MGNREGA Bibliography

Abstract

Given the reverses the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) suffered in 2014–15, it seemed likely that the programme may be shut down. However, following vehement protests both within and outside Parliament, the Government of India decided to finally throw its full weight behind the programme. Nevertheless, should not development economists address the critiques against the programme and assess whether it is really worth spending such large sums of money on it every year? This paper responds to the various facets of the critique against MGNREGA. In the very nature of our response to the critique lies a vision for the programme going ahead. Our response can be sustained only on the basis of that vision. The paper provides a detailed explanation of why we reject the fundamental critiques of MGNREGA. At the same time, we accept many of the internal critiques as extremely important. The MGNREGA may be described as “both a major success and a huge failure”. But it would be wrong, therefore, to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Rather, the key is to learn from the successes of MGNREGA through a careful analysis of the conditions that have made these successes possible. The paper ends with an outline of the unfinished agenda for MGNREGA reform, without which its true potential will continue to remain unfulfilled.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41027-016-0044-1

Budget Challenges

Abstract

Behind India’s high recent growth rates lies a story of societal conflict that is scarcely talked about. Across production sites, state institutions and civil society organisations, the dominant and less well-off sections of society are engaged in a protracted conflict that determines the material conditions of one quarter of the world’s ‘poor’. Drawing on more than a decades worth of field work in rural South India, the book uses a ‘class-relational’ approach that focuses on ‘the poor’s’ iniquitous relations with others. It explores continuity and change in three related arenas: the worksites of India’s rural labouring class, social policy and local state institutions, and organisations of ‘the poor’. Although the book shows that the dominant tend to maintain and advance their position, it also argues that a combination of state welfare programmes and organisations of the labouring class have some potential for redistributing power and resources in favour of ‘the poor’, and opening up the possibility of more broad-based change.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1b349ps.12

Poverty

Abstract

Although the MGNREGS seems to be reaching many more rural households than before, urban opinion on the programme is sharply divided, both in the mainstream and social media. Even the Narendra Modi government seems divided on the programme, with the ministry of rural development declaring that the 10th anniversary of the programme was a matter of “national pride” barely a year after Modi had derided the programme as a ditch-digging exercise on the floor of Parliament. Academic opinion on the MGNREGS, however, appears far more favourable than is evident from the public discourse on the issue. A growing body of research on the MGNREGS suggests that it has helped dent poverty, reduced distress migration and raised the bargaining power of rural labourers, especially among lower castes and women, the biggest beneficiaries of the programme.

https://www.livemint.com/Sundayapp/ueWD2KvNelmsOGEupZND6K/The-economic...

Caste Gender Urban

Abstract

A decade after coming into force, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is suffering from a decline in employment, budget caps, delays in wage payments and rampant violations of workers’ entitlements. An examination of the case of Jharkhand points to reasons for this crisis, including the absence of a strong grievance redressai system, weak financial institutions, acute shortage of functionaries and indiscriminate use of technology. However, some initiatives taken by the state government and civil society in the recent past open up new possibilities for improving the programme.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44004323

Budget Wages

Abstract

Based on original comparative research and extensive fieldwork, it highlights challenges that women across Asia face in gaining access to more and better jobs. Findings show that women across the continent have contributed significantly to its spectacular growth story.

Nonetheless, social norms and economic factors limit their levels of participation. This publication provides policy options for governments to promote decent work opportunities for women across social strata.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Transformation_of_Women_at_Work_i...

Gender Implementation Poverty

Abstract

More than 1,00,000 wells were sanctioned for construction under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Jharkhand during the last few years. This study evaluates the outcome of this well-construction drive through a survey of nearly 1,000 wells in 24 randomly selected gram panchayats. A majority of sanctioned wells (60% with parapet and 70% without) were completed at the time of the survey. Nearly 95% of completed wells are being utilised for irrigation, leading to a near tripling of agricultural income of those in the command area. The real rate of return from these wells in Jharkhand is estimated to be close to 6%, a respectable figure for any economic investment. However, well construction involves some out-of-pocket expenses and this investment is risky: nearly 12% of the wells were abandoned midway.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44003475

Implementation Qualitative

Abstract

In a year when drought has ravaged the mainland, the islands offer vital lessons on how to use the jobs scheme to create sustainable livelihoods.

https://amp.scroll.in/article/806232/what-andamans-can-teach-the-rest-...

