Evaluating Household Level Impact of MGNREGA Scheme in

Evaluating Household Level Impact of

MGNREGA Scheme in Tamil Nadu: A Case

Study

Dr. Sonkhogin Haokip1

D. Sivakumar2

Abstract:

The MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) is

the biggest social protection scheme ever launched in independent India, which provide legal

guarantee for wage employment to the rural households. Incorporated as legislation in 2005,

MGNREGS is a self-targeted, labour-intensive public works programme that takes a rights-based

and demand-driven approach to employment. It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas

by guaranteeing 100 days of employment per year to each rural household at specified wages. It

is widely implemented throughout India since April 2008 and despite certain implementation

issues, it has been appreciated for reasons including empowering rural women, bringing back

home the dignity of labour, reducing distress migration, and generating employment for the poor

households in villages. However, the real question is whether MGNREGS has truly helped those

who participate in it in a cost-effective manner. This and related questions are addressed in this

paper by taking up case studies in 6 villages across three districts of Tamil Nadu.

This paper is an extract from a Ph. D Thesis titled Household and Village Level Impact

of MGNREGS on Governance at the Grassroots: An Assessment of Gram Panchayats in

Tamil Nadu.

Keywords: MGNREGS, Demand driven, cost-effective manner, rural women

1 Dr. Sonkhogin Haokip teaches in the Department of Political Science and Development Administration, The

Gandhigram Rural Institute – Deemed to be University. Gandhigram. E-mail: [email protected]

2 D. Sivakumar is a full time research Scholar in the Department of Political Science and Development

Administration, The Gandhigram Rural Institute – Deemed to be University. Gandhigram. Tamil Nadu

E-mail: [email protected]

ADALYA JOURNAL

Volome 8, Issue 11, November 2019 654

ISSN NO: 1301-2746

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Evaluating Household Level Impact of MGNREGA Scheme in Tamil Nadu: A Case

Study

The MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) is the

biggest social protection scheme ever launched in independent India, which provide legal

guarantee for wage employment to the rural households. Incorporated as legislation in 2005, it is

a self-targeted, labour-intensive public works programme that takes a rights-based and demand-

driven approach to employment. It is widely implemented throughout India since April 2008 and

despite certain implementation issues, it has been appreciated for reasons including empowering

rural women, bringing back home the dignity of labour, reducing distress migration, and

generating employment for the poor households in villages. However, the real question is

whether MGNREGS has truly helped those who participate in it in a cost-effective manner. This

and related questions are addressed in this paper by evaluating the household level impact of

MGNREGS in 6 villages across three districts of Tamil Nadu.

Table 1- Frequency and Per Cent distribution of Respondents by Social, Economic and

Demographic Characteristics

Non Beneficiaries Beneficiaries

Frequency % Frequency %

Age

18 to 25 24 8.0 27 9.0

26 to 36 106 35.3 130 43.3

37 to 47 129 43.0 105 35.0

47 to 60 29 9.7 28 9.3

above 60 12 4.0 10 3.3

Community SC 56 18.7 150 50.0

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OBC 244 81.3 150 50.0

Marital Status

Married 269 89.7 279 93.0

Unmarried 1 0.3 1 0.3

Separated 3 1.0 19 6.3

Widow 27 9.0 1 0.3

Religion

Hindu 209 69.7 204 68.0

Muslim 31 10.3 19 6.3

Christian 60 20.0 77 25.7

Education

Illiterate 73 24.3 72 24.0

1st to 5th 83 27.7 30 10.0

5th to 10th 91 30.3 110 36.7

11th to 12th 46 15.3 88 29.3

UG 7 2.3 0 0.0

BPL card

holding

Yes 0 0.0 300 100.0

No 300 100.0 0 0.0

Ration card

color

Red 156 52.0 178 59.3

Blue 141 47.0 121 40.3

No ration card 3 1.0 1 0.3

Land Ownership

Landless 18 3.0

Less than 10 cents 380 63.3

10 - 49 cents 175 29.2

50 - 99 cents 19 3.2

More than 100 cents 8 1.3

Type of houses

Kuthca house 84 14.0

Hut house 6 1.0

IAY house 42 7.0

Pucca House 468 78.0

Source of

drinking water

Public 142 23.7

Own 352 58.7

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Neighbours 106 17.7

Source: computed – Field Data

Table 1 presents the frequency and per cent distribution of respondents by social, economic and

demographic characteristics. From the table we can see that 43.3 per cent of beneficiary

respondents and 35.3 per cent of non- beneficiary respondents are between 26 and 36 years in

age; 35.0 per cent beneficiary respondents and 43.0 per cent of non- beneficiary respondents are

in the age group of 37- 47 years; 9.3 per cent of beneficiary respondents and 9.7 per cent of non-

beneficiaries are in the age group of 47-60 years, and 9.0 per cent of beneficiary respondents and

8.0 per cent of non- beneficiary respondents are in the age group 60 years and above.

