MGNREGA Bibliography

Abstract

Technocratic solutions without adequate capacity building will penalise the workers unjustly.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2024/4/comment/aadhaar-job-card-linkages-pe...

Challenges Implementation

Abstract

Indias rural employment guarantee scheme, generally referred to by its unpronounceable acronym MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), is one of the largest-ever efforts to systematically assure access to employment through public action. With five crore participating households and accounting at its peak for over 0.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) and almost 4% of government expenditure, it dwarfs most other policies of this type around the world. Of course, this is not a new idea. The use of public works programmes as a means to reduce poverty and unemployment, or to distribute incomes in times of famine or natural disaster, has a long history, in India and elsewhere. This policy instrument was widely used both in ancient empires and during the colonial period.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2024/6/book-reviews/how-has-mgnrega-fared.h...

Challenges Implementation Politics Poverty

Abstract

Over the last 18 years, state governments ruled by different political parties across the political spectrum have attempted to expand the scope and vision of MGNREGA. But the case of Odisha stands out in the country in providing additional 200 days of work on and above the mandatory 100 days of work under MGNREGA and bearing the financial burden to pay the additional cost for MGNREGA workers on par with the wage for unskilled workers in the state. In this article, we analyse the implications of the Odisha government’s above decision on the income and employment opportunities for the most distressed communities in four districts and compare them with other districts of Odisha to suggest the need for such a progressive decision in other distressed districts in the country.

https://www.epw.in/engage/article/mahatma-gandhi-national-rural-employ...

Implementation Politics

Abstract

The persondays for MGNREGS generated in 2022-23 were 28.4 crore more than 2019-20, and have shot even higher by almost 40 crore in 2023-24 till date. Meanwhile, rural wage rates over the last decade have been consistently lower as compared to the previous decade.

https://thewire.in/labour/rural-economy-mgnregs-demand-low-wages

Challenges Wages

Abstract

According to the Government of India, linking Aadhaar with the delivery of welfare schemes has saved nearly `2,73,093 crore till March 2022 due to, apparently, the removal of duplicate/fake beneficiaries and plugging of leakages, etc. What is the overall impact of Aadhaar on welfare delivery? We try to understand this through a case study of MGNREGA in Jharkhand. Surveying nearly 3,000 workers in eight villages in Jharkhand to assess both the costs and benefits of linking MGNREGA with Aadhaar, the paper focuses on its impact on errors of inclusion and exclusion.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2024/1/special-articles/link-or-not-link.ht...

Challenges Implementation

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is becoming a milestone in empowering women. MGNREGA provides a legal guarantee of 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to volunteer household adults by ensuring at least 33% women workers. It has vital potential to check discrimination and disparities might it be economic or gender based. The gamut of the present paper is to explore the impact of MGNREGA on economic empowerment of women in rural India in general and Himachal Pradesh in particular. From the findings, it is clear that in India, the share of women participation in MGNREGA work has increased to 50.24% in 2014-15 as compared to 47.07% in FY 2012-13. Among states, Tamilnadu is the leading state in the country where women have generated 3086.82 lakh persondays in 2013-14 followed by Andhra Pradesh 1756.56 lakh persondays and Rajasthan 1245.75 lakh persondays. In Himachal Pradesh, the share of women worker has been 58.09% in MGNREGA in 2014-15 and 176.60 lakh persondays generated in 2013-14 which was 118.8 lakh in 2011-12. The data revealed that Mandi district has generated the highest persondays in the last three years followed by district Kangra. In a nutshell, we can say that both at national and state levels, women participation in MGNREGA is increasing with the passage of time and they are sharing financial burden with men in shouldering family responsibilities.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368653310_A_Study_of_Women_Pa...

Gender

Abstract

Agriculture and rural incomes are under stress for several reasons. The budget has given importance to agriculture and allied activities and strengthening their cooperative model, digital infrastructure, and the production of millets. These are steps in the right direction, but much more needs to be done. There is a need to change the narrative towards more diversified, high-value production, food systems approach for nutrition-sensitive agriculture, inclusion and sustainable agriculture.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2023/12/budget-2023-24/agriculture-and-rura...

