This study uses household survey data from 58 countries around the world to compare the labour market outcomes of rural and urban workers, taking into account the specific socio-demographic characteristics
CONCERNED over rising food prices, the government on Wednesday said that agricultural trade barriers within the country were making commodities costlier in some states. "Why should food prices be different across states in a national economy...that is because there are barriers to agricultural trade,' finance minister's adviser Shubhashis Gangopadhyay said at a post-Budget meeting at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India here on Wednesday. The ability to control price inflation at the point where it is occurring is a big problem because commodities don't move in some areas, he said. He said expenditure-driven growth is going to give rise to more inflation. Food prices were high in the states wherever the disbursement of funds from various government programmes such as NREG was more, he noted. Last year, agricultural labour wage rate went higher than the food price inflation, he added. Mr Gangopadhyay said wherever necessary, the government would intervene to check the rising trend. Earlier during the day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the government was committed to maintaining "reasonable' price stability at 4-5%, but it will not be at the cost of farmers. HIGH PRICE CONCERNS The ability to control price inflation at the point where it is occurring is a big problem because commodities don't move in some areas Food prices were high in the states wherever the disbursement of funds from various government programmes such as NREG
Budget allocations for rural employment schemes have steadily decreased ever since the government introduced the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP), one of the government's flagship programmes to benefit the common man, in 2006-07. The declining trend of allocations for wage employment has been highlighted in data compiled by by N C Saxena, a member of the National Advisory Council, which advises the government on developmental issues, in a critique of social spending in the Budget. In 2005-06
"At the current pace, on each day of the year, 290 habitations are provided with drinking water,' announced the government in the Budget session to showcase the "impressive progress' made under the UPA's flagship Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission (RGDWM) meant to provide "safe and sustainable drinking water sources' to villages. What the Government glossed over is the official reality check
More than 50,000 people would benefit from the National Rural Employment Generation Scheme in East Godavari by March-end. Under this programme, works were carried out in 296 minor irrigation tanks in 29 mandals in the district. The district collector, Mr M. Subrahamanyam, carried out a review of the NREGS at the territorial development centre in Samarlakota on Monday. He asked officials to speed up the works in the remaining 148 irrigation tanks to meet the target fixed for NREGS. The collector also directed the designated Panchayat Raj and Indiramma programme engineers to observe all norms while taking up the works. Engineers should also carefully supervise completion of shutter repairs and strengthening of bunds, said Mr Subrahmanyam. The project director of District Water Management Agency, Mr R. Amarendra Kumar, and engineers of Panchayat Raj and NREGS participated.
An awareness programme about National Rural Empowerment Guarantee Scheme was held at Treru in Rajouri today in which MLC Ashok Sharma presided over the function while senior officers and allied departments were also present on the occasion. Sharma in his address said that NREGA along with other revolutionary schemes like debt waiver scheme for farmers launched by the UPA government would transform development profile of rural India with poor sections being the major beneficiaries of Roshni and other such schemes introduce in state. Sharma has demanded setting up of degree college and sub divisional status to Kalakote besides time bound and execution of roads and augmentation of water and power supply in Kalakote constituency. Sharma also took stock of development works at Badanoo, Dharamsal, Tatapani, Baljarlain,Tanooni,Chakli and Kallar during his three days tour of Kalakote and interacted the people. He urged for launching on spot recruitment drive in police, army and par military forces for the youth of the area and recommissioning of Kalakote thermal power plant and opening coal mines.
The performance of agriculture sector during the year 2007-08, despite its record production of food grains, is still a cause for concern due its low rate of growth (2.6%) affecting the well being of farmers in various parts of the country. This calls for bold measures for bringing about a turn around of the agriculture sector and the announcements made by the finance minister are a pointer to such measures. The loan waiver for marginal and small farmers and the one-time settlement (OTS) of loans for other farmers and their entitlement for fresh loans with a target of Rs 2,80,000 crore during 2008-09 is expected to take care of the issues relating to the accessibility of credit from institutional sources and reduce the dependence of the resource poor farmers on money lender. The implementation of the Vaidyanathan Committee recommendations for revitalising the long-term co-operative credit structure ensures availability of increased credit for private investments in agriculture by farmers. The contribution of Rs 5,000 crore to the NRC(ST) Funds of Nabard helps in ensuring that the demands of the farmers for their production needs are met. Financial inclusion of the disadvantaged sections is facilitated through opening of additional bank branches in districts with predominant minority population, enhancing the income limits to Rs 18,000 in rural areas under the DRI scheme and access to Janashree insurance product of LIC for all women SHGs credit linked to banks. The increase in the corpus of RIDF by Rs 2,000 crore, coupled with the increased allocation under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme, the Rainfed Area Development rainfed farming and the setting up of the Irrigation and Water Resources Finance Corporation will facilitate in bringing more area under irrigation as well as in conserving land and water resources, critical to the performance of the sector. These investments will also help in stepping up investments in the private sector also. Various other measures announced for improving the performance of the sector include stepping up funds under the National Horticulture Mission, creation of special funds for plantation crops like cardamom, coffee and rubber, introduction of insurance scheme for select plantation and horticulture crops, etc. The overall thrust in the Budget is not only in boosting the performance of the agriculture sector but in ensuring that there is overall rural development through providing infrastructure- both physical and social, social security, human resource capacity development, off-season employment under NREGA, etc. These should help in achieving the goals of full employment, abolition of poverty and elimination of inequality in the medium term. The writer is Nabard chairman
RAMBAN: J&K Khadi and Village Industries Board (KVIB) secretary R C Sharma reviewed progress under Rural Employment Generation Scheme (REGS) of the backward districts of Ramban and Doda today. It was informed that KVIB so far have set up 99 units with the bank loans of Rs. 196.99 lakhs and provided margin money grant of Rs. 61.07 lakhs. Sharma said that some of the BPL villages should be included in the J&K Bank's programme of village adoption to uplift the people living below poverty. He said that in order to improve the quality of the blankets being woven in these backward districts and generate sustainable employment the KVIB is addressing the problems of traditional industries in these districts. He disclosed that improved looms on modern technology should be provided to the one new units sanctioned in the current year under blanket weaving for the better quality of the blanket weaving in the area. Similarly, 22 units under ready-made garments have also been got sanctioned to cater the need within the area. A special team for looking in to the needs of unreached and unbankable areas has been constituted which will facilitate the entrepreneurs artisans working in the traditional industries or to start small tiny industrial units. He said that the other units producing articles under KVI sector in these districts for local consumption and specialized units like jackets, caps, tracksuits, mufflers socks etc manufacturing are also being promoted to meet the requirements of the people. A common facility centre is being established for beekeepers producing honey to facility the processing testing and packaging of the honey produced in the area. This will also be used to impart training to the beekeepers, The board its starting four training centres in Doda and Kishtwar districts to train 200 women. One such training centre has already been commenced at Sangaldan in Ramban district to train 40 beneficiaries under craft training.
