MGNREGA Bibliography

Abstract

The paper critically reviews the arguments for and against both employment guarantees and income guarantees when viewed as rights-based policy instruments for poverty reduction in a developing economy, with special reference to India. Evidence on India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act does not suggest that the potential for either providing work when needed or reducing current poverty is being realized, despite pro-poor targeting. Instead, work is often rationed by local leaders in poor areas, and the poverty impact is small when all the costs are considered. Decentralized implementation of the right-to-work poses serious challenges in poor places. The option of income support using cash transfers also has both pros and cons. Widely-used methods for finely targeting cash transfers tend to miss many poor people, and discourage those reached from earning extra income. Yet it cannot be presumed that switching to a universal basic income will reduce poverty more than workfare or finely-targeted transfers; that is an empirical question and the answer will undoubtedly vary across settings, belying the generalizations often heard from advocates. Nonetheless, more incentive-neutral, universal and/or state-contingent transfer schemes merit consideration in settings in which existing public spending is skewed against poor people and/or there is scope for raising taxes on the rich.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3208865

Challenges Implementation Poverty

Abstract

NREGA is a demand-driven programme and if the demand vanishes because wages are low and uncertain, nothing will be able to save it.

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/nrega-scheme-rural-e...

Wages

Abstract

MGNREGA: Employment, Wages and Migration in Rural India is a massive work of impact assessment of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) that shuns opinionated positions on the merits and demerits of the programme. It makes a systematic assessment of the impact of the programme on employment, wages, migration and the local economy, based on a primary survey conducted in 16 major states selected from various regions of the country. Although the book does not throw an entirely new light on the subject, its analysis of the socio-economic backgrounds of households seeking employment, impact on rural wages, migration and village economy, reassertwith the help of a large set of datathe findings of other studies.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2018/14/book-reviews/indias-national-employ...

Quantitative Wages

Abstract

The emphasis on rights that individual citizens can claim from the state represents a significant institutional development for poverty alleviation policies. In India, important legislation was passed in 2005 to guarantee rural households 100 days of work paid at a statutory wage rate. This Right to Work legislation has enabled the implementation of the world’s largest public works program—the “Mahatma Gandhi” National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or NREGS. This study explores variation in policy outcomes under NREGS within a rural district of North India (Uttar Pradesh). It finds that this variation is the product of the interaction between formal and informal institutions. As such, the demand for work benefits does not emerge spontaneously from self-selecting rural citizens, but is articulated by local elected officials who are pressurised to accommodate demands for rents from the bureaucracy. Specifically, local elected officials are compelled to proceed to a selective activation of the demand for benefits to ensure the generation of a surplus which will form the basis of bureaucratic rent payments. The study relies on qualitative data, specifically interviews with past beneficiaries of the scheme, bureaucrats tasked with policy implementation, and elected village leaders (the Gram Pradhans in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh) to document the conditions under which a surplus is extracted and rent payments made. The study shows that caste and political leadership structures at the local level affect the generation of surpluses and the payment of rents by Gram Pradhans to the bureaucracy. While the Right to Work legislation represents progress for poverty alleviation, policies such as NREGS that emphasize rights and the expression of a demand for benefits need to consider more carefully the conditions under which this demand emerges as well as the ways in which discretionary authority can thwart the goals of public policy.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X17303480

Caste Implementation Poverty Qualitative Wages

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) guarantees 100 days of work in a year for every rural household in India on demand. The Act mandates that every worker must receive their wages within 15 days of completion of a work week. Since 2015, wages are paid directly from the central government to the workers’ bank account through the National Electronic Financial Management System (N-eFMS). The government believes that such a system will streamline the payment process and ensure faster, “real time” payments. The payment guidelines state that it is supposed to take one day for the transfers to take place. (Ministry of Rural Development, India 2018). However, a previous study by my team showed that, when state/ local government generated the payorder within 15 days, it took an additional 63 days on average, for the wages to be credited to the workers’ bank account (Rajendran Narayanan, Sakina Dhorajiwala, and Rajesh Golani 2017). The delays are further exacerbated at the last mile due to poor infrastructure and policy design challenges. Complex norms for accessing the payments make banking a cumbersome experience. The excessive centralisation of the entire payment architecture has meant that the baton of accountability is passed around by the bureaucracy leaving the workers in abeyance about their wages. When a grievance arises workers often have to run from administrative offices to banks to ensure grievance redressal. This involves spending hundreds of rupees, making multiple trips to the government office and loss of daily wages. The design of the system shifts the entire burden of grievance redressal onto the worker. As a result, workers are losing faith in the programme.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3275130

