This book offers an assessment of the performance, impact, and welfare implications of the world’s largest employment guarantee programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Launched by the Indian government, the programme covers entire rural area of the country. The book presents various micro-level analyses of the programme and its heterogeneous impacts at different scales, almost a decade after its implementation. While there are some doubts over the future of the scheme as well as its magnitude, nature and content, the central government appears committed to it, as a ‘convergence scheme’ of various other welfare and rural development programmes being implemented at both national and state level. The book discusses the outcomes of the programme and offers critical insights into the lessons learnt, not only in the context of India, but also for similar schemes in countries in South and South-East Asia as well as in Africa, and Latin America. Adopting inter-disciplinary perspectives in analysing these issues, this unique book uses a judicious mix of methods---integrating quantitative and qualitative tools---and will be an invaluable resource for analysts, NGOs, policymakers and academics alike.

Academic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - Topic: Development Politics, , language: English, abstract: This paper investigates how the employment generating scheme MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) is different from other employment generating scheme and finds how MGNREGA is supporting economic development by creating community/productive assets at the level of villages. Since 2000, India has experienced rapid economic growth and a sharp decline in poverty. But employment has grown more slowly. Government intervened in the economy through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which provides employment to unskilled workers in rural areas besides creating community/productive assets at the level of village such as wells, tanks, ponds, roads etc. This programme is designed to provide income protection against poverty in rural area. The choice of works under MGNREGA seeks to address the causes of chronic poverty such as drought, deforestation and soil erosion. MGNREGA is different from other employment and poverty alleviation programme in the sense that it is a legal framework and right to work based programme. This is a paradigm shift from its earlier programmes for it is a bottom-up, demand driven structure with built-in social audits.

This book examines the inclusive development experiences and impacts of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). It discusses the theoretical assumptions underlying the inclusive development of Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS), and draws conclusions based on robust data and real-world experiences with the MGNREGS – which has attracted global attention as India’s most ambitious, rights-based development initiative and most expansive work-based social security measure, the world’s largest public works programme, and people-centric approach to development. The book argues that the Scheme holds vast potential, and, in fact, has made significant contribution to the promotion of livelihoods of the poorest of the poor, but that the weak institutions of local-self-governance, entrusted for implementation of the Scheme, are incapable of exploiting them to the full. It ends with a concrete policy suggestion: the inclusive development experiences gathered with the EGS and presented here could offer a source of policy change in many developing Afro-Asian countries whose situations are similar to India’s, provided the local conditions in the respective country are taken into consideration when designing the EGS. Its significance as a social security measure has increased in post-COVID loss of jobs and livelihoods of the poor.

In order to reduce the level of poverty by providing job opportunities to the rural poor, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) was introduced in 2005 under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), 2005. On 2nd October 2009, NREGA has been renamed as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA). The MGNREGA provides 100 days of guaranteed employment opportunity in a financial year to any rural household whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wages prescribed by the government. It is an important step towards the realisation of the Right to Work. It is also expected to enhance people’s livelihoods on a sustainable basis by developing the economic and social infrastructure in rural areas. A social audit is a process by which the people, the final beneficiares of any scheme, programme, policy or law, are empowered to audit such scheme, programme, policy and law. A social audit is an ongoing process by which the potential beneficiaries and other stakeholders of an activity or project are involved from the planning to the monitoring and evaluation of that activity or project. It thereby tries to ensure that the activity or project is designed and implemented in a manner that is most suited for the prevailing local conditions, appropriately reflects the priorities and preferences of those affected by it, and most effectively serves the public interest.

Contributed papers presented at a workshop held in September 2001 in New Delhi.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was enacted in India with the multiple objectives of providing employment in a rights-based framework, addressing rural poverty, checking migration, and building rural infrastructure. As such, every year around 15–20 per cent of households in India overall and 30 per cent in rural India receive some form of employment share under the MGNREGA programme. This volume looks at various aspect of the scheme, its linkage with employment, agricultural wages, livelihood and food security, gender issues, and migration in rural India. It also discusses challenges in implementation, hurdles and the relative successes of the scheme. Based on primary survey data from 16 major states in the country, the findings of the study provide key insights into MGNREGA and assess the implications for other welfare-oriented programmes. Rich in empirical data, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political economy, economics, agriculture, rural development and sociology, as well as policymakers and nongovernmental organisations.