In order to reach out to the poorest and the most marginalised section among among the poor, the Uttar Pradesh government has launched a scheme that would identify those sections of the under priveleged society which have hitherto not been covered under the Centre?s ambitious Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
And for this, the UP government has commissioned a consortium of NGOs under NR International-NRMC-PROACT to identify 10 lakh such families and cover them under the social security net. This is the first time that an exercise to identify and prioritise caste groups? involvement in the MGNREGA scheme has been initiated anywhere in the country and NGOs will do a major part of the job.
MGNREGA?which has completed five years last month?aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment in one financial year to a rural household, whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. But in Uttar Pradesh, people belonging to the lowest rung of the social ladder had, till now, showed very little participation in the scheme and hence were the least benefited. The Mayawati government has already drawn up a list of 42 sub castes which are the most backward among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST), such as Mushar, Baiga, Gharmi, Ghasia, Bhuiya, Sahraya, Korva, Agariya, Kairo, Banmanush, etc and has started work on identifying 10 lakh most vulnerable families from among these castes who can be provided 100 days work under MGNREGA. Out of these 10 lakh, 50% jobs would be for women job card holders while the rest 50% would be for the families of the 42 castes that are on the list.
This move will go a long way in bringing those sections of the society, who have till now been socially as well economically alienated and on the brink of starvation and poverty, under the country’s inclusive growth programme.
According to sources, the need to identify people of the lower castes among the SCs and STs and prioritise their involvement in the scheme has been felt based on the Supreme Court?s observations as well as reports from the civil society that the marginalised community, who should be the real beneficiaries of this scheme, have continued to slip out of the net.