Challenges Implementation Politics Wages

Abstract

India’s constitution contains provisions for the ‘right to work’ and the ‘right to movement’ for all citizens. Established in 2005, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is broadly considered to operationalize this ‘right to work’. At the same time, a public discourse persists that views MGNREGA as a substitute for internal labour migration. Drawing on the results from 300 household surveys in three panchayats in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, we test the validity of this discourse in this setting. We find that households that rely exclusively on MGNREGA have different demographic and socioeconomic characteristics compared to households that rely exclusively on remittances from internal labour migration. Furthermore, 20 per cent of households surveyed use both MGNREGA and internal labour migration as complementary livelihood strategies. We argue that there is a need for better understanding and recognition of the complementary potential of MGNREGA and internal labour migration.

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-017-0122-3

Caste Poverty

Abstract

In general, the return from participation in MNREGA will be highest for those women whose mobility and social interaction is least impeded by conservative social norms. However, if any intervention enhances knowledge base, or challenges traditional norms of gender, then return from that intervention may be highest for those women impede most by conservative social norms. It may be interpreted as non-monotonic effect of restrictedness across caste and religion. The purpose of this paper is to examine non-monotonicity hypothesis of social restrictedness for the intervention MNREGA. Using primary data from three districts of West Bengal, the paper has tried to see whether there exists any non-monotonic effect of restrictedness on household’s “expenditure on consumption,” “expenditure on temptation good,” “expenditure on women’s health” and “expenditure on children’s education and health” across castes and religion. The sample is relatively homogeneous in terms of socio economic status, but differs in affiliation to castes and religion. As a result of participating the labor force through MNREGA, the contribution of women to household earnings increases, which may potentially increase their bargaining power within the household. The conventional notion is that women who are least fettered by social norms should get maximum benefits of participation in MNREGA. However, the analysis shows that women of upper caste (UC) community have been able to exercise the highest level of agency in allocating household resources compared to the women of scheduled caste community. It substantiates the non-monotonicity of restrictedness of social norms across castes and religions. Agency of Muslim women has not increased significantly compared to the UC women. The study suffers from usual limitations of sampling. There is hardly any study deciphering MNREGA from the perspective of caste, religion and gender.

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSE-07-2016-0199/...

Budget Caste Gender

Abstract

Delayed wage payments and inadequate wage revisions rob MGNREGA of its soul.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2018/16/letters/work-without-wages.html

Challenges Wages

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) provides ‘sustainable livelihoods’ or ‘green jobs’ to workers engaged in restoring the rural ecology while contributing to ‘sustainable rural development’. While the works constructed under NREGA possess tremendous potential to improve environmental indicators—rise in water levels, carbon dioxide sequestration, improvement in soil quality etc., it is unclear how much of that is actually happening. This study seeks to explore this question in this context. Firstly, the study finds that, on the whole, MGNREGA works are green and the works do ensure an overall improvement in environmental parameters. Secondly, several newly adopted activities (such as the construction of roads, buildings and wells) are actually not ‘environmental’ and hence, do not necessarily provide ‘green jobs’. Despite the massive socio-economic contribution of these works, they can actually cause significant environmental damage. Therefore, it becomes important to balance the ‘non-environmental’ works with sufficient ‘environmental’ works. Finally, though this paper attempts to quantify the environmental impacts of MGNREGA works, it is limited by constraints of data availability, time and resources. However, it intends to push for a national effort to develop methodologies for inculcating environmental sensitivity into the planning, design, execution, utilisation and evaluation of MGNREGA works. It is hoped that these exercises would significantly contribute towards the ecological restoration of rural areas by the MGNREGA.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41027-017-0063-6

