Govt. likely to rename MGNREGS to ‘Pujya Bapu Gramin Rozgar Yojana’, Pg11

Key Highlights:

• The government is likely to introduce a Bill in the current Winter session of Parliament to rename MGNREGA to "Pujya Bapu Gramin Rozgar Yojana".
• The original Bill, named "National Rural Employment Guarantee Act", was passed on August 25, 2005, and renamed in 2009.
• The scheme currently guarantees 100 days of wage employment, and the government plans to increase it to 125 days.
• The average employment provided under MGNREGA in the past five years is 50.35 days per household.

Detailed Insights:

• The proposed amendment may incorporate recommendations from the Amarjeet Sinha panel, potentially introducing exclusionary clauses based on a state's economic indices.
• The government may also modify the funding pattern of the MGNREGA scheme.
• The MGNREGA scheme serves as a fallback employment option, providing unskilled manual work to adult members of rural households.
• The review of the scheme in 2022 aimed to address inter-state variations and lower expenditure in states with higher poverty rates.

Key Concepts Involved:

• MGNREGA: A flagship rural employment scheme guaranteeing wage employment to households.
• Wage Employment: Providing employment for a wage or salary, typically for manual labor.
• Economic Indices: Indicators used to assess the economic health and development of a region.