Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) survey has pointed few areas of failures in the MGNREGA.
What is MGNREGA?
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act,is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'.
It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
Employment is to be provided based on demand and within 5 km of an applicant's residence, and minimum wages are to be paid.
If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to an unemployment allowance.
The budgetary allocations for the scheme is shared by the Centre and states on a 75:25 basis.
There is a steady annual increase in the budgetary allocations to MGNREGA, which touched a record Rs 48,000 crore in 2017-18.
What are the positive findings of the report?
In the past few years, many villages shifted their focus towards taking up soil and water conservation works under this scheme.
As a result, there is an 11.5% increase in the productivity of cereals and a 32% rise in the case of vegetables in areas where water-conservation assets have been created.
Rural income has risen by 11% in these areas.
160 crore man-days had been generated under the MGNREGA, in the 2017-18 fiscal.
What are the negative findings on MGNREGA?
Average wages earned by MGNREGA workers in many regions were lower than market rates.
Migration from rural areas has continued in about 80% of the surveyed districts, in others it has dipped only marginally.
Low wages and an inadequate number of days of assured employment are reasons for migration of rural population for jobs.
There have been rampant malpractices, leakage of funds and diversion of resources to other sectors by state governments.
Instances of huge use of fake job cards and fake entries in job sheets has been found, in many cases people had multiple cards to draw extra benefits.
