Mahatma Gandhi National Rural EmploymentGuarantee ActFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is an Indian job guaranteescheme, enacted by legislation on 25 August 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for at least one hundreddays of employment in every financial year to adult members of any household willing to do public work-relatedunskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage of 120 (US$2.10) per day in 2009 prices.If they fail to do

so the govt. has to pay the salary at their homes. [1] The Central government outlay for scheme is 4,000 billion

(US$69 billion) in FY 2010–11.[2]

This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living in rural India, whether or not they are below the poverty line. Around one-third of thestipulated work force is women. The law was initially called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(NREGA) but was renamed on 2 October 2009.[3]

In 2011, the program was widely criticised as no more effective than other poverty reduction programs in India.Despite its best intentions, MGNREGA is beset with controversy about corrupt officials, deficit financing as thesource of funds, poor quality of infrastructure built under this program, and unintended destructive effect on

poverty.[4][5][6]

Contents

1 Political background

2 History

3 Funding4 Implementation

5 Works/Activities

6 Criticisms

7 See also

8 References

9 External links

Political background

This act was brought about by the UPA-1 coalition government supported by the left parties. And has beenlabelled as one of the causes for voting UPA back into power as UPA 2

Dr. Jean Drèze, a Belgian born economist, at the Delhi School of Economics, has been a major influence on this

project.[7] A variety of people's movements and organisations actively campaigned for this act.[8]

History

A NREGA Work site in Kerala

www.nrega.nic.in

MNREGA was launched on 2 February 2006 from Anantapur in AndhraPradesh and initially covered 200 of the "poorest" districts of the country.The Act was implemented in phased manner; 130 districts were addedfrom 2007 to 2008. With its spread to over 626 districts across thecountry, the flagship program of the UPA Government has the potentialto increase the purchasing power of rural poor, reduce distress migrationand to create useful assets in rural India. Also, it can foster social andgender equality as 23% workers under the scheme are ScheduledCastes, 17% Scheduled Tribes and 50% women. In 2010–11, 41 million

households were employed on NREGA worksites.[citation needed]

Funding

MGNREGA started with an initial outlay of $2.5bn(Rs113 billion) in year 2006–07.The funding has considerablybeen increased as shown in the table below:

Year Total Outlay(TO) Wage Expenditure(Percent of TO)

2006–07 $2.5bn 66

2007–08 $2.6bn 68

2008–09 $6.6bn 67

2009–10 $8.68bn 70

2010–11 $8.91bn 71

Implementation

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its performance audit of the implementation ofMGNREGA has found "significant deficiencies" in the implementation of the act. The plan was launched in February2006 in 200 districts and eventually extended to cover 593 districts. 44,940,870 rural households were provided

jobs under NREGA during 2008–09, with a national average of 48 working days per household.[9] In recent times,NREGA workers have faced problems due to delays in payment of wages, some of which have been pending for

months.[10] In July 2012, the Government admitted that the programme is plagued with corruption and it needs to

be dealt with meaningfully.[11]

Employment under NREGAS in 2010

Indian Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha onTuesday that As of 30 June, a total of 17,943,189 families in the country have been provided employment under

MGNREGS.[12]

Works/Activities

The MGNREGA achieves twin objectives of rural development and employment. The MGNREGA stipulates thatworks must be targeted towards a set of specific rural development activities such as: water conservation andharvesting, afforestation, rural connectivity, flood control and protection such as construction and repair of

embankments, etc. Digging of new tanks/ponds, percolation tanks and construction of small check dams are alsogiven importance. The employers are given work such as land leveling, tree plantation, etc. First a proposal is givenby the Panchayat to the Block Office and then the Block Office decides whether the work should be sanctioned. InRangareddy district manchal mandal the dry land horticulture and plantation of trees on the bunds of the fields takenup under MGVN programme is taken up in a big way.

Criticisms

Many criticisms have been levelled at the programme, which has been argued to be no more effective than otherpoverty reduction programs in India. The program is beset with controversy about corrupt officials, deficit financingas the source of funds for the program, poor implementation, and unintended destructive effect on poverty. A 2008report claimed the state of Rajasthan as an exception wherein the rural population was well informed of their rights

and about half of the population had gained an income from the entitlement program.[13] However, a 2011 WallStreet Journal report claims that the program has been a failure. Even in Rajasthan, despite years of spending andthe creation of government mandated unskilled rural work, no major roads have been built, no new homes, schools

or hospitals or any infrastructure to speak of has resulted from the program.[4]

At national level, a key criticism is corruption. Workers hired under the MGNREGA program say they arefrequently not paid in full or forced to pay bribes to get jobs, and aren't learning any new skills that could improvetheir long-term prospects and break the cycle of poverty. There are also claims of fictitious laborers and job cards

by corrupt officials causing so called leakage in program spending.[4][14]

Another important criticism is the poor quality of public works schemes' completed product. In a February 2012interview, Jairam Ramesh, the Minister of Rural Development for the central government of India, admitted that theroads and irrigation canals built by unskilled labor under this program are of very poor quality and wash away withany significant rains. Villagers simply dig new irrigation pits every time one is washed away in the monsoons. The

completed works do not add to the desperately needed rural infrastructure.[5][14]

The MGNREGA programme spent US$ 9 billion in the 2011 fiscal year according to official data. Economistshave raised some concerns about the sustainability of this subsidy scheme – India’s fiscal deficit is expected toreach 5.6 per cent of GDP this year, compared with 5.1 per cent last year. The MGNREGA program has beenfound to distort labor markets and has helped — along with fuel and fertilizer subsidies — to balloon India's federal

fiscal deficit.[15][16]

Yet another criticism is the unintended effect of MGNREGA in terms of skill growth. A review published by Indiain September 2011 conceded that the lack of skilled technicians at almost every site under MGNREGA program,along with rules banning the use of machinery or contractors (labour is usually by shovel). Such bureaucraticregulations mean that the labourers learn no new skill, and that the ponds, roads, drains, dams and other assets builtwith manual labour are often of wretched quality. The idea behind MGNREGA program is to create as many jobsas possible for unskilled workers. But in practice, say critics, it means no one learns new skills, only basic projects

get completed and the poor stay poor — dependent on government checks.[4][5]

"We work because there's high unemployment here and the land is less fertile." But he questionedthe point, saying "There's no meaning to it. Instead of this they should build proper roads."

— Abdul Jameel Khan, a farmer employed by India's MGNREGA entitlement program quoted