Challenges Environmental Sustainability Quantitative

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is one of India’s flagship social protection programmes. This paper is part of a series of briefings that analyse how MGNREGS builds the resilience of rural households to different climate shocks. The goal of the series is to identify options for Indian policymakers to integrate climate risk management into MGNREGS. It will also provide global policymakers with evidence on how to mainstream climate risk management into social protection programmes, or combine and layer social protection instruments with climate risk management instruments to address poverty in the context of climate change.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/195778137.pdf

Environmental Sustainability Poverty

Abstract

The successful implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in undivided Andhra Pradesh underlines the triumph of citizen formation over patron–client politics, aided by a democratic politics. This article argues that its success in Andhra Pradesh depended heavily on how the ideas within the rural development bureaucracy interacted with the political executive. This synergy engendered a state’s capacity to insulate a committed bureaucracy from powerful farmers and construction companies who had a clear interest in thwarting the programme. Elections can in a democracy elevate citizen concern over particularistic populism, when political will is matched by ideational conviction in the bureaucracy.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/49/special-articles/bureaucratic-ratio...

Implementation

Abstract

Utilising household-level data, this paper investigates the impact of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme on financial inclusion. Exploiting the staggered timing of the roll-out of the programme across districts, while controlling for its non-random implementation, it is found that MGNREGS improves financial access. This is confirmed in simple univariate tests as well as in multivariate regressions that ake into account several district- and household-level controls. The evidence, however, is less compelling when the use of finance is examined, although there is a differential impact for districts with higher proportion of women. The magnitudes in most cases are quite large and suggest that public works programme can positively influence financial inclusion.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/12/money-banking-and-finance/did-mgnre...

Gender Implementation Quantitative

Abstract

India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the largest labour guarantee scheme in the world, offering 100 days of paid labour to every rural household. This article reviews the growing evidence base, assessing the extent to which the scheme can be said to contribute to resilience to climate change, based on its effectiveness as a safety net and driver of household accumulation, its ability to create assets which build collective resilience, and its support for transformations of exploitative social relations. The article concludes that the MGNREGA has already made a major contribution to resilience, but requires improvements in governance and state capacity to maximize its contribution.

https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12309

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in India seeks to provide a specified number of days of employment at a specified wage rate to interested rural households, and ensures equal wages between male and female workers. MGNREGS will benefit wage seekers directly by providing assured employment and pay, which will enhance their purchasing power; and indirectly by increasing the rural market wage rate. The nature of work of some employment opportunities under MGNREGS will likely improve the infrastructure at both community and individual levels, mostly of small-scale and marginal farmers, which is expected to improve the income levels of the poor. Using evidence from Andhra Pradesh before its bifurcation, the present study sought to determine if MGNREGS promotes inclusive growth. The empirical study used both primary and secondary data. The analyses reveal that MGNREGS promotes inclusive growth by augmenting openmarket wages, reducing gender wage differentials, increasing the proportion of Scheduled Castes among the participating households, improving the employment and income levels of wage seekers, and deriving substantial benefits compared to government expenditure on the Scheme.

https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/259243/?ln=en

Caste Gender Poverty Wages

Abstract

Since 2009, wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme have been delinked from the Minimum Wages Act and have not changed from their real value in that year. As a result, MGNREGA workers have been victims of stagnating real wages. In some states, they are paid even less than the minimum wage. This raises serious questions of legality and fairness.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/44/commentary/fairness-minimum-wages-m...

Poverty Quantitative Wages

Abstract

The MGNREGA aims at enhancing the livelihood security of the rural households and can provide the basis of permanent social security system and even act as an instrument for planned and equitable rural development. The provisions of the MGNREGA will be implemented at the state level through the State Employment Guarantee Council which will be the nodal agency to monitor and review the implementation of the Act at the state level. This study examines the role and significance of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and its impact of the income and employment generation on the beneficiaries in study area during the period of 2014-15. The Government of India made a commitment that would immediately enact an employment Guarantee Act. The draft proposed by the National Advisory Council (NAC) envisaged legal guarantee to every household in rural areas for 100 days for doing casual manual work. The Chittoor district is one of the drought prone districts in Andhra Pradesh. The weaker sections such as Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are not provided with minimum working days under this programme as stipulated in the guidelines of the programme. In many cases, the works are not provided to the workers in time. Middleman/supervisors play a dominant role and the nature of exploitation is one of the major constraints in the implementation of the programme involved, setting aside the very purpose of the programme. Worst sufferers are the SC/ST people because of their weak social-economic bottlenecks. Hence, there is an urgent need to evaluate, this programme.

https://www.worldwidejournals.com/paripex/recent_issues_pdf/2016/Septe...

