MGNREGA_SAMEEKSHA

Recent Initiatives to Strengthen Mgnrega 75
days (of demand). Reports prepared on this will
have to be part of the essential set of reports to
be tracked at the State level,
• State Governments have to ensure that the
MGNREGA MIS will record the demand for work,
i.e. the monitoring system has to ensure it captures
even households 3 that may have been purposely
denied employment,
• To estimate demand in advance, the district
administration may conduct a door to door survey
of Job Card (JC) 4 holders .
Effective Planning
To adequately match the demand of work, prior
assessment of the quantum of work likely to be
demanded as well as the timing of this demand, is
required. Concomitantly, a shelf of projects of works
to be taken up in the year, should be prepared to meet
this demand.
This matching of demand and supply of work is
the process of planning under MGNREGA and is
summed up as a Labour Budget for submission to
the GoI for fund allocation at the beginning of the
Financial Year (FY).
A Labour Budget must, therefore, reflect:
• Anticipated quantum of demand for work,
• Precise timing of the demand for work, as also
• A plan that outlines the quantum and schedule of
work to be provided to those who demand work.
Table 7.2
This is the only way work-providers can open work
in a manner that is synchronised with the pattern
of migration in that area so as to pre-empt distress
migration. It must also be incumbent upon workproviders
to pro-actively inform work-demanders well
in advance about the schedule of work to be provided
so that they do not need to migrate in distress.
Strict Time Schedule
Under the current timeline, Annual Plans (outlining
works to be undertaken in a GP, as per demand) are to be
presented for approval at the Gram Sabha (GS) 5 around
2 October each year. However, this may be too late to
prevent distress migration. In the absence of a timely
work guarantee, households are likely to migrate after
the kharif 6 harvest season. It is, therefore, important
for the GP to inform potential workers of available
employment and the timing of this employment
well in advance of the kharif harvest. The Guidelines
provide a time schedule (see Table 7.2), to ensure
that Labour Budgets are submitted on time by States,
approved by the GoI, communicated back to the States
and districts for beginning work in March and April.
Deployment of Human Resources
Field studies (see Chapter 6) and reports have both
indicated the need to deploy additional staff to aid
with effective planning at the GP level, supervising
(taking measurement, etc.) and monitoring of works.
Time Schedule
Date
Action to be taken
15 August Gram Sabha to approve GP Annual Plan
2 October Block Panchayat to submit Block Annual Plan to the District Programme
Coordinator (DPC)
1 December District Panchayat approves District Annual Plan
15 December DPC ensures shelf of projects ready for each GP
1 March Work for the next financial year begins
3
A household is defined as members of a family related to each other by blood, marriage or adoption, and normally residing
together and sharing meals.
4
See Introduction for further explanation.
5
A Gram Sabha is a body of all persons entered as electors in the electoral roll for a Gram Panchayat. All the meetings of the
Gram Sabha are convened by the Gram Panchayat to disseminate information to the people as well as to ensure that development
of the village is done through participation or consent of all households
6
Kharif season is an agricultural season. In India the Kharif season is normally between May and January (the season differs
across states). Kharif crops include paddy, millets, etc.