Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) Act has helped in reimbursing 20%-80% of the income loss caused due to COVID-19 lockdown as per study conducted of 4 states i.e, (Maharashtra , Madhya Pradesh , Bihar and Karnataka .
- Due to lack of proper work being sanctioned 39% of the surveyed household did not get work on a single day in the Covid-19 year .
MINISTRY
Ministry of Rural Development
What is MGNREGA ?
ABOUT
MGNREGA was launched in the year 2005 as one of the largest work guaranteed program by the Ministry of Rural Government .
The basic objective of MGNREGA was providing 100 days guaranteed employment in every financial year to any rural or adult people who are willing to do public work – related which is unskilled manual work.
As per the data of 2023-24 in there are more than 15.4 crores active workers under the MGNREGA .
Legal Right to Work
Women should be at least one-third of the beneficiaries of this scheme .
Wages should be paid as prescribed under the Minimum Wages Act,1948 as specified for the agricultural labourers in state.
Demand Driven Scheme
The most crucial and important part of MGNREGA is that work should be provided to any rural or adult person within 15 days when demanded and if he/she did not get the work on proper time “unemployment allowance” must be paid to them.
The demand-driven program allows the self-selection of work .
Decentralized Planning
Through giving significant roles to Panchayati Raj Institutions there is a focus on strengthening the way or process of decentralization .
Now this act is mandating the Gram Sabha for recommending the works which are to be undertaken and a minimum of 50% work should be performed by them.
Issues Related with Implementation of this Scheme
- Many of the State have failed in distributing the wages within 15 days as mandated by the MGNREGA and the workers are not even compensated for the delay in their payment .
- This had made the workers to loose interest in working under this scheme .
- There are a number of proof regarding the delay of the wages including an admission by the Ministry of Finance which delays in wages results in insufficient funds .
- There were variations because of the caste based segregation where the non SC/ST workers were only 26% .
- The negative impact of this caste based segregation was mostly seen in the state of Jharkhand , Odisha , West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh .
- Delay of works and poor quality of work which are mostly incomplete have also been noticed under this scheme .
Way Forward
There is an urgent need of better coordination with in various departments of government .
There is a lack of incompatibility in the payouts which should be addressed genuinely. Women earn less tha 22.24 % in this sector as compared to their male partners .
The State Government must positively look upon the mandate of the work that it should be appointed within the time mandated .
The local body have to look upon the quarantined migrants who need the work cards .
MGNREGA should also be converged with other governmental schemes so that the rate of opportunities can be increased .