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The eleventh five year plan marks a significant departure from the conventional way of looking at women in plan document. It tries to mark the centrality of women in all sectors. It explicitly recognizes, probably for the first time, that women are not just equal citizens but agents of economic and social growth. According to UN Women (2013) The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in India and the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in South Africa are examples of important safety nets for women. The study tries to evaluate the impact of MGNREGA on socio-economic empowerment of women in Sedam taluka Kalaburagi district, Karnataka.

https://www.worldwidejournals.com/paripex/article/women-empowerment-th...

Gender

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of India is most progressive legislation enacted by parliament. This is the flagship program introduced by United Progressive Alliance Government and implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development with primary objective of providing livelihood security to rural poor of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families by providing them at least 100 days guaranteed unskilled manual work in a year. The Act has become the fact of life of rural poor and with the stipulation that 33 percent of the total work will be given to the women it provides the means to raise the socioeconomic status of the rural women from BPL families. In this paper by conducting a survey of rural areas of district Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh) and by the in-depth interview of women beneficiaries it is tried to find out that up to what extent MGNREGA is helpful for women empowerment by raising their standard of living through the provision of 100 days guaranteed employment. The paper also highlights the factors influencing the participation of women in the scheme and needs for assessment of institutional and governance system related to the implementation of the scheme particularly the ways through which employment opportunities are offered to women.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/%E2%80%9CMahatma-Gandhi-National...

Gender Implementation Politics Poverty

Abstract

https://www.academia.edu/26556118/ALLS_WELL_THAT_ENDS_IN_A_WELL_AN_ECO...

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

In an efort to tackle drought and increase access to irrigation in rural areas, the Government of Jharkhand decided to focus resources accruing from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) for the construction of irrigation wells on private lands. In 2010, it ordered the construction of 50 irrigation wells in each Panchayat under NREGA. By November 2013, nearly 1,15,000 wells were sanctioned for construction. According to gov- ernment data, 80 per cent of these wells have so far been completed and work is ongoing on another 15 per cent.

This study atempts to verify the truth in these claims. Physical visits to 926 NREGA wells across six randomly selected districts in Jharkhand re- vealed that nearly 60 per cent of the sanctioned NREGA wells were actually complete. The completion rate rose to 70 per cent if the wells complete till the ground level (that is, without a parapet) were included. This is similar to the rate of completion obtained by using data from the NREGA MIS, ac- cording to which nearly 66 per cent of the sanctioned wells in the sample panchayats were complete. Thus, the completion rates obtained through the NREGA MIS can be said to be fairly accurate.

This study also atempts to compare the actual status of the wells with the ‘oicial’ status of the wells as mentioned on the oicial NREGA web- site (www.nrega.nic.in). Nearly 75 per cent of the ‘oicially’ complete wells were found to be actually complete, with the igure rising to 83 per cent if the wells complete till the ground level (without parapet) were consid- ered to be complete. Therefore, most wells mentioned as ‘completed’ on the NREGA MIS were actually found to be completed. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of wells categorised as ‘ongoing’ or as ‘suspended’. We found that only around one-third of the wells categorised as ‘ongoing’ can actually be said to be ‘ongoing’.

https://www.academia.edu/26556118/ALLS_WELL_THAT_ENDS_IN_A_WELL_AN_ECO...

Quantitative

Abstract

In India, a lack of accountability is considered the key reason for the failure of most development programs. Most poverty alleviation programs are riddled with inefficiency, absenteeism, incompetence, and corruption. This has resulted in poor service delivery, and to ordinary citizens losing trust. This paper examines whether Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is accountable to ordinary citizens, and civil society’s role in making the Act viable. This study draws upon empirical evidence from two states of India – Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Uttar Pradesh (UP). The findings suggest that this Act has been implemented relatively well in AP, despite the state’s dismal performance in the implementation of most welfare programs. The political class in AP has taken a keen interest in the Act, rather than in using it to amass wealth for their political activities. Social audits have been institutionalized with the help of civil society organisations, providing a platform to the beneficiaries to voice their concerns and negotiate their entitlements with the state machinery. But implementation has lagged in a politically vibrant state like UP where local leadership, is accountable neither to citizens nor to elected representatives, misappropriating resources from developmental funds and nurturing factional politics. This has resulted in poor participation in rural institutions and loss in faith on the part of citizens.

https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/108736

Implementation Politics

Abstract

Barefoot Technical Training Modules were designed to equip Barefoot Technicians (BFTs) working under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) with the skills to improve the quality and effectiveness of rural infrastructure projects. The ten modules cover essential civil engineering topics, including measurement of works, construction techniques, estimation, watershed concepts, permissible works, and key features of the MGNREGS program.

https://researchrepository.ilo.org/esploro/outputs/textbook/MGNREGS---...