Community wise, while there is no representation from the STs (Scheduled Tribes), majority

(81.3%) of the beneficiary respondents belongs to SC whereas OBC constitutes 50 per cent of

the sampled beneficiary respondents. An overwhelming majority (93%) of the sampled

beneficiary respondents and majority (89.7%) of non beneficiary respondents are married. 68.0

per cent of beneficiary respondents and 69.0 per cent of non-beneficiary respondents are Hindus

and 25.7 per cent of beneficiary respondents and 20.0 per cent of non beneficiary respondents are

Christians whereas Muslims comprises of 6.3 beneficiary respondents and 10.3 per cent non

beneficiary respondents. Literacy wise, 36.7 per cent of beneficiary respondents and 30.3 per

cent of non-beneficiary respondents have studied up 10th standard whereas 24.0 per cent of

beneficiary respondents and 24.1 per cent of non-beneficiary respondents are illiterate. In terms

of land ownership, only 18 respondents (3.0%) are landless whereas majority (63.3%) of per

cent are have less than 10 cents and 29.2 per cent of the respondents have 10 to 49 cents. While

majority (78.0%) of the sampled respondents lives in Pucca house, only 14.0 per cent lives in

Kutcha house. Interestingly, 7.0 per cent of the sampled respondents live in houses constructed

under IAY (Indira Awas Yojana- Housing Scheme of Government of India). As for water

connectivity, 58.7 per cent of the sampled respondents have their own pump set, whereas 23.7

per cent of the sampled respondents uses public tap and 17.7 per cent of the sampled respondents

depend on neighbors.

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Household level Impact of MGNREGS – Case Studies

Case Study: 1 - Improved Healthcare

Shri. Revathi (name changed) 29, registered for job card under MGNREGS along with

her husband Shri. Baskar (name changed) on 25th November, 2011. Her Job card Number was

TN-22-002-011-011/485-A. She is an educated woman living in Pithalaipatti village along with

her husband and two girl children. She is one of the serious beneficiary respondents working

under MGNREGS. Her husband, who works in a cotton spinning mill in nearby village, was the

sole bread winner of the family. With two children added, the family could now barely manage

with the low income earned by her husband. Revathi was now desperately in need of works to

support her family. However, her husband would not allow her to work in open markets outside

the house and village due to safety concern. He suggested that she should apply for job card

under MGNREGS. Accordingly she applied for 100 days wage employment card and got herself

registered under MGNREGS. Having worked under MGNREGSS, she could now earned regular

income and started opening her own savings account in a bank, where she would deposit fixed

amount on a weekly or monthly basis. With MGNREGS, she now feels financially secured.

Naturally she develops a positive perception towards MGNREGS. She strongly believed that

MGNREGS has improved the bargaining and negotiation power of women. Similarly, there has

been significant improvement in spending towards children’s education and health and better

financial strength of the family was ensured.

Case Study: 2 - Increased Income

Ms. Jameela (name changed) 31, registered for MGNREGS Job card along with her

husband Mr. Mohammad Salaam (name changed) on 25th November, 2009. She is a resident of

Kalikampatti village, Athoor Block, Dindigul District. Before MGNREGS, she was forbidden to

venture outside the house seeking for jobs. There were too many restrictions – customary,

tradition and religious practices for women. Only male members of the family went out of the

house for jobs and support the family. Muslim women engaged only in household chores besides

child bearing and child-rearing role. With MGNREGS, things started changing slowly. Initially,

even when it was learnt that MGNREGS had helped women from other communities immensely

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in contributing financially to their family, women in Muslim families had a tough time

convincing their family to register for job card under the MGNREGS. Jameela also faced the

same situation. She was not able to convince her family to join the MGNREGS. However, after

one year of the implementation of MGNREGS, the financial condition of Jameela’s family

become worsened? It was then that her husband felt the need for both of them to register for job

card under MGNREGS. They registered themselves for Job card under MGNREGS on 25th

November, 2009. Ever since, things started improving slowly. She informed with pride that out

of 100 days work, she worked for 53 days and could earn Rs.4929, which was a huge amount for

her family. Her income through MGNREGS gradually increased year after year. She believe that

the wage opportunities through MGNREGS made her to concentrate more on her family

responsibilities and she was now more keen about her children‘s well-being. She also felt that

her family is now more open. Though earnings from MGNREGS is not that great, easy access to

works under it facilitates many positive outcomes in her life. She is now able to combine works

shifts under MGNREGS with family responsibilities at home. She brings in money into the

family, took good care of her children and at the same time she is able to spend her time with

friends at MGNREGA worksites.

