Thaindian News

By Arun Kumar
Washington, April 22 (IANS) India’s ambitious job guarantee scheme for the rural poor, the NREGS, was praised as “innovative and dynamic” by US Labour Secretary Hilda Solis who said Washington hoped to learn from it.

Praise from Solis came as labour ministers from the world’s 20 leading economies, concluded a two-day meeting here Wednesday with a mandate to help create jobs as most industrial nations are grappling with high unemployment rates, even as their economies emerge from a two-year recession.

The G-20 ministers recommended a five-point programme with acceleration to job creation to ensure a sustained recovery and future growth at the top.

The ministers, including Indian Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, later presented their recommendations to President Barack Obama at a meeting at the White House.

Earlier at the conference, Kharge made a detailed presentation on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) which guarantees 100 days’ employment to a member of rural poor family, and the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, a health insurance for very poor families.

Kharge’s presentation generated discussion among the labour ministers who wanted to learn more about these two schemes, which had touched the lives of such a large number of beneficiaries, Indian officials said.

They were also interested in learning about how technology was used to reach the rural masses in remote areas. The labour ministers from other countries sought various details about the achievements under these schemes.

Brazilian Labour Minister Carlos Lupi praised India’s achievements through such schemes and stated that these initiatives are specially worth replicating for large countries with diverse populations.

Summing up the discussion, US Labour Secretary Solis said the achievement of India is laudable as these schemes had succeeded in reaching the masses in remote geographical areas. The US hoped to learn from these innovative and dynamic programmes in India, he said.

“The G20 leaders asked us … to help them build the foundation for strong, sustainable, balanced economies that create good jobs for all those who seek to work. They told us to look at the quality of jobs as well as the quantity of jobs.”

“At the end of the day, recovering from the crisis and restoring sustained and balanced growth that creates enough good jobs for our people are goals that we cannot accomplish alone in our own countries. In an integrated global economy, we have to work together.”

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)