Caste Implementation

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme is one of the most important and largest public programme in India. The main objective of this programme is to provide 100 days of assured employment to rural household and to create sustainable asset. In this paper we have studied the secondary objective of MGNREGA that is to reduce migration and creation of sustainable asset in light of tribal perspective. In this paper we work in migration data for July 2007 to June 2008 NSSO & Census of India, 2011 data. By our analysis we find that Migration is a complex process, it is not always done due to poverty and desperate situation, but complex factors (facilities, education). People especially tribals are migrating due to lack of adequate agricultural land, inadequate agricultural production, less irrigation facilities, and acute water scarcity and stringent enforcement of Forest Laws before implantation of Forest Act. At the macro level analysis, correlation between migration and MGNREGA is very weak. From the literature as well as supported by the micro-assessment, MGNREGA is helping poor and weaker section of the community by providing employment at critical period of a year (seasonal migration). In principal, MGNREGA can help to reduce temporary migration but is ineffective in long period, when several factors would change together.

http://dx.doi.org/10.21013/jems.v6.n1.p9

Caste Poverty

Abstract

According to the evidence presented in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and studies elsewhere, 11 years of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act have not been able to make much of a dent in rural poverty. This article also suggests some innovative ways to help improve the outcome of the scheme.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/25-26/commentary/mgnrega-distribution-...

Caste Gender Poverty Quantitative

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is functional in almost all rural districts of India guaranteeing wage employment on demand. The main intention behind launching MGNREGA was to provide some minimum level of employment security to the poorest rural households. However, it has been found that only a fraction of households registered under the Act actually demands employment. This paper studies the latter for some distinctive socio-economic characteristics so as to deduce targeting efficiency of MGNREGA across India in general and in the State of Assam in particular. Findings of the paper suggest that it is the poorer and underprivileged regions as well as households who constitute the bulk of those demanding MGNREGA employment. Low income, poor material conditions, social backwardness, low levels of literacy and absence of stable source of income have been found to be significant in determining MGNREGA participation. Moreover, there is considerable participation by people past the conventional working age of 65 years as well as from women who are otherwise not part of the formal workforce. Thus, it is found that MGNREGA is reaching out to most of its intended beneficiaries, i.e., people who are prone to high degree of livelihood insecurities.

https://doi.org/10.25175/jrd/2017/v36/i2/116404

Caste Gender Wages

Abstract

Southern Asia is one of the regions where gender gaps are most stark. Indeed in India, as in other parts of the region, few women are able to access paid employment. This paper explores the impacts of the legislated right to work in rural India on women’s employment. It reviews trends in women’s engagement in the public works programme as well as whether this work contributes to their empowerment and bargaining power in the household. It also examines the extent to which these impacts are transformational by assessing whether girls in the household are affected by women’s employment outside of the home.

https://www.ilo.org/employment/Whatwedo/Publications/working-papers/WC...

Gender Qualitative

Abstract

The link between e-governance and accountability of state administrations for service provision has been problematized in the literature to date. However, little is known about its application to anti-poverty programmes, of which public workfare schemes are an increasingly important subset. In this paper, we fill the gap with a study of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), India’s largest workfare scheme, as it is being computerized in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. A state-level information system was devised to ensure transparency of transactions, and hence combat the illicit diversion of the programme’s funds to non-entitled recipients. But while doing so, the system carries a policy of centralization, which concentrates decision-making power in the hands of a limited set of actors rather than distributing it across the programme’s stakeholders. In particular the Field Assistants, appointed officials responsible for the village-level management of the scheme, have direct control on the information inputted in the system, which reinforces their position of authority rather than challenging it in favour of greater empowerment of wageseekers. Furthermore, wage payments are traced by the information system till they reach the disbursement agencies, but are prone to capture in the ‘last mile’ where workers collect their salaries, which results in greater vulnerability for them. As a result, MGNREGA workers are constructed by the new information system as sheer beneficiaries rather than active participants in the programme, which concurs to crystallizing existing power structures rather than resulting in wageseekers’ empowerment. Lessons are drawn for other states currently computerizing their social safety nets.

https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2017.1345785

Politics Poverty Wages

Abstract

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26906185?casa_token=R8EZCzHO4ykAAAAA%3Al6...

