Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005
The act explicitly mentions the principles and agencies for implementation, list of allowed works, financing pattern, monitoring and evaluation, and detailed measures to ensure transparency and accountability.
[16] In April 1989, to converge employment generation, infrastructure development and food security in rural areas, the government integrated NREP and RLEGP[a] into a new scheme Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY).
[20][21] On 25 September 2001 to converge employment generation, infrastructure development and food security in rural areas, the government integrated EAS and JGSY into a new scheme SGRY.
[26] The colonial era, when India was governed by the British, is when the problems of poverty and a lack of employment possibilities in rural areas first surfaced.
The colonial era is still evident in the underfunding of rural infrastructure, the lack of systemic social assistance programs, and the scarcity of job prospects.
To address these difficulties, a determined effort must be made to reverse the historical neglect of rural areas and give them development priority.
In response to the cries for help, the Indian government put together a nationwide welfare scheme aimed at targeting this very issue: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA.
The Government of India introduced the MGNREGA social welfare program in 2005 to address the problem of unemployment and poverty in rural areas.
Recognizing the high rates of unemployment and poverty in rural India, especially among the underprivileged groups of the population, led to the need for such a program.
The Ministry of Rural Development, a section of the Government of India’s economic bureau, was in charge of overseeing the implementation and rollout of the plan.
[35] The most detailed part of the Act (chapter 10 and 11) deals with transparency and accountability that lays out role of the state, the public vigilance and, above all, the social audits.
[36] For evaluation of outcomes, the law also requires management of data and maintenance of records, like registers related to employment, job cards, assets, muster rolls and complaints, by the implementing agencies at the village, block and state level.
[37] The legislation specifies the role of the state in ensuring transparency and accountability through upholding the right to information and disclosing information proactively, preparation of annual reports by the Central Employment Guarantee Council for the Parliament and State Employment Guarantee Councils for state legislatures, undertaking mandatory financial audits by each district along with physical audit, taking action on audit reports, developing a Citizen's Charter, establishing vigilance and monitoring committees, and developing a grievance redressal system.
[48] Article 40 mandates the State to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.
Academic research has focused on many dimensions of the NREGA: economic security, self-targeting,[51] women's empowerment, asset creation, corruption, how the scheme impacts agricultural wages.
An early overall assessment in 2008 in six north Indian states suggested that NREGA was "making a difference to the lives of the rural poor, slowly but surely.
[66] A study conducted by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science and other collaborators found that activities related to natural resource management under the MGNREGA can capture 249 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.
[67] India has placed emphasis on MGNREGA as a contributor to carbon sequestration in its Third Biennial Update Report submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2021.
[75] The second performance audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India covered 3,848 gram panchayats (GPs) in 28 states and 4 union territories (UTs) from April 2007 to March 2012.
The comprehensive assessment of the performance of the law by the constitutional auditor revealed serious lapses arising mainly due to lack of public awareness, mismanagement and institutional incapacity.
Further, the CAG audit reports discrepancies in the maintenance of prescribed basic records in up to half of the gram panchayats (GPs) which inhibits the critical evaluation of the NREGA outcomes.
The CAG also recommends a timely payment of unemployment allowance to the rural poor and a wage material ratio of 60:40 in the NREGA works.
Moreover, for effective financial management, the CAG recommends proper maintenance of accounts, in a uniform format, on a monthly basis and also enforcing the statutory guidelines to ensure transparency in the disposal of funds.
For example, Rejaul Karim Laskar, an ideologue of the Congress party- the largest constituent of the UPA Government which introduced the scheme, claims that the scheme has multifarious benefits including "reduction in poverty, reduction in migration, women empowerment, improvement of productivity of agricultural land and regeneration of water resources".
"This process of reviewing official records and determining whether state reported expenditures reflect the actual monies spent on the ground is referred to as a social audit.
[96] The statute designates the Gram Sabha meetings held to conduct social audit as the 'Social Audit Forums' and spells out three steps to make them effective: publicity and preparation of documents; organizational and procedural aspects; and the mandatory agenda involving questions verifying compliance with norms specified at each of the 11 stages of implementation.
The need for effective management of tasks, timely payment of wages and provision of support facilities at work sites is also emphasised.
Though over Rs 20,000 crores under MGNREGA has been spent each year during the last decade on developing rural water bodies, wells, aquifers, catchment areas, etc, these were not permanent assets.
[137] Union Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari proposed to limit MGNREGA programmes within tribal and poor areas.
[145][146][clarification needed] The Government of India (GoI) has created a new Ministry of Jal Shakti to allow faster decision making on all subjects related to water.
