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The renowned Sanskrit poet Kalidasa had once said—” Anna chinta chamatkarah, katare kabita kutah.” (How can the poet write poem if he is preoccupied with the thought for food?) If Kalidasa- the greatest of the Indian poets-could not create a poem on empty stomach, how can the 35 per cent of the Indians bordering on destitution ever be able to compose their lives into the lyrics of health and happiness? It was obviously a similar thought as this which goaded and guided the Government of India to convert the ‘thought for food’ of the poverty-stricken Indians into their own ‘food for thought’. This was the ambience in which the ambitious National Food For Work Programme(NFFWP) was born. The UPA Government in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) has declared that it “……, will immediately enact a National Employment Guarantee Act. This will provide a legal guarantee for at least 100 days of employment to begin with, on asset-creating public works programmes every year at minimum wages for at least one able-bodied person in every rural, urban poor and lower middle class household. In the interim, a massive food-for-work programme will be started.”
True to its promise, the UPA government gave concrete shape to the Food for Work Programme which was launched in Aloor village in Rangareddy district in Andhra Pradesh on the 14th November 2004 by the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh. Speaking on the occasion the Prime Minister said that the dream of Mahatma Gandhi for ‘Sampurna Gram Swaraj’ would come true by providing all amenities for the children, women and the people in general in villages through a strengthened panchayati raj system. He said that the villages would become self sufficient when the National Food For Work Programme is implemented.
The Center has been implementing several programmes to ameliorate the plight of different sections of the society living in villages. Prominent among them is the Sampoorna Gramin Rojgar Yojana which purports to provide gainful employment, food security and strengthening of infrastructure in the rural India.
With an annual outlay of Rs.6000 crore under cash component and fifty lakh tones of foodgrains, the SGRY aims to generate around 100 crore mandays with food security through creation of durable social and economic infrastructure. However the Government rightly felt that the existing resources under the SGRY are not sufficient to meet the requirements of the backward districts of the country, paving the way for the conceptualisation and concretisation of the National Food For Work Programme in the identified 150 most backward districts of the country.
The National Food for Work Programme was launched on 14.11.2004 with an allocation of Rs.2020 crore of cash component and 20 lakh tones of foodgrain in these150 districts of the country. These districts have been identified from 27 states as per the following break-up:-Andhra Pradesh-8,Arunachal Pradesh-1, Assam-5, Bihar-15, Chhatisgarh-10, Gujurat-6, Haryana-1, Himachal Pradesh-1, J & K-2, Jharkhand-14, Karnataka-3, Kerala-1, Madhya Pradesh-15, Maharastra-11, Manipur-1, Meghalaya-1, Mizoram-1, Nagaland-1,Orissa-18, Punjab-1, Rajasthan-5, Sikkim-1,Tamilnadu-4,Tripura-1, Uttaranchal-2, Uttar Pradesh-15, West Bengal-6.
NFFW programme will provide additional supplementary wage employment inthe identified 150 most backward districts in the country. It is a 100 per cent Centrally sponsored scheme.
The State Governments have to bear only the transportation cost, handling charges and taxes on foodgrain. NFFW programme will be open to all rural poor who are in need of wage employment. For the year 2004-05, an amount of Rs.2020 crore in cash and 20 lakh tonnes of food grains have been provided for the programme in addition to ‘Sampurna Gramin Rojgar Yojana’ allocation. Under the scheme 5 kg of foodgrains are to be provided at below poverty line rates for each man-day to the beneficiaries. The Department of Rural Development is the nodal department for the implementation of the programme since it is a 100 per cent Centrally-sponsored scheme. The NFFWP is allocation-based in terms of cash and food grains. Under the scheme, the resources are provided directly to the selected 150 backward districts. The allocation of resources among the districts is based on the basis of percentage of each district in the total allocation of these districts under SGRY. The resources are to be released in two installments in a year. Supply of food grains and its payment to FCI will be on SGRY pattern except that it will be paid at the BPL rates. SGRY pattern is followed for payment of wages. The programme will be fully operational from the next financial year by which Perspective Plan for each selected district will be ready.
Perspective Plan As per the scheme a Perspective Plan of the works to be undertaken for five years will be got prepared by the Collector with the assistance of experts. The Plan will focus on water conservation, drought proofing and land improvement as a first priority. Flood control, land development and rural connectivity in terms of all weather roads and other productive works for ensuring economic sustainability may also be included depending on the local needs. The collector will get the works executed through Line Departments/ Panchayati raj Institutions/ reputed NGOs/ SHGs or departmentally. Thus the NFFWP is in keeping with the new slogan of “Rozgar Badhao” which the Prime Minister gave while giving away the prestigious Shram Awards in New Delhi on 4th October,2004 where he committed his Government to the need of reversing the jobless growth witnessed during the past few years.
Napolean-an able General as he was-did not make mistake in giving primacy to food over weapon for his soldiers to win in a war by famously saying “ The Army marches on its stomach.” Much in the same vein, the political leadership of the country rightly conceived the National Food For Work Programme as a precursor to the National Employment Guarantee Act so as to enable their people to be always on the winning side of the battle of Waterloo. (PIB Features)
**Assistant Information Officer, PIB, Raipur
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