Case Study: 3 - Enriching Education

Meena (name changed), aged 31 is living in Varusanadu village, Mayiladumparai block,

Theni District. Her husband is a sales man working in a textile shop in nearby town and is

getting a monthly income of Rs. 6000, which was barely enough for food and regular household

expenditure. Meena had two daughters. The elder daughter is studying in sixth standard and the

younger daughter is in 1st standard. Both are studying in a private school. Despite financial

difficulties, both Meena and her husband were determined to make sure that their daughters got

the best in their lives. Meena recounted the determination that she and her husband had in giving

their children the best education and how MGNREGS helped them in their struggle. She

said…“initially my husband was reluctant to put our children in private school due to financial

difficulties. We are also aware that most of the children in our village are studying in the private

school near the village where they are picked up by the school vehicle at their door step and are

taken a good care of. We have also noticed that kids in private school speak English very well.

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At the same time, our children also wanted to go to the private school. Therefore, despite

financial difficulties we borrowed money from our relatives and put our elder daughter in a

private school first because we cannot afford to put both our daughters in a private school at

once. Fortunately, the hundred day’s employment program under MGNREGS scheme was

launched in our village also. I got myself registered for the Job Card under this programme.

Since then I started earning a regular wages from the hundred day work programme. The income

from MGNREGS becomes very useful as it greatly helps in the management of the household

expenses of my family. Now our second daughter is also studying in the same private school. We

are now spending Rs. 15000/- per year for our children’s education. These expenditures include

school van fee, uniform and notebooks. The income from MGNREGS is helps us pay the tuition

fee as well as school vehicle fee for my children, apart from meeting other expenses.”

Case Study: 4 - Liquid Cash in Home

Dhanalakshmi (name changed), hails from Palaviduthi village, Kadavur block of the

Karur district. Since 2007 she has been working under MGNREGS as unskilled labour. Her Job

card Number is TN-17-007-011-011/1738-A. In her family, total household members are four,

including her children. She has a savings account in the bank and her account is opened through

the MGNREGS programme for direct cash transfer. She is saving her income in different savings

mode not only in the bank, but also in the house. While interviewing her, she had disclosed in

details, about her savings habits, she said that both she and her husband earned income. While

her only income source happens to be the MGNREGS, her husband works in open markets

outside MGNREGS and earns Rs. 7000/- per month on an average. Both she and her husband

maintained separate savings account with banks. They spend most of their earnings on food,

clothing, children’s education, and health. They could also save money for emergency. At the

same time, they had to save money for auspicious occasions, festivals, wedding ceremonies, and

travels. Keeping in mind all these commitments, Dhanalakshmi started keeping liquid cash3 at

home. Normally, the MGNREGS wages will be credited as bulk amount (Rs. 2000 to Rs. 4000)

in Dhanalakshmi’s savings bank account. She will withdraw 90 % of the amount and keep it in

her house as liquid cash. She will keep the money in different places inside the house - in the

3 Cash on hand is considered a liquid asset due to its ability to be readily accessed.

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kitchen mostly, in the bedroom, and also in the prayer room. One faithful night in the month of

March 2017 her mother-in-law’s health conditions got worsened. She was immediately rushed to

a private hospital nearby town. For admission the hospital asked Rs. 15000/-. But

Dhanalakshmi’s husband had only Rs. 8000/-.in his savings account. Her husband called his

relatives but to no avail. Then Dhanalakshmi told her husband about the liquid cash which she

had kept in house. She was not sure how much it was. Immediately they rushed back home and

Dhanalakshmi collected the money that she had kept in the kitchen, bedroom and prayer room as

liquid cash. After counting the money it was learnt that she had managed to save more than Rs.

10,000 (Rupees Ten Thousand). Her husband was very happy and relieved. Her mother –in-law

was admitted to the hospital and recovered from fewer in the next three days.

Case Study: 5– Savings in Chit Fund

Shanti (name changed) 28 years old, is living in Singarajapuram village panchayat,

Mayiladumparai block of Theni District. Shanti is a beneficiary of the MGNREGS programme.