Politics Poverty

Abstract

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), passed in 2005, has been among the developing world’s most ambitious anti-poverty initiatives. By “guaranteeing” 100 days of work annually to every rural household, NREGA sought to advance the Indian constitution’s commitment to securing citizens’ “right to work”. This book is not a technical evaluation of program performance. It offers instead a detailed analysis of the politics surrounding NREGA: the model of political action that motivated its architects, the public advocacy and parliamentary maneuvering involved in its passage, the political dynamics shaping implementation at state and local levels, the institutional constraints on reforming how it operates, and its complex impacts on public policy debates about governance and development as well as on the political capacities of poor people. Based on their extensive – primarily qualitative – field research, the authors examine changing conceptions of rights and the challenges of making states more accountable to their most disadvantaged citizens. Their analysis of the politics of NREGA provides a window onto the inner workings of Indian democracy and the complex character of the Indian state as it attempts to upgrade its social welfare provision to something more in keeping with the enhanced economic stature the country over the past few decades.

https://academic.oup.com/book/12134

Challenges Implementation Poverty

Abstract

There has been a major expansion of social security programs in India during the last 15 years or so, along with wider recognition of economic and social rights. This paper discusses five programs that can be seen as partial foundations of a possible social security system for India: school meals, child care services, employment guarantee, food subsidies, and social security pensions. The record of these programs varies a great deal between Indian states, but there is growing evidence that they make an important contribution to human well-being, and also that the achievements of the leading states are gradually spreading to other states as well. Much scope remains for extending these efforts: despite the recent expansion, India’s social security system is still very limited in international perspective. The paper also discusses some general issues of social policy in India, such as the arguments for universalization versus targeting and the value of a rights approach to social security.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X17302097

Abstract

In India more than 75% people lives in the rural areas and these areas are underdeveloped. Research and development sector in the country implemented several policies and programmes to overcome with the problems faced by rural people in terms of employment, sustainable livelihood, opportunities, poverty and growth. The Government of India has made efforts in this direction by introducing rural employment scheme under MGNREGA. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) proposes to augment livelihood security by offering to the extent of one hundred day of guaranteed employment to the rural people of every household in a financial year. The scheme envisages certain objectives to improve rural life employment and livelihood. This scheme focuses on following areas – Conservation of water and it’s harvesting, shielding the poor mass from drought. Plantation and forestation are also on the agenda of MGNREGA. For the works under MGNREGA payment of workers are proposed to be made on piece rate basis in order to ensure that workers are paid for their labor. The present paper attempts to assess the rural employment and sustainable livelihood through MGNREGAs on the livelihood of the excluded population and its performance in creating durable and sustainable community assets in the rural areas.

https://www.multidisciplinaryjournal.net/assets/archives/2017/vol2issu...

Abstract

The last twenty years have been a time of intense public debates on social policy in India. There have also been major initiatives, such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, as well as resilient inertia in some fields. This book brings together some of Jean Drèze’s contributions to these debates, along with other short essays on social development. The essays span the gamut of critical social policies, from education and health to poverty, nutrition, child care, corruption, employment, and social security. There are also less predictable topics such as the caste system, corporate power, nuclear disarmament, the Gujarat model, the Kashmir conflict, and universal basic income. The book aims at enlarging the boundaries of social development, towards a broad concern with the sort of society we want to create. The concluding essay, on public-spiritedness and solidarity, argues that the cultivation of enlightened social norms is an integral part of development. “Jholawala” has become a disparaging term for activists in the Indian business media. This book affirms the learning value of collective action combined with sound economic analysis. In his detailed introduction, the author argues for an approach to development economics where research and action are complementary and interconnected.