Implementation

Abstract

The literature on India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has tended to focus on institutional and technical issues more than on the social relations of production. This paper argues for a class-relational approach to NREGS and, by extension, to social policy more generally. By locating NREGS in a broader context of antagonistic class relations, it becomes clearer why, where, when and how it either contributes to pro-labouring-class change or to reproducing the position of the dominant class. This is particularly important in the South Indian state of Karnataka, where (i) national sample survey data indicates that NREGS has performed relatively badly and (ii) the recent rate of decline of poverty has been amongst the slowest in the country. Based on longitudinal fieldwork in villages in two North Karnataka districts, this paper’s class-relational approach explains significant differences in NREGS outcomes across time and place – primarily with regard to intra- and inter-class relations, which are interlinked with caste and gender relations. In one fieldwork district, high levels of implementation have declined due to increased (but uneven) dominant class control over the scheme. In the other, initial subversion of the scheme has been partially challenged by collective labouring-class action.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joac.12127

Caste Gender Implementation Poverty

Abstract

In this paper, I direct attention to the role of class politics in shaping the outcomes of social protection interventions. I highlight the ways in which class politics is constituted by the interaction of class relations and the balance of substantive class power in a polity. I demonstrate the ways in which variations in class politics influence outcomes of a large social protection programme in India, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In localities where either of the elite classes has successfully co-opted or eliminated the other, their stark contradictions against the interests of agricultural labourers result in them sabotaging the labour-friendly MGNREGA or implementing it half-heartedly. On the other hand, in localities characterised by an overarching framework of contest between the precarious classes and the entrenched classes, dominant class hostility to agricultural labourers is dissipated and labour-friendly programmes such as the MGNREGA have a chance of being implemented. However, the transformative aspect of the programme’s intent, in terms of dissolving the relations of power that bolster poverty, appears to be more in evidence in localities where emergent classes with precarious surpluses, together with agricultural labourers, challenge the influence of the entrenched classes. In these localities, the implementation of the programme, even where fraught with difficulties, contributes to dissolving hierarchical relations and establishing egalitarian ones.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2597964

Caste Implementation Politics

Abstract

In this paper, I direct attention to the role of class politics in shaping the outcomes of social protection interventions. I highlight the ways in which class politics is constituted by the interaction of class relations and the balance of substantive class power in a polity. I demonstrate the ways in which variations in class politics influence outcomes of a large social protection programme in India, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In localities where either of the elite classes has successfully co-opted or eliminated the other, their stark contradictions against the interests of agricultural labourers result in them sabotaging the labour-friendly MGNREGA or implementing it half-heartedly. On the other hand, in localities characterised by an overarching framework of contest between the precarious classes and the entrenched classes, dominant class hostility to agricultural labourers is dissipated and labour-friendly programmes such as the MGNREGA have a chance of being implemented. However, the transformative aspect of the programme’s intent, in terms of dissolving the relations of power that bolster poverty, appears to be more in evidence in localities where emergent classes with precarious surpluses, together with agricultural labourers, challenge the influence of the entrenched classes. In these localities, the implementation of the programme, even where fraught with difficulties, contributes to dissolving hierarchical relations and establishing egalitarian ones.

https://ideas.repec.org/p/bwp/bwppap/esid-046-15.html

Implementation Qualitative

Abstract

The present paper is an attempt to analyze the status of women empowerment in Chhattisgarh through MGNREGA using various indicators like women’s household decision making power, financial autonomy, freedom of movement, political participation, exposure to media, access to education, experience of domestic violence etc based on data from different sources. The study reveals that women of India are relatively disempowered and they enjoy somewhat lower status than that of men in spite of many efforts undertaken by government. MGNREGA by adopting Inclusive participatory growth is playing a major role brining the women of the society into the productive zone. Rural women are more prone to domestic violence than that of urban women. A large gender gap exists in political participation too. The study concludes by an observation that MGNREGS has lead to women empowerment through active participation of women in MGNREGS works.

https://www.worldwidejournals.com/indian-journal-of-applied-research-(...

