Employment Guarantee Programme and Dynamics of Rural Transformation in India

376 Pages·2018·6.883 MB·English

by  Madhusudan Bhattarai, P.K. Viswanathan, Rudra N. Mishra, Cynthia Bantilan

India Studies in Business and Economics
Madhusudan Bhattarai
P.K. Viswanathan
Rudra N. Mishra
Cynthia Bantilan Editors
Employment
Guarantee
Programme and
Dynamics of Rural
Transformation
in India
Challenges and Opportunities
India Studies in Business and Economics
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Madhusudan Bhattarai P.K. Viswanathan
(cid:129)
Rudra N. Mishra Cynthia Bantilan
(cid:129)
Editors
Employment Guarantee
Programme and Dynamics
of Rural Transformation
in India
Challenges and Opportunities
123
Editors
MadhusudanBhattarai RudraN.Mishra
Jalsrot VikasSanstha(JVS) GujaratInstitute of DevelopmentResearch
Kathmandu Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Nepal India
and Cynthia Bantilan
Research ProgramonMarkets,
ICRISAT Institutions andPolicy
Hyderabad ICRISAT
India Hyderabad
India
P.K. Viswanathan
Amrita Schoolof Business, Amrita Vishwa
Vidyapeetham(DeemedtobeUniversity)
Kochi, Kerala
India
ISSN 2198-0012 ISSN 2198-0020 (electronic)
India Studies inBusiness andEconomics
ISBN978-981-10-6261-2 ISBN978-981-10-6262-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6262-9
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Foreword
TheMahatmaGandhiNationalRuralEmploymentGuaranteeAct(MGNREGA)is
the world’s largest and most ambitious rural development programme, providing
wageemploymentinunskilledmanualworktoover50millionruralhouseholdsin
India. Ten years on, the support to this programme continues unabated, laying to
rest initial scepticism of its viability. The budgetary allocation for the programme
over a decade had increased approximately threefold, from 113 billion rupees in
2006–07 to 380 billion rupees (or 6 billion USD) in 2016–17. That said, it is only
timely that we now attempt to comprehensively look at the empirical evidence to
assess the impact that MGNREGA has had on livelihoods and rural development.
Overtheyears,anumberofempiricalstudieshaveattemptedtoanalysespecific
dimensions of the programme, especially with respect to its implementation, per-
formances and outcomes. As with many other social and welfare-based pro-
grammes implemented in India, the MGNREGA has shown to have high regional
variationsinperformancebecausetheresponsibilityofimplementationlieswiththe
states. A limitation of previous studies has been that they were confined to a few
states, restricting the generalizability of their results.
This volume attempts to provide a deeper understanding of the performance
of the MGNREGA by bringing together a range of empirical studies exploring the
multiple implications of the programme across 12 states. It successfully highlights
distinctdevelopmentandgovernanceissues,socio-economicconditionsandnature
of institutions across various states that have influenced the implementation and
performanceoftheprogramme.Thiscompendiumofempiricallygroundedresearch
papers by over 25 researchers, who have conducted research on the MGNREGA
sinceitsinception,providesinsightsintostate-levelvariationsoftheprogramme,its
implication on rural transformation process inIndia and its envisioned future.
From this work, we draw new information and insights into the multidimen-
sional impacts, including economic and social impacts, of MGNREGA across
spatial settings––from Kerala to Tripura, contributing to the otherwise scant liter-
ature on the programme’s impact across geographic locations. The findings from
theseworksprovideinsightsintothemajorlimitationsoftheprogrammeandjustify
v
vi Foreword
some of the restructuring processes currently being carried out by various gov-
ernment agencies to further improve the effectiveness of the programme.
