This was to be done through public works, such as the construction of roads and wells, and other kinds of manual labour. The “Mahatma Gandhi” prefix, however, was added to the scheme only on October 2, 2009. In December last year, the Union government introduced a Bill to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The blood of the villages is the cement with which the edifice of the cities is built. As Gandhi himself said of his self-sufficient village, “To model such a village may be the work of a lifetime.” For India’s 6.74 lakh villages, that certainly holds true.