Gender Politics

Abstract

A method of measuring corruption in MGNREGS is to compare the aggregate levels of employment reported in official data (MPR or MIS) with independent measures based on household surveys (Bhalla 2011, Himanshu 2010, Imbert and Papp 2011). We follow this method here and compare MGNREGS employment in official reports to the estimated number of days spent by rural adults on any public works estimated based on NSS Survey data. The results, presented in Table 1, reveal that in 2007-08 only 51% of reported MGNREGS employment is independently confirmed by the survey data. This is despite the fact that our survey measure includes employment on any public works project. The gap between official and survey measures suggests large leakages of MGNREGS funds. Interestingly, this gap appears to narrow over time to 71% in 2009-10 and 80% in 2011-12. This is consistent with survey reports which indicate that corruption in MGNREGS decreased, due to improved monitoring and successive reforms in the payment of MGNREGS wages (Dreze 2014, Muralidharan, Niehaus and Sukhtankar 2014, Banerjee, et al. 2014).

https://riceinstitute.org/research/estimating-leakages-in-indias-emplo...

Corruption Quantitative Wages

Abstract

A method of measuring corruption in MGNREGS is to compare the aggregate levels of employment reported in official data (MPR or MIS) with independent measures based on household surveys (Bhalla 2011, Himanshu 2010, Imbert and Papp 2011). We follow this method here and compare MGNREGS employment in official reports to the estimated number of days spent by rural adults on any public works estimated based on NSS Survey data. The results, presented in Table 1, reveal that in 2007-08 only 51% of reported MGNREGS employment is independently confirmed by the survey data. This is despite the fact that our survey measure includes employment on any public works project. The gap between official and survey measures suggests large leakages of MGNREGS funds. Interestingly, this gap appears to narrow over time to 71% in 2009-10 and 80% in 2011-12. This is consistent with survey reports which indicate that corruption in MGNREGS decreased, due to improved monitoring and successive reforms in the payment of MGNREGS wages (Dreze 2014, Muralidharan, Niehaus and Sukhtankar 2014, Banerjee, et al. 2014).

https://www.jobguarantee.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Imbert-and-Pap...

Implementation Quantitative

Abstract

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) renamed as Mahatma Gandhi NationalRural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the most pragmatic approach to the problems of rural poverty and unemployment. In fact, the Scheme ensures the economic security of the rural poor by providing guaranteed wage employment. MGNREGA has positive impact on employment pattern of women. MGNREGA works are largely focused on land and water resources which include: water harvesting and conservation, soil conservation and protection, irrigation provisioning and improvement, renovation of traditional water bodies, land development and drought proofing. The study is an attempt to assessment the impact on implementation and effectiveness of the Act in district Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, during the financial year 2013-14.

http://ijmcr.com/impact-assessment-of-mgnrega-study-of-pauri-garhwal-d...

Environmental Sustainability Gender Implementation Poverty Wages

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of India is most progressive legislation enacted by parliament. This is the flagship program introduced by UPA government and implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development with primary objective of providing livelihood security to rural poor of BPL families by providing them at least 100 days guaranteed unskilled manual work in a year. The Act has become the fact of life of rural poor and with the stipulation that 33% of the total work will be given to the women it provides the means to raise the socioeconomic status of the rural women from BPL families. In this paper by conducting a survey of rural areas of district Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh) and by the in-depth interview of women beneficiaries it is tried to find out that up to what extent MGNREGA is helpful for women in raising their standard of living through the provision of 100 days guaranteed employment. The paper also highlights the factors influencing the participation of women in this scheme and assess the institutional and governance system related to the implementation of the scheme particularly the ways through which employment opportunities are offered to women. The results suggest that MGNREGA has positive impact on the quality of life of women in rural areas but there is also a need for immediate rectifications of some of the flaws observed during the survey to make MGNREGA more effective.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342878974_Impact_of_Mahatma_G...

Gender Implementation Poverty

Abstract

MGNREGA, introduced by the Government of India in 2005, is a revolutionary programme enacted by law which guarantees hundred days of employment in a year to each rural household who are willing to provide unskilled labour. The secondary objective of the programme is creating sustainable assets in rural India which in turn strengthen natural resource management and help address the issues of chronic poverty in the long run. The programme has created ample opportunity for wage employment among rural masses and set a number of examples in building quality, durable and sustainable asset base in rural India though there are many criticisms. A number of studies have been conducted to review the performance of the programme across periphery from different perspectives. This paper is an attempt to study the performance of the programme in terms of wage employment generation and asset creation. Secondary data available from the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India and other study reports have been used for the review. This paper has critically analyzed the progress of the programme nine years after introduction. Analysis of data reflects that the programme has created huge employment opportunities in rural India but has not been showing progressive trends from last couple of years. It has not been successful to include socially excluded families especially Scheduled Tribes significantly though participation of women is showing satisfactory trend. In terms of asset creation, where the plan has been prepared in a participatory manner, actual need of people has been captured and technical designs are taken into consideration, qualities of assets created proved to be durable and sustainable. The paper concludes with some suggestions for improvement for the both aspects.

https://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijmss&volume=3&is...

