A Brief Scanning on Performance of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Assam, India

Abstract

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) renamed as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the boldest and most pragmatic approach to the problems of rural poverty and unemployment. In fact, the Scheme ensures the economic security of the rural poor by providing guaranteed wage employment. MGNREGA has positive impact on employment pattern of women. Using official data this paper evaluates India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) according to criteria viz. average number of days of employment per household; percentage of households completing 100days of employment under NREGS; percentage of expenditure against total available funds etc. Performance across the first two criteria has been disappointing and has deteriorated over time. Percentage of expenditure against total available funds has risen sharply. Finally, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the NREGS has not performed well. It was found that 158.63 lakhs households in the state were provided job cards, whereas 80.92 lakhs households only were able to get job during the study period. It means 51.01% households with job cards did not have any opportunity of working in this scheme during this period. During the whole period Assam could provide 100 days employment to only 3.7% of job card holders which is one of the sad parts on its performance. The paper makes a number of policy suggestions to improve the performance of the NREGS.