Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) - An Initiative towards Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is the development strategy that fulfills the wants of the present generation without denying the opportunity of the future generations to satisfy their needs. The older concept of sustainability concentrated more on environmental issues but the recent trends in sustainable development includes economic growth aspects, social inclusion and environmental protection and most importantly poverty eradication in all its forms is an unavoidable requirement for sustainable development. In the case of India, indicators of sustainable development points out that, countries natural ecosystem that includes forest reserves, agricultural land availability, water resources etc. are declining in a great percent over the years. So India has to take more positive actions towards sustainable development which is important for country?s ecological balance. The introduction of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) in 2005 can be considered as a great step towards sustainable development in the rural areas of the country. It is a social security measure that guarantees of ?Right to Work? to Indian citizen. MGNREGS ensures a legal guarantee for at least 100 days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household who is willing to do unskilled public related manual work at the statutory minimum wage. The main objective is to overcome the causes of chronic poverty through guarantee of employment through different categories of works which will result in the creation of sustainable social assets and thereby ensuring the overall development of the area.