MGNREGA_SAMEEKSHA

104 Bibliography
some extent, in shortening the out-migration period of some migrants. However, due to low realisation of wage amount,
unavailability of employment for a longer period of time and uncertainty of starting of MGNREGA works, many members of
beneficiary households preferred to migrate to other places without waiting to start MGNREGA works in their own village.
Food consumption of MGNREGA beneficiaries was better compared to NSSO data of year 2005. In asset creation, the quality
of assets created was either poor or moderate, due to lack of proper planning and maintenance. Assets became non-useful in a
short period but more than 90 per cent of respondents perceived them as being useful to village community. They also felt that
MGNREGA provides opportunity for infrastructural development of the village.
Shankar, S., and R. Gaiha, ‘Networks and Anti-Poverty Programs: The NREG Experience’, ASARC Working Papers
2011–05, Canberra: Australia South Asia Research Centre, 2011.
Abstract: Governments struggle with the reality that the beneficiaries of anti-poverty programmes are powerless to influence
policies and stem the possibility of capture of benefits by the non-poor. Networks—social and political—are supposed to increase
the ability of the less powerful to access their entitlements. The paper assesses whether socially and politically networked
households do, in fact, have better awareness of the components of the programme and of the processes of decision-making,
and whether such networking makes them more likely to vocalise their dissatisfaction when their entitlements are threatened.
India’s national rural employment guarantee scheme’s (NREG) institutional design (mandating village assemblies to authorise
decisions on the projects) makes it a good test case. The results show that links to social and political networks do significantly
increase the awareness of the villagers on the programme’s components and enhances their ability to seek redress of their
grievances.
Shariff, A., ‘Assessment of Outreach and Benefits of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India’, Indian Journal
of Labour Economics, vol. 52, no. 2, 2009, pp. 243–68.
Abstract: This paper analyses official statistics and survey data from seven northern States. The future of NREGA is strongly
linked to the cherished national goal to strengthen and broad base decentralisation of local governance. But there are wide
variations amongst the States not only in the level of decentralisation but also in the capacity to implement such a large scheme
and lack of convergence amongst relevant government departments and functionaries. NREGA has the potential to address
both sustenance of income and enhance the social welfare of households in rural areas.
Sharma, A. ‘Rights-based Legal Guarantee as Development Policy: A Discussion on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA’), New Delhi: UNDP, 2010.
Abstract: The paper seeks to critically examine Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
as a Rights-based legal framework for guaranteeing basic livelihood security to rural households. The main concern of the paper
is to examine the legal design and policy innovations and the extent to which they facilitate the fulfilment of the objectives of
the Act. The issues discussed in the context of MGNREGA as a Rights-based law may be pertinent to policy formulation in
other development contexts. In examining the rights-based framework of MGNREGA, the following questions arise: (i) What
Rights are being recognised? (ii) What are the processes for realising them? Are these feasible? (iii) What obligations are created
by such processes upon the State and the citizen? (iv) What are the challenges to the administrative systems in implementing
programmes governed by legal frameworks? (v) What kinds of negotiations are possible to balance the mandatory nature of
law and the flexibility desired of a development programme.
The discussion of MGNREGA in terms of its design and key factors that constrain and facilitate the achievement of its
objectives engages with these questions, suggesting possibilities of reviewing some aspects of the Act as well as hoping to offer
insights to similar policy exercises.
MGNREGA belongs to a long history of wage employment programmes. The most significant features of the MGNREGA are
that it creates a rights-based framework and that it is a law. Backed by political will and adequate budget resources from the
Government of India, the implementation of the Act has yielded encouraging results, despite uneven performance across the
country. Initial studies vindicate its effect in augmenting employment, increasing wage earnings, stemming distress migration,
enhancing productivity and promoting equity, especially gender equity. The way ahead is to (i) build capacity of the system to
deliver a legal guarantee (ii) develop capabilities of the people to demand rights and hold the Government accountable (iii)
revisit the Act to make it an instrument for more sustainable development.
Siddhartha, and A. Vanaik, ‘Findings from a Survey in Himachal Pradesh’, in Battle for Employment Guarantee, ed. R.
Khera, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 201–20.