Post on 26-Dec-2015
Evaluating National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme In India: A Dynamic Rural Survey Method Using Mobile Phones
CPRSouth 6, Janani Rangarajan, Rajesh Kumar, Sriram Narayanamurthy, Dr.Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Suma PrashantDec 9-10, 2011
Overview of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)
About Technology for Evaluation of the Scheme – Mobile Interface to Enterprise Database: MINED
Method of Evaluation
Challenges while using Mobile Technology for Evaluation
Key Findings and Policy Recommendations
NREGA ACT: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, covering over 800 million people, is one of the world’s largest social welfare scheme aimed at poverty alleviation in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work.
UNDP sponsored audit was done by RTBI: Continuous audit is an integral part of NREGS which requires a simple procedure
Sample: A total of 600 NREGS workers from 5 districts and 40 villages constituted the sample. Sample based on random sampling
Automation Software for the audit survey conducted using mobile phones: Mobile Interface to Enterprise Database(MINED):
MINED is a unique interfacing technology which is used for data collection through an inexpensive mobile connected over GPRS to the enterprise database.
Why MINED? Data to be collected from a large area (remote villages) in a short
period of time Usual method consumes paper and time Synchronizes data between handset and back end instantaneously Allows alteration/removal/ introduction of questions mid stream Collected data is tamper proof No data loss and data misinterpretation
A total of 72 questions in Tamil, font used was SaiIndra
Each screen could accommodate around 5-7 questions and 10-12 screens per questionnaire
were used
Drop down options for all the questions were provided
July 2009
NREGA- Live Sample Data Upload in multiple languages
Language: Mobile phones could not support Tamil fonts
This was overcome by using Universal Text Format (UTF) 8 in all the mobile phones
Field Size: Tamil fonts occupied more space than the 32 bytes allocated for English fonts by default
The field size of the answers was increased in order to ensure that the full answer to a question was accommodated
Mode of conducting: A challenge initially
No provision for subjective answers
Emotions could not be captured
Live update and Real time data analysis
Flexibility of changing questions
Accurate data
Cost effective and saves time
Scalable and supports vernaculars