https://academic.oup.com/book/35106

Caste Poverty

Abstract

The approach of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance-II government towards the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme emphasises asset creation in a target-driven, if necessary, top-down fashion. NDA-II has done this without altering the basic features of the programme, as that needs an amendment in the act, a difficult political proposition given its lack of majority in the Rajya Sabha. Such a shift is in contradistinction to the pursuit of demand-driven job creation with a focus on participatory decentralised development under the United Progressive Alliance governments. While the emphasis on assets creation is not without its merits, the programme has been tilted in favour of agriculturists. Landless rural labour households, one-fourth of India’s rural population, have been excluded from the benefits of individual assets since they own no land. Asset fetishism may affect job creation and its target-driven pursuit may defeat objectives like promoting participatory decentralised development.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26696097

Implementation Politics

Abstract

The civil and political rights are now joined by human welfare guarantees to employment and fair working conditions, health, food and social security, education and participation in cultural life of the community. These rights came from socialist and welfare state conceptions that emphasized economic social and cultural rights over political rights. The concept of human right underlines the point that every human being is entitled to enjoy certain basic conditions of civilized life irrespective of the socio – Economic system he lives in.

https://anubooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/8-RJPSSs-2-13.pdf

Challenges Gender

Abstract

The civil and political rights are now joined by human welfare guarantees to employment and fair working conditions, health, food and social security, education and participation in cultural life of the community. These rights came from socialist and welfare state conceptions that emphasized economic social and cultural rights over political rights. The concept of human right underlines the point that every human being is entitled to enjoy certain basic conditions of civilized life irrespective of the socio – Economic system he lives in.

https://anubooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/8-RJPSSs-2-13.pdf

Gender

Abstract

The present study examines the processes of selection of beneficiaries and creation of Category- B assets on the land or homestead of individual households and impacts of the assets with a focus on changes in the livelihood conditions and occupational status, if any, of the households. It examines whether the provision of individual assets has resulted in transformation of the status of beneficiaries from casual labours to self-employed.
It is argued that the impacts of wage employment and income generation are ephemeral whereas the impacts of assets may be transformational. The provision of assets on the land or homestead of individual beneficiaries could change the status of the households forever, including a change in the status from that of a wage employment seeker to self-employed.

https://csdindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Socio-Economic-Impacts...

Wages

Abstract

This article asks what led to the successful implementation of the National Rural Employment guarantee program (NREGA) in Andhra Pradesh. In particular, the article ethnographically examines the implementation of the program in two different village panchayats (Dalit and Tribal) in Andhra, with a focus on underprivileged communities and it finds dramatic differences in the outcomes of the program. Both outcomes can be considered successful for the workers of the NREGA, although perhaps in ways that could not have been anticipated by the planners of the program. Theoretically, the analysis is situated between two strands—pessimistic critiques of the high-modernist state and more optimistic visions of state-society synergy. The pessimistic analysis underestimates the possibility a community will take advantage of the opportunities that a high-modernist state can provide. On the other hand, the overly optimistic account of the state-society literature assumes what I am calling “joint intentionality” between state and community is necessary for success, and empirically rules out successes that do not have such joint intentionality. The article shows that high-modernist state actions can create a structural context that opens up avenues for local successes, while local factors—namely the caste, class and livelihood strategy of villagers—determine the distinct avenues through which success is achieved. Top-down centralized implementation characterized by a high-modernist state does not rule out the realization of local goals. State and society can interact to produce positive outcomes even if these outcomes are not jointly intended.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X17301894?vi...

Caste Implementation Qualitative

Abstract

We estimate the effects of temperature on human capital production in India. We show that high temperatures reduce both math and reading test scores through an agricultural income mechanism. The roll-out of a workfare program, by providing a safety net for the poor, substantially weakens the link between temperature and test scores. Our results imply that absent social protection programs, climate change will have large negative impacts on human capital production of poor populations in agrarian economies.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2941049#:~:text=Ab...

Environmental Sustainability Quantitative

Abstract

This study investigates the consequences of poor implementation in public workfare programs, focusing on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in India. Using nationally representative data, we test empirically for a discouraged worker effect arising from either of two mechanisms: administrative rationing of jobs among those who seek work and delays in wage payments. We find strong evidence at the household and district levels that administrative rationing discourages subsequent demand for work. Delayed wage payments seem to matter significantly during rainfall shocks. We find further that rationing is strongly associated with indicators of implementation ability such as staff capacity. Politics appears to play only a limited role. The findings suggest that assessments of the relevance of public programs over their lifecycle need to factor in implementation quality.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X1730252...