Budget

Abstract

In India, distress migration has always been a matter of grave concern. Such a phenomenon is attributed mainly inter alia to persistent poverty, food insecurity, and lack of employment opportunities. Intending to arrest distress migration, the Government of India introduced Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 2005. In 2013, the convergence program was introduced. This study, based on the primary survey of 590 households covering some migration-prone districts of Odisha, thus, examines the impact of MGNREGA and associated convergence activities on distress migration. We employ the Mahalanobis Distance Metric matching method to assess the impact on distress migration, including certain economic wellbeing indicators. Anecdotes and empirical results indicate that the MGNREGA and the convergence schemes seem to have been effective in arresting distress migration, thanks to the rise in household incomes. Other notable impacts include a rise in saving propensities, female employment, and food expenditure. Suffice to state that with timely implementation and appropriate targeting, these measures can remove distress migration and make rural women economically empowered. As these schemes are inherently targeted towards the SC and ST households, if executed successfully, these disadvantaged sections will reap the desired benefits.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12076-023-00332-0

Gender Implementation

Abstract

In financial year 2022–23, more than 5 crore workers were deleted from the Mahatma Gandhi Na

https://www.epw.in/journal/2023/38/commentary/aadhaar-mandate-mass-job...

Quantitative

Abstract

The role of the state in guaranteeing employment in rural areas in the wake of a pandemic-induced lockdown is analysed. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the largest ever public funded programme for wage employment in India, is instrumental in bringing social security in rural areas during the pandemic period. However, the adequacy of employment provided was not at the scale it needed. The problem compounded with income fluctuations and regression of consumption expenditure of rural casual workers during the pandemic.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2023/25-26/special-articles/guaranteeing-em...

Quantitative Wages

Abstract

Examines the inclusive development impacts of the employment guarantee scheme, especially important in COVID-19 times. Draws evidence on macro level latest data, field insights & is based on more than decade long implementation experience. Analyses potential & actual experiences & alternative policy instruments like cash transfer for pros and cons for India

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-15-7443-6

Implementation Quantitative

Abstract

Whichever way you look at it, the IRR is really high: 31% in the baseline scenario. Even in an ultra-conservative scenario where the baseline yields and output price are halved, and just 30% of the saplings survive, our estimated IRR is still a respectable 6% – similar to the rate of return on NREGA wells in the IHD study cited earlier.

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The core objective of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is to promote rural development and reduce poverty by supplementing private employment in the rural Indian economy with public employment. This paper is an attempt to verify the performance of MGNREGA by studying four sample villages from West Bengal. The study has built a social accounting matrix from which the output and employment multipliers for each village are computed. However, it shows the demand-side impact, whereas the realisation of MGNREGA’s potential positive multiplier effect depends on supply-side support, which is lacking in the villages. The paper, therefore, suggests supply-side initiatives in MGNREGA through a focus on productivity enhancement measures.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2023/20/special-articles/multiplier-effect-...

Poverty Quantitative

Abstract

Abstract

Opaque technologies of attendance verifi cation and wage payments are at odds with constitutional rights.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2023/17/editorials/technocratic-subversion-...

Challenges Wages

Abstract

What is the appropriate process of development? Is a bottom-up process of development that includes the people necessarily the best model of development? Or can development models also be driven from the top? Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India is an important contribution in the debate on development in India that addresses in depth some of these questions by not necessarily taking a stance on the above questions, rather by challenging the dominant mode of understanding the process of development between its two extremes. As much as a top-driven approach does not account for the actual concerns of the people and can cater to the interests of particularistic groups and communities, mired in corruption, so too a bottom-up model can be caught up in the web of local-level hierarchies and power structures without necessarily circumventing it. Through fieldwork in Andhra Pradesh on the delivery of MgNREGA, Rajesh Veeraraghavan offers us a peek into the tensions and challenges of implementation of development schemes at the grassroots level. Through interviews and interactions with upper- and lower-level bureaucrats and the workers on the ground, he offers us a unique insight into contradictions and dilemmas of policymakers, activists, development practitioners and the people.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2023/19/book-reviews/democratic-dilemma-tra...

