RURAL JOB SCHEME: ALPHABET SOUPS & POOR OUTCOMES

THE history of public policy in India is punctuated by acronym soups.

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There are over two dozen abbreviations for programmes. Acronyms seem mandatory nutrition for welfare schemes for instance, POSHAN for Prime Minister's Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment, and PM-AASHA for Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan.This week, parliament repealed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and enacted the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin law. What was once called 'Manrega' has been replaced by VB-G-RAM-Gyou could say the burden of alleviating the misery of rural folks has been shifted from Mahatma Gandhi to Lord Ram.

Consider the essence of the change. The new law assures 125 days of work instead of 100 days, splits the burden of funding from 100 percent on the Centre to 40 percent on most states, mandates a 60-day pause during sowing/harvesting, focuses on four specific verticals-water, security, infra and climate resilienceand replaces the bottom-up structure with a top-down one.

So why was the world's largest job guarantee scheme-covering 741 districts, 2.69 lakh panchayats, 12.1 crore workers with an average expense of ₹90,000-repealed and replaced? Two days before the VB-G-RAM-G Bill was introduced in parliament, the government applauded "the role of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in providing livelihood security for the rural poor through creation of durable assets, improved water security, soil conservation and higher land productivity".