Port Blair, Mar 03: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act aims to enhance the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage-employment. The scheme is helping public to mitigate financial hardship and better bargaining power in social strata.

Desh Bandh Gram (D.B Gram), a remote village in the Diglipur islands, northern-most Island of A & N Islands, where the path connecting the main village road was muddy and used to get inundated during rains. The farmers were facing difficulty in bringing the agricultural produces from the farmlands through the excessively muddy and uneven path. There are no “catch water drains” to divert and intercept the water from the hill slope. Whenever it rains, there used to be massive movement of earth, leaving the debris of landslides along the roadside. The accumulation of water lead to the undulations due to differential settlements that is caused due to the retention of moisture in the sub-grade soil.
The proposed road passing near hills needed more care as far as drainage is concerned and through this rural connectivity the MGNREGA beneficiaries got employment and permanent assets were also generated. Roads under MGNREGA have helped rural populace to attain connectivity in diverse means. These roads help the villagers to have better access to their agricultural lands in some regions. In other areas, it become an enabler to mitigate social exclusion by providing marginalized communities a better reach to certain key areas of social importance.