The chapters in the book are analytically rigorous in exploring the multi-
dimensionalimpactsofMGNREGAacrossstates.Theempiricallyrichcasestudies
tackle important issues of this welfare programme through the lens of the right to
work campaigns, rural development, ecology, human development, food security
andlivelihoodsoftheruralpopulation.Icongratulatetheauthorsandco-authorsof
each chapter for their commendable work in providing unique insights into the
functioning of the MGNREGA in various contexts. Likewise, I also commend the
editorsofthisvolumeforgivingthisbookitsvisionandforbringingtogethersuch
crucialandvariedtopicsthathavebeenimpactedbytheMGNREGA.Iwouldalso
liketoextendmyappreciationtotheSpringerPublishers’teamforbringingoutthis
volumetargetedat a diverse audience.
This volume will be a useful read and reference to government officials and
policymakers concerned with rural development and welfare. It is also a valuable
source of references for graduate students and researchers engaged in fields of
agricultural and rural development, regional planning, labour economics, devel-
opment studies, development economics and related fields of study.
Prabhu Pingali
Director, Tata-Cornell Institute for
Agriculture and Nutrition
Cornell University
Preface
The dynamism cast bythe implementation of theMahatmaGandhi NationalRural
EmploymentGuaranteeAct2005(MGNREGA)inIndiasinceearly2006hasbeen
quite fascinating as evident from the growing volume of empirical literature over
the years on different dimensions related to the performance and outcomes of the
programme. Over the last 10 years, the MGNREGS has also evolved significantly
andisnowprovidingsubsistencelevelofemploymentandsocialsafetynetbenefits
toover50millionofpoorhouseholdsannuallyinruralIndia.Ithasevolvedasone
of the largest welfare programme in the world. After Public Food Distribution
Systems, probably, MGNREGA scheme also stands as the second largest in terms
of coverage of the rural poor by a Social Protection Programme in India.
Incidentally,intermsofpublicpolicydiscourse,sinceitsinceptionin2006,the
MGNREGA has become a fascinating rural development policy agenda in India,
with diverse perspectives across key stakeholders and diverse implementation
modes,performances,andvariedoutcomesacrossthestates/regionsofIndia.Over
the years, international development agencies and rural development professionals
around the world have also shown keen interest in assessing the programme
impacts, its implementation outcomes to rural poor, as reflected by the growing
empirical literature on MGNREGA from academic institutions, civil society orga-
nizations as well as international agencies across the world. Recently, one of the
WorldBankstudieshasalsopointedoutthattheexperimentofMGNREGAisone
of the success stories of poverty alleviation initiatives in the developing world.
Besides, the MGNREGS has also immensely contributed towards rural transfor-
mationprocessinIndiaovertheyearswithfarfetchingimplicationsforlivelihoods
of agricultural labour force and its targeted beneficiaries.
Despitethe initial lukewarm response ofthe governmentafter coming to power
in May 2014, the Government of India has in fact increased annual allocations to
the MGNREGA activities substantially. The Government of India spent INR
463.83billion(USD6.8billion)forMGNREGAworkactivitiesduring2016/2017,
whichwasabout25%increaseintheexpenditurethanthatofthefundspentforthe
programme in the previous year. However, evidences suggest that several
vii
viii Preface
performance indicators of the programme have either stagnated or declined in
recent years, with notable variations across states, regions and beneficiaries.
Likewise, the programme also faces several criticisms from the academia and
policy circles in particular, in view of the overall ineffectiveness in achieving the
prime targeted goal of 100 person days per beneficiary household per annum. The
latest interventions in terms of redesigning and widening the scope of the
MGNREGAthroughtheconvergenceapproach,arecurrentlybeingspearheadedby
thenationalgovernmentandimplementedbysomestategovernmentswithvarying
choice of development programmes and implementation activities. In many
respects, the implementation of MGNREGA schemes in rural India can also be
compared with the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the
objectivesofreducinginequalityinIndia.Forinstance, several recentstudies have
attempted to link MGNREGA-related schemes with meeting SDGs in India, with
positive impacts on economic, social, institutional and governance structure and
environmental services in rural India.
In this respect, the present volume is an important and timely addition to the
existing literature on MGNREGA and its impacts, as many of the chapters con-
tained in this volume provide more empirical evidences as to how a holistic
assessment of a programme can be done by integrating its multi-level economic,
social, institutional and environmental impacts. These issues are in fact critically
linked with achieving SDGs related targets and indicators in India by 2030.
