The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA)

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA)

Subject : Government Schemes

Context:

India’s Rural development ministry has formed a panel to revamp its only job guarantee scheme in the hope of directing more work to the country’s poorer regions.

Details:

• The revaluation of the scheme comes as rural unemployment in India has remained above 7% for most of the current fiscal year.
• The panel will recommend institutional mechanisms, including governance and administrative structures, for more effective utilization of funds, especially to address poverty
• It will examine expenditure trends across various states and identify reasons for variations, the official added.
• The panel now aims to redesign work opportunities available under this scheme.

Significance?

MGNREGA’s performance is possibly the most important proxy for the health of the informal economy, which accounts for anywhere between 80% to 90% of all employment in India.

Concept: 

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA):

• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 or MNREGA, earlier known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA.
• It is also known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) and was enacted on August 25, 2005. 
• It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to at least one member of every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
• Women are guaranteed one third of the jobs made available under the MGNREGA.
• Another aim of MGNREGA is to create durable assets (such as roads, canals, ponds and 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.
•  The MGNREG Act actually gives rural households the right to work — making it obligatory for the State to give them work on demand.
  • If the government fails to provide employment, it has to provide certain unemployment allowances to those people. Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement. 
• The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD)  is monitoring the entire implementation of this scheme in association with state governments.
• MGNREGA is to be implemented mainly by gram panchayats (GPs). 
• The act explicitly mentions the principles and agencies for implementation, list of allowed works, financing pattern, monitoring and evaluation, and detailed measures to ensure transparency and accountability.

Process of getting employment

• Adult members of rural households submit their name, age and address with a photo to the Gram Panchayat. 
• The Gram Panchayat registers households after making enquiry and issues a job card.
• The job card contains the details of the adult member enrolled and his /her photo.
• Registered person can submit an application for work in writing (for at least fourteen days of continuous work) either to Panchayat or to Programme Officer.
• The Panchayat/Programme officer will accept the valid application and issue a dated receipt of application, letter providing work will be sent to the applicant and also displayed at Panchayat office.
• Within 15 days of submitting the application or from the day work is demanded, wage employment will be provided to the applicant.Receipt of wages within fifteen days of work is done.
• Individual beneficiary oriented works can be taken up on the cards of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, small or marginal farmers or beneficiaries of land reforms or beneficiaries under the Indira Awaas Yojana of the Government of India.
• Social Audit of MGNREGA works is mandatory, which lends to accountability and transparency.
• The Gram Sabha is the principal forum for wage seekers to raise their voices and make demands. It is the Gram Sabha and the Gram Panchayat which approves the shelf of works under MGNREGA and fix their priority.