MGNREGS (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – ECONOMY)

Context: During this monsoon season, an analysis reveals that there has been a significant increase in the demand for rural employment through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) when compared to previous years.

• According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), 29 percent of districts — or 210 of India’s 713 districts — are facing a rainfall deficit.
• In states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the demand has remained higher than that of COVID-19 years.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)

• Objective: Guaranteed Right to Work: MGNREGS is a demand-driven scheme, that seeks to provide guaranteed 100 days of wage employment per year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
• Features: Legal right to work, a time-bound guarantee of work and unemployment allowance (within 15 days), Decentralised planning – i.e. Gram Sabha recommends work, demand-driven scheme.
• MGNREGA Act, 2005: It specifies a list of works that can be undertaken to generate employment such as water conservation, land development, construction, agriculture.

• Role of MGNREGA in addressing rural distress: Jobs to unskilled/semi-skilled, Reduction in poverty levels, Women labour force participation, Benefits to agri-sector, Rural Development, Creation of rural assets, Reviving MSME sector.
• MGNREGA: Challenges: Employment provided remains below guaranteed minimum, Non-payment of unemployment allowance, Low wage rate, Corruption and leakages, Poor quality of assets and inefficient monitoring and maintenance, Regional disparity, Too much centralisation weakening local governance, Insufficient budgetary allocation.