MGNREGA

Abhishek Sharma
15114003

MGNREGA
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is an Indian job guarantee
scheme adopted in August 2005.

Initially called National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(NREGA) but renamed on 2nd October 2009

The basic idea behind an

Employment Guarantee Act
The idea is to give a legal guarantee of employment to
anyone who is willing to do casual manual labour at the
statutory minimum wage.
Any adult who applies for work under the Act is entitled
to being employed on public works without delay.
It is a step towards legal enforcement of the right to
work, as an aspect of the fundamental right to live with
dignity.

NREGA: Old spirit, new letters

It focuses on the countrys poorest regions.
It has been designed keeping in mind the problems
of the rain-fed areas of the country, which sustain
40 per cent of Indias population.
It is designed as a safety net to reduce migration by
rural poor households in the lean period through
hundred days of guaranteed unskilled manual
labour provided when demanded at minimum
wages.
Works focused on water conservation, land
development & drought proofing, etc.

NREGA: Objectives
The basic objective of the Act is to enhance 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
This work guarantee can also serves other objectives like
1.
2.
3.

Generating productive assets,

Protecting the environment and empowering rural
women.
Reducing rural urban migration and fostering social
equity, among others.

Key Processes: Demand for

Employment
Rural Household
Registration Application

Gram Panchayat

Verification

Registration
Job Card

Employment Demand

GP

Work allocation
15 days of Demand

Facilities:
Creche,medical
aid,water

Work- Site
Wages-15 days

Muster roll with Job Card Nos.

Measurement

The Unemployment
Allowance
If employment is not provided within 15 days, the applicant
is entitled to an unemployment allowance:
At least one fourth of the minimum wage for the first 30
days.
At least one half of the minimum wage thereafter.

Permissible Works
Water conservation and water harvesting
Drought proofing (including afforestation and tree plantation)
Irrigation canals (including micro and minor irrigation works)
Provision of irrigation facility to land owned by households
belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes or to land of
beneficiaries of land reforms.
Renovation of traditional water bodies (including desilting of
tanks)
Land development
Flood control and protection works (including drainage in waterlogged areas)
Rural connectivity to provide all-weather access
Any other work, which may be notified by the Central
government in consultation with the state government

WATER CONSERVATION IS GIVEN THE

HIGHEST PRIORITY !

NREGA: Positive Trends

* Increase in Agriculture Minimum Wages and wage earned per day

and annual income of rural Households. Bargaining power of labour

has increased.
* Earnings per HH has increased from Rs 2795 in 2006-07 to Rs 3150 in
2007-08 to Rs 4060 in 2008-09 and about Rs 5000 in 2009-10
* Financial Inclusion: More than 9.19 crore accounts opened
* Distress migration has reduced in many parts
* Green Jobs created as 70% works relate to water conservation,
water-harvesting, restoration, renovation and desilting of water
bodies, drought-proofing, plantation & afforestation
* Productivity effects of NREGA
- Improvement in ground water
- Improved agricultural productivity & cropping intensity
- Livelihood diversification in rural areas.
10

Current Scenario
The new NDA government was not a big advocate of the scheme
in the initial days. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said in the
Parliament that he would keep the Act alive to showcase it as a
monument of Congress failure.
The NDA government also tried to limit the schemes coverage to
few extremely poor districts.
But, then came two consecutive droughts and a historic low in
farm prices due to decline of the global commodities market.
The government has come to understand that NREGA is one of
the best schemes among the existing ones to alleviate poverty.
Astudy of 2015 showed that the Act helped in lowering poverty
by almost 32 per cent between 2004-05 to 2011-12 and prevented
almost 14 million people from falling into poverty

For the 2015-16, Union Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,

allocated Rs 41,699 crore to the scheme, the highest ever for
any year and higher than the previous fiscal years by around
26 per cent.
The schemes convergence with related programmes in the
department of agriculture, irrigation, animal husbandry and
even road transport is also being planned.
The delay in wage transfers have come down. In fact, Centre
claims that it now transfers funds to state governments within
48 hours of Fund Transfer Order. Earlier, this took more than a
month.
Of the 9.73 crore active MGNREGA workers, 5.53 crore have
Aadhar seeded bank accounts.

Thank You..!