MGNREGA Bibliography

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

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme a large social security programme being implemented in India, with an average annual investment of US$ 7 billion. The bulk of the activities under this programme are focused on natural resources such as land, water and trees, which provide adaptation benefits. In this study an attempt is made to estimate the carbon sequestration achieved and future potential, as a co-benefit, from MGNREGS. The total mean carbon sequestered at the national level, considering the cumulative number of natural resource based activities, for the year 2017–18 was estimated to be 102 MtCO2. The annual mean carbon sequestration is projected to increase to about 132 MtCO2 by 2020 and 249 MtCO2 by 2030. Drought proofing is one of the activities implemented under MGNREGS and it includes tree planting, relevant to achieving the NDC carbon sink target. The cumulative carbon sink created by drought proofing activities is projected to be 56 MtCO2 in 2020, 281 MtCO2 in 2025 and 561 MtCO2 in 2030. This study demonstrates the significant carbon sink potential of MGNREGS and highlights the importance of estimation and reporting climate mitigation co-benefits of adaptation actions such as MGNREGS under the Paris Agreement.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0251...

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The Government of India introduced the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to provide employment to unskilled labourers, especially those in dire circumstances. MGNREGA is one of the best among the successful social welfare programmes in India. For the study, a total of 30 beneficiaries belonging to one Gram Panchayat, who actively participated in the labour work under MGNREGA during a three-year period from 2014-15,2015-16 and 2016-17, were identified. In addition, 10 MGNREGA job card holders, who either participated for less than 10 days or never participated during the study period, were identified to assess the impact of their non-participation. The study selected a total of 21 GPs. Hence, the total sample size was 840. Majority of the actively participating households owned less than three acres of land, and the remaining were landless. In the case of inactive participation households, a majority possessed more than three acres. Among the activities, the MGNREGA wage income occupied third place whereas the agriculture sector contributed enormously for the inactive households. The average MGNREGA wage income was higher in SC households than other social groups.

https://doi.org/10.25175/jrd/2021/v40/i5/170696

Quantitative Wages

Abstract

Diving into an original and unusually positive case study from India, Patching Development shows how development programs can be designed to work. How can development programs deliver benefits to marginalized citizens in ways that expand their rights and freedoms? Political will and good policy design are critical but often insufficient due to resistance from entrenched local power systems. In Patching Development, Rajesh Veeraraghavan presents an ethnography of one of the largest development programs in the world, the Indian National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and examines NREGA’s implementation in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. He finds that the local system of power is extremely difficult to transform, not because of inertia, but because of coercive counter strategy from actors at the last mile and their ability to exploit information asymmetries. Upper-level NREGA bureaucrats in Andhra Pradesh do not possess the capacity to change the power axis through direct confrontation with local elites, but instead have relied on a continuous series of responses that react to local implementation and information, a process of patching development. “Patching development” is a top-down, fine-grained, iterative socio-technical process that makes local information about implementation visible through technology and enlists participation from marginalized citizens through social audits. These processes are neither neat nor orderly and have led to a contentious sphere where the exercise of power over documents, institutions and technology is intricate, fluid and highly situated. A highly original account with global significance, this book casts new light on the challenges and benefits of using information and technology in novel ways to implement development programs.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/patching-development-978019756...

Caste Implementation Politics

Abstract

Poverty and unemployment remain the main issue in India. These issues are mostly found in rural areas. The Government of India has been formulating various programs for rural growth and poverty eradication. One such programmed is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a successful program in promoting gender equality, empowering women, and creating long-lasting infrastructure in rural areas providing employment. The study was conducted in the Kaithal district of Haryana covering a sample of 100 beneficiaries. The collected data has been analyzed using simple frequency and percentage analysis, descriptive analysis, and correlation analysis. The results have revealed that the program was successful in empowering the women of the district.

https://doi.org/10.54099/ijibmr.v1i1.41

Gender Poverty Quantitative

Abstract

The role of public works and public employment programmes to contribute to the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, as well as transformational changes impacting the world continue to evolve and be debated. This webinar aimed to contribute to this discussion by presenting relevant and current research, and case studies of such programmes from around the globe. The webinar was an opportunity to learn about and discuss five key themes related to these programmes and how they can contribute to the ILO’s goal of Decent Work for all. During Session 4, the impact of India’s National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (NREGS) was discussed.

https://www.ilo.org/meetings-and-events/public-works-and-public-employ...