Challenges Corruption

Abstract

https://www.epw.in/journal/2022/15/letters/abysmal-wage-rates-mgnrega-...

Challenges Wages

Abstract

On 2nd February, 2006, the Government of India implemented the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) as a part of its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) Agenda in 200 districts across India, which was extended to the remaining districts across the states and Union Territories w.e.f. 1st April, 2008. On 2nd October, 2009, the scheme was renamed as ‘Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Pitched tentatively as Mission of Shri Narendra Modi led Government of India with larger ambition of Antyodaya, efforts are being made to work on a major plan to converge Social Welfare Plans and Schemes across Ministries and target these to reach individual households- based on their specific deprivations as indicated in the recently published Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC). Objectives: (i) To briefly annotate background of employment policies in India, (ii) Concept and provisions of NREGA, (iii) Envelop latest restructuring of social welfare plan, (iv) Illuminate changes in charges of agricultural operations, village economy during post-NREGA period, (v) Pause upon effects, (vi) Gauge potential benefits related to food security, (vii) Discuss current scenario of MNREGA in Bihar and (viii) Suggest Action Points. Methodology: For featuring objective-based analysis, five districts from the Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western and Central regions of the state were taken up. The districts of Samastipur, Kishanganj and Rohtas were selected from Phase-I and Banka and Goplaganj from Phase-II. A total of 10 villages-2 from each district were surveyed using ‘structured household questionnaire’ and a ‘Village Schedule’. Of the two villages selected from each district, one was within a 5 km periphery from the district/city headquarters, and the second was the one, situated at a distance of 20 km or more. 200 participants, i.e. 20 each from the selected 10 villages (who worked as NREGA wage worker)- were surveyed for detailed information. Further, for being elaborately familiarized with around realities in detail, 5 villagers (who did not work as ‘NREGA labourer) were surveyed from each of the 10 villages spread over 5 districts of Bihar. In this way, total sample size was 250. For the selection of participant households, stratified random sampling was used with Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste, Other Backward Caste and Forward Castes (others) given proportionate representation. Reference Period: The study used secondary data for the period before NREGA (i.e. 2001 and 2005) and particular ‘reference years 2009 to 2013’. For primary data, the selected year was 2009 (January- December) and some aspects were revisited in 2019.

https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20220703.14

Caste Quantitative Urban Wages

Abstract

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), in the last 15 years, has evolved as the world’s largest employer of the last resort. This social protection, specifically designed as a demand-driven automatic employment stabiliser to enable households to cope with livelihood shocks, offers 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to all rural households. The budget for this unique legislative entitlement in a developing country was nearly doubled from US$8 billion in 2019–20 to $15 billion in 2020–21 to partially offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. After the first pandemic wave, NREGA provided employment to 76 million households – more than a third of all rural Indian families. Even though women have consistently worked more than half the NREGA person-days annually, in the midst of the pandemic women’s share of employment declined by 2 per cent in 2020–21. However, this may have been a temporary decrease due to the unprecedented mass reverse exodus of urban migrants to their rural villages. Still, state-level analysis in this research highlights the persistent under-utilisation of NREGA by women in the poorer states of the Indo-Gangetic plain. On the other hand, the southern states have higher participation of women due to a combination of factors including better human development outcomes, higher wages, and sometimes better child-care facilities at worksites, which are necessary nationwide remedies. In particular, in the state of Kerala the novel integration of the government-initiated Kudumbashree community self-help women’s groups with NREGA has led to the feminisation of the programme. This convergence provides important insights on the significance of women’s participation in the decentralised management of NREGA to dilute both gender-intensive and gender-exclusive barriers, which could be fruitfully replicated nationwide.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13552074.2022.2071978#:~:...

