Ashok Varmma
India Budget 2020: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) acts as a tool to provide social security to households in rural areas by guaranteeing annually a minimum of 100 days of unskilled manual work to every rural household, and develop rural infrastructure through decentralized planning at the village level. Nationally, under the scheme, the average wage paid per-day per-person is Rs 182, which has increased by 17% since 2015. Between individual states, the wage varies from INR 151 in Rajasthan to Rs 288 in Haryana.
Amongst the various type of infrastructure developed, the 4 years have seen focus developing individual assets for vulnerable households, including building housing and means of enhancing land productivity and livelihoods.
MGNREGS is an inclusive scheme benefitting India’s rural workforce including women by statutorily ensuring a minimum of 33% participation. Participation of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) households has also been fairly consistent at 22% and 17%, respectively, during the last five years.
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Timely payment of wages was a significant challenge in the past due to cash payments. However, with the implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) to bank accounts, there has been a 160% increase in payments generated within 15 days of the completion of every project from FY16 to FY20.
Considering past successes of the scheme, consistent impetus to the performance of MGNREGS will be crucial in enabling growth of the rural economy.
Note: FY19-20 data is data available from 1st April 2019 to 20th January 2020 Source for all data: MGNREGA MIS
(The author is Leader Social Sector at PwC India. Views expressed are personal.)