More specifically, the present volume takes a critical look at the status of
implementation and performance of the MGNREGA across states since its imple-
mentation.Itassessestheemergingdynamics,especially,itsinterfacewiththerural
labour market, and changes in social and institutional settings, and local partici-
pation. The studies presented in the volume are unique in terms of the use of
empiricalanalysisacrossstatesusingappropriateinterdisciplinaryresearchmethods
relyingonbothquantitativeandqualitativetechniques.Thecontentandcoverageof
each of chapter in the volume are unique in terms of the presentation of empirical
case studies using interdisciplinary research perspectives, with rigorous analytical
and methodological approaches. To the best of our knowledge, there has been
hardly any attempt to provide a consolidated and critical review of the status of
implementation and the impacts of the MGNREGA across many states, based on
bothmacro-andmicro-scalesofanalysis.Theuniquenessofthevolumeliesalsoin
the fact that authors of each chapter have been engaged in research on various
aspects of MGNREGA implementation ever since its launch in 2006. Thus, this
volume is expected to fill the gap in literature on several counts.
Actually,motivationforthisvolumeoriginatedfromtheNationalWorkshopon
‘MGNREGA and the Emerging Rural Context: Learning from Selected States’,
heldattheGujaratInstituteofDevelopmentResearch(GIDR),Ahmedabad,during
10–11 December 2013, jointly organized by the GIDR and the International Crop
Research Institute for Semi-Arid Regions and Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad.
Duringtheworkshopdiscussionsandbrainstormingsessions,itwasfeltthatahuge
knowledge gap exists regarding MGNREGA and its performance and outcome
acrossstates.Itwasfeltthattherewasaneedforliteraturethatusedbothmicro-and
Preface ix
macro-analyticalmethods,lookedatthestakeholders’perspectivesontheoutcome
of the programme, and catered to its institutional and governance related aspects.
Besides the papers presented at this workshop, few chapters were also solicited
later to provide a holistic perspective on the programme implementation and its
outcomes across states to get a wider national flavour about the same. Thus, the
presentvolumeisanoutcomeoftheconstantanddeterminedeffortswemadeover
3years.ThevolumeprovidesaholisticperspectiveontheMGNREGAprogramme
activitiesandtheirimpactswithdetailedstudiesin12statesofIndia,fromKeralain
the South to Tripura in the Northeast of India. A wider coverage of geographic
areas,implementation-relatedissuesandpolicyandinstitutionaldimensionsmakes
this volume unique among the other studies on MGNREGA.
The consolidation of the volume in its present form is an outcome of the per-
sistent efforts and cooperation extended by all the authors of its chapters, and by
many personalities, who deserve our special appreciation and gratitude. With
research rigor and application of advance tools and techniques of analyses across
the disciplines, we expect that this book will be useful to the academia, as well as
rural development practitioners and policy makers.
It is also our sincere hope and wish that this volume would generate policy
discussion and further research on several unexplored issues of MGNREGA
activities such as economy wide effects, social and institutional outcomes, envi-
ronmental management and sustainable development related dimensions of the
programme. We also expect that it will bring out the need for appropriate changes
in policy, institutional and governance systems related to the MGNREGA to
transformtheprogrammeintoarobust,dynamicandmoresustainablemodelinthe
future. It is our hope that with the growing interest of public policy discourses to
meettheSustainableDevelopmentGoals(SDGs)anditsvarioustargetsonpoverty
alleviation by 2030, the MGNREGA programme activities, may also be integrated
withtheGovernmentofIndia’spriorityactionsformeetingthegloballycommitted
SDGs agendas and the milestones in the near future.
Kathmandu, Nepal Madhusudan Bhattarai
Kochi, India P.K. Viswanathan
Ahmedabad, India Rudra N. Mishra
Hyderabad, India Cynthia Bantilan
May 2018