Social Welfare Measures

The reformist tendency of Manmohan Singh in the field of economy was probably curbed by Sonia Gandhi. A National Advisory Council (NAC) had been formed, which Sonia Gandhi chaired. This council had, as its members, social activists with a welfare agenda. The ideas for social welfare that came from the council needed to be adopted by the government.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)

– to which the name of Mahatma Gandhi was added later to become MNREGA – was the largest welfare scheme of its kind in the world; it was started in 2006. It guaranteed rural households 100 days of paid labour in a year with the aim of tackling rural poverty. The programme also sought to help women with one-third of the work mandated for women.

In 2005, the government’s health ministry started the National Rural Health Mission.

Under the provisions of the Right to Information Act of 2005, any citizen of India may request information from a ‘public authority’ which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination of certain categories of information so that citizens do not have to formally request for information.

In 2005, Manmohan Singh’s government introduced VAT (value added tax) to replace the complicated sales tax.