Q.Write about Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

MGNREGS (under the 2005 Act) guarantees 100 days of wage employment per year to rural households doing unskilled manual work. It provides livelihood security, builds durable rural assets, reduces poverty and migration, and empowers women and weaker sections.

This 5-mark question appears in AP Intermediate 2nd year Economics as a rural-development and poverty-alleviation programme; the AP syllabus covers it as part of India's development policy.

About MGNREGS:

1. Legal basis. It is backed by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, which makes the right to employment a legal guarantee.

2. Guarantee of work. Every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work is guaranteed at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year.

3. Demand-driven. Work must be provided within a fixed number of days of a job demand; if it is not, an unemployment allowance is payable.

4. Wages. Workers are paid statutory minimum wages, and wages are credited directly to bank or post-office accounts to prevent leakage.

5. Creation of durable assets. The works taken up - water conservation, irrigation, roads, afforestation, land development - create useful rural infrastructure.

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