MGNREGS and rural society

 MGNREGS has served as a source of employment for the poor in distress situations such as drought, crop failures and lean rural employment days.

• It has helped raise rural wages steadily over time, and in places where it has been implemented well, built rural assets such as irrigation canals and roads have augmented local infrastructure.      

Design of MGNREGA Program

The design of MGNREGA ensures:
• Rights- based, demand- driven approach: Estimation and planning of work is conducted on the basis of the demand for work. Hence, beneficiaries of the
scheme are enabled to decide the point in time at which they want to work.
• Financial Inclusion: Since 2008, all wage payments have had to be transferred to bank or post office accounts of beneficiaries.
• Social Security Measures: In 2008, a provision was created which made it possible to cover beneficiaries under either the Janashree Bima Yojana (JBY) or the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).
• Use of information technology: in terms of identification, implementation and distribution of wage payments has been made through e-FMS (Electronic Fund Management System ) and
• Gender Equity: Men and women are entitled to equal payment of wages. Onethird of the beneficiaries are supposed to be women. Worksite facilities like
creches are to be provided at all worksites.
• Transparency and Accountability – All MGNREGA- related accounts and records documents have to be available for public scrutiny. Contractors and use of machinery is prohibited.
• Decentralized Planning

1.  Gram Sabhas to recommend works
2.  At least 50% of works by Gram Panchayats for execution
3.  Principal role of PRIs in planning, monitoring and implementation

Success of MGNREGA

• While there are mixed outcomes in terms of implementation across the states, due to use of banking/postal network, this program is still considered to be one of the most successful program compared to other social development programs in the country.
• Some statistics suggest that the scheme have raised the number of rural account holders to an enormous 8.6 crore. This aspect of financial inclusion initiated by such bank accounts has increased savings as well as access to better credit to the rural poor.
• The program also helped in improving equity across the communities. Out of those employed, an astounding 81 per cent reside in kachha houses, around 61 per cent are illiterate and about 72 per cent have no access to electricity in their households.
• The MGNREGA also appears to have helped women enormously. Latest information suggests that over 53 per cent of the total employment provided in the past eight years has been undertaken by women. This could have improved the social and economic status of women to some extent in the rural areas.
• The recent initiatives such as Aadhar based transfers as well as improving the banking network (through both formal banking as well as by making India Post as core banking compliant) will only further improve the efficiency of the program and improve livelihood among the poor in the rural areas.

The Program has been termed as ‘the stellar example for rural development’ by the World Bank. It is termed as automatic stabilizer of the economy and acts as a counter cyclical measure.                                                                                                                                                                      

By: ABHISHEK KUMAR GARG