MGNREGA (MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT) SCHEME

News: Recently a report presented by parliamentary standing committee highlighted the issues and provided recommendations for MGNREGA.

It aims to make supplementary livelihood in rural areas a legal right through unskilled labour work, along with the creation of quality assets.

Objectives:

• • Providing guarantee of at least 100 days of unskilled manual labour.
  • Creation of productive assets of prescribed quality and durability.
  • Strengthening the livelihood resource base of poor.
  • Ensuring social inclusion proactively.
  • Strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI).

Features:

• • It is a centrally sponsored scheme.
  • Demand driven approach:
    • It provides guaranteed employment of at least 100 days of unskilled manual work in a financial year to every household in rural areas.
    • In case of failure to provide employment within 15 days of demand, unemployment allowance will be given.
    • In drought/natural calamity notified rural areas, 50 days of additional employment in a year will be provided.
    • State government can make provision for additional employment, using their own funds.
  • Accident compensation:
    • Provision of compensation claim in case of accident at the workplace.
    • Ex-Gratia payments provided in case of permanent disability or death as a result of accident at workplace.
  • Cost sharing by centre and states in ratio 90:10.
  • Beneficiaries:
    • All rural household members aged 18 years or above.
    • Identification through door-to-door survey.
    • At least one-third beneficiaries to be women. (women empowerment)
  • Wage payment
    • It is made directly in the account of wage seekers (direct benefit transfer) ensuring transparency.
    • It is to be done within 15 days after completion of work.
  • Grievance redressal (Rural Empowerment)
    • Special provision of social audit to ensure transparency and accountability.
    • Each district to have an Ombudsman to address grievances, conduct enquiries and pass awards.
  • Geotagging of assets created under MGNREGA through GeoMGNREGA of MoRD in association with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO and National Informatics Centre.

Significance:

• • Women Empowerment: The scheme promotes women empowerment by providing one-third representation to women. The rates of women participation in MGNREGS is defined as women person-days out of the total in percent. It is the highest in last 10 years, touching 60% of total till December 24. This has resulted in sharp increase in female labour force participation in rural areas from 18.2% in 2017-18 to 30.5% in 2022-23. Moreover, the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of wages into women’s account has further led to their empowerment. For example – In Pookkottukavu village of Kerela, MGNREGS has led to formation of country’s largest group of trained women well-diggers.
  • Rural empowerment: MGNREGA has led to empowerment at local level by:
    • It provides for an important role of Gram Sabha in terms of execution as well as supervision of activities under the scheme.
    • The act provides legal backing to social audit.
    • Thus, it promotes the role of citizens as active stakeholders rather than passive recipients.
  • It has played a important role in employment generation and increasing the rural labour force participation rate. This has further increased the income of rural households. In this way MGNAREGA has helped rural people in generating extra income and handling agricultural distress.
  • Asset Creation: The works undertaken under MGNREGA results in asset creation and development of rural infrastructure. The road construction has improved connectivity in rural areas and so boost in overall development. MGNREGA has also helped mitigate water stress by revival of community assests of traditional water conservation structures. For example, revival of johads in many villages in Haryana.

Issues:

