Assessing the Effectiveness of MGNREGA’s Social Audits and Training in Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

Social audits are distinct forms of collaborative governance that not only serve as exercises for evaluating participation programmes but also help the poor gain more power. They provide the most vulnerable groups with a forum to express their “voice” claim their “rights” hold the government responsible, and take on a sense of collective responsibility, potentially turning social protection into social justice. An important development in Madhya Pradesh is the state’s government’s engagement with a state-supported civil society organisation on a project to increase accountability in MGNREGA decision-making. The objective of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of MGNREGA in social audit and training programmes related to tribes in Madhya Pradesh. The author makes a conclusive circumstance that demand-side strategies have severe limits when it comes to improving governance by incorporating the ideas of citizen voices. To conclude that participation in a training and social audit programme, had a favourable significant association with both overall awareness and overall satisfaction. In line with expectations, overall satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with both overall awareness and overall performance after the effects of training and audit were muted.