Great Lakes Institute of Management

PGPM 2013-14
MGNREGA:
Is it resulting in the intended outcomes?

Sharad Raghavan

Introduction
What is the Act?
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was passed in Parliament in 2005 and has been one of the flagship projects of the ruling Congress-led UPA coalition. The Act was put into place to provide 100 days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to any adult who asks, and who is willing to do unskilled work. The intended beneficiaries of the Act were the poor. It was almost entirely on the basis of the popularity of this concept that the UPA government won its re-election in 2009.
The objectives of the Act, as stated by the Ministry of Rural Development are:
1. Ensuring social protection for the most vulnerable people living in rural India through employment opportunities.
2. Ensuring livelihood security for the poor through creation of durable assets, improved water security, soil conservation and higher land productivity.
3. Strengthening drought-proofing and flood management in rural India.
4. Aiding in the empowerment of the marginalized communities, especially women, Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), through the processes of a rights-based legislation.
5. Strengthening decentralized, participatory planning through convergence of various anti-poverty and livelihoods initiatives.
6. Deepening democracy at the grass-roots by strengthening the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
7. Effecting greater transparency and accountability in governance.1
Implementation
The Act came into effect on February 2, 2006. At that point, it was restricted to 200 rural districts. However, this was expanded to 130 more districts in 2007-08, and the remaining districts were included the subsequent year. Since 2008, MGNREGA has covered the whole country except those