Gandhi Jayanti 2023: The nation on Monday is celebrating the 154th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who is also known as the 'father of the nation'. Every year, Gandhi Jayant is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Gandhi, who is fondly called 'Bapu' in India, on October 2. Born on this day in 1869, Bapu devoted most of his life to working for dignity and equality for all people. After returning from South Africa, the 'Mahatma' established his first Ashram in Kochrab area of Ahmedabad on May 25, 1915. The global peace icon played a vital in India's freedom movement. In his memory, the government over the years since India's independence launched several schemes named after Bapu.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Launched on 2nd February 2006, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) aims to guarantee the right to work. It is an Indian labour law and social security measure that was passed on August 23, 2005. The act aims to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
Swachh Bharat Mission
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2, 2014, started the nationwide campaign to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put the focus on sanitation. The objective of the mission was to declare all villages, gram panchayats, districts, states and union territories in India themselves "open-defecation free" (ODF) by 2 October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Bapu, by constructing over 100 million toilets in rural India.
Bunkar Bima Yojana
The Bunkar Bima Yojana was introduced in December 2003. Since 2005-06 this scheme was revised and has been implemented with the title 'Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Yojana. The basic objective of the scheme is to provide enhanced insurance cover to the handloom weavers in the case of natural as well as accidental death and in cases of total or partial disability.
Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Suraksha Yojana (MGPSY)
The Mahatma Gandhi Suraksha Pravasi Yojana (MGPSY), was launched in May 2012. It is a voluntary scheme with the objective of protecting and welfare of the emigrant workers and addressing their social security issues in Emigration check-required (ECR) countries.
