The Ministry of Rural Development has made it mandatory for providing 150 days of wage employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for scheduled tribe households living in forest areas. The ministry has issued a directive in this regard.
The move will benefit about 800,000 people in the states like Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The additional 50 days of employment beyond the stipulated 100 days under MGNREGA will be applicable to those individuals who got pattas under Forest Rights Act, FRA( 2006).
Approximately, 1.4 million individual and community titles have been distributed under FRA 2006. Of these, around 800,000 individual titles have been given in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa. It is these individuals who will be able to claim the benefit of 150 days, the ministry said in a statement.
The Ministry of Rural Development thinks that this is an important initiative since a lot of land-levelling, plantation and other activities are required to be undertaken on these lands to make them more productive. The additional days through MGNREGA will allow the households to undertake additional work on their own land. Further, FRA beneficiaries have already been automatically included for assistance under the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY).
Other initiatives for ensuring effective implementation of MGNREGA in naxal affected areas have also been taken like a convergence project with National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in 250 most backward blocks of the country. Several of these ST-dominated blocks are located in Naxal districts.
The Ministry has also allowed for cash payments of wages in 88 Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts. It has also launched Kaam Maango Abhiyan and the project is being implemented in 6 pilot districts including West Singhbhum in Jharkhand and is being upscaled to all naxal-affected areas.
Morever, it has initiated the Governance and Accelerated Livelihood Support project in collaboration with UNDP in 12 naxal affected districts and they are Latehar, Palamu, Gumla and West Singhbhum in Jharkhand, Malkangiri, Koraput, Nuapada and Kalahandi in Odisha and Sukma, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Balrampur in Chhattisgarh. The project will focus on livelihood assets creation through MGNREGA IN 500 Gram Panchayats in these districts.
Finally, new works have been added to the existing list of permissible works under MGNREGA with a focus to strengthen synergy between MGNREGA and rural livelihoods, particularly in agriculture. Besides ensuring durable quality assets, the expansion of MGNREGA works is likely to improve the socio-economic condition of marginalized section of the society like SC/ST, small and marginal farmers, IAY beneficiaries, Forest Right Act beneficiaries among others as most of the new works are now permitted on the land or homestead of specified individual beneficiaries.
