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The effectiveness of MGNREGA: a study
Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment
- World's biggest: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the largest workfare programme in the world with an
average annual expenditure of over USD 5 billion (Rs.60000 cr). Pandemic pushed
the need for expanding the programme, due to rural stress.
- Who needs it: The MGNREGA is expected to provide employment opportunities to migrant workers (from poor households) who were displaced by the economic disruption due to State governments claim they care about the lives of these workers and that there are enough employment opportunities available via MGNREGA.
- Analysis: Using the Workers Level Schedule (WLS), sourced from the All India Coordinated Report by the NITI Aayog (earlier, Planning Commission) tried to find out workers’ response to MGNREGA's effectiveness. Many states were considered and a total of 6,580 raw data points used from 40 districts, covering 162 grampanchayats. Results were:
- The impact of MGNREGA in providing employment opportunities and augmenting market-wage rates varied enormously across states.
- States that did well in terms of implementing MGNREGA programmes are Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Tripura.
- Assumption is that poorer states do more MGNREGA programmes, but data finds no such direct correlation.
- There are incidences of poverty in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, there seems to be lack of usage of MGNREGA funds. For north-eastern states, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur did not do well in terms of providing MGNREGA work.
- Some poorer states such as Chhattisgarh and Tripura did well and for the relatively rich states such as Punjab and Haryana, where the demand for MGNREGA work was low, there is apparently not much interest.
- Workers from Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, and West Bengal believed that MGNREGA intervention increased the market-wage rates.
- MGNREGA work created demand for unskilled workers and had some spillover effect in raising market-wage rates for non-MGNREGA-related unskilled work, such as manual farm labour, porter, etc.
- For industrially advanced states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, the workers felt no drastic improvement in market-wage rates. So funds were used for buying heavy machinery for the construction of MGNREGA assets.
- Due to presence of an alternative industrial base (with demand for manual labour), these were not too successful in terms of providing wage employment related to MGNREGA work.
- Corruption: There are many ways money is stolen– through false documentation, bogus workers’ lists, and a significant portion of missing assets. It was found that many jobs were allocated on a ‘verbal basis’, and no documentation was available with the village body. There is undesirable and unlawful political intervention. In Kerala, not many workers are available for MGNREGA work and the panchayat pradhans are instructed to submit wage bills where the beneficiaries are the local party workers.
- Kerala and Assam: Workers in Kerala have alternative employment opportunities in tea plantation, spice, and tourism industries. In Assam there's a big difference between MGNREGA-wage rate and market-wage rates. This has to do with flourishing oil, tea plantation, and tourism sectors in Assam. The migrant labourers prefer to work in low-wage-type MGNREGA opportunities.
- Political connection: Political affiliation matters. In West Bengal, households that are politically active and supporters of the local ruling party are more likely to receive MGNREGA work. In Rajasthan, the workers themselves did not apply for work knowing that the government is slow in implementing the MGNREGA work. In transparency, the Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttarakhand were more unbiased in doling out MGNREG schemes.
- Conclusion; For MGNREGA, a pan-India, uniform implementation won’t be effective. If the variations are not incorporated in the Act, implementation cannot be perfect. Fortunately, the National Agricultural Research Project by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has divided the country into 127 independent agro-climatic zones depending on soil, rainfall, and agricultural productivities. For programmes to be effective, it is advisable that the MGNREG scheme is implemented as per the requirements of the geographical characteristics, taking into consideration the occupational patterns of the local people.
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