The second killing of Mahatma Gandhi

Lifeline for poor

- PTI

The 100-days-a-year wage employment guarantee scheme was the lifeline for 12 crore families to ensure that the household did not go to bed hungry and dejected.

It was a boon for the poor, especially women and the elderly without regular employment. It put money in the hands of the women in the household giving them a degree of independence that their foremothers had not experienced. It created a safety net for the poor. The Bill snatches these benefits away, cruelly.

Inthe first Budget of the UPA government (2004-05), I had said: “In our scheme of things, the poor will have a first charge on... the entire Plan funds...Work has begun on the National Employment Guarantee Act. The object is to guarantee 100 days of employment in a year to one able-bodied person in every poor household...” The soul of the Act was ‘guaranteed livelihood security’and its key features were: