Rural Development

Interventions

MGNREGS
ANUSHKA AHLUWALIA - P38129
ARJUN MITWALKAR - P38131
ASHIM BORAH - P38132
RAJAT TOMAR - P38159
SHANIKA GOEL - P38168
Introduction

Feb 2 , 2006 -National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) - The wage
employment program came into existence.

Launched in Rajasthan and notified in 200 rural districts in first phase of

implementation and the entire nation was covered under MGNREGA (Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act by 2008.

MGNREGS - instrument for inclusive growth in rural India through its impact on
social protection, livelihood security and democratic governance.
Aims to provide a steady source of income and livelihood security for the poor,
vulnerable and marginalized sections of our society.
Integrated Framework

Mandate of the act:

To provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to
every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

For holistic understanding of MGNREGA an integrated framework having the

following broad levels of analysis has been established,

❖ Systemic Level Analysis - Analysing the political economy around the

intervention
❖ Programme Level Analysis - Intervention Level Analysis of all its stages from
goals to feedbacks.
Systemic Level Analysis

The growing Indian economy alongside globalization leaves behind the lagging rural India. India
was in much need of an income support, especially to some of the poorest and marginalized,
hence inclusion of a wage employment programme was necessary.

MGNREGS was a right based approach, unique and more integrated.

The involvement of grassroots organizations in the implementation of the programme

threatened local power brokers, who resented the inability to award jobs according to their
discretion.

Owing to India’s huge populations it became difficult to ensure the social safety net to all who
could not get employment within 15 days of applying for the scheme was to get an
unemployment allowance (one-fourth of the wage rate).

MGNREGS made many improvements in wage employment in terms of policies and laws and
although its impact was better than the earlier schemes but less than its potential.
Programme Level Analysis
Objective of the Act
The objective of the Act is to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at

least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household

whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

 Goals of MGNREGA
1. Strong social safety net for the vulnerable groups by providing a fall-back employment source, when

other employment alternatives are scarce or inadequate

2. Growth engine for sustainable development of an agricultural economy. Through the process of

providing employment on works that address causes of chronic poverty such as drought, deforestation

and soil erosion, the Act seeks to strengthen the natural resource base of rural livelihood and create

durable assets in rural areas. Effectively implemented, MGNREGA has the potential to transform the

geography of poverty

3. Empowerment of rural poor through the processes of a rights-based Law

4. New ways of doing business, as a model of governance reform anchored on the principles of

transparency and grass root democracy Thus, MGNREGA fosters conditions for inclusive growth

ranging from basic wage security and recharging rural economy to a transformative empowerment
 Strategy for vulnerable groups under
MGNREGA
1. Special Category of Workers (Vulnerable Groups) under
MGNREGA
2. Specific interventions needed for Vulnerable Groups
3. Specific attention and provisions for Vulnerable Groups

· % Scheduled Caste participation: 25%

· % Scheduled Tribe participation: 21%
· %Women participation: 56%
The special category of workers are from:
● Persons with disabilities

● Primitive Tribal Groups

● Nomadic Tribal Groups

● De-notified Tribes

● Women in special circumstances

● Senior citizens above 65 years of age

● HIV positive persons

● Internally displaced persons

● Rehabilitated bonded labour

 Specific interventions needed for Vulnerable Groups

1. At least one work which is suitable for Particularly Vulnerable Groups especially the aged and
the disabled shall be kept open at all times to provide work as per demand
2. Special drive through existing and exclusively identified resource persons to identify the

vulnerable groups

3. State Government should designate one officer as Coordinator (Vulnerable Groups) to

exclusively look after the needs and requirements of these groups

4. Dissemination of information among Vulnerable Groups

5. Specific works identified for these groups

6. Provision within the MIS for tracking their coverage

7. If the job seeker is a single woman or disabled person or aged person or released bonded
labour or belonging to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, they must be given a special job
card of a distinct colour which will ensure them a special protection in providing work, work
evaluation and work site facilitates, as the case may be.
Specific attention and provisions for Vulnerable
Groups

1. Disabled Persons
2. Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)
3. De-Notified Tribes
4. Women in Special Circumstances category
5. Senior Citizens
6. Internally Displaced Persons
 Design
Administration Structure
 Roles and Responsibilities

Ministry of Rural Development

a) Make Rules under the Act.

b) Make budgetary allocation and ensure timely release of Central share.
c) Maintain and operate the MIS to capture and track data on critical
aspects of implementation, and assess the utilisation of resources
through a set of performance indicators.

State Government

a) Delegate financial and administrative powers to the Programme

Officer, as is deemed necessary for the effective implementation of the
Scheme.
b) Regular review, research, monitoring and evaluation of MGNREGS
processes and outcomes

c) Generate widest possible awareness about MGNREGA across the State

Programme Officer

a) Do survey to assess work demand

b) Facilitating technical support to Gram Panchayats
c) Maintaining proper accounts of the resources received, released and
utilised
Gram Panchayat

a) Receiving applications for registration

b) Issuing Job Cards (JCs).
c) Maintaining records as specified
d) Awareness generation and social mobilisation.
Design and Implementation

● Demand based Jobs,

● Amount spent in the ratio of 60:40 on wages and Materials
● PRI, GS plays a key role - Proper Planning and Implementation
● Unemployment Allowance
● Provides facilities for safe drinking water, shade for children, place of
rest and a first aid box at the work site.
● Grievance Redressal System
Operations and Maintenance: Primary Stakeholders
Activity Flow

Source: MGNREGA ; Ministry of Rural development official website

Social Audit, Aadhaar and MGNREGA

· Process of social audit shares details of MGNREGA resources within the community-held
once in every 6 months.

· Financial and non-financial resources both considered

· Community verifies all records, procedures and expenditure.

· Institution of Ombudsman created

· Aaadhar numbers seeded against 85 million wage workers (85%)

 Use of technology in MGNREGA
1. E-Payments

· Payments directly transferred to beneficiary account

· Implemented in 95% of India’s villages

· 84.4 million bank accounts of workers

2. NREGA soft

· Software for data entry of details of work, beneficiary, human resources, funds and
payment processing.

· Various modules-one for each function

· Fund management module, bank/post office module, grievance redressal system, social
audit module etc.
 Cont.
3. Geo MGNREGA

· Each public work asset created is geo-tagged and displayed on a public website

· 11.7 million assets out of 27.4 million assets already geo-tagged

Source: GeoMGNREGA ; Ministry of Rural
development official website
MIS for MGNREGA
Measures for Checking irregularities in MGNREGA

1. National electronic fund management system (NeFMS)

2. Social Audit by CA & G
3. Grievances redressal mechanism
4. State Quality Monitor (SQM)
5. National Level Monitors (NLM)
Impacts

● Positive impact on migration- migration decreased particularly

women stayed back as employment was available n their village itself
● Purchasing Power is augmented-daily consumption, health expenses,
child education, rapid debts payment etc.
● Standard of living and household expenditure improved
● Investment in physical capital and construction of assets such as
some bought animals, cycle, land, house etc.
Outcomes

● Many issues in design and implementation such as corruption,

top-down constraints ,not timely payment of wages, improper
methods for measurements of tasks and wages etc.
● With the improvement in implementation ,results became better
● Caste problems have also been identified leading to people from
different castes not working at same place
● Sharing of wages as a result of renting out of job cards
Lessons & Feedback

● Caste System hinder efficiency of scheme-Upper caste people come

to work but due to societal hesitation do not work efficiently leading
to decrease in wage payment
● Poor Planning affected quality of work - works left incomplete,
shortage of staff etc.
● Lack of vigilance and Social Audit affected transparency in the
process
● Lack of facilities at work site discouraged women involvement
● Upper age limit of workers should be limited
● Proper supervision of work should be done
● Proper space to write about the NREGA information in the
Panchayats.
Conclusions: Key Challenges
1. Capacity Building of field functionaries
2. Quality, Durability and usefulness of Assets.
3. Delays in wage payments
4. Shortage of dedicated field staff for MGNREGA
5. Improper Planning of Work and limited availability of Fund
6. Lack of ICT infrastructure at the Gram panchayat (village council) level
7. Limited reach of financial institutions of Rural India
8. Poor Maintenance of records, Muster rolls, Job Cards etc.
9. Misappropriations/Corruptions
References:

1. Ambasta, Pramathesh, Vijay Shankar, P.V. and Shah, Mihir(2008) Two years of NREGA: The
road ahead, Economic and Political Weekly, 43 (8): 41-50.
2. Harrison, Fidel Ezeala (2011) Analysis of wage formation processes in rural agriculture, The
Journal of Developing Areas, 38 (1): 79-92.
3. Bardhan, Kalpana (2011) Rural employment, wages and labour markets in India: A survey of
research-III,Economic and Political Weekly, 12 (28): 1101-1118.
4. Varsha, Surjit, K.N. Joshi (2008) Working of MGNREGA in Rajasthan
5. Website: http://www.nrega.nic.in
Thank You