Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is a social welfare programme, basically meant for the upliftment of the rural masses. The programme aims at generating 100 days employment to every villager, irrespect of their caste, creed, age or any other discrimination.
The programme has suited to the Indian context. In a country like India which is an agriculture-based economy and a large part of the country falling into rural sector, it becomes inevitable for the government to protect the large part of the rural population. For a long time, the rural population of India has lived at the mercy of the fate. Much exploitation has been done to the rural mass by the banias, munshis and some Zamindars in disguise, who have been directly or indirectly, ruling the villages even after the country's independence. The country has taken the shape of democracy, yet, in many parts of the country, people live in fear, owing to the existence of hypocrisy of such elements, whose deeds and the way of leading life, is unconstitutional and illegal.
A huge part of the country being rural, is a good characteristic, in the sense that it has not been protruded by the urban jungle, which wipes out nature. A programme like MGNREGA, if dealt meticulously, can become a wonderful emasculation to the rural sector. As the programme aims at generating employment to the rural masses, it becomes crucial for the government to get the maximum work done through manual labour. Moreover, the developmental projects get completed with commitment and with minor lapses when compared with the work done through contractors. As the work undertaken by MGNREGA is for the sake of the people taking part in the activity, they do it with interest and commitment. The interesting feature of the projects undertaken through this mission are rejuvenating the ponds and rivers by removing the silt from them, road building activity etc. These projects can be managed even with technically unskilled labourers. Even if any, the novice, in course of time, gets trained to do it. However, the deviations get checked by the few engineers and technicians, whose work is only to supervise the activity.
We live in an age that is replete with sophisticated technology, our world gives little scope for manual labour. Technology has been relentlessly uprooting the human employment during the past decades. At a time when India has been undergoing with modernizing activity, MGNREGA has proved to be a wonderful source of emasculating the rural India from the advent of unwanted interference of scientific technology.
At such juncture, striking an equilibrium between human employment and technological employment, is the need of the hour. The urban advancement should make the best use of scientific technology while the rural India should make the best use of manual labour to prevent technology from snatching the bread and butter of the mouth of the large population.
MGNREGA can anchor a large part of the rural population within the countryside by generating employment during the 100 crucial days. These days include the season when the farmers remain without any agricultural activities. Thus, a large part of the rural population can be prevented from migrating to the towns and cities for finding a source of their livelihood. Subsequently, the burden on the cities can be controlled.
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