Budget Gender Quantitative Urban Wages

Abstract

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Sustainable development is one of the ubiquitous paradigms of this century. Poverty, biodiversity loss and climate change are some of the obstacles to achieving sustainable development. To mitigate these encumbrances, countries have painstakingly adopted various policies and interventions. Public work programs, one of the initiatives targeting the construction of strong social safety nets through redistribution of wealth and generation of meaningful employment are increasingly being launched in developing countries. This paper is an attempt to examine the effects of phased implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) on the rejuvenation and restoration of community forests in India. Searches performed in multidisciplinary electronic databases (Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, PubMed, Emerald Insight, Google Scholar, Taylor and Francis Online, Wiley Online Library, and Springer Link) indicated that MGREGS is one of the largest labor guarantee schemes ever recorded in India and globally, and has holistically contributed to reforestation and afforestation through its land development themes to reduce vulnerability of rural communities to recurrent droughts, floods and improve soil moisture and fertility. It is evident that MGNREGS in synergy with the government forest development programs have the potential to promote social afforestation, reforestation and biodiversity conservation as witnessed in the Sundarbans. These have the potential to empower local people through creation of income generating activities and provision of local forest goods and services. However, the creation of forests as rural assets necessitates that emphasis should be laid on their maintenance so as to ensure that they are given their due importance for sustainable and long-term benefit of the poor rural households. This study highlights the need to perform a comprehensive assessment of forest assets that has been established through MNREGS across states in India.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.849920/full

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Local government networks are often characterised by coordination failures between multiple actors possessing resources that are critical for the success of the network. In the study of public networks, focus is drawn here on the obstacles faced in managing these networks, a relatively understudied phenomenon. While the existing literature throws light on how to manage such networks, relatively less attention is paid to understanding the obstacles they face. Using a decentred approach, we examine the implementation network for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 in the panchayats of West Bengal. The findings reveal that network composition plays a greater role in coordination compared to network structure. The study also shows that the inability to address a hidden agenda often makes bureaucratic leadership ineffective, whereas control over public discourse makes political executives better suited to manage networks.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2022/50/special-articles/coordination-failu...

Challenges Implementation Qualitative

Abstract

This paper is primarily a sociolegal analysis of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). It focuses less on the quantitatively-measurable performance of the Act and its macroeconomic impacts, and more so on the way in which the Act explicitly delegates resources and discretionary powers to state and local governments. Such dissemination, I show, in turn facilitates more comprehensive, inclusive, and equitable decision-making processes in local development; specific focus is directed at the environmental and climate implications of the program. Drawing from social scientific research, legal scholarship, and the legislation itself, I demonstrate that despite some notable shortcomings, the Act’s legal and administrative framework can be seen as a global model for linking state resources with localized challenges and priorities, enabling not only a legally-enforceable availability to a vital social safety net, but also a framework of bottom-up accountability through which small scale development and environmental remediation projects can be undertaken through the lens of the needs of local people.

https://edi.bard.edu/research/notes/decentralization-equity-and-inclus...

Environmental Sustainability Implementation Qualitative Quantitative

Abstract

About 39 percent of all jobcard-holding households interested in working under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 did not get a single day of work in the Covid year of 2020 – 21. Also, on average, only 36 per cent of households that worked received their wages in 15 days, showed a survey of 2000 households across eight blocks in four states conducted by Azim Premji University in partnership with the National Consortium of Civil Society Organisations on NREGA and Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD).

Despite these shortcomings, the study found that MGNREGA made a marked difference during the pandemic, protecting the most vulnerable households from significant loss of income. Increased earnings from MGNREGA were able to compensate for somewhere between 20 to 80 percent of income loss depending on the block.

https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/faculty-research/employment-guaran...

Wages

Abstract

https://tools.bard.edu/wwwmedia/resources/files/1124/EDI%20Note%20Empl...

