MGNREGA Yavatmal

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), formerly known as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), is a social welfare law in India that aims to protect the “right to work.” Following the introduction of the bill in the parliament by the Minister for Rural Development, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, this act was enacted on August 23, 2005, and it came into effect in February 2006 under the UPA government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It seeks to increase the security of livelihood in rural regions by giving at least one adult family member who volunteers to perform unskilled manual labor at least 100 days of paid employment in a fiscal year. One-third of open positions are guaranteed to be held by women under the MGNREGA. Making durable assets (such as roads, canals, ponds, and wells) is another goal of MGNREGA. Within 5 kilometers of an applicant’s home, employment must be available, and minimum wages must be paid. Applicants are eligible for an unemployment payment if the job is not offered within 15 days of applying. In other words, if the government fails to create jobs for individuals, it must nevertheless give them certain unemployment benefits. As a result, employment under MGNREGA is a right recognized by law. In addition to ensuring economic stability and building rural assets, the NREGA is believed to support social fairness, environmental protection, empowering rural women, and a decrease in rural-urban migration. P.V. Narasimha Rao, who was the prime minister at the time, originally suggested the law in 1991. Finally approved by the parliament, it started to be implemented in 625 Indian districts. As a result of this pilot program’s success, NREGA’s coverage was expanded to include all Indian districts as of 1 April 2008. The administration hailed the act as “the world’s largest and most ambitious social security and public works program.”The World Bank criticized the measure in 2009 along with others for impeding internal migration and harming growth. However, the World Bank referred to it as a “stellar example of rural development” in its 2014 World Development Report. Gram Panchayats (GPs) are primarily responsible for implementing MGNREGA. According to the legislation, it offers a variety of protections to support its efficient administration and use. The legislation specifically includes the implementation principles and agencies, the permitted works list, the funding scheme, monitoring and evaluation, and specific methods to guarantee accountability and transparency.

Thirty years have been spent looking for acceptable job opportunities in India’s enormous rural hinterland since 1960. The government learned valuable lessons from these decades of experience. These included the “Rural Manpower Program,” which highlighted the difficulties with financial management, the “Crash Scheme for Rural Employment,” which focused on planning for results, a “Pilot Intensive Rural Employment Program,” which focused on labor-intensive projects, the “Drought Prone Area Program,” which promoted integrated rural development, the “Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Laborers Scheme,” which promoted rural economic development, and the “Food for Work Programme” (FWP), which promoted holistic development and better coordination.

The government combined NREP and RLEGP into a new program called Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) in April 1989 to promote infrastructural development, food security, and employment creation in rural regions. The biggest shift was the decentralization of implementation, which involved incorporating locals through Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) or local village administrations, and thus reduced the importance of bureaucracy. The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) was started in October 1993 to give agricultural workers work during the slow agricultural season. With the district-level local self-government body known as the “Zilla Parishad” serving as the primary implementing authority, the role of PRIs was strengthened. Later, in 2001, Sampoorna Gramin Rojgar Yojana (SGRY) and EAS were combined.