Rural Employment Guarantee Programme in India and Its Impact on Household Educational Decisions: A Focus on Private Coaching

Forerunning programmes of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which were designed as poverty elimination programmes, took notice of geographical pockets of poverty and incorporated formula-based fund allocation mechanisms to poorer states and regions. The MGNREGA programme, in contrast, used a right-based ‘self-selection’ approach— relying on the initiative of households’ demand-driven strengths—to allocate need-based resources to states and regions within states. This article examines how well the demand-driven, right-based programme with self-selection allocated resources to states and regions according to their respective needs, and to what extent the benefits reached the poverty pockets and catered to the poorest, weakest and neediest households. We find that adequate resources did not reach the poorest states and regions, substantial numbers of poor households remained outside the programme or were deemed underserved, and there was a pronounced programme capture by elite states. The article explores causes and consequences of capacity limitations and low absorption pulls among states, and points to policy implications and ways forward.

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Rationing and Accuracy of Targeting in India: The Case of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act

Oxford Development Studies ◽

10.1080/13600818.2015.1042445 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 43 (3) ◽

pp. 361-378 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Upasak Das

Keyword(s):

Rural Employment ◽

Employment Guarantee

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Impact of MGNREGA on a Tightened Labour Market

Social Change ◽

10.1177/0049085717728004 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 47 (4) ◽

pp. 552-564 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Akhil Alha

Keyword(s):

Labour Market ◽

Field Survey ◽

Livelihood Strategies ◽

Agricultural Work ◽

Rural Employment ◽

Female Workers ◽

Production Relations ◽

Employment Guarantee ◽

The Impact ◽

Exclusive Category

The study discusses the impact of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on an already tightened rural labour market through a field survey conducted in two villages of Rajasthan. The article argues that the impact of the programme in a constricted rural labour market has been marginal because of a low off-take of work because of already developed alternate livelihood strategies which reduced the incentive to work in this programme. Nevertheless, the scheme has been instrumental in two ways: first, it led to the withdrawal of lower caste women from agricultural work which signifies an escape from the exploitative production relations in the two villages under study; and second, it has resulted in the formation of an exclusive category of MGNREGA workers consisting of female workers from the middle castes who were previously were not participating in paid labour.

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