Implementation

Abstract

For the last decade, India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA, 2005) has been the world’s largest public works programme. This legal entitlement provided employment to 28 per cent of rural Indian households in 2019–2020. After the COVID-19 pandemic, NREGA is increasingly emerging as an invaluable employer of the last resort. However, longitudinal data of implementation in its first fifteen years reveal distinctive trends. On the one hand, since inception, NREGA has rendered greater benefits to women and marginalised communities. But on the other, since 2014 till before the pandemic, the present National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime has reduced NREGA coverage compared to its implementation during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government which had enacted the legislation. Nevertheless, in light of the pandemic and based on international experiences in public work programmes, there is an urgent need for the expansion of the employment guarantee.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41027-022-00396-4

Caste Gender Implementation Politics

Abstract

The potentialities of individual assets, created under category B of Schedule I of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, for enhancing income of rural households and increasing productivity of land and agriculture are examined. The beneficiaries of individual assets gained, through the creation of new sources of livelihoods, additional utility of their existing assets and a rise in their income levels. The community also gained by an increase in food security through the enhanced productivity of land and agriculture, mainly through increase in crop acreage, yields per acre, and crop diversification. However, a proactive selection of landless households and diversification of individual assets is required to make the benefits of assets creation inclusive.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2022/4/special-articles/income-and-liveliho...

Environmental Sustainability Poverty

Abstract

Women’s empowerment relies on access to resources routed through micro-credit, cash transfers, self-employment, or wage-based employment. Educational qualifications such as formal education or vocational training provide the routes for employment. However, the Indian job guarantee program Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) ensures a minimum of 100 days of job guarantee to anyone willing to work without any eligibility criteria related to formal education. While gendered provisions in the program are intended to encourage women’s participation to make them self-reliant, the safety net features also protect their dignity. Therefore, aspects related to women’s empowerment, such as their more significant say in household decision-making, may likely be impacted by the program. In addition, the program provides institutional support to women and access to resources through the wages earned. Analysis based on the robust propensity score matching analysis suggests that the women have been empowered from the point of view of household decision making. A similar analysis also holds for the women from the vulnerable sections of society. Hence, although intended for poverty alleviation, the programme acts as a tool for empowering rural women in India.

https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v17n7p7

Gender Quantitative Wages

Abstract

This article examined the impact of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), an Indian government-run social-security program for impoverished rural households, income and employment patterns. MGNREGA was formed to encompass all underprivileged rural society members, regardless of caste, gender, or socioeconomic class. The study observed the influence of MGNREGA on job security, income production, governance, and how MGNREGA attempts to analyze the impact on the sustainable livelihood of rural poor in Annupur and Dindori districts of Madhya Pradesh. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 200 tribal job card holders were included in this study. Male and female MGNREGA beneficiaries were chosen, and information was collected with the help of a questioner. Data was analysed using the proper statistical methods on frequency, percentage, means, correlation tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and conclusions were made from the analysis. As a result of the studies on MGNREGA, it can be said that the social level of these tribal areas has benefited greatly from the Scheme. These loopholes must be filled to increase the benefits to rural even more.

https://www.growingscholar.org/journal/index.php/TIJOSSW/article/view/...

Caste Gender Poverty Quantitative

Abstract

Public works programs, aimed at building a strong social safety net through redistribution of wealth and generation of meaningful employment, are becoming increasingly popular in developing countries. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), enacted in August 2005, is one such program in India. This paper assesses causal impacts (Intent-to Treat) of NREGA on public works participation, labor force participation, and real wages of casual workers by exploiting its phased implementation across Indian districts. Using nationally representative data from Indian National Sample Surveys (NSS) and Difference-in Difference framework, we find that there is a strong gender dimension to the impacts of NREGA: it has a positive impact on the labor force participation and this impact is mainly driven by a much sharper impact on female labor force participation. Similarly, NREGA has a significant positive impact on the wages of female casual workers-real wages of female casual workers increased 8% more in NREGA districts compared with the increase experienced in non-NREGA districts. However, the impact of NREGA on wages of casual male workers has only been marginal (about 1%). Using data from pre-NREGA period, we also perform falsification exercise to demonstrate that the main conclusions are not confounded by pre-existing differential trends between NREGA and non-NREGA districts.

https://doi.org/10.46828/ijrisat.v2i3.31

Gender Implementation Quantitative Wages

Abstract

Last Among Equals: Power, Caste and Politics in Bihar’s Villages by M R Sharan, Chennai: Context, 2021; pp 217, `599.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2022/49/book-reviews/peoples-movement-decen...

