Publication

Abstract : Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS or MGNREGA) remains the most important and unique strategy for creating rural employment in India. Thereby, assessing the programme taking into the emerging context of rural India in 2015–16 as done in this chapter provides us valuable information for addressing alarming level of inequity and poverty situation in rural India. Unfortunately, lack of a rigorous analysis of the interrelationships between employment, poverty alleviation and fostering equitable development amongst the varied social groups, over time and space, has thus made it difficult to understand the developmental dynamics of MGNREGA. In this regard, this paper addresses some of the gaps observed in implementation of MGNREGS in India. The empirical analysis is based on data from the official websites of ministry of rural development, MGNREGA implementing authority, from 2006–07 to 2014–15. While the MGNREGA implemented in 2006 is a significant modification over the Employment Guarantee Programme (EGS) implemented in Maharashtra (i.e. MEGS) since early 1970s, we have also compared impacts and outcomes of the MGNREGS with that of MEGS, and provided the results in a comparative perspective. MGNREGA in its present format, though had significantly contributed towards improving the status of the rural households, the continuity of the programme in future may face several challenges. While the very nature and content of the programme had undergone significant modifications and adaptations over the past one decade of its existence, the future potential of the programme may also depend upon how its implementation process would be adapted as per the changing dynamics of rural economies, the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the rural households.