Mahathma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee System (MNREGS)

Abstract

The National Rural Employment Guarantee System NREGS is a social security measure that aims to guarantee the ’right to work’. It aims to ensure livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. This system enables public to register for the benefit of this scheme, 100 days work is provided for each ration card, irrelevant of the members in it. Officers verify the info and pass to concerning sections for further proceeding. This system covers the NREG System under a whole panchayat. Apart from providing economic security and creating rural assets, NREGS can help in protecting the environment, empowering rural women, reducing rural-urban migration and fostering social equity, among others. The MGNREGA was initiated with the objective of ”enhancing livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year, to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work”. Another aim of MGNREGA is to create durable assets (such as roads, canals, ponds, wells). Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid. If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to an unemployment allowance. Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement. MGNREGA is to be implemented mainly by gram panchayats (GPs). The involvement of contractors is banned. Labour-intensive tasks like creating infrastructure for water harvesting, drought relief and flood control are preferred. Apart from providing economic security and creating rural assets, NREGA can help in protecting the environment empowering the rural women reducing rural-urban migration and fostering social equity among others. The law provides many safeguards to promote its effective management and implementation. The act explicitly mentions the principles and agencies for implementation, list of allowed works, financing pattern, monitoring and evaluation and most importantly the detailed measures to ensure transparency and accountability.