Challenges Corruption Poverty

Abstract

Rajasthan is the largest state in India, characterised by distinct arid and semi-arid climatic conditions. In terms of geography, 66% of its area accounts for dryland. 22% of Rajasthan’s population falls below the poverty line. The rural economy here is principally characterized by mixed farming system with households depending on rain-fed-agriculture, complimented with animal husbandry. The state lies in a socially and environmentally vulnerable region. Due to continued distress and ecological degradation, the state poses a complex set of challenges in terms of development-based issues. Public investments through social security programs such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) hold immense potential to reduce the vulnerability of farmers by providing economic opportunities and improving ecological conditions which are critical for production systems and livelihoods.

https://fes.org.in/mgnrega/MGNREGA-Report.pdf

Challenges Environmental Sustainability Poverty

Abstract

In the absence of income or expenditure-based headcount ratio, the growth in the real wages (i.e., nominal wages adjusted against retail inflation) of the manual workers is considered to be a good proxy to assess the trends in poverty. This is because the manual, unskilled/ semi-skilled labourers exist at the bottom of the pyramid or economic hierarchy, and most of them belong to the social categories Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). A positive growth in their real wages (or real wage rates) is anticipated to improve their purchasing power (i.e., income or consumption expenditure) and lift them out of the poverty trap.

https://www.im4change.org/news-alerts-57/real-wage-rates-of-the-rural-...

Caste Poverty Wages

Abstract

We assess the welfare effects of India’s workfare program NREGA using a novel, almost sharp regression discontinuity design. We find large seasonal consumption increases in states implementing the program intensely, which are a multiple of the direct income gains. We also find increases in adolescents’ schooling. Our results imply substantial beneficial indirect effects of this large welfare program. We conclude that public employment programs hold significant potential for reducing poverty and insuring households against various adverse implications of seasonal income shortfalls — when properly implemented.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387822000256#:~...

Poverty Quantitative

Abstract

Governments of every political dispensation have sought to hollow out India’s rural employment guarantee scheme. Only a mass movement that keeps the vulnerable at its centre can make the MGNREGA what it is supposed to be.

https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/undermining-legal-guarantee-mgnre...

Challenges

Abstract

This paper revisits impact evaluation studies on the largest public workfare in the world, NREGA. In an environment where randomization is not feasible, I show why an impact evaluation exercise on NREGA should acknowledge the existence of an older program, SGRY. Using novel district-level expenditure data on SGRY, this article shows how ignoring the older program is likely to underestimate the general equilibrium impact of the employment policy on various relevant socio-economic outcomes. In most cases, ignoring SGRY underestimates NREGA’s impact by 30–40 percent.

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/807e0144-27c5...

Quantitative

Abstract

Demands to launch an urban employment guarantee scheme similar to that of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been gaining traction for a while. Kerala has been a front-runner in this regard by launching the Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme way back in 2010. At a time when the entire country is seeking an urban counterpart of the rural employment guarantee scheme, the potential and pitfalls of its urban version need to be looked into.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/15/special-articles/ayyankali-urban-em...

Challenges Implementation Urban

Abstract

E‑governance has changed the functioning of public programmes in India. In most cases, one technological platform is expected to perform multiple roles such as improving administrative efficiency, as an information repository for the beneficiaries and as a system for accountability. However, techno-solutionism can be incongruous to democratic principles. In this article, we highlight this by looking at some technologies, such as the Management Information System (MIS) among others, used for the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in India. We illustrate how such technologies have been used to subvert legal rights of workers and critically examine whether these designs incorporate democratic values. We underscore that technological interventions, with compassionate design are potentially powerful tools for transparency, accountability, and grievance redressal. However, we argue that technology alone can neither enhance participatory democracy nor reduce socio-economic inequalities.

https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/publications/2021/cse-working-pape...

