The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed in August this year with the purpose of guaranteeing employment to every rural household in India for at least one hundred days in every financial year. In a multi-part series, Ranjana Ghosh presents a review of the historic Act.

India Together reports that the main motivation behind this act was to make the right to work legally enforceable in the entire nation and to give labourers bargaining powers over wages that were rightfully theirs.

Some of the key provisions and features of this act are:

Employment Guarantee Schemes:
� Every state government shall , within six months from the date of commencement of this Act, make a Scheme, for providing not less than one hundred days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in the rural areas Scheme and whose adult members, by application, volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
� Every person employed under this scheme is entitled to wages. Till the central government fixes any wage rate, the minimum wage rate for agricultural labour, in accordance with the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 shall apply. (some exceptions may apply). Wages shall be paid for work done on a weekly basis and no later than a fortnight from when the work was done.
� If an applicant is not provided employment within fifteen days of receipt of employment application, he/she is entitled to a daily unemployment allowance, except under circumstances that render him/her ineligible.
� All payments of wages in cash and unemployment allowances shall be made directly to the person concerned and not to any third party.

Conditions for Employment and Minimum Entitlement of Labourers:
� Every adult member of a registered household whose name appears in the job card shall be entitled to apply for unskilled manual work under the Scheme.
� At least one-third of the beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested for work under this Act.
� In cases the employment is provided outside their village, it must be provided within the Block, and the labourers shall be paid ten per cent of the wage rate as extra wages to meet additional transportation and living expenses.
� Any injury caused by accident arising out of and in the course of employment, the person he shall be entitled to, free of charge, such medical treatment
� Facilities including: safe drinking water, shade for children and periods of rest, first-aid box shall be provided at the work site.
� In case the number of children below the age of six years accompanying the women working at any site is five or more, provisions shall be made to depute one of such women workers to look after such children.
� If wages are not paid within the period specified under the Scheme, the labourers shall be entitled to receive payment of compensation.

Implementation and Monitoring Structure:
� A Central Employment Guarantee Council, headquartered in New Delhi, shall perform the functions laid down by the act. The members of this council will include representatives from the State Governments, Panchayati Raj, organizations of workers and disadvantaged groups � with at least one third of the members being women and members of Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the Other Backward Castes and Minorities
� Regular monitoring and reviewing the implementation of this Act shall be done at the State level by a State Employment Guarantee Council with a membership structure similar to that of the Central Council
� Programme Coordinators at the District and Panchayat levels
� Appropriate grievance redressal mechanisms at the Block level and the district level for dealing with any complaint by any person in respect of implementation of the Scheme.
� Whoever contravenes the provisions of this Act shall on conviction be liable to a fine which may extend to one thousand rupees.

Funding Framework:
� The Central Government shall establish a fund called the National Employment Guarantee Fund for the purposes of this Act, and fund it through grants and loans. This will bear the cost of
� Wages for unskilled manual work under the Scheme;
� Up to three-fourths of the material cost of the Scheme including payment of wages to skilled and semi-skilled workers
� A percentage of the total cost of the administrative expenses of the scheme.
� State Employment Guarantee Funds shall be established by the State Governments for implementing this scheme. The state funds will provide for
� Cost of unemployment allowance payable under the Scheme;
� One-fourth of the material cost of the Scheme including payment of wages to skilled and semi-skilled workers
� Administrative expenses of the State Council.

Implementation roadmaps
The Central government has already made available about Rs. 10,000 crores for implementation of the scheme in the current financial year. This act will be implemented in a phased manner and aims at covering all rural districts within 5 years of implementations. However, the central government has not yet announced when it will start the implementation of the Act.

- Ranjana Ghosh

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