She got her job card in 2009 from Singarajapuram village panchayat. Her family has job card for

two members. Her Job card Number is TN-21-002-015-015/1376-A. Even though the job card is

valid for two members in their family, Shanti is the only person working under MGNREGS for

one hundred days wage employment. Her husband is a daily wage laborer working as a driver in

a Coconut selling farm. Singarajapuram village is an agriculture village and many of the

villagers have coconut farms. The coconuts from the village are transported to different parts of

the states through agents. As a driver, he is earning Rs. 450 /- per day with allowance. Hence, he

is not willing to work under the MGNREGS. Therefore, Shanti alone works continuously under

MGNREGS for her family’s additional revenue. While interacting with her, Shanti said she had

worked under MGNREGS since 2009. She renewed her job card frequently for getting job

opportunity under the MGNREGS. The hundred days wage employment under MGNREGS has

helped improved her lives in a big way. She started networking with fellow workers under

MGNREGS. She started going out with her friends to work in their village local farms during off

session. She had savings account in a bank and that account was opened for MGNREGS

programme. The income through the MGNREGS programme is credited directly into her savings

bank account. She started to save the money regularly in her savings account. Meanwhile, she

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learnt from friends that many of the women in her village were putting their money in Chit Fund

for better returns. Members were remitting Rs. 500 per week. Members from each family joined

the Chit Fund and remitted Rs. 500 per week. At the end of the year, they can get a certain

amount of money along with interest. Mrs. Shanti also joined in Chit Fund and remitted Rs. 500

every week. The one hundred days income through MGNREGS programme gave her the

confidence to join Fund group. Members of the group draw lots every month for the principal

amount and whoever wins the lots will have to repay with 5% interest weekly. Whereas members

bidding for the lowest amount will pay 5% interest on their bid, for non-bidder members, the 5

per cent interest payments made by the bidders will be distributed equally. Mrs. Shanti worked

for one hundred days, under MGNREGA programme in 2016 and 2017 because she had to pay

Rs. 500 weekly to continue the bidding scheme. With the income generated from the

MGNREGS, she had remitted Rs. 500 weekly in the Chit Fund. The remaining money, she saves

in her savings account. Whenever she needs money for urgent expenses for the family, the extra

money in the bank will meet the requirement. In this way she joined the Chit Fund for 96 weeks

by remitting Rs. 500 per week regularly. By the end of the year, she got Rs. 50,400 / - as savings

from the principle plus interest amount through the Chit Fund.

Case Study: 6 – Gold savings

Marriammal (name changed) is a 38 years old woman living in Kalikkampatti Village.

She is a beneficiary of MGNREGS since 2007. Her Job card Number is TN-21-002-011-

011/177-A. There are five members in her family including her husband, son, daughter and her

father-in-law. Her husband is the only earning member of the family. Her son is 12 years old

studying sixth standard and her daughter is 14 years old studying in 9th standard. Purchasing a

gold chain for her daughter has been her dream for a long time but she didn’t have enough

money. Her husband works in a wooden surge mill. However, his income is not enough to

support the family. Therefore, she also had to work to supplement her husband’s income which

would then be barely enough to meet the family’s monthly expenses. She registered herself for a

job card under MGNREGS. Since 2007, she had been working under MGNREGS and earned

regular income. She started saving money in the bank. At the same time she never gives up her

dream of buying gold chain for her daughter. She learnt about a gold savings scheme practiced

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by a famous jewellery shop in nearby town. This information was shared by her co-workers

under MGNREGS. She decided to join the jewellery store's gold savings program but was a little

apprehensive as she thought that she would have to pay more money. Then, she made an inquiry

at the jewellery shop about the gold savings programme as well as the monthly payment method.

She was told that she only had to pay Rs. 200/- per week only up to 4 months. Without second

thought, she joined the gold savings scheme and remitted Rs. 200 per week at the jewellery shop.

After a certain amount of saving, she bought a 2 gram gold ring for her daughter. After that, she

again joined that gold saving program at the same shop and remitted Rs. 400 instead of Rs. 200

per week. Then, again she bought a gold chain for her daughter through the gold savings scheme.

But, that gold chain price was so high even though she bought through installment; she had to

pay the installment amount through the income from MGNREGS. Thus, her dream of buying

gold chain for her daughter became a reality because of MGNREGS.

