NREGA’s Impact on the Material Well-Being and Political Capacity of Poor People

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Jenkins ◽  
James Manor
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
The Political ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Political Capacity ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Material Benefits ◽  
Employment Guarantee ◽  
Severe Shortage

This chapter assesses the positive political impacts of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) on poor and marginalized people. Two types of impacts are distinguished: those stemming primarily from the material benefits derived by NREGA workers (increased incomes, less dependence on elites), and those that contribute to their “political capacity”, the severe shortage of which has constituted an important dimension of their “poverty”.The authors define political capacity as an amalgam of political awareness, confidence, skills and connections. To advance these claims, the chapter discusses the uses to which laborers put their wages, NREGA's impact on distress migration by poor people, the gains made by women, examples of unusual alliances through participation in NREGA works, and the political implications of all of these processes.

Implications

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Jenkins ◽  
James Manor
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Indian Politics ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Enforcement Mechanisms ◽  
A Site ◽  
Employment Guarantee ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter advances six arguments concerning the relationship between Indian politics and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA): NREGA, for all its faults, has improved the well-being of tens of millions of poor people; (2) NREGA's political aims and implications must be recognized to appreciate its significance as a development initiative; (3) while the Indian state's porousness provides privileged access to business organizations and socially powerful constituencies, it also offers openings for voices seeking to effect progressive social change in the interests of non-elite groups; (4) various aspects of NREGA implementation have demonstrated the complex process through which “clientelist” politics in India is being transformed rather than eliminated; (5) NREGA is emblematic of a new category of rights—a category we term “governance rights”, which are characterized by hybridity in terms of both content and enforcement mechanisms; and (6) NREGA spurred a devolution of resources to elected local councils, which made village-level democratic institutions, despite their shortcomings, a site where poorer people's demands for accountability were legitimated—a process aided in some states by unusually capable social movements, and in others by state bureaucracies.

scholarly journals Impact of MGNREGA on Rural Development in Mobiripatty Panchayati in Dharmapuri District

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-25
Author(s):  
V Chinnasamy
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
Rural Area ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mahatma Gandhi ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Employment Guarantee ◽  
The Village ◽  
Economic Well Being

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) indicates that the programme can have an impact positivelyon the social and economic well-being of rural labourers and their families in particular. It holds the great prospect of bringing significant changes in the rural area. MGNREGA has strengthened the social auditing through various mechanisms adopted by the scheme which is mandated to be implemented by the village panchayats. One of the prime requirements of the project is that it is to be performed by the village panchayat not through the contractors either appointed by the panchayats.

All Politics is ‘Local’?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Jenkins ◽  
James Manor
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
Block Level ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Employment Guarantee ◽  
Panchayati Raj ◽  
The Village

This chapter examines the complex interplay between the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) and the multiple levels of political representation that comprise India's system of local government, known as panchayati raj, which includes elected councils at the village, block, and district levels. The analysis of the politics of NREGA implementation assesses the roles played by both politicians and administrators operating at each of these three levels. These interactions are assessed through an examination of three NREGA-related processes: (1) the increased power and resources of elected local councils, and the consolidation of power within these councils by their leaders; (2) the rationing of work opportunities, and the political logic behind the exclusion of certain groups; and (3) the struggles between village- and block-level actors over opportunities to engage in corruption.

scholarly journals Covid-19 and some contours of India’s ongoing agrarian crisis

2021 ◽  
pp. 194277862098519
Author(s):  
Shantanu De Roy ◽  
C. Saratchand
Keyword(s):  
Public Procurement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Initiative ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
Food Grains ◽  
Rural Producers ◽  
Agrarian Crisis ◽  
Employment Guarantee

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an aggravation of the agrarian crisis in India. The rural proletariat, poor peasants, and a section of middle peasants in India have been adversely affected. The paper advances a composite policy initiative to deal with this aggravation of the agrarian crisis involving an expansion of the existing rural employment guarantee schemes, various input subsidies to farmers, universal provision of safety gear for rural producers, and an expanded public procurement of food grains. It concludes with the political prognosis of the proposed composite policy initiative.

Issues and Challenges in Implementation of MGNREGA: A Case Study from Maharashtra

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudhir Maske
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Rural Household ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
Employment Guarantee ◽  
Employment Guarantee Scheme

National Rural Employment Grantee Act (NREGA) is one of the progressive and transformative legislation passed by Indian Parliament in the year of 2005 by UPA government for ensuring employment guarantee and livelihood security to each rural household. In year 2007 it is renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The fundamental goal of this right based policy initiative is to provide employment guarantee and promote infrastructural development in the villages for the well-being rural household, it has also been considered as an integrated approach for rural poverty eradication and sustainable development. Since, nine years MGNREGA is being implemented in all 623 districts of the country, but it has not shown the result which had been expected and even put forward in MGNREGA objectives. Most of the evaluation studies shown that the scheme is not working properly at ground level because of its poor implementation. There are many issues and challenges are coming up in its implementation. It is observed that very few states like Andhra Pardesh, Rajasthan, etc. where programme is being implemented in successive mode. Maharashtra state is mile stone in MGREGA, the origin Of EGS scheme is a backbone of this act. In 1974, the Maharashtra state government had started Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and it was put into operation for entire year. At present the previous employment guarantee scheme has merged into MGNREGA guideline issued by the central government. Though the state has reach experience of EGS implementation, but the present merged MGNREGA programme is not working properly at ground level. There are many issues are coming up in its implementation process which are caused by different factors such as demand of work, identification of work site and planning, complicated administrative structure with less competent staff, delay in payment, lack of human resources. The author has made an attempt to analyze these factors based on case study of two villages, named Kashod Shivpur and Bhilkhed in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. FGD and interview schedule was used for data collection. This paper also trying to highlights if the act has implemented with spirit and commitment how it can help to regenerate the village resources to achieve the prime goals of sustainable development.