Implementation Poverty

Abstract

This paper explores the aggregate economic effects from India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which provides up to 100 days of labor to rural laborers at the mandated minimum wage. We examine the within-district change to nighttime lights, a proxy for economic development, and banking deposits using the staggered program rollout for identification. We find consistent and robust evidence that NREGS increased aggregate economic output by 1% to 2% per capita measured by nighttime lights. This effect, however, is not equal across districts. We observe no positive effect of the program in poorer districts, illuminating an important source of heterogeneity.

https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/104/4/797/97717/Aggregate...

Poverty Wages

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of the number of days worked by households under India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) on expenditure patterns, food security, and individual time use. I use plausible exogenous variation in administrative bottlenecks regarding the timing of work provision as an instrument for the number of days worked. The paper finds that a greater number of days worked increases household food expenditure and especially spending on dairy, proteins, and vegetables that are likely to raise children’s nutritional status. Household food security is also found to improve. These effects seem to be because of the greater participation of women relative to men in the program. Greater adult participation in NREGA raises the time spent in school for younger girls. Importantly, women’s engagement in domestic chores as their major activity is found to fall. However, older boys are found to substitute for adults in agricultural work. Although girls are unlikely to substitute for adults in performing domestic tasks due to greater adult participation in NREGA, the increased engagement of boys in agricultural work is a plausible unintended consequence of the program.

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/702789?journalCode=...

Gender Quantitative

Abstract

In India, politicians facing criminal charges are routinely elected at higher rates. In this dissertation, I investigate three primary questions to better understand criminal politicians’ electoral success and performance in office: 1) Do criminal politicians deliver superior access to social welfare programs relative to clean politicians? 2) Do criminal politicians target benefits to co-partisans at higher rates than clean politicians? 3) Do voters reward criminal politicians for delivering more constituency service than clean politicians? On the one hand, powerful dons may be less responsive to voters’ needs, banking on clout to keep voters in line. On the other hand, previous literature and my fieldwork suggest a more Machiavellian strategy, where criminal politicians use both violence and deep pockets to distribute resources to voters.

I present two key arguments to explain criminal politicians’ distributive advantages. First, I contend that criminal politicians core assets of money, muscle and networks make them particularly suited to both deliver more state benefits and target co-partisans. Second, I identify a trade-off that candidates face between accruing enough capital to fund campaigns and remaining rooted in the constituency to provide personalized service to voters. I argue that criminals’ muscle-power allows them to sidestep this trade-off and optimize on both dimensions. Muscle enables criminals to establish lucrative protection rackets in their home constituencies. In effect, protection rackets turn muscle into money. To protect this money, criminals invest in networks for delivering resources to voters. Constituent service networks help criminal politicians maintain political power, which proves useful for protecting their illegal enterprises.

To measure criminal politicians’ in-office performance, I focus on how India’s state legislators influence the delivery of the world’s largest public works program, India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). Specifically, to determine if criminal politicians translate their assets of money, muscle and networks into superior social welfare delivery, I construct and combine three original datasets. First, to measure criminality, I scraped self-disclosed affidavits listing 87,000 candidates’ criminal charges. The dataset details the criminal histories, wealth, and electoral results of all state legislative candidates in India between 2003 and 2017 (N = 87,000). To measure criminal politicians’ benefit distribution, I combine the candidate dataset with original data on the geo-locations of over 20 million NREGS local public works projects. Finally, to determine if criminal politicians are more likely to target resources to co-partisans, I map the geotagged NREGS projects to over 400,000 polling stations. Methodologically, I use causal inference and machine learning techniques to analyze this data and strengthen the validity of my estimates.

Overall, I find that criminal politicians deliver more NREGS benefits in safe seats, though not necessarily in competitive constituencies. Second, I find suggestive evidence that criminal politicians target welfare benefits to co-partisans at higher rates relative to clean politicians. By remaining embedded in the constituency, I argue that criminals are better positioned to identify, and then meet, supporters needs. Finally, and perhaps unsurprisingly, I find criminals’ core advantage derives from their capacity for violence. Both qualitative and quantitative evidence speak to criminal muscle as a necessary input for improved constituency service and benefit delivery. Empirically, I find that criminals with violent charges are associated with increased NREGS delivery. Whereas, non-violent criminals are not.

