The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

: Universal Rural Employment Programme) was a scheme launched by the Government of India

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

 to attain the objective of providing gainful employment for the rural poor. From 1 April 1999, EAS became an allocation-based scheme. The programme was implemented through the Panchayati Raj institutions.

The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana was launched on 25 September 2001 by merging the provisions of Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) and Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY). The programme is self-targeting in nature and aims to provide employment and food to people in rural areas who lived below the poverty line.

Origin

The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana is actually a combination of the provisions under the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) and Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY).

Employment Assurance Scheme

EAS was first implemented on 2 October 1993 in 1778 blocks located in the rough, rugged, sparsely populated areas of the country.

Jawahar Gram Smridhi Yojana

The Jawahar Gram Smridhi Yojana, named after India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...

 aimed at creating a need-based rural infrastructure. Both these programmes have contributed a great deal towards alleviating rural poverty. In 2001, the Food for Work Programme was initiated to meet demands for wage employment and food grain requirements.

The scheme was launched in 1989 by merging two wage employment programmes: National Rural Employment Programme(NREP) and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme(RLEGP). It was the single largest wage employment programme implemented through Panchayat Raj institutions.

Announcement of SGRY

Finally, on 15 August 2001, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...

announced a new wage employment programme, the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana. The scheme was subsequently launched on 25 September 2001.

Provisions

The scheme had special provisions for women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and parents of children withdrawn from hazardous occupations. While preference if given to families below the poverty line, people who live above the poverty line too are eligible under this scheme.

A budget of Rs. 10,000 crore has been allocated for the scheme, which includes provision of 50 lakh tonnes of food grains. Again the investment is shared between the centre and the states in the 75–25 ratio. Food grains are, however, provided free of cost by the Central government, but the cost of transportation should be borne by the states.

Despite the fact that EAS and SGSY were unified, funds were allocated separately for EAS and JGSY for the year 2001–02. This was done for the convenience of implementation and accounting. However, from the fiscal year 2002–03 onwards, unified budgets were adopted for both EAS and JGSY.

Implementation

The programme is implemented by the District Panchayats, Intermediate Panchayats and Gram Panchayats. The resources are allocated in the 20–30–50 ratio.

The Gram Panchayats commence their work based on the approval of the Gram Sabha. 50 percent of the funds for the Gram Panchayats are used for the development of infrastructure in SC/ST dominated areas. 22.5 percent of the funds allocated to District and Intermediate Panchayats are also used for the development of individuals belonging to SC/ST communities.

The employment of contractors or middlemen are not permitted under this scheme.