Challenges Implementation Politics Wages

Abstract

Labour, State and Society in Rural India: A Class-relational Approach by Jonathan Pattenden; Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016; pp xiv + 200, £75 (hardbound).

https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/29/book-reviews/making-poverty.html

Caste Environmental Sustainability Gender Poverty

Abstract

This study highlights the lack of structural transformation and the slow growth in productive jobs. In the case of women, the labour market trends even pointed to decreasing workforce participation. The author examines the effectiveness of labour market and sectoral policies in addressing these problems, notably the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) public works programme and the “Make in India” sectoral policy.

https://www.ilo.org/publications/role-labour-market-and-sectoral-polic...

Gender

Abstract

This study highlights the lack of structural transformation and the slow growth in productive jobs. In the case of women, the labour market trends even pointed to decreasing workforce participation. The author examines the effectiveness of labour market and sectoral policies in addressing these problems, notably the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) public works programme and the “Make in India” sectoral policy.

https://www.ilo.org/publications/role-labour-market-and-sectoral-polic...

Qualitative Quantitative

Abstract

This study highlights the lack of structural transformation and the slow growth in productive jobs. In the case of women, the labour market trends even pointed to decreasing workforce participation. The author examines the effectiveness of labour market and sectoral policies in addressing these problems, notably the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) public works programme and the “Make in India” sectoral policy.

https://www.ilo.org/employment/Whatwedo/Publications/working-papers/WC...

Gender Quantitative

Abstract

The management information system of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 was hailed as a pioneering tool for enhancing transparency and accountability. However, it is now being used with impunity to centralise the programme and violate workers’ legal entitlements, causing frequent disruptions on the ground and opening new avenues for corruption in the programme.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26697647

Implementation

Abstract

The agricultural sector has performed worse than the other sectors over the years. The shares of non-agricultural employment and output have increased, while 70% of agricultural households cannot meet their low consumptionneeds even after diversification of sources of income. An analysis of budgetary provisions for the rural economy suggests that the government has not done enough to address some of these well-documented problems, and does not have the required vision to substantially increase rural employment opportunities.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/9/commentary/what-does-rural-economy-n...

Budget Environmental Sustainability Poverty Quantitative

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was enacted in 2005 and has completed a little over a decade in India. It is the largest public employment programme in the world and has promoted a wider participation from rural households across the country. This paper examines the issue of programme participation in MGNREGA holistically by looking at household and individual-level participation and controlling for regional heterogeneity, using a unique panel data from the nationally representative India Human Development Survey. Using a binary logistic model and fixed effects models at the state and village level, the paper finds that poor households with a low asset base and those belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories are more likely to participate in the programme, but the support base of MGNREGA is not just limited to these groups and is rather broad-based. It also shows that as compared to other types of work, women suffer less disadvantage than men, thereby providing empowerment opportunities to women.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322594040_Who_Participates_in...

Caste Quantitative

Abstract

In Gujarat’s Chhota Udaipur, MNREGA has helped villagers increase their earnings, improved connectivity in the area and led to higher farm yields.

https://thewire.in/rights/mnrega-chhota-nagpur-gujarat

Abstract

Based on secondary data from the National Sample Survey Office and a household-level survey of four villages in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the study found that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has a number of direct and indirect benefits. Overall, it was found that, in both rural Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, women’s participation in the MGNREGS has been encouraging and beneficial.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/32/notes/women-mgnregs-telangana-and-a...