Wages

Abstract

As majority of women live below the poverty line and are engaged in subsistence struggle, macro-economic policies and poverty alleviation programmes are to address the pitiful problems of poor women. Steps are being taken for mobilization of poor women, convergence of wide range of economic and social options along with support services to enhance their capabilities. Women’s perspective is being included in designing and implementing macro-economic and social policies by institutionalizing their participation in the process. One such programme focusing on unskilled based wage-employment is Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) [1]. The Ministry of Rural Development, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA) aims at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has become a powerful instrument for inclusive growth in rural India through its impact on social protection, livelihood security and democratic governance. Mahatma Gandhi NREGA is the first ever law internationally that guarantees wage employment at an unprecedented scale.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285384496_Inclusion_of_Female...

Gender Implementation Poverty Wages

Abstract

National Rural Employment Grantee Act (NREGA) is one of the progressive and transformative legislation passed by Indian Parliament in the year of 2005 by UPA government for ensuring employment guarantee and livelihood security to each rural household. In year 2007 it is renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The fundamental goal of this right based policy initiative is to provide employment guarantee and promote infrastructural development in the villages for the well-being rural household, it has also been considered as an integrated approach for rural poverty eradication and sustainable development. Since, nine years MGNREGA is being implemented in all 623 districts of the country, but it has not shown the result which had been expected and even put forward in MGNREGA objectives. Most of the evaluation studies shown that the scheme is not working properly at ground level because of its poor implementation. There are many issues and challenges are coming up in its implementation. It is observed that very few states like Andhra Pardesh, Rajasthan, etc. where programme is being implemented in successive mode. Maharashtra state is mile stone in MGREGA, the origin Of EGS scheme is a backbone of this act. In 1974, the Maharashtra state government had started Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and it was put into operation for entire year. At present the previous employment guarantee scheme has merged into MGNREGA guideline issued by the central government. Though the state has reach experience of EGS implementation, but the present merged MGNREGA programme is not working properly at ground level. There are many issues are coming up in its implementation process which are caused by different factors such as demand of work, identification of work site and planning, complicated administrative structure with less competent staff, delay in payment, lack of human resources. The author has made an attempt to analyze these factors based on case study of two villages, named Kashod Shivpur and Bhilkhed in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. FGD and interview schedule was used for data collection. This paper also trying to highlights if the act has implemented with spirit and commitment how it can help to regenerate the village resources to achieve the prime goals of sustainable development.

http://www.publishingindia.com/ijsd/88/issues-and-challenges-in-implem...

Challenges Implementation Poverty

Abstract

We estimate the effect of a large rural workfare program in India on private employment and wages by comparing trends in districts that received the program earlier relative to those that received it later. Our results suggest that public sector hiring crowded out private sector work and increased private sector wages. We compute the implied welfare gains of the program by consumption quintile. Our calculations show that the welfare gains to the poor from the equilibrium increase in private sector wages are large in absolute terms and large relative to the gains received solely by program participants. (JEL I38, J31, J45, J68, O15)

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20130401

Implementation Poverty Quantitative Wages

Abstract

India has initiated massive economic development and safety net pro- grammes over the past two decades. It has, for example, moved from universal food subsidies to targeted food subsi- dies and back again to a near-universal programme. Some programmes have been able to target beneficiaries more easily, for example conditional cash transfers for hospital delivery. And oth- ers have been ambitious in their design, scale and reach, as for example the rural safety net provided by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a nation- wide rural public works programme that costs India about 1 percent of GDP and works on the principle of self-selection (workers have access to 100 days of public employment a year when they choose).

when such programmes are initi- ated, there is often tremendous politi- cal pressure for a quick rollout, and only over time is the need for evaluations felt. But by then evaluations can be dif- ficult since for comparison purposes the data collection for evaluation should ideally start before the programme starts. In such situations, household surveys can tell us how beneficiaries have responded and whether the pro- gramme has had its intended effect.

