The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, legally guarantees 100 days of unskilled wage employment annually to every rural household willing to work. Enacted as a rights-based framework, it aims to strengthen livelihood security, curb rural distress, and promote inclusive growth.
Significance of MGNREGA:
- Right to Employment: Creates a legal obligation on the state to provide timely employment within 15 days or pay unemployment allowance.
- Poverty Alleviation: Empowers rural poor by offering wage employment during lean agricultural seasons.
- Women Empowerment: Over 50% of the workforce are women, receiving equal wages and gaining financial autonomy.
- Asset Creation: Over 30 million water-related assets have been developed, contributing to soil conservation and irrigation.
- Social Inclusion: Focuses on SCs, STs, and other marginalized groups, reducing social and economic inequities.
- Infrastructure Development: Enables the creation of roads, canals, ponds, wells, enhancing rural connectivity and productivity.
- Participatory governance:
- Boosted Gram Panchayat capacity in decentralized planning and governance.
- Initiated digital reforms like Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS), and geo-tagging for transparency.
Challenges:
- Budget Cuts: Allocation reduced to ₹60,000 crore in 2023–24, down from ₹98,000 crore in 2021–22.
- Delayed Payments: Wage payments often exceed the 15-day mandate, affecting trust and participation.
- Corruption: Fake job cards and fund leakages remain persistent, e.g., recent case in Jharkhand involving an IAS officer.
- Limited Workdays: The 100-day cap is insufficient to ensure livelihood security year-round.
- Technological Barriers: NMMS app mandates pose challenges in areas with poor network connectivity.
- Poor Asset Quality: Projects often lack long-term value due to weak planning and monitoring.
Way ahead:
- Wage Revision: Align wages with minimum market rates to enhance worker incentive.
- Budget Enhancement: Ensure flexible and adequate funding to match rising demand.
- Urban Employment Guarantee: Pilot Urban MGNREGA to tackle urban informal joblessness.
- Convergence: Integrate with schemes like PMAY, NRLM, and Jal Jeevan Mission for synergistic impact.
- Strengthen Social Audits: Conduct bi-annual audits to enhance transparency and accountability.
- Skill Mapping: Link workers to skill development and long-term livelihood options.
- Climate-Resilient Assets: Promote climate-smart agriculture and water conservation projects.
Conclusion:
MGNREGA is atransformative tool for social justice, economic stability, and democratic decentralization. Strengthening it in line with evolving rural dynamics, digital capacities, and climate goals will enable it to remain a pillar of resilient and inclusive rural development in India.
‘+1’ value addition:
- Generated over 31 billion person-days of employment since inception.
- Provided critical support during COVID-19 lockdowns, compensating about 80% income loss as per Azim Premji University study.
- Over one-third of the beneficiaries must be women. It also has special provisions for SC/ST.
- If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to an unemployment allowance.
- Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid.
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