Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

Introduction
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is an
Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on 25 August 2005. The scheme
provides a legal guarantee for at least one hundred days of employment in every
financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-
related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage of 120 (US$2.20) per
day in 2009 prices. If they fail to do so the govt. has to pay the salary at their homes.
The Central government outlay for scheme is 4000 billion (US$74 billion) in FY
201011.
This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural
people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living in rural India, whether or
not they are below the poverty line. Around one-third of the stipulated work force is
women. The law was initially called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(NREGA) but was renamed on 2 October 2009.
In 2011, the program was widely criticised as no more effective than other poverty
reduction programs in India. Despite its best intentions, MGNREGA is beset with
controversy about corrupt officials, deficit financing as the source of funds, poor
quality of infrastructure built under this program, and unintended destructive effect on
poverty.
Political background
This act was brought about by the UPA coalition government supported by the left
parties.
Dr. Jean Drze, a Belgian born economist, at the Delhi School of Economics, has
been a major influence on this project.

A variety of people's movements and
organisations actively campaigned for this act.



The plan
The act directs state governments to implement MGNREGA "schemes". Under the
MGNREGA the Central Government meets the cost towards the payment of wage,
3/4 of material cost and some percentage of administrative cost. State Governments
meet the cost of unemployment allowance, 1/4 of material cost and administrative
cost of State council. Since the State Governments pay the unemployment allowance,
they are heavily incentivised to offer employment to workers.
However, it is up to the State Government to decide the amount of unemployment
allowance, subject to the stipulation that it not be less than 1/4 the minimum wage for
the first 30 days, and not less than 1/2 the minimum wage thereafter. 100 days of
employment (or unemployment allowance) per household must be provided to able
and willing workers every financial year
Provisions under NREGA
Adult members of a rural household, willing to do unskilled manual work, are
required to make registration in writing or orally to the local Gram Panchayat
The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job Card. The Job Card
will bear the photograph of all adult members of the household willing to
work under NREGA and is free of cost.
The Job Card should be issued within 15 days of application.
A Job Card holder may submit a written application for employment to the
Gram Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought. The
minimum days of employment have to be at least fourteen.
The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for
employment, against which the guarantee of providing employment within 15
days operates
Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work, if it is not
then daily unemployment allowance as per the Act, has to be paid liability of
payment of unemployment allowance is of the States.
Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village. In case
work is provided beyond 5 km, extra wages of 10% are payable to meet
additional transportation and living expenses
Wages are to be paid according to the Minimum Wages Act 1948 for
agricultural labourers in the State, unless the Centre notices a wage rate which
will not be less than 60 (US$1.10) per day. Equal wages will be provided to
both men and women.
Note: The original version of the Act was passed with Rs155/ day as the minimum
wage that needs to be paid under NREGA. However, a lot of states in India already
have wage regulations with minimum wages set at more than 100 (US$1.80) per
day. NREGA's minimum wage has since been changed to 130 (US$2.40) per day.
Wages are to be paid according to piece rate or daily rate. Disbursement of
wages has to be done on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight in any case.
At least one-third beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and
requested work under the scheme.
Work site facilities such as crche, drinking water, shade have to be provided
The shelf of project for a village will be recommended by the Gram Sabha and
approved by the Zilla Panchayat.
At least 50% of works will be allotted to Gram Panchayat for execution
Permissible works predominantly include water and soil conservation,
afforestation and land development works
A 60:40 wage and material ratio has to be maintained. No contractors and
machinery is allowed
The Central Govt. bears the 100 per cent wage cost of unskilled manual labour
and 75 per cent of the material cost including the wages of skilled and semi-
skilled workers
Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha
Grievance redressed mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a
responsive implementation process


History

MNREGA was launched on 2 February 2006 from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh and
initially covered 200 of the "poorest" districts of the country. The Act was
implemented in phased manner; 130 districts were added from 2007 to 2008. With its
spread to over 625 districts across the country, the flagship program of the UPA
Government has the potential to increase the purchasing power of rural poor, reduce
distress migration and to create useful assets in rural India. Also, it can foster social
and gender equality as 23% workers under the scheme are Scheduled Castes, 17%
Scheduled Tribes and 50% women. In 201011, 41 million households were
employed on NREGA worksites.

Funding
MGNREGA started with an initial outlay of $2.5bn(Rs113 billion) in year 2006
07.The funding has considerably been increased as shown in the table below:
Year Total Outlay(TO) Wage Expenditure(Per cent of TO)
200607 $2.5bn 66
200708 $2.6bn 68
200809 $6.6bn 67
200910 $8.68bn 70
201011 $8.91bn 71







Implementation
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its performance audit of the
implementation of MGNREGA has found "significant deficiencies" in the
implementation of the act. The plan was launched in February 2006 in 200 districts
and eventually extended to cover 593 districts. 44,940,870 rural households were
provided jobs under NREGA during 200809, with a national average of 48 working
days per household.

In recent times, NREGA workers have faced problems due to
delays in payment of wages, some of which have been pending for months.

In July
2012, the Government admitted that the programme is plagued with corruption and it
needs to be dealt with meaningfully.


