WB sees India's NREGA as barrier to economic devlopment

New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) The World Bank has described
India's National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA)
scheme of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government as a policy barrier hurting economic development
and poverty alleviation.

Various schemes of the Indian government like NREGA,
watershed programmes and schemes for development of small and
medium towns are acting as "policy barriers to internal
mobility", the bank said in its 'World Development Report'
2009.

The internal mobility, the report argued, is necessary as
"lifting people out of poverty requires shifting populations
from villages to cities". The process of migration should be
encouraged, the bank said.

"Negative attitudes held by (the) government and
ignorance of the benefits of population mobility have caused
migration to be overlooked as a force in economic
development," it said.

The report said economic benefits of migration are not
always recognised by policy makers and, in fact, two forms of
policy have been attempted in India to counter migration.

"The first response has been to increase rural
employment, in an attempt to stem movement out of rural areas
... These measures include the recently introduced National
Rural Employment Guarantee Programme," it said.

The World Bank cited other programmes such as watershed
development to improve agricultural productivity and
development of small and medium towns, which the Indian
government has taken up to reduce migration.

"The second policy response is implicit. Because of the
perceived negative effects, local governments remain hostile
toward migrants, while employers routinely disregard laws to
protect their rights and needs," the report said.

In many cases, welfare policies and social services are
designed for a sedentary population, the bank said.

"This is best exemplified by location-specific
entitlements to social services, housing subsidies, food
rations, and other public amenities especially important to
working poor people," it said.

The report, which recommends concentration of production
and mobility of people, said, "Current policies do not allow
communities to fully capture the benefits of labour mobility."