Livelihood security for the poor

The government has increased the allocation for the National Food for Work Programme to Rs 11,000 crore.

Launched in November 2004 to provide assured 100 days employment to at least one member of rural families, with both cash and food components, Budget 2005-06 has made a provision of Rs 5,400 crore as the cash component and 5 million tonnes of grains for the food component.

The government allocated a total of Rs 4,020 crore for the National Food for Work programme last year.

The implementation of the national rural employment guarantee programme is expected to cost the government Rs 38,600 crore a year. Once it becomes fully operational, the programme would cover 38.6 million poor households across the country.

Chidambaram said that it was the government's intention to convert this programme into the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

"When fully rolled out, this will provide livelihood security for millions of poor families, and I promise to find the money for the programme," he said.

He identified food processing, textiles, information technology, construction and agriculture as the sectors that would drive employment over the coming years.

Assured irrigation facilities to an additional 10 million hectares of cultivable land over a period of five years would generate employment for an additional one crore people at the rate of one person per hectare, he said.

The food processing industry is growing at a rate which generates 2,50,000 jobs every year; the textile sector alone has the potential to create 12 million jobs over the next five years; the information technology industry is expected to offer an additional seven million jobs by 2009; and the construction industry is expected to throw up millions of jobs.

Chidambaram stated that sectors with potential for generating employment will receive the highest attention of the government.

The Budget, however, makes no mention on the National Commission on the Unorganised Sector's proposal for the Rs 10,000 crore Urban Employment Scheme that was to cover 10 million families below the poverty line.