MGNREGA- Right to Work
MGNREGA – Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005, UPA government’s most
ambitious scheme. The NREGA (Later renamed as Mahatma Gandhi NREGA) was
announced by the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA chair person
Sonia Gandhi in February 2006. Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi had launched
the MGNREGA on 2nd February 2006 in Anatapur district of Andhra
Pradesh. This act is also known as ‘Right to Work’ act. Starting from 200 districts on 2nd
February 2006, MGNREGA covered all the districts of India from 1st
April 2008. 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.
Objective: The Mahatma Gandhi NREGA was enacted on 7th
September 2005 as ‘An act to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security
of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least 100 days
of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household.’
The objectives of
MGNREGA:
- Providing wage employment opportunities
- Creating sustainable rural livelihoods through regeneration of the natural resource base i.e augmented productivity and supporting creation of durable assets.
- Strengthening rural governance through decentralization and process of transparency and accountability.
The details of Act: The most significant feature of the MGNREGA is
that it vests the country’s rural communities with rights to demand employment
and binds the Government to time –bound legal guarantees to honour and fulfill
the demand.
Implementation
& Monitoring of Act:
- The Panchayats at district, intermediate and village levels are the principal authorities for planning and implementation of the Schemes made under this Act. The Gram Panchayat is responsible for identification of the projects in the Gram Panchayat area to be taken up under a Scheme as per the recommendations of the Gram Sabha and the Ward Sabhas and for executing and supervising such works.
- For the purposes of regular monitoring and reviewing the implementation of this Act at the State level, every State Government should constitute a State Council to be known as the (name of the State) State Employment Guarantee Council.
- At every Panchayat at intermediate level, the State Government should appoint a person who is not below the rank of Block Development Officer with such qualifications and experience as may be determined by the State Government as Programme Officer at the Panchayat at intermediate level.
Audit
of Accounts: The Central Government may, in
consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, prescribe
appropriate arrangements for audits of the accounts of the Schemes at all
levels.
Unemployment Allowance: If an applicant for
employment under the Scheme is not provided such employment within fifteen days
of receipt of his application seeking employment or from the date on which the
employment has been sought in the case of an advance application, whichever is
later, he is entitled to a daily unemployment allowance in accordance with this
section.
Minimum wage: A
committee of experts set up by the Union rural development ministry has
recommended that the wages paid to unskilled agricultural labourers under the MGNREGA should be the minimum
wage fixed by the respective state or the current
wage as per the consumer price.
Financial Inclusion: Since 2008, all wage
payments have been transferred to bank or post office accounts of
beneficiaries.
Type of Works: The
law lists following permissible works: water conservation and water harvesting; drought
proofing including a forestation; irrigation works; restoration of traditional water bodies;land
development; flood control;
rural connectivity; and works notified by the government.
Provision of Work: As far as possible,
employment should be provided within a radius of five kilometres of the village
where the applicant resides at the time of applying. In cases the employment is
provided outside such radius, it must be provided within the Block, and the
labourers should be paid ten per cent of the wage rate as extra wages to meet
additional transportation and living expenses.
Women Empowerment: Provided that priority
is given to women in such a way that at least one-third of the beneficiaries
shall be women who have registered and requested for work under this Act. Men
and women are entitled to equal payment of wages.
Achievements:
Since its inception in 2006, around Rs
1,10,000 crore has gone directly as wage payment to rural households and 1200
crore person-days of employment has been generated till 2012. On an average, 5 crore
households have been provided employment every year since 2008.
Eighty per cent of households are being
paid directly through bank/post office accounts, and 10 crore new bank/post
office accounts have been opened till 2012.
The average wage per person-day has gone up
by 81 per cent since the Scheme’s inception, with state-level variations. The
notified wage today varies from a minimum of Rs 159 in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand to Rs 241 in Nikobar.
Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes
(STs) have accounted for 51 per cent of the total person-days generated and
women for 47 per cent, well above the mandatory 33 per cent as required by the
Act till 2012.
146 lakh works have been taken up since the
beginning of the programme, of which about 60 per cent have been completed till 2012. Of
these works,
- 19 per cent relate to rural connectivity (e.g. village roads)
- 25 per cent relate to water conservation and water harvesting
- 14 per cent relate to irrigation canals and renovation of traditional water bodies
- 13 per cent relate to flood protection and drought proofing
- 13 per cent relate to land development
- 14 per cent relate to work done on private lands (lands belonging to small and marginal farmers/SCs/ STs/Below Poverty Line (BPL) households/Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) and land reform beneficiaries)
12 crore Job Cards (JCs) have been given
and these along with the 9 crore muster rolls have been uploaded on the
Management Information System (MIS), available for public scrutiny. Since
2010–11, all details with regard to the expenditure of the MGNREGA are
available on the MIS in the public domain.
The World Bank has also appreciated
MGNREGA. In its World Development Report 2014, the World Bank termed it a
"stellar example of rural development".
Feel free to comment, Stay tuned for more updates.
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This blog is now on Telegam. For reports on Economics, Current Affairs and more, subscribe this blog on Telegam.
You may also like to Read:
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