January - March 2013 - National Institute of Rural Development

Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 32, No. (1) pp. 19 - 31NIRD, Hyderabad.WAGE EMPLOYMENT : IMPACTOF MGNREGS IN BARDHAMAN,WEST BENGALBiju Paul Abraham, Bhaskar Chakrabarti,Raghabendra Chattopadhyay*, Suman Nath**ABSTRACTIn this paper, we study the impact of MGNREGS on the beneficiaries and analysepotential management problems of the implementing agencies in Bardhaman, arelatively prosperous district of West Bengal. Analysis of official documents andprimary data collection in all blocks over a period of three years indicates thatBardhaman has been successful in addressing the challenges of running the scheme.However, because of available alternative employment opportunities, conductingMGNREGS matching the Annual Action Plan is a serious challenge to the GPs. Thelocal people look for less labour intensive schemes, and political parties pressuriseGram Panchayats to initiate popular errands which makes it difficult to match villageneeds with demands.IntroductionThe National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act, installed by the Congress ledUnited Progressive Alliance–I in 2005 ensuresa minimum of 100 days of employment toevery household of India, and has the potentialto become the strongest public employmentprogramme in history (Ambasta, Shankar &Shah, 2008; Bharghava, 2006; Jaffer, 2009). Atoperational level, Mahatma Gandhi NationalRural Employment Generation Scheme(MGNREGS) is a positive response to the a)grievances of increasing rural unemployment(Mukhopadhyay and Rajaraman, 2007), b) 80per cent people’s life under internationalpoverty line of $2 per day (World Bank, 2005),c) increasing poverty (Chen and Ravallion,2000) and marked rural urban inequality (Dattand Ravallion 2002), d) collapse of agriculture(Shah, 2007) and e) a decline in the rate ofagriculture extension. Even if agricultureproduction increases, there are problems ofmarketing and storage in states like WestBengal (Harris-White, 2008; Nath & Chakrabarti,2011). Prevailing social inequality andunintended politicisation forming fragments,and skewed resource allocation add to theexisting problems (Chattopadhyay, Chakrabarti& Nath, 2010; Mukhopadhyay and Rajaraman2007; Sundaram and Tendulkar, 2003). Theseshortcomings often compel farmers tocommit suicide (Shah, 2007).* Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor, Respectively, Public Policy and Management Group, IndianInstitute of Management, Calcutta email : bhaskar@iimcal.ac.in** Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Haldia Government College, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal 721657.