Gender

Abstract

This thesis is a comparative analysis between two villages in India, examining personal accounts from participants in the world’s largest anti-poverty programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The analysis is based on an eight-week field-study in Andhra Pradesh, which was financed through a Minor Field Study Scholarship by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). This thesis aim to provide the discourse with empirical research of the process that leads to empowerment using qualitative methods. The relationship of interest is how women in NREGA perceive employment has led to a perception of empowerment. The hypothesis is that employment in NREGA can lead to perceived empowerment, but that it is dependent on the development level including the intensity of patriarchal norms and caste tensions in the village of implementation. Empowerment is understood as a process of change – when a person experiences an expansion in their ability to make valued choices and desired outcomes. The theoretical foundation is that empowerment can occur in three different levels of analysis: immediate (sense of self-hood and identity), intermediate (rules and relationships in different spheres of life) and deeper (structural relations of power) levels. The results show that employment in NREGA leads to perceived empowerment in immediate levels of analysis, through an expansion of abilities in choice and achievements, irrespective of development level, but that the development level and intensity of patriarchal norms and caste tensions is determinant for whether employment in NREGA leads to perceived empowerment in intermediate and deeper levels of empowerment. This thesis argues that to achieve sustainable empowerment structural relations of power must be transformed. The main recommendation for policies and programmes is therefore to acknowledge the importance of development level including patriarchal norms and caste tensions when implementing programmes like NREGA with objectives of sustainable empowerment for low-caste women, to ensure what objectives are feasible.

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1112438/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Caste Gender Implementation Qualitative

Abstract

Antipoverty programs in developing countries are often difficult to implement; in particular, many governments lack the capacity to deliver payments securely to targeted beneficiaries. We evaluate the impact of biometrically authenticated payments infrastructure (“Smartcards”) on beneficiaries of employment (NREGS) and pension (SSP) programs in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, using a large-scale experiment that randomized the rollout of Smartcards over 157 subdistricts and 19 million people. We find that, while incompletely implemented, the new system delivered a faster, more predictable, and less corrupt NREGS payments process without adversely affecting program access. For each of these outcomes, treatment group distributions first-order stochastically dominated those of the control group. The investment was cost-effective, as time savings to NREGS beneficiaries alone were equal to the cost of the intervention, and there was also a significant reduction in the “leakage” of funds between the government and beneficiaries in both NREGS and SSP programs. Beneficiaries overwhelmingly preferred the new system for both programs. Overall, our results suggest that investing in secure payments infrastructure can significantly enhance ‘state capacity’ to implement welfare programs in developing countries.

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20141346

Poverty Quantitative

Abstract

How has Telangana fared in the last two years? The author’s field visit suggests that water and agrarian distress continue to be an issue, with Muslims and the youth disillusioned with the government in the new state.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2016/7/reports-states/centrist-polity-decen...

Caste Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Ensuring good governance while devolving the 3Fs—functions, funds and functionaries—is a formidable challenge. An action research conducted in Sikkim from 2010 to 2016 focused on four questions: where is the corruption, what are the different types of corruption, how much is the quantum, and how do we reduce it effectively? A set of anti-corruption tools was integrated in the programme delivery, and corruption practices were broadly grouped into “easy to prevent,” “difficult to prevent but easy to detect,” and “difficult to prevent and detect,” By applying this strategy, we found that the corruption level dropped more than three times from 1.74% to 0.55%, and the savings from sanctioned cost rose to 20% (₹30.16 crore). This reduction was achieved despite weak enforcement, highlighting that a dynamic anti-corruption strategy that increases the probability of being caught can significantly reduce corruption by decentralising accountability.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44166030

Challenges Corruption Implementation

Abstract

Caste

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (mgnrega) is Primarily Enacted to Provide hundred Days of Guaranteed Employment in a Year to Rural Households on Demand Basis and Creation of Durable Assets to Strengthen Rural Livelihood Resource Base. Studies Based on Empirical Evidences Indicate Mixed Outcome in Terms of Employment Generation and Durability and Usefulness of the Assets Created. the Act Stresses upon Identification, Planning, Execution and Monitoring of Projects in a Participatory Manner with a View to Deepening Democracy. Gram Panchayats (gps) are Assigned with the Responsibility of formulating the Works. the Present Study Attempts to Capture the Extent of Employment Generation and Creation of Durable Assets in the last few Years in West Bengal Known for its Early Decentralisation Initiatives in India. the Study is Based on Secondary Data at Disaggregated Level up to District Level in West Bengal. it Emerges that Gp, the Principal Implementing Agency has no Adequate Capacities which in Turn Leads to Creation of Low Value Assets without much Concern for Durability. This Approach Adversely Affects the Completion Rate of Projects Taken up Leading towards Reduced Usefulness of the Assets. it may be Said that Assets Created under the Scheme Fall Short of Getting the Status of Sustainable Assets.

https://nirdprojms.in/index.php/jrd/article/view/91605

Implementation Qualitative