• Plans to increase forest cover by 5 % in India through NREGA
• Commission set up to review women’s participation in NREGA
• NREGA in South Africa

Plans to increase forest cover by 5 % in India through NREGA

The government plans to increase forest and tree cover over the next five years by 5%. The target has been proposed as part of the 11th five-year plan, which has been finalised recently. The plan proposes using the NREGA programme to push for greening of rural India. The government will create a portfolio of programmes and projects that can be implemented under the NREGA programme with assured funding of 4-5 years in each area where forestry projects are taken up to ensure complete restoration of degraded lands. The resolve comes as doubts remain about the success of the afforestation drive that the government was forced to launch after the reality of sharp erosion of forest cover dawned upon it.

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Commission set up to review women’s participation in NREGA

The All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has recently set up a commission related to women’s participation in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The conference expressed concern over the high productivity norm under NREGA, which failed women to realize even minimum wages. The commission also took note of the fact that unlike in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, where there is 40 per cent presence of women in the local bodies, in many other parts of the country the role of women functionaries in panchayats was greatly undermined.

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NREGA in South Africa

South Africa is considering a revolutionary Indian employment model, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to consolidate South Africa's Extended Public Works Programme. Speaking at the 12th International Labour Organisation regional seminar for labour-based practices, Public Works Minister Thoka Didiza called the local Extended Public Works Programme a "success story". Launched in July 2004, it was "an important second economy initiative" intended to create a million jobs over five years. It uses government spending - mostly on infrastructure programmes and environmental schemes such as Work for Water - to create work opportunities and training. The programme's biggest challenges were to increase its labour intensity and the duration of work opportunities. It needed to "scale up and reach more unemployed".

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