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8911504b

Challenges Corruption Qualitative Quantitative

Abstract

Can e-governance reforms improve government policy? By making information available on a real-time basis, information technologies may reduce the theft of public funds. We analyze a large field experiment and the nationwide scale-up of a reform to India’s workfare program. Advance payments were replaced by “just-in-time” payments, triggered by e-invoicing, making it easier to detect misreporting. Leakages went down: program expenditures dropped by 24 percent, while employment slightly increased; there were fewer fake households in the official database; and program officials’ personal wealth fell by 10 percent. However, payment delays increased. The nationwide scale-up resulted in a persistent 19 percent reduction in program expenditure.

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20180302

Challenges Corruption Implementation

Abstract

Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economies rendering millions without employment. A number of countries have turned to labour market interventions to protect workers. India leverages on a workfare programme, the MGNREGA, to provide a fallback option for workers in rural areas. Established long before the pandemic and designed to be demand-driven and self-targeting, we examine its expansion in 2020 as a COVID-19 response. We combine monthly administrative data with district-level data on migration and multidimensional poverty. We test whether the additional person-days in public works employment generated are distributed across districts in ways that are commensurate with their population shares of out-migration and poverty. This yields four major findings. First, poorer districts appear to have extended the programme to include more households, i.e expanded on the extensive margin. Second though, this does not seem to hold for districts with a high proportion of all out-migrants in the country. While these districts account for 72.2 of all out-migrants, they account for only 54.8 of the person-days generated. Third, in these districts, unmet demand for work is higher than elsewhere. Given widespread administrative rationing, of 22.7 in the period May-August 2020, the increase in person-days has been as much on the intensive margin as it has been on the extensive margin. Fourth, the person-days generated per rural household suggest that the expansion is far from adequate in serving the large number of households likely pushed into economic distress in specific districts. Between May and August 2020, the employment guarantee provided 31 days per working household, yet this is equivalent to just 13.5 days per rural household. Districts that are poor or account for a higher out-migration share are not differentially ramping up the programme; instead implementation patterns are consistent with past records of person-days generated or rationing rates. Notwithstanding the impressive expansion of the workfare programme, it needs continued funding and attention to fulfill its promise as a credible safety net, especially in districts that need it most.

https://ideas.repec.org/p/ind/igiwpp/2020-034.html

Implementation Poverty Quantitative

Abstract

Villagers in Tiruppur district in Tamil Nadu, India’s largest knitwear manufacturing and export hub, face different levels of hardship due to the lockdown in the wake of COVID-19. This article details the coping strategies of garment, power loom, and agricultural workers in two villages—Allapuram and Mannapalayam.

https://www.epw.in/engage/article/fifty-days-lockdown-india-view-two-v...

Gender Poverty Wages

Abstract

Using establishment-level data, we examine the impact of the Indian government’s employment guarantee program on labor and firm behavior. We exploit the staggered implementation of the program for identification and find that the program led to a 10% reduction in the permanent workforce in firms. Firms responded to the adverse labor-supply shock by resorting to increased mechanization. This significantly increased the firms’ cost of production, leading to a decline in net profits and productivity. These effects manifested primarily in firms paying low wages, firms having low labor productivity and greater sales volatility, and firms located in states with pro-employer labor regulations.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-financial-and-quant...

Implementation Quantitative Wages

Abstract

To generate livelihood opportunities for the millions of migrant workers who returned to their villages during the COVID-19-induced lockdown and stem distress migration in the future, the government will need to strengthen its rural jobs scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS), say experts. This will mean more funds for the scheme, doubling of the work days guaranteed under it and inclusion of new categories of work, our analysis shows.

https://www.indiaspend.com/how-rural-jobs-scheme-can-be-improved-to-he...

Implementation Qualitative

Abstract

This study attempts to quantify the impact of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act programme on the level and pattern of consumption expenditure of rural households at the national level using a difference-in-differences method. The findings indicate an increase in the monthly per capita consumption expenditure of participant households and a change in their consumption patterns with the share of high-value and nutrient-rich food in their consumption basket going up. Further the participant households have also smoothened their consumption by investing in assets such as durable goods.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/39/notes/impact-mgnrega-consumption-ex...