Implementation

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is known as a demand-driven programme introduced with the legislative backing of Parliament of India. It has contributed significantly to provide the “freedom of choice” of work and dignified work opportunities along with rights and entitlements especially for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women, landless, and other marginalised groups that depend on traditional caste-based occupations and agricultural landlords in the villages for their livelihoods. This has largely contributed to protecting their self-respect and dignity in workspaces and helped control migration. However, the deep-rooted caste system as well as the caste-based political domination in villages affects the implementation of MGNREGA severely. This paper examines the caste-based exclusion in the implementation of MGNREGA, and the social audit and follow-up action taken by the vigilance wing.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/2/special-articles/caste-mgnrega-works...

Caste Implementation

Abstract

According to India’s most recent census conducted in 2011, the country is home to 456 million migrants, who represent 38% of the total population. The pandemic and the consequent lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 left these migrants stranded in their host communities and desperate to return to their familial homes. Stories of lost livelihoods and families that walked hundreds of kilometers to reach their villages dominated the news. Even after reaching their native homes, the lack of employment opportunities in villages offered migrants little solace. The Government of India (GoI) attempted to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on vulnerable populations by announcing various relief measures under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). PMGKY supported the rural unemployed population, including migrant workers, through the government’s flagship cash-for-work program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The GoI also increased the daily wage rate of workers from USD 2.44 (INR 182) to USD 2.70 (INR 202) and raised the allocated budget for MGNREGA to support this measure. MSC conducted two rounds of demand-side research3 to evaluate GoI’s response to COVID-19. We discuss the key lessons and findings extracted through the MGNREGA experience below.MSC conducted two rounds2 of demand-side research3 to evaluate GoI’s response to COVID-19. We discuss the key lessons and findings extracted through the MGNREGA experience below.

https://g2p-network.org/efficacy-of-mgnrega-in-mitigating-the-loss-in-...

Budget Wages

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the potential of social protection programs in mitigating labor market shocks. We examine the role of one of the world’s largest employment guarantee schemes, India’s MG-NREGA, in cushioning job losses in one of the worst affected economies due to the pandemic. Our findings indicate that regions with greater historical state capacity to provide public work under the scheme showed relatively smaller employment losses during the pandemic. Consequently, an increase in state capacity by one MG-NREGA workday per rural inhabitant in a district reduced job losses in rural areas in April–August 2020 by 7% overall and by 74% for rural women, over baseline employment rate. These cushioning effects strengthened as the mobility restrictions eased and were larger for women who were less mobile and less skilled. Our results suggest that employment guarantee programs can protect livelihoods, but for certain demographic groups relatively more than others depending on the nature and skill level of work offered.

https://academic.oup.com/ooec/article/doi/10.1093/ooec/odab003/6520735

Gender

Abstract

Building on our earlier work, in this study based on 17.97 lakh FTO transactions we analyse (a) delays in wage payments caused by the Central government in the first half of the financial year 2021-22 (b) the impact of the caste-based FTO segregation (c) wage payment delays by the payment type, i.e., whether it is an Aadhaar-based payment or an Account based payment. In our sample, 71% of the FTOs were delayed beyond the mandated 7 day period. Workers of the “Other” caste category have faced significantly more delays than workers belonging to SC/ST. The caste-based segregation appears to have had a negative impact on workers of the “Other” caste category to varying degrees across states with poorer states with a higher ST population such as Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Odisha and West Bengal bearing the brunt more. For instance, while stage 2 for nearly half the SC/ST payments in MP was completed in 7 days, only 7% of the payments for “Other” category was completed in 7 days.

https://libtech.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Heavy-Wait_LibTech_NREGA...

