Rural Transformation through Public Works Program: A Case of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Maharashtra, India (original) (raw)
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Guaranteeing Jobs for the Rural: an Assessment of India's MGNREGA Public Works Program
This study seeks to shed light on issues that have not been addressed thus far by previous evaluations. It assumes an effective implementation of a large employment programme in India --NREGA— and addresses the macroeconomic and distributional implications of the employment generation programme, including the indirect employment effects it has through its secondary effects on other sectors.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: Challenges and Opportunities
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2023
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee ACT (MGNREGA), 2005 has been implemented to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. And its implementation at the field level is known as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been a significant initiative for rural employment and poverty alleviation in India. This research paper evaluates the scheme's implementation and impact, using available data and research studies. The evaluation specifies that the MGNREGS has provided employment opportunities to millions of rural households, particularly women and marginalized communities. The scheme has also contributed to rural infrastructure development and poverty reduction. However, the scheme faces challenges such as inadequate funds, implementation issues, and corruption. The research paper highlights the need for reform to address these challenges and improve the scheme's implementation, transparency, and accountability. Overall, the paper concludes that the MGNREGS has played a crucial role in the development of rural areas in India and has been successful in improving the livelihoods of rural households.
Rural works programs in India: Costs and benefits
Journal of Development Economics, 1988
A sequential applied general equilibrium model of the Indian economy is used for analyzing the costs and benefits of a rural works program designed to provide employment during slack agricultural seasons through the creation of productive assets such as roads, irrigation works, schools etc. It is shown that such a program, if carried out efficiently, targeted elfectively and financed in a way that does not jeopardize long-term growth, can be a very effective instrument for alleviating rural poverty in India. *We thank two anonymous referees for their valuable comments.
Journal of Landscape System & Ecological Studies (vol.34, no.2)
This study has evaluated the differentiating impact of MGNREGA on the extent of fulfilment of the basic entitlements such as days of employment, wages and earnings and the extent of coverage of social groups like dalits, adivasis and women and poverty alleviation. This study has disaggregated state level data to discern the factors that make a difference to the performance. Also some micro level scenarios are presented based on the reports of focus group discussions (FGDs) in the villages of Andhra Pradesh. There is growing evidence of an increase in agricultural wages across the country over the period between 2006-07 and2011-12, in which the impact of MGNREGA is considerable. This review has also revealed a steep increase in female agriculture wage and a substantive decline in the male-female wage gap. The search for information on the impact of MGNREGA on agricultural labor markets leads to some evidence on labor shortage, changes in wages, mechanization, peak season adjustment of work or adoption of MGNREGA calendar and migration. The absolute decline in labor force has tightened the rural labor market leading to shortage of labor for farm operations. Thus labor scarcity has emerged as one of the major constraints to increase agricultural production in India. Furthermore, the tightened labor market has offered, better bargaining power to agricultural laborers, better treatment at the place of work, ability to negotiate the duration of the working day and has initiated a growing shift towards piece rate or contract work on agriculture facilitating change in the number of working days. Based on macro level results and micro level evidence some policy interventions are suggested-such as development of labor saving technologies and machines to mitigate labor scarcity, an inclusive farm mechanization program especially for women and youth, strengthening ruralurban connectivity, social protection for migrant labor and Capacity building programs for skill augmentation. Further, a revision of the time frame of MGNREGA work to create more employment in the lean season has been recommended.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) evoked wide interest as it was set to reduce rural poverty and provide much needed social security in rural areas. As recently as in 2009–10, India was home to 355 million people living in poverty out of whom 278 million or 78 percent were in rural areas. The argument to develop and implement strategies to reduce poverty by increasing productive employment opportunities in rural areas is compelling. This review article on the impact of MGNREGA on agriculture and rural labor markets is largely based on the official sources of data and other studies made on different aspects of the scheme. It is divided into five sections. This brief introduction is followed by the second section, which describes the salient features of the scheme. The third section provides a brief overview of implementation of MGNREGS in terms of employment, gender, and social inclusion some aspects of “decent work,” wages earned, and poverty reduction. The fourth section draws the available evidence on the impact of MGNREGA on rural labor markets with village level data. The last section brings together certain observations that are relevant for further research and policy measures.
Current Issues in the Economy and Finance of India, Springer Nature, 2018
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) can be construed as an opportunity for revitalising agriculture, restoration of ecosystems besides providing livelihood security to the poor and unemployed. The eight categories of works under MGNREGA largely address the key concerns of agriculture. MGNREGS aimed at enhancement of livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work and to create durable assets and thereby strengthen the natural resource base (NREGA, Operational Guidelines, 2008). MGNREGS, India’s main public works programme is unique, being large in size and intended to cover long periods, disburse huge funds and be dynamically responsive to climatic and rainfall conditions. The study has concluded that for both male and female workers in rural areas, the MGNREGS has made a difference in terms of increasing the wage rates for casual work. The real wages increased for both male and female workers and indeed more rapidly for female workers. They also argued that during 2004-05 and 2007-08 person days of employment of rural women in public works increased around 4.4 times, a remarkable shift in terms of involvement in paid work. This was possible because there is hardly any gender gap in the wages paid and secondly, average wages received in MGNREGS were significantly higher than those received by casual labour in other kinds of work. It was found that there is a reduction in the gender wage gap due to the MGNREGS. The impact is direct in terms of the higher wages paid to women in this scheme; indirect in terms of the effects on women workers’ reservation wages and bargaining power. Finally, it can be concluded that despite limitations, the scheme has positive effects on women workers in rural labour markets. It has caused real wages to rise, gender gaps to come down and open unemployment rates of women to decrease. Another important change that has been observed is that there is a tremendous improvement in micro irrigation through Kapildara wells and Medbandhan (field bunding) which has become a success in the state and resulted in changes in cropping pattern and established that the resources can be used in a sustainable manner. It was suggested to enhance public investment in irrigation, rejuvenation of dry land areas through soil and water conservation, revamping agricultural research and extension, developing market infrastructure including transport and cold storage etc. Further, to ensure the quality and permanent assets convergence of various programmes with concomitant funds, techniques, human resources and institutions is needed.
Impact of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India on Rural Poverty and Food Security
Current Agriculture Research Journal, 2013
A study based on regional and micro level household data was taken up to inquire in to the impacts of a national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) in India. Studies in four sample districts in predominantly rainfed areas, which benefited from the scheme for the last six years indicated that the scheme attempted to address the core issue of rural unemployment of unskilled labor in earth works related to natural resource management. Primarily the rural labor obtained seasonal employment, but the resource poor farmers also participated in the Scheme more so in states like Maharashtra. The study findings indicated that the seasonal migration of rural labor has come down significantly due to the opportunities of employment provided under the scheme. The share of NREGS employment was up to one-third of wage days in some of the study districts. Similarly the contributions of income to the family from the wages of participation in the scheme were in the range of 12 to 33 per cent ac...
Natural resources like Land, Water and Forest are source for the livelihood of poors in rural areas. Land is a source for all economic and development activities, about 167 million hectares of land (nearly 51 per cent of the total) in India is classified as degraded land, which needs appropriate management. Most of the agricultural land in the districts of Hyderabad Karnataka region has became unproductive due to the various reasons. Unfertile agricultural land became burden to the formers of marginalized communities. Most of the Dalit and Tribal families let their land (barren) unproductive, instead of taking a risk to cultivate it. After implementation of MGNREG Act majority of marginal farmers coming forward to cultivate their land with the help of MGNREG Act. The main focus of this article is to examine the impact of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act on rural development and land utilization in backward areas and the present study also tries to assess the working of MGNREG Act in two taluks namely Devadurga