Budget Quantitative

Abstract

This study attempts to quantify the impact of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act programme on the level and pattern of consumption expenditure of rural households at the national level using a difference-in-differences method. The findings indicate an increase in the monthly per capita consumption expenditure of participant households and a change in their consumption patterns with the share of high-value and nutrient-rich food in their consumption basket going up. Further the participant households have also smoothened their consumption by investing in assets such as durable goods.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/39/notes/impact-mgnrega-consumption-ex...

Quantitative

Abstract

Evidence on the implementation of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act suggests that the available work is often rationed by local leaders in poor areas, and that this is an important factor limiting the scheme’s impact on poverty. The paper offers explanations for this empirical finding, with likely relevance to other decentralized, rights-based programs. It is shown that rationing of work opportunities can arise under decentralized implementation in poor places even when the center wants to honor the employment guarantee. Two main drivers of such rationing are identified: local administrative costs and local corruption. Administrative reforms by the center can have perverse effects. Policy implications are drawn for how to better assure that the stipulated rights are attained in practice.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3359487

Corruption Implementation Poverty

Abstract

Self-targeting features of a universal job guarantee make it a long-term policy option to protect informal workers in urban India.

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/104542

Urban

Abstract

This report focuses on the last mile challenges faced by Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) workers in accessing their wages after the wages have been credited to the workers’ bank or postal accounts. It is based on a survey of 1947 workers conducted in the first half of the financial year 2018-19 in one block each of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Rajasthan (RJ) and two blocks of Jharkhand (JH). The report addresses workers’ awareness about some banking norms, access to information, hardships in accessing wages, transparency and accountability of disbursement agencies, issues concerning payments that get rejected and the workers’ experience of using grievance redressal systems. It offers a set of recommendations for improvement.

https://digitalwages.org/insights/length-of-the-last-mile-delays-and-h...

Challenges Wages

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is a flagship scheme of the Government of India (GoI) which aims to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year (FY) to every rural household that demands work. Using government reported data, this brief reports on: 1) Trends in allocations and expenditures; 2) Trends in employment provided and wages paid; 3) Physical assets created and status of work completion.

https://accountabilityindia.in/publication/mahatma-gandhi-national-rur...

Budget Quantitative Wages

Abstract

To run a job guarantee public policy scheme, it is important to know the aspiration level or the reference point of labor, and accordingly, the labor hour and the wage sequence are to be prepared. The existing job guarantee schemes consider the same wage rates for all types of jobs. As a result, it is to identify the reference point. The present work aims to propose a job guarantee scheme where different types of jobs have different wage rates. The paper explains the choice problem between labor and leisure at different wage rates and proposes complete computational tools to be incorporated into the job guarantee schemes. The paper also gives a mechanism to prepare the list of jobs and corresponding wage rates by maintaining a balance between labor and leisure, where productive activities measure labor hours and labor welfare measures leisure hours. Lastly, the paper provides the analytical tools to interpret the ex-post data of the job guarantee public policy schemes. Design/methodology/approach: The paper has been written based on the Coordination Game and its Welfare Implications in the job guarantee public policy schemes. Findings The present paper gives an initial work to measure the choice between labor and leisure for the different wage rates practically. This will help in getting the equilibrium strategies, namely, the combination of the labor hour and the wage rate between the policymaker and the labor. This method will help to implement the job guarantee schemes. For example, to run successfully the Basic Income policy, the basic income calculation should give due care; otherwise, there will be a downward trend in the basic income and the welfare of labor will be reduced, because the labor would have to supply excess labor to meet the target income.This paper derives theories and explains how the equilibrium in this coordination game can be achieved. The paper explains how the policy of the job guarantee schemes can be practiced practically. In the MGNREGA scheme, the public institution declares different categories of jobs with different wage rates. The categories have been classified with respect to the hours required to complete the job. Therefore, the public institution declares different lists or a sequence of pairs of labor hours and wage rates. Moreover, the list is stochastic, because the list can be changed by the inclusion of an offer from the market as well. The labor has to select from the list. The challenge on the part of the public institution is to prepare the list in such a way so that the inclusion of the market offers will not distort the equilibrium of the coordination game. An important method has been proposed here to analyze the ex-post data of job offers so that the preparation of the future sequence of the job offers can be prepared with due care. One objective of the policymaker here is to make a list of job offers in such a way so that the labor supply will be converging to a point and that will not deviate if the wage rate increases further. This objective will make a balance of the distribution of funds between the existing registered labor and the new entrants into the job guarantee schemes.

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3737285

Quantitative Wages