India launches 'landmark' job scheme for rural poor

NEW DELHI, Friday (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh officially launched what he called a "landmark" anti-poverty plan that promises 100 days of work a year to every rural family in the country.

"The main focus of the scheme is the poorest of the poor," Singh said, calling the initiative "revolutionary". "This will be a landmark in our history, removing poverty from the face of our nation," he said as he launched the programme in remote Bandlapally in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Under the plan, one member of every rural household will get 100 days of work a year in such areas as water conservation, irrigation, flood prevention, road construction, forestry and wasteland development.

The scheme is initially being rolled out in one-third of India's 600 districts across 27 states. The government has not yet given a firm figure for the annual cost but JP Morgan in a research report last year estimated at least nine billion dollars.

The programme is part of the Congress-led coalition government's bid to help the rural poor who helped it to a surprise electoral victory in May 2004.

Singh said India had made substantial economic progress since independence from Britain in 1947 but problems of unemployment and poverty continued to haunt it.

"The founding fathers of our nation dreamt of a country which was free from poverty, hunger and unemployment. It is a serious concern that many people of the country still suffer from the age-old problems," he said.

Singh has called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, passed by parliament last year, the biggest achievement of his 20-month-old government.

"We must tirelessly work to ensure that the benefit of the scheme reaches to the needy people," he said, a response to critics who say previous poverty-fighting schemes have had poor success in reaching the neediest.

Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, who has championed the programme, called it "a new beginning" toward eradicating poverty, according to the Press Trust of India. Around six out of 10 Indians live in the countryside where abject poverty is widespread.