India tries food-for-work

By OMER FAROOQ
The Associated Press

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HYDERABAD, India — India's government yesterday launched an ambitious food-for-work program aimed at moving millions of poor farmers back from the brink of starvation by helping them feed themselves.

The national food-for-work program will create employment in 150 of the poorest districts suffering from drought, floods and other natural disasters.

"This is a first step toward the eradication of rural unemployment and ensuring that nobody goes without food," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Under the program, workers will earn 11 pounds of food grain for a day's work, with at least 25 percent of their wages paid in cash. The federal government would provide additional food grain and funds to the states.

Singh said the $450 million program would help accelerate rural development and boost farm production by building irrigation canals and roads and bridges.

Creating jobs for millions of unemployed small farmers, many of them devastated by drought and the failure of the monsoon rains, was a major campaign promise by Singh's Congress party during May's national elections.

India's agriculture is largely dependent on seasonal monsoon rains. Scanty rainfall this year has forced many farmers to sell off their lands or take loans from money lenders at exorbitant interest rates. Local newspapers in recent months have reported at least a dozen suicides by impoverished farmers unable to repay loans.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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