Large projects, like big ideas, are exhilarating. They generate excitement among their proponents and awe among the policy makers prone to underwrite them. But such projects run the risk of being damp squibs when put into practice. In stark contrast, a little idea, a small initiative, a modest goal may sometimes have a far-reaching impact.

The big plans that stir the imagination of India’s current policy makers are all about turning the country into a mighty economic and military power. The buzzwords in the elite circles of contemporary India are globalization, liberalization, and privatization, mantras that would catapult the economy closer to that of the G8. But in 2005 we also saw small initiatives set in motion at the behest of a small enlightened political group — initiatives that might make some difference in the lives of ordinary people and, eventually, in the way the country is governed.

In August 2005, the coalition government led by the Congress Party passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which guarantees employment to every household for a minimum of one hundred days a year and thereby tries to ensure basic subsistence to the poorest of the rural poor in about two hundred districts in India. In five years, schemes flowing from the act are expected to cover at least four hundred more districts. According to the act, one adult member of any household can apply for asset-generating manual labor—work that will help develop rural infrastructure. It is hoped that this will improve both sanitation and road conditions and that, as more canals are dug or desilted, agricultural production will increase. More important, this income might halt the tragic suicides of impoverished farmers, which became so alarmingly frequent in the years of “India Shiningâ€? (the 2004 campaign slogan of the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP], which ruled from 1998 to 2004).

Other features of this historic act are worth noting. First, if the government fails to provide employment to an applicant within fifteen days of receipt of application, he or she is entitled to a daily unemployment allowance. Second, all payments of wages—which, it should be noted, are abysmally low (sixty rupees, or roughly US$1.25, per day)—must be made in cash and given directly to the applicant. Third, any accidental injury incurred as a result of employment entitles the injured to free medical treatment. Fourth, when workers are employed outside their village they are entitled to a transport allowance. Fifth, and most important, at least a third of these jobs must go to women. To successfully recruit women, a crèche is to be provided at work sites for children below the age of six.

The act is not without problems. Economist Jean Dreze, who helped draft the original bill, was not exactly elated by the form in which it was passed by the parliament. The fixed minimum wage makes for poor subsistence, and employment is guaranteed for a mere three and a half months during the year. Furthermore, the act’s range is severely restricted: far too many rural districts and all urban districts fall outside of its purview. It is also likely to create resentment and bitterness within families, and despite its courageous attempt at gender justice, it may in fact discriminate against women. Typically, large households in poor rural communities consist of several men and women. Which adult member from this lot should get the job? Since the act restricts its provisions to one member per household, women are likely to lose out to men. In any case, sixty rupees per day is woefully inadequate to sustain such households.

Yet, like many others in India, I maintain that this act is of monumental significance. Social rights, including the right to work, have long been part of the Directive Principles of State Policy, a section of the Indian Constitution that, while not legally enforceable, affirms the goals and aspirations of the republic. Occasionally, the Indian Supreme Court, on the ground that civil and political rights are meaningless without the resources necessary to exercise them, has converted basic needs, such as freedom from hunger, into justiciable rights. This has given social rights an instrumental significance but has nevertheless failed to integrate them into the core idea of citizenship and democracy. By enacting this law, the Indian Parliament has set in motion a process that makes a specific and significant welfare provision constitutive of the very idea of citizenship. To be a citizen of a polity is to be entitled to an opportunity to work.