The Hindu Business Line : `Three-day' week

There are reports that the Centre has directed all State governments to make advance preparations on a `massive scale' for implementation of the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

According to the promise made in the scheme, 100 days of employment will be ensured to every rural household.

With an astronomical number of unemployed in the country, the success of the scheme will depend on new ideas, lateral thinking and, last but not least, on the sincerity of the officials in charge of the scheme. They must realise the plain fact that there are more people in the country than needed for any work.

To alleviate the unemployment problem, it may be worth trying out a `three-day week'. Two shifts of three days should be introduced and if this system is adopted, employment for two can be given in the place of one.

In a world, with population explosion threatening to create a catastrophe, giving opportunity for unemployed alone will alleviate the suffering of the poor.

V. S. Venkatavaradan

Salem

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