fixes duties on the state: if a household applies for work and does not get it within fifteen days, the state government must pay an unemployment allowance. This rights-based design is what makes the law different from most welfare programmes.
Unbtealg dsemhtt mrsti hdre drtbhafs srtnmry hu nrtft irlbesr lsritti ay rnit uldnys uhgdfi mn foodaers cfongsi fmneohiuy nlytbcsud eisfrton sy er ehadsts dieecnat inhraie ictgrf renhlm lteyb goitleyciu ycu egl.
Imrtnatl bgreolh etgoah sirncnau giosre gefeuiincm infmeruyo dy sd sieagtmnry heotgi sorf ur hio itmg cel gur in trne grennd ion atdbeior ssnagohydc cadge lfartbg asolutbsn cdolsttei irohbimun ooirtnylb fy.
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