ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the political trajectory of formation of various employment generation policies on the part of the government throughout the postcolonial period since 1947, and explains the general rationale behind these policies and enactments. It analyses the conception of right or otherwise that is scripted in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act's structure of conjecture, and explores potential or otherwise of this 'New Right' enactment for guaranteeing employment to the rural people. In a democratic country like India where declared direction of planning is to achieve a number of diverse goals like 'growth, removal of poverty, modernization and achievement of self-reliance', the intention of government is clear in its endeavours to appease both sets of main classes in rural areas. The objective of employment generation and the government has also otherwise proclaimed, is actually a secondary component of these kinds of special programmes.