Employment under NREGAS in 2010
Indian Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain said in a written reply to
a question in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that As of 30 June, a total of 17,943,189
families in the country have been provided employment under MGNREGS.
Works/Activities

The MGNREGA achieves twin objectives of rural development and employment. The
MGNREGA stipulates that works must be targeted towards a set of specific rural
development activities such as: water conservation and harvesting, afforestation, rural
connectivity, flood control and protection such as construction and repair of
embankments, etc. Digging of new tanks/ponds, percolation tanks and construction of
small check dams are also given importance. The employers are given work such as
land leveling, tree plantation, etc. First a proposal is given by the Panchayat to the
Block Office and then the Block Office decides whether the work should be
sanctioned. In Rangareddy district manchal mandal the dry land horticulture and
plantation of trees on the bunds of the fields taken up under MGVN programme is
taken up in a big way. MGNREGA is a poor and those family are provided work in at
a time.


Criticisms
Many criticisms have been levelled at the programme, which has been argued to be no
more effective than other poverty reduction programs in India. The program is beset
with controversy about corrupt officials, deficit financing as the source of funds for
the program, poor implementation, and unintended destructive effect on poverty. A
2008 report claimed the state of Rajasthan as an exception wherein the rural
population was well informed of their rights and about half of the population had
gained an income from the entitlement program. However, a 2011 Wall Street Journal
report claims that the program has been a failure. Even in Rajasthan, despite years of
spending and the creation of government mandated unskilled rural work, no major
roads have been built, no new homes, schools or hospitals or any infrastructure to
speak of has resulted from the program.
At national level, a key criticism is corruption. Workers hired under the MGNREGA
program say they are frequently not paid in full or forced to pay bribes to get jobs, and
aren't learning any new skills that could improve their long-term prospects and break
the cycle of poverty. There are also claims of fictitious labourers and job cards by
corrupt officials causing so called leakage in program spending.
Another important criticism is the poor quality of public works schemes' completed
product. In a February 2012 interview, Jairam Ramesh, the Minister of Rural
Development for the central government of India, admitted that the roads and
irrigation canals built by unskilled labor under this program are of very poor quality
and wash away with any significant rains. Villagers simply dig new irrigation pits
every time one is washed away in the monsoons. The completed works do not add to
the desperately needed rural infrastructure.
The MGNREGA programme spent US$ 9 billion in the 2011 fiscal year according to
official data. Economists have raised some concerns about the sustainability of this
subsidy scheme Indias fiscal deficit is expected to reach 5.6 per cent of GDP this
year, compared with 5.1 per cent last year. The MGNREGA program has been found
to distort labour markets and has helped along with fuel and fertilizer subsidies
to balloon India's federal fiscal deficit.
Yet another criticism is the unintended effect of MGNREGA in terms of skill growth.
A review published by India in September 2011 conceded that the lack of skilled
technicians at almost every site under MGNREGA program, along with rules banning
the use of machinery or contractors (labour is usually by shovel). Such bureaucratic
regulations mean that the labourers learn no new skill, and that the ponds, roads,
drains, dams and other assets built with manual labour are often of wretched quality.
The idea behind MGNREGA program is to create as many jobs as possible for
unskilled workers. But in practice, say critics, it means no one learns new skills, only
basic projects get completed and the poor stay poor dependent on government
checks.
"We work because there's high unemployment here and the land is less fertile." But he
questioned the point, saying "There's no meaning to it. Instead of this they should
build proper roads."
Abdul Jameel Khan, a farmer employed by India's MGNREGA entitlement
program quoted in a 2011 article by The Wall Street Journal
A multi-million-Rupee fraud has also been suspected where many people who have
been issued the NREGA card are either employed with other government jobs or are
not even aware that they have a Job Card. The productivity of labourers involved
under NREGA is considered to be lower because of the fact that labourers consider it
as a better alternative to working under major projects. There is criticism from
construction companies that NREGA has affected the availability of labour as
labourers prefer to working under NREGA to working under construction projects.
It is also widely criticised that NREGA has contributed to farm labour shortage. In
July 2011, the government has advised the states to suspend the NREGA programme
during peak farming periods.
The National Advisory Committee (NAC) advocated the government for NREGA
wages linkage with statutory minimum wages which is under Minimum wages act as
NREGA workers get only Rs100 per day
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi_National_Rural_Employment_Guaran
tee_Act

































S. NO. STATE NAME
1 ANDHRA PRADESH
2 ARUNACHAL PRADESH
3 ASSAM
4 BIHAR
5 CHHATTISGARH
6 GOA
7 GUJARAT
8 HARYANA
9 HIMACHAL PRADESH
10 JAMMU AND KASHMIR
11 JHARKHAND
12 KARNATAKA
13 KERALA
14 MADHYA PRADESH
15 MAHARASHTRA
16 MANIPUR
17 MEGHALAYA
18 MIZORAM
19 NAGALAND
20 ORISSA
21 PUNJAB
22 RAJASTHAN
23 SIKKIM
24 TAMIL NADU
25 TRIPURA
26 UTTAR PRADESH
27 UTTARAKHAND
28 WEST BENGAL
29 ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR
30 CHANDIGARH
31 DADRA & NAGAR HAVELI
32 DAMAN & DIU
33 LAKSHADWEEP
34 PUDUCHERRY