Jawahar Rozgar Yojana An Assessment through Concurrent Evaluation M Neelakantan This paper attempts to provide an insight into the working of the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana on the basis of the first Concurrent Evaluation conducted through independent research institutions during January to December 1992. As the evaluation has thrown light on several aspects of the implementation of the programme, the author's attempt is to focus attention on key issues such as the volume of employment generation, creation of assets, wages, involvement of contractors, the wage/non-wage ratio and the opinions of JRY workers on the programme, POVERTY alleviation has been one of the bask objectives of the planning process in this country: Special emphasis on poverty alleviation in rural areas is also given as rural areas account for nearly three-fourths of the population of the country and have a much larger concentration of people below poverty line. Several schemes of employment generation Nave been launched from time to time in various Five-Year Plans with the objective to provide sustainable employment to the rural poor as a measure of poverty alleviation. Such wage employment programmes include Rural Manpower Programme, Crash Scheme for Rural Employment, Pilot Intensive Rural Employment Programme, Food for Work Programme, National Rural Employment Programme and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme. However, the biggest wage employment programme,the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana. was launched in April 1989, merging the two ongoing programmes of National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP).
