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Case study: Mahatma Gandhi National

Rural Employment Guarantee Act
R Harsha Vardhan (0801EE29), E V Suman (0801ME14), Ch Sundeep (0801EE13),
G Sandeep (0801EE15), R Umesh Reddy (0801EE30).

Aim of this Act

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is designed net to reduce migration by
rural poor households in the lean period, enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by
guaranteeing hundred days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult
members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Dr. Jean Drèze, a Belgian born economist, at the Delhi
School of Economics, has been a major influence on this Act.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in his performance audit of the implementation of
MGNREGA has found "significant deficiencies" in the implementation of the act. The Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is an Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by
legislation on August 25, 2005. MGNREGA was launched on February 2, 2006 from Anantapur in Andhra
Pradesh in 200 districts and eventually extended to cover 593 districts, and after that the project was
implemented in phased manner covering 130 districts by year 2007-08.

Workflow of MGNREGA
First a work is proposed by the gram Panchayat, then they get the required approvals for this work, after
this the work is allocated to the registered workers. As the work progresses the person gets his 100 Rs
every day. The fund is jointly borne by the center and state governments jointly. The fund is paid by the
Post Office or some other agency.

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Provision under NREGA

 Adult members of a rural household, willing to do unskilled manual work.
 The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job Cards. The Job Card will bear the
photograph of all adult members of the household willing to work under NREGA and is free of
cost.
 The Job Card should be issued within 15 days of application as described above.
 At least one-third beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested work under
the scheme.
 Work site facilities such as crèche, drinking water, shade have to be provided.
 At least 50% of works will be allotted to Gram Panchayat’s for execution.
 A 60:40 wage and material ratio has to be maintained. No contractors and machinery is allowed.
 The Central Government bears the 100 percent wage cost of unskilled manual labor and 75
percent of the material cost including the wages of skilled and semi skilled workers.
 Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha.

National Reports (2010-2011)

 Employment provided to Households: 4.65 [Crore].
 Total: 175.2 Crore Persondays
 SCs: 38.96 [22.24%].
 STs: 29.87 [17.05%].
 Women: 84.93 [48.48%].
 Others: 106.37 [60.71%].
 Total works taken up: 88.32 Lakh.
 Works completed: 4.5 Lakh.
 Works in progress: 83.82 Lakh.

MGNREGA Statistics District: PATNA

 Employment provided to households: 1.78385 Lakh
 Total: 63.29(Persondays (in Lakh))

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 SCs : 32.62 [51.54%]
 STs : 0 [0%]
 Women : 21.33 [33.69%]
 Others : 30.67 [48.46%]
 Total fund: Rs. 134.52 Crore.
 Expenditure: 98.76 Crore.
 Total works taken up : 9498
 Works completed : 4976
 Works in Progress : 4522

(One Personday is when one person works for one day).

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Vision of the Project

 It envisions facilitating e-Governance by enabling IT based implantation of NREG Scheme across
State, District and three tiers of Panchayat Raj Institutions.
 It envisages empowering the common man using the information technology as a facilitator.
 Facilitate faster information exchange between the various stakeholders through the network.
 Provides information to citizen in compliance with the right to information Act (RTI Act).

Educating People about MGNREGA

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These posters were released to educate people about the benefits of MGNREGA. And some of these posters also
urge the people to suggest ways to implement MGNREGA.
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Effect of MGNREGA
 In implementing MGNREGA, the Gram Panchayat’s are not in a situation to provide employment
to all of the unemployed, though they have the funds available with them, they do not have any
feasible projects or works throughout the year.
 The wage that a farm laborer earns is about 40 to 50* rupees per day, while a MGNREGA worker
earns about 100 rupees every day. Because of this many farm laborers are turning to MGNREGA.
This has led to increase in the price of agricultural products.
 There has been wide spread criticism on implementation of MGNREGA, as CORRUPTION is
rampant in rural India and the workers have to shell out a part of their earnings to the officials in
the Panchayat.

This Cartoon is from a news paper depicting the criticism on MGNREGA.

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