Act of Creation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Jenkins ◽  
James Manor
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
The Media ◽  
Employment Programs ◽  
Employment Guarantee ◽  
Intense Debate

This chapter provides a close examination of specific provisions found in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA). The analysis of the legal and regulatory provisions (the content) is followed by an examination of how NREGA came into being (its origins). The focus, again, is on the politics underlying this process. The chapter stresses the importance of India's precursor employment programs and various movements that have over the years worked to make them more accountable to their intended beneficiaries. It also assesses aspects of NREGA that became matters of intense debate on the floor of parliament, in the media, and beyond. Each of these contested legislative provisions would subsequently, in one form or other, play a role in the political battles surrounding NREGA's implementation (a subject covered in Chapter 7 of the book).

Antigone's Dilemma: A Problem in Political Membership

Hypatia ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie A. Hartouni
Keyword(s):  
Female Subject ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Theorist ◽  
Feminist Consciousness ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Alternative Reading ◽  
Political Membership

What constitutes an adequate basis for feminist consciousness? What values and concerns are feminists to bring to bear in challenging present standards of well‐being and articulating alternative visions of collective life? This essay takes a close and critical look at these questions as they are addressed in the work of political theorist Jean Elshtain. An outspoken defender of “pro‐family feminism,” Elshtain has urged contemporary feminists to reclaim the “female subject” within the private sphere. Enormous problems attend Elshtain's counsel and these have as much to do with the political implications of her argument as with her reading of the Sophoclean tragedy Antigone. With an eye towards foregrounding what some of these problems are, this essay elaborates an alternative reading of Sophocles’ Antigone and moves from that exposition to an examination of why it is that Elshtain's claims and conclusions are politically unsound and unsustainable.

Issues and Challenges in Implementation of MGNREGA: A Case Study from Maharashtra

GIS Business ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-49
Author(s):  
Sudhir Maske
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Rural Household ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
Employment Guarantee ◽  
Employment Guarantee Scheme

National Rural Employment Grantee Act (NREGA) is one of the progressive and transformative legislation passed by Indian Parliament in the year of 2005 by UPA government for ensuring employment guarantee and livelihood security to each rural household. In year 2007 it is renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The fundamental goal of this right based policy initiative is to provide employment guarantee and promote infrastructural development in the villages for the well-being rural household, it has also been considered as an integrated approach for rural poverty eradication and sustainable development. Since, nine years MGNREGA is being implemented in all 623 districts of the country, but it has not shown the result which had been expected and even put forward in MGNREGA objectives. Most of the evaluation studies shown that the scheme is not working properly at ground level because of its poor implementation. There are many issues and challenges are coming up in its implementation. It is observed that very few states like Andhra Pardesh, Rajasthan, etc. where programme is being implemented in successive mode. Maharashtra state is mile stone in MGREGA, the origin Of EGS scheme is a backbone of this act. In 1974, the Maharashtra state government had started Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and it was put into operation for entire year. At present the previous employment guarantee scheme has merged into MGNREGA guideline issued by the central government. Though the state has reach experience of EGS implementation, but the present merged MGNREGA programme is not working properly at ground level. There are many issues are coming up in its implementation process which are caused by different factors such as demand of work, identification of work site and planning, complicated administrative structure with less competent staff, delay in payment, lack of human resources. The author has made an attempt to analyze these factors based on case study of two villages, named Kashod Shivpur and Bhilkhed in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. FGD and interview schedule was used for data collection. This paper also trying to highlights if the act has implemented with spirit and commitment how it can help to regenerate the village resources to achieve the prime goals of sustainable development.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Jenkins ◽  
James Manor
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Madhya Pradesh ◽  
Political Capacity ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
Employment Guarantee

This chapter provides an overview of the book's analytical focus, conceptual approach, main arguments, and research process. It introduces the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA), which was part of a raft of rights-based development legislation passed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that governed India from 2004-2014. NREGA was central to the Indian state's efforts to upgrade the country's relatively thin social welfare provision to something more in keeping with its growing economic and political profile. Six central contentions are outlined, each with a brief explanation. The chapter also justifies the book's approach to concepts such as institutions, poverty, and politics, and introduces the components of what the authors call “political capacity”. Elements of the research process – including information on the key case study states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh – are also discussed, and the organization of the remainder of the book, including a chapter outline, is presented.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document