National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Nicobar District:

The Govt. of India has passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 in September 2005. It was later extended to all rural areas of the entire remaining Districts accordingly NREGA come into force in all the Districts in A& N Islands w.e.f 01.04.2008.In exercise of the power conferred by the section of NREGA ACT 2005 the UT Administration of Andaman & Nicobar Islands hereby makes the Andaman & Nicobar Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (ANREGS) with the primary objective to provide not less than 100 days of Guaranteed Employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work in rural areas.

The Secondary objective is the creation of durable community social and economic assets and infrastructure development in rural areas. The Nicobar District pioneered the physical implementation of NREGA in the UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands by providing wage employment to the rural household. The first work got implemented under NREGA is the Development of land with the creation of Playground at Big Lapathy village under NREGA Car Nicobar on 2nd Sept 2008.The cumulative numbers of Households registered are 4284 and cumulative numbers of individuals registered are 7340 under NREGA Nicobar District. The employment generation under NREGA during the financial year 2008-09, cumulative number of 656 house holds demanded and were provided employment and 8635 M/days were generated of which 1487 M/days are generated by women workers. During the financial year 2008-09 the cumulative wage component of worker is Rs 11.52 lakhs of which the cumulative unskilled wage component Rs.10.98 lakhs and cumulative semi-skilled wage component Rs. 0.535 lakhs.

The employment generation under NREGA during the financial year 2009-10, cumulative number of 374 house holds demanded and were provided employment and 1623 M/days were generated of which 551 M/days are generated by women workers. During the financial year 2009-10 the cumulative wage component of worker is Rs 2.21 lakhs of which the cumulative unskilled wage component Rs.2.13 lakhs and cumulative semi-skilled wage component Rs. 0.079 lakhs.

As far as creation of Physical assets are concerned the two major works taken under NREGA are Development of land with the creation of Playground in various villages and Construction of well in various villages .The development works of playground were given special niche under NREGA as per the Ministry of Sport Affairs letter in this regard for the development of Sports.

The District received National award for initiative in MGNREGA Administration on 2nd February 2012. The District was selected under the category ‘initiative in the challenging environment “. Taking into account the fact that coconut tree was ‘tree of life’ for Nicobari community. Car Nicobar Coconut Mission was launched by the Hon’ble Lt. Governor during 2009. Work under the mission was dovetailed with MGNREGA. The success of the mission in creating community sustainable asset over a period of time has had a positive impact on the life and economy of the tribal community at large in Car Nicobar.

Teressa coconut mission on the lines of coconut mission was also launched in Teressa Island during 2011. Similarly Vegetable & Fruits Mission is also being launched during the current yaer in order to increase more area under vegetable & fruits in the district & at the same time providing employment to the needy tribal.