MGNREGA, a work guarantee scheme, was introduced in 2005 to ensure at least 100 days of employment to adult rural households on unskilled manual or labour-intensive work. By 2022-23, it had enrolled 15.4 crore active workers under the scheme. The chronic poverty was expected to be mitigated through the rights-based approach to the scheme, wherein at least one-third of its beneficiaries would be women.
- It is a scheme of demand-driven, under which self-selection of workers is there.
- Decentralization is emphasized, and as far as possible, recommended works are to be put through Gram sabhas themselves, and at least 50 per cent of the works they have executed.
- Woes of the scheme include long payment delays, caste-based compartmentalization, ineffective participation of PRIs, large proportion of incomplete works, and job card fabrication.
- The scheme’s future requires better coordination of the plan, addressing the disparities in payoffs, and ensuring that public work is initiated in every village, making contact with returned and quarantined migrant workers, providing them with adequate resources, powers, and responsibilities to the Gram panchayats, and integrating MGNREGA with other government schemes.