Household surveys by the National Council of Applied Economic Re- search have been filling this need since NCAER’s inception in 1956. The India Human Development Survey (IHDS), the basis for this report on MGNREGA, is particularly useful because it is a panel survey, periodically interviewing the same households. Conducted in 2004– 05 and 2011–12 (with earlier partial data available for 1993–94), the IHDS is a col- laboration between the National Coun- cil of Applied Economic Research and the University of Maryland. The data are released to the scientific community through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Science Research (www.icpsr.umich.edu).

https://www.ncaer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Complete-report.pdf

Quantitative

Abstract

Climate change adaptation has become increasingly recognized as a development policy imperative for the twenty-first century. Still, actionable policy that meets ambitious goals of equitable, efficient and efficacious action has fallen woefully short of requirements. Mainstreaming of climate policy into existing development planning has been suggested as a way out of this impasse. India’s central anti-poverty scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has become part of the ‘mainstreamed’ policy agenda. It is the largest Public Works Programme in the world today but has not been subjected to sufficient research scrutiny for its climate role. The paper attempts to fill this knowledge gap. It locates the climate-development role of the MGNREGA before subjecting it to a critical evaluation. It argues that conceptually, the MGNREGA meets basic normative requirements for mainstreamed adaptation action but that functional and methodological limitations prevent it from taking on a more purposeful role. Though the scheme is not transformative in nature, it can become part of a multi-pronged strategy to reduce vulnerability to climate change in India and possibly other developing countries.

https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2014.934772

Environmental Sustainability Implementation Politics

Abstract

https://3ieimpact.org/sites/default/files/2019-02/mgnrega_wage_payment...

Wages

Abstract

This study reports on a survey of 4,881 users of more than 4,100 works created under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Maharashtra. It provides evidence that MGNREGA works support agriculture, and benefit a large number of small and marginal farmers. An overwhelming 90% of the respondents considered the works very useful or somewhat useful, while only 8% felt they were useless. Further, most works continue to be maintained and are in a good condition. Overall, this study suggests that the widespread perception that the MGNREGA does not create anything productive appears to be misplaced, although there is scope for improving the choice of works, their design, and their execution.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24481747

Quantitative

Abstract

India is mainly an agricultural country in which the strength of rural unskilled labour is very high and majority of the rural poor depends mainly on the wages they earn through unskilled, casual, and manual labour. The main significance of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is to improve the livelihood conditions of the rural poor by providing 100 days of employment to any rural household whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work. The Act provides an opportunity to work in the lean season, which helps rural poor to maintain the consumption level and strengthen the livelihood resource base during this critical time period. Only the growth of economy cannot create social justice and balanced development unless, it is attached with poverty alleviation and employment generating opportunities for deprived and marginalised section of the society. Thus, a study on MGNREGA as a hope to reduce rural poverty has been taken in the village Shanoo of district kupwara of state Jammu and Kashmir.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/MGNREGA%3A-A-New-Hope-to-Reduce-...

Poverty Wages

Abstract

Statements made by the Union Ministers and other officials concerned regarding the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (MGNREGS) in the recent past have aroused doubts about the future of the Scheme among different sections of people. A group of economists has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing their deep concern about the future of MGNREGS. The PM in the recent Budget Session stated that he would not commit the political mistake of discontinuing the Scheme but would continue it to highlight the failure of the past Government. This raises doubt whether new government will implement the Scheme in both letter and spirit.

https://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/News-Analysis/2015-03-06/MGNR...

Budget Challenges

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme–despite its failings and dismissals by prominent economists as a “dole”–is in consonance with the idea of sustainable development whose important cardinal components are economic, social and environmental sustainability.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2015/23/notes/national-rural-employment-gua...

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme—despite its failings and dismissals by prominent economists as a “dole”—is in consonance with the idea of sustainable development whose important cardinal components are economic, social and environmental sustainability.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24482292

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The performance of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Rajasthan was debated for its stupendous performance in the initial years of the scheme, but also for the relative sharp decline after 2010. Based on a large representative primary survey, this paper argues that the decline in performance of this scheme in Rajasthan is not entirely due to the lack of demand. Instead, the supply-driven top-down nature of the programme has led to a “discouraged worker” syndrome with workers showing disinterest in demanding work and passively waiting for availability of NREGS work. Strengthening the demand-based nature of the NREGS may reduce the need for rationing. Simple temporal tracking of NREGS outcomes at the village level along with proper recording of demand through the Management Information System may well help detect discrimination within panchayats.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24481364

Implementation

Abstract

Even if we concede that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is designed as a demand-driven programme, and that local residents desire to have work projects in their area, whether it translates into effective demand, and whether the work projects actually get initiated depends very much on the dominant voices in local power structures. As this study shows in the case of Maharashtra, however progressive the design of modern democratic institutions, traditional caste hierarchies will try to sabotage their working by using their standing clientelist structures, with class and caste coming together to make this possible.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2015/26-27/review-rural-affairs-review-issu...

