Participation of Scheduled Castes in MGNREGS in Punjab: An Inter-Regional Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the participation of Scheduled Caste (SC) households in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) during 2014-15 to 2018-19 in Majha, Malwa and Doaba regions of Punjab using secondary data. The analysis revealed that a large majority of MGNREGS beneficiaries belonged to the scheduled caste category. The results further highlight that over the years, although the absolute number of SC households with job cards and employment provided is increasing, the percentage share of SC households is declining in terms of households with job cards, the number of households provided employment and number of person-days generated under MGNREGS across regions of Punjab. This scheme failed in generating 100 days of employment and only one percent of the beneficiary households got 100 days, which clearly showed the poor implementation of the scheme at the grass-root level.