This was only a one-time waiver and farmers would fall back into debt Left parties would oppose move to increase working hours from 8 to 10 THRISSUR: Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan said on Saturday that the loan waiver scheme announced by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in his budget speech on Friday was no solution to farmers' indebtedness. "For four years, you saw the farmers dying. For four years, you watched them fall deeper and deeper into indebtedness and committing suicide in States like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. And, in the fifth year, with the elections coming, you hand out some sops. Then again, it is a one-time waiver. But what happens tomorrow? They will be thrown from one round of indebtedness to another,' Mr. Bardhan said, inaugurating the four-day State conference of the CPI here. Beneficiaries The CPI leader also questioned the government's claim about the number of farmers who would benefit and pointed out that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was on record that more than half the farmers in the country were dependent on money-lenders for their credit needs. The government's loan waiver offer would not touch such loans. If the government was sincere about the farm debt crisis, it should have announced the formation of a Debt Relief Commission and pegged the interest rate on farm loans at 4 per cent as demanded by the Left parties when the budget was in the making, he said. Mr. Bardhan said the CPI and other Left parties would oppose the proposal in the Economic Survey to increase working hours from eight to ten. They would wage a battle to thwart attempts to curtail the rights won by the working class over 150 years ago through a long struggle. He also pointed out that the Finance Minister did not respond to the Left's plea for measures to universalise the public distribution system. He welcomed the decision to extend the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to all the districts in the country, but regretted that only Rs.16,000 crores was earmarked for its implementation. This would not be sufficient to provide 100 days' employment to all the eligible persons in the rural areas or to give them wages as envisaged in the NREG Act. The failure to make adequate funds available clearly showed that the government was not interested in implementing the scheme in letter and in spirit, Mr. Bardhan said. The BJP was trying its best to utilise the discontent in the minds of the people over a host of issues, including the sharp increase in the prices of essentials, he said. The Congress seemed to be offering power to the BJP on a platter, with its ill-conceived policies and failure to come out with people-friendly measures. On its part, the Left was committed to keeping the BJP out of power and wanted all the Left and secular parties to come together on a common platform on the basis of a clear pro-people programme. What emerged from the exercise should not be a Third Front where parties came together for electoral purposes, but a real third alternative to the Congress and the BJP, he said.
State stands to gain from welfare schemes announced for minorities Roughly four lakh farmers in Kerala are expected to gain from the debt relief measures announced by Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's farmer-friendly budget. Since the huge majority of farmers in debt in Kerala are marginal (holding below one hectare) and small (below two hectares), their debts could be totally waived. And a sizeable number of them will be from two districts, Wayanad and Idukki, and most of them will be the so-called
JOBS: Allocation for the scheme, which provides job on demand to the rural population, is Rs 16,000 crore. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, the flagship programme of the UPA government, which provides job on demand to the rural population, has been extended to all the 596 rural districts in the country with effect from April 1, 2008. The allocation made for the scheme with legislative backing is Rs 16,000 crore. For 2007-08, the allocation for the scheme implemented in 330 districts was Rs 12,000 crore. The finance minister assured that as the scheme was not an Act, the government would provide financial backing for it, no matter what the amount. But, according to the Ministry of Rural Development, till December 2007, the NREGA was able to spend only 60 per cent of the funds available. At the same time, the NREGA was able to provide more than 85 crore man-days of work to more than 25 million households in 2007-08. The finance minister also said that as long as the country experienced a growth rate of more than 8.5 per cent, it could create jobs required for all segments. For Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, a programme providing self-employment to the rural poor, an allocation of Rs 2,150 crore was made, up Rs 350 crore from Rs 1,800 crore provided in Budget 2007-08. While letting the individual ministries like labour and employment carry on with their own skill development programmes, the finance minister announced establishment of a non-profit corporation with the mission of imparting world-class skills for the emerging economy. The government will provide Rs 1,000 crore, while Rs 15,000 crore will be raised from other sources. The government has alloted Rs 750 crore for the upgrade of 300 ITIs next year. It intends to upgrade 1,396 out of the 1,896 government ITIs in public-private partnership by the end of the Eleventh Plan period, which will provide quality technicians to the industry.