Caste Quantitative Wages

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme is as a flagship program by the Government of India started on February 2, 2006. As per the Scheme, each rural household gets 100 days of guaranteed employment (unskilled works) every year. Although the major objective of this scheme is to provide livelihood security for rural households, it also facilitates the creation as well as maintenance of rural infrastructure and employment generation. The present paper is an attempt to overview the impact of MGNREGA on employment generation in rural Haryana. It also examined the financial progress of MGNREGA and employment generated by this scheme. The study revealed that MGNREGA plays a significant role in employment generation in rural Haryana. To perform the objective of the paper secondary data has been used. The finding of the study reveals that MANREGA plays an important role in employment generation in rural Haryana. It not only provides security for food but also supports rural development.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353729180_Impact_of_MGNREGA_o...

Implementation

Abstract

Coming in the midst of the immense damage inflicted on the Indian economy by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021–22 Union Budget needed to perform the unenviable task of compensating households for massive livelihood losses as well as stimulating economic growth while maintaining some fiscal discipline. As it turned out, the government chose to focus on the second and third goals and largely ignored the first.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/9/budget-2021%E2%80%9322/labour-liveli...

Budget Politics

Abstract

Sanjay Sahni was living an ‘araam zindagi’ in Delhi, working as an electrician, until a chance encounter with a computer sent him hurtling into the labyrinth that is the NREGA—one of the world’s largest rural poverty alleviation programmes—and the corruption within. It led him back to his village, where eventually, he and his comrades (primarily women from the Dalit and most backward castes) formed the anti-corruption group Manrega Watch. Their tale is one strand of village politics, a story of resilience among citizens, those outside the system. But what of the ‘insiders’? The complex local-state unit of the village has at the top a mukhiya, who, like the one in Sanjay’s village, wields great power, even to do harm. Ward members—closest to their constituents and the most socially representative group in the panchayati raj system—are at the bottom of this structure. Development economist M.R. Sharan brings these two interweaving strands of insiders and outsiders together to tell a tale of hope: that those on the margins can challenge entrenched hierarchies. Through government action—reservation, decentralisation, transparency measures—and through citizen engagement, social movements and elections, change is possible, if not necessarily easy. Take the resourceful ward member, Kamal Manjhi, who repurposed the grievance redressal system to complain against the state: this was essentially a member of the local state, using a state mechanism to arm-twist another part of the state to do its job. Last Among Equals eschews the usual sweeping narratives of national and state politics, reaching instead for the ‘swirling, vivid sub-narratives that escape easy categorisations’, the darkness of the material leavened with deep empathy. The result is a captivating, often searing narrative of how lives are lived in the villages of Bihar—and indeed in much of India.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/59746620

Caste Politics

Abstract

https://rural.gov.in/sites/default/files/MGNREGA_24Aug2020.pdf

Implementation Quantitative

Abstract

This article examines the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in two districts of Tamil Nadu—Panchetti and Salem. It describes the functioning of the Act based on a preliminary field study and documents the views of implementers and beneficiaries. This analysis reiterates that the implementation should drive policy and that the evaluation lessons need to filter back to the design of the policy. More specifically, MGNREGA requirements can be improved on two counts: one, wage determination and wage rates; and two, evolving better techniques to measure labour productivity.

https://doi.org/10.1177/09737030211008298

Implementation Wages

Abstract

This research note is prepared to present an insight into the efficacy of the government’s decision to open up the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) activities in non-containment zones during the second phase of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions imposed in April 2020. Though the intention was to provide an impetus to the rural economy by creating job opportunities for rural workers as well as for the returning seasonal migrants amid the COVID-19 crisis, ‘whether the decision helped the returning migrants in securing a part of their lost income’ is the question of interest. Our study finds that nearly 7.5 million seasonal migrant workers took refuge under MGNREGA during the lockdown, found work for around 23 days and secured about 28% of the income they used to earn daily in the pre-COVID-19 period.

https://doi.org/10.1177/00194662211023848

Challenges