Caste Challenges

Abstract

This dissertation grapples with the questions: Does transparency lead to accountability? Is it possible to “democratize” surveillance, turning surveillance into an instrument of democratic control over state bureaucracy? Can a state bureaucracy combine visions of surveillance within the state and “openness” to citizens to help police itself? To address these questions, I studied an “open governance” project located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and involving the countrywide National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). I raise the questions about transparency and accountability at two different levels: first at the level of the bureaucracy, and second at the level of the citizens themselves. Looking at the two inevitably raises further questions of the power relations both within the bureaucracy and between the state apparatus and the citizens it is intended to serve. Looking within the bureaucracy, I show that local bureaucrats and politicians have discovered ways to subvert these formal efforts of control through informal norms. Looking at relations between the state apparatus and the citizens, I examine the recruitment of citizens in two different social contexts, a class/caste-divided village and a tribal community. Between the bureaucracy and the citizenry, I argue that the state has attempted to construct a state-civil society “sandwich” to squeeze the lower-level bureaucrats both from the top, using information technology, and from the bottom, getting testimonies from workers by opening government records. Here, I find that expectations of participation from below in response to transparency from above are not met because workers fail to participate as expected. A central part of what follows explores and delineates the multiple, complex reasons for this failure of the “public sphere.” Overall, these findings illustrate how hard it is to actually eliminate last-mile corruption, even with sophisticated technological and social strategies. (Nonetheless, I also find and lay out numerous potential benefits to this program.) In conclusion, I argue that instead of the prevalent metaphor of “sunlight,” open governance is better thought of as a “flashlight” and that people embrace openness and reject surveillance depending on whether they are the subject or the object of the “flashlight.” This shift in metaphor helps to raise more directly the inevitable issues of power.

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3805n440

Caste Challenges Corruption Implementation

Abstract

This paper analyses the extent to which Scheduled Caste (SC) households have participated and benefited from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Karnataka, with the help of both secondary and primary data. The demand for MGNREGS work and participation of SC households was found to be high in districts where the incidence of SC population was high. However, the number of days of employment obtained by SC households was relatively low. This suggests that SC households were discriminated in the provision of MGNREGS work in Karnataka. The paper discusses factors that constrained the participation of SC households in MGNREGS.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Participation-of-scheduled-caste...

Caste Challenges Quantitative

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) envisages that the works undertaken as part of the programme will strengthen natural resource management and address causes of chronic poverty like drought, deforestation and soil erosion, thereby encouraging sustainable development. However, the fact that it is not simply a work creation programme but derives its legitimacy from being an asset creation programme is often overlooked.

Contrary to the notion that people are paid for simply standing around in work sites or that the MGNREGA merely involves some digging, workers have built roads to farms and fields where there were none. They have replaced scrublands with forests, built earthen structures for impounding water and preventing soil erosion, cleared lands and levelled them to make them cultivable.

Several research studies have also indicated that assets created under the MGNREGA are beneficial in terms of reduced soil erosion, increased water availability, groundwater recharge, biomass, savings in diesel costs due to increased availability of water.

In this photoessay, we share a few examples of these assets, mainly from the states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. These are good examples of what the MGNREGA can and has achieved. The materials presented here were collected over the course of two years by researchers from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) during field visits focused on learning about the MGNREGA. This photoessay has been compiled by Krushna Ranaware. For more information and reports, follow this link.

Abstract

Thanks to the law, workers have built roads where there were none, replaced scrublands with forests, levelled lands and made them cultivable.

https://scroll.in/roving/739220/photos-mnrega-hasnt-just-generated-job...

Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

This paper contributes to the empirical understanding of the concept of commitment and the role it plays in shaping India’s social policy implementation. Taking the case of the landmark policy, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the paper analyses in-depth qualitative information from four states – Chhatisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Assam. The paper examines the puzzle of differing outcomes in these four states, despite the same design and implementation mechanisms, through a political economy lens. It presents a nuanced and rich analysis of the characteristics of commitment that can be seen in different states, linking these to how they play out in shaping the implementation dynamics of MGNREGA from a comparative lens. The paper contributes to the existing body of literature on policy implementation and the role that commitment plays at the level of the sub-national state in delivering welfare policy in India.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2606244

Implementation Politics

Abstract

NREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) is the Indian government’s flagship anti-poverty program and is one of the largest public works programmes in the world which aims to increase employment opportunities for the poor and in particular, improve women’s access to the labour market. In this paper we analyse the relationship between female labour participation and violence against women. Using district-time variation in the implementation of this anti-poverty program we estimate the effect of improved participation and access to employment of women on gender-based violence. We find evidence that increased female labour participation following the NREGS increased total gender-based violence. There are increases in kidnapings, sexual harassment and domestic violence, while dowry deaths decreased.

https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/15-09.html

Gender Implementation Poverty

Abstract

https://www.im4change.org/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/Mahendra%20Dev%20...

Wages

Abstract

MGNREGA is an ambitious scheme providing employment to rural people of India. The basic aim of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is to enhance livelihood security of household in rural area. By this scheme Govt. gives assurance of employment to unskilled rural laborer for 100 days. With better implementation such type of scheme may be an effective weapon to fight against poverty. It also aims at transforming the rural areas by improving the socio-economic conditions of people. Rural economy is the back-bone of Indian economic development. Providing employment to rural households will certainly boost the economy. It increases demand for goods and services. In this article an effort has been made to analyses the socio-economic impact of MGNREGA scheme on the life of beneficiaries of Dungarpur district. The findings of the study revealed that the programme has brought the change in the lives of the beneficiaries. Though it is always a debatable issue that such changes, by MGNREGA are sustainable or temporary.

https://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0115.php?rp=P373610

Poverty

Abstract

This study analyses the real impact of MGNREGA in the state of Tamil Nadu, India in terms of financial inclusion of the rural poor, particularly women, SC and ST populations through employment generation. It examines the level of migration after implementation of MGNREGA, participation of skilled labourers in unskilled work, the difference among agricultural, non-agricultural and MGNREGA wages, and the awareness of provisions in MGNREGA by the stakeholders. The study finds that financial inclusion has taken place in the study area. The study also finds that migration has been reduced and the levels of agricultural wages have gone up after the introduction of MGNREGA in the study area. Most importantly, women have been empowered by bargaining power in terms of wage rate.

https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJEPEE.2014.066629

Caste Gender Implementation Wages

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and pension payments in (undivided) Andhra Pradesh accounted for more than 90% of Aadhaar-authenticated payments in India. This may be the way forward for other public programmes that are plagued with inefficiency and corruption. Technology when worked on and used right takes us into a regime of transparency and impartial decision-making that are key to good governance.

https://www.epw.in/journal/2015/13/commentary/technology-governance.ht...

Corruption Wages

Abstract

https://www.epw.in/journal/2015/10/book-reviews/through-naregas-lens.h...

Wages

Abstract

Voter attribution lies at the heart of democratic accountability. Utilizing data on the world’s largest social program, this paper provides evidence that voters employ a heuristic of rewarding the enactment of new government programs to a greater extent than implementation, which is characterizing by informational difficulties of monitoring and attribution. Exploiting the staggered roll-out of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), this paper provides evidence that in the short run voters rewarded the party responsible for enacting the program. By contrast, panel regressions show a weak relationship between the amount of employment provided under NREGA and electoral returns within districts over time. The tendency of voters to reward enactment over implementation can account for the puzzle of social program proliferation and weak implementation across developing countries.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2454405

Implementation Politics

Abstract

We examine the effect of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), one of the largest workfare programs in the world, on human capital investment. Since NREGS increases labor demand, it could increase the opportunity cost of schooling, lowering human capital investment even as incomes increase. We exploit the staged rollout of the program across districts for causal identification. Using a household survey of test scores and schooling outcomes for approximately 2.5 million rural children in India, we show that each year of exposure to NREGS decreases school enrollment by 2 percentage points and math scores by 2% of a standard deviation amongst children aged 13-16. In addition, while the impacts of NREGS on human capital are similar for boys and girls, adolescent boys are primarily substituting into market work when they leave school while adolescent girls are substituting into unpaid domestic work. We find mixed results for younger children. We conclude that anti-poverty programs which raise wages could have the unintended effect of lowering human capital investment.

https://www.nber.org/digest/nov15/workfare-and-human-capital-investmen...

Poverty Quantitative Wages