After more than half a century of planned economic development and high level of aggregate growth over the last two decades we can’t outright say that the country’s vast rural sector has shown any spectacular progress or advancement. In fact, India has demonstrated a static progress as lakhs of villages inhabited by crores of farmers; tenants etc have not experienced any fruit of planned development. As we know that it is impossible to bring about social and human development in the midst of economic deprivation and a major factor behind it is unemployment (and also underemployment and disguised unemployment). Unemployed persons lack economic empowerment which deprives them and also those persons dependent on the former, of access to goods and services required for their wellbeing. The government of India which is always aware of the dismal rural economic scenerio has left no stone unturned to fight out the hurdles on the way to rural development during the planning period beginning in 1951. The implementation of the trail-blazing
References: 1, Dreze Jean – EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT .. PROMISE AND DEMISE –Kurukshetra VOL 53 No 7, P 9, May 2005. 2. Chatterjee , Dr. Shankar – NREGS- FACILITATING DEVELOPMENT AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION - Kurukshetra VOL. 58 , No. 9 , P-42 3. Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Rural Development – THE NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT 2005 –Operational Guidelines 2008 – 3rd Edition 4. Anonymous- NREGA to Change the Face of Rural India, Kurukshetra- 57 (12), October, 2009, pp. 54-7.