MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. C. P. JOSHI)
(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
Statement as referred to in reply to parts (a) to (e) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No.531
for answer on 03-05-2010
(a) & (b): Proviso to para 6 of Schedule-II of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA provides that priority
shall be given to women in such a way that at least one-third of the beneficiaries shall be
women who have registered and requested for work under the Act. Para 34 of this Schedule further
provides that in case of every employment under the scheme, there shall be no discrimination
solely on the ground of gender and the provisions of the Equal Remuneration Act 1976 shall be
complied with. A household is the basic unit for issuance of job card and providing employment
under Mahatma Gandhi NREG Act. As per reports received from various States, 1.59 crore job
cards have been issued to women headed households and 84.01 lakh to single women household.3.56 crore women were employed under Mahatma Gandhi NREG Act during the year 2009-10.
(c) & (d): Adequate provisions exist in the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA in this regard.
(e): Para 7 of Schedule-I of the Act provides that when wages are directly linked with the
quantity of work, the wages shall be paid according to the schedule of rates fixed by the State
Governments for different types of work every year. Vide Notification dated 14-01-2008, a new
para No. 8-A has been inserted after paragraph 8 in Schedule-I regarding fixing of the Schedule
of Rates which is as follows:
`The average out-turn of the work out put by men and women workers working in a
group will be the basis for fixing task based Schedule of rates so that there is no gender
based discrimination in the Schedule of rates`.