• • Inadequate Fund Allocation: The funds allocated for the scheme is less than the required amount.
    • Reduced Budgetary Allocation – The Finance Ministry has allocated 22% less funds for MGNREGA for the current financial year (2023-24).
    • Cascading effect – the reduced budgetary allocation by government has cascading effect on other important aspects of the scheme. It causes delays in release of wages and material share. Thus, impacting the overall progress of scheme.
  • Issues related to wages:
    • Delays in wage payment due to infrastructural bottlenecks, unavailability of adequate funds, and lack of administrative compliance. It hinders the process of timely payment of wages.
    • Low wages: The wages given under MGNREGA are not in consonance with the rising cost of living. As a result, agricultural and other labourers involved in miscellaneous works command a daily wage which is more than that guaranteed under MGNREGA. It discourages labourers and hence lowers their participation.
    • Lack of uniformity in wages: There has been a high range of variation among wages in states. It ranges from Rs 221 per day in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to Rs 354 per day in Sikkim. Thus, there is no uniformity in the wage to be paid under MGNREGA.
  • Delay in compensation: The law has provision to provide compensation i.e. unemployment allowance in case of failure to provide employment within 15 days of application/demand. But it is often not adhered to and not paid. According to a recent report by Parliamentary Standing Committee, only about 3 per cent of the workers received unemployment allowance in the last five years.
  • Non-appointment of Ombudsman: States are reluctant to appoint Ombudsman in all districts. A Standing Committee report in 2022 showed that out of 715 possible appointments, only 263 ombudspersons have been appointed. Also, there is lack of awareness among labourers regarding the office of ombudsman which results in less number of complaints reaching to his office. Beside this there are other issues like lack of office infrastructure, huge vacancies, lack capacity building, etc., which hinders its effective functioning.
  • Social Audit: It is an in-built anti-corruption mechanism in MGNREGA Act, 2005. Section 7 of the act mandates the Gram Sabha to monitor the execution of works under MGNREGA. It aims to promote transparency and accountability in scheme implementation.

Status of Social Audit:

As per the data from MIS on Social Audit:

• • Kerela is the only state with 100% social audit status.
  • Only 6 states including Kerela, Bihar, Gujrat, Uttar Pradesh, J&K, Odisha have conducted social audits in more than 50% of their Gram Panchayats.

Challenges in social audit:

• • The Social Audit Units (SAU) are not functioning effectively due to limited financial resources. This hinders them from carrying out social audits on timely basis.
  • There is lack of proper mechanism for protection of Whistle blowers.
  • The follow-ups and coordination between agencies and SAUs are not well established.
  • The auditors lack support in terms of infrastructure and capacity building.

Initiatives undertaken by government:

• • Ombudsman app launched to ensure appointment of ombudsman in every district. Government even announced that fund to be transferred to states only when ombudsman is appointed in at least 80% of the districts.
  • Project UNNATI to promote development and upgradation of skills among the MGNREGA workers.
  • National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) App has been mandated at all worksites to record the digital attendance of workers.
  • Yuktdhara Portal, to ensure GIS based holistic planning of gram panchayat based on principles of watershed development.
  • Geo-MGNREGA portal to geotag the assets created under MGNREGA to curb instances of corruption and ensure effective auditing.
  • SECURE app for estimating, preparing, and approving of works undertaken under MGNREGA.
  • Wages through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to ensure transparency and accountability.

Way forward:

• • Wage structure
    • There is need to revise and re-evaluate the wage structure as the current wages remain insufficient and fall below the minimum standard prescribed by minimum wages act. Thus, the wages must be in consonance with the cost of living.
    • The base wage decision must be based on CPI-R rather than CPI-AL. It will take into account the inflation, ensuring fair representation of reality. It was recommended by Mahendra Dev Committee.
    • It must follow a comprehensive and inclusive approach.
    • Centre can help states to maintain uniform standards in the wage structure.
  • Governance Reforms:
    • There needs to be an institutional mechanism for convergence of MGNREGA with other schemes such as the National Afforestation Mission, Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), Roadside Tree Plantation, etc. this will address the problem of inadequate budgetary allocation ensuring effective implementation of the scheme.
    • There is a need for strict compliance in payment of compensation i.e. unemployment allowance.
    • Establishment of Management Support System at national and state levels to provide central evaluation and monitoring system.
    • There should be proper impact assessment of the scheme to decide on further course of action.
  • Social audits must be regularly done on real time basis. The audit reports must be publicly available for scrutiny. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) should establish a mechanism involving all stakeholders to handhold gram sabhas to ensure regular social audits of all projects under MGNREGA.
  • Raising awareness among rural people regarding the grievance redressal process and appointment of ombudsman. It can be done through campaigns, social media etc.