Case Study: 7 –Diwali Savings Scheme

Ms. Parimalam (name changed) is a 35 years old woman living in the Varusanadu

village, Mayiladumparai block of Theni district. She is an unskilled worker registered job card

for one hundred days employment under MGNREGS programme in 2009. Her job card No. is

TN-21-002-018-018/1290-A. She had 3 children. Before registering for job card under

MGNREGS her income from different sources were barely enough to meet her household

expenses for food and grocery items. There was no money for new clothes for her kids, sweets

and other accessories for her family during important festivals and ceremonies. For all these

expenditure she had to borrow money from money lenders and relatives at 4 per cent interest. At

this juncture, the 100-days work programme under MGNREGS came to her village and she had

registered herself for Job card under the scheme in 2009. Since enrolling under MGNREGS, she

had regularly earned income. Now she could buy new cloths for her kids and for herself during

important occasions. Moreover, she also started saving her income in a special savings scheme

called Diwali Festival Savings Scheme, which was introduced in her village. Under this scheme,

sweets, and crackers will be provided to members during Diwali festival. Parimalam had joined

the Diwali Savings Scheme and paid Rs. 500 per month as savings on Diwali Savings Scheme.

During the Diwali festival, she got around Rs. 6500 / - as savings from the Diwali Savings plan.

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With that money, she bought new dresses for her children as Diwali gift and also sweets,

crackers and other household cooking vessels. Now she is very happy to see her kids with new

clothes during important festivals and occasions. She is still depositing Rs. 500/- per month for

Diwali savings plan through her income from MGNREGS.

Case Study: 8 – Tour savings scheme

Eswari (name changed) is 32 years old woman living in the Palaviduthi village, Kadavur

block of the Karur district. She had registered herself for 100 days’ work under MGNREGS in

2007. Her Job card No. is TN-17-007-011-011/529-A. With her income from 100 days’ work

under MRNREGS she managed to invest Rs. 300/- every month regularly under a tour savings

scheme called “Friends Tour Group”. A tour savings scheme was introduced in her village with

the objective of providing viable financial options to the villagers to visit important tourist

destinations in Tamil Nadu. The main aim of this group is saving money to visit tourist places

inside Tamil Nadu every year. Eswari had always wanted to go along with village members to

important tourist and religious places inside Tamil Nadu. However, due to financial difficulties,

she was not able visit tourist places with her neighborhoods. She could barely visit only nearby

tourist places. Therefore, she joined the “Friends Tour Group” because normally she won’t step

out from her village to visit tourist places. If her entire family had to travel to important tourist

destinations in Tamil Nadu, she would have to spend not less than Rs. 2000 per travel and she

simply could not afford this much amount. Moreover, she also wanted to take her kids on tour

visits to different places in Tamil Nadu. Therefore, when she learnt that “Friends Tour Group”

has helped many families in her village to visit important tourist places in Tamil Nadu, she

immediately joined the group and remitted Rs. 300 monthly to the group. She paid Rs. 300/- per

month on that group through the hundred days wage employment’s incomes. At the end of the

year she had deposited Rs. 3000/- as savings through tourist group. After that the tour group had

decided to organize a tour and she had also planned to join in that tour along with her two

children. The tour group fixed the amount as Rs. 1000 per head for adult and Rs. 500/- per head

for children. The tour group fixed the places to visit like Tirupati, Thiruvannamalai,

Kanchipuram, Pondicherry, Thirunallar, Velankanni, Rameswaram, Kanyakumari and Courtalam

for four days. Apart from her necessary expenses, Eswari could save some money because of her

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opportunity to work in her own village through a government project – MGNREGS. That

savings of money made her dream come alive.

Case Study: 9 –Curtailed Migration

Pithalaipatti village is located in the Athoor block of Dindigul district. It is 15 kilometers

away from Dindigul town. The surroundings of the village were affected by heavy drought and

the level of ground water rapidly decreased between the years 2000 AD to 2010 AD. Before the

MGNREGS was launched, many of the villagers along with their family migrated to towns and

cities in search of jobs as there were no employment opportunities in the village. Those who had

agricultural land survived with the minimum income. But landless villagers could not survive in

their locality due to the lack of employment. In this situation, many of the villagers migrated to

other places especially to Thirupur town (textile city) and got jobs at cotton ginning factories

with reasonable income. The villagers come to native place only to celebrate festivals. The

introduction of MGNREGS has provided opportunity for villagers to earn their livelihood in the

village itself. It has curtailed the migration of almost 55-60 families who were about to migrate

to Tiruppur. Under MGNREGS canals and ponds were dug in and around Pithalaipatti village.

Crop production increased due to ample water available from these canals and ponds. The

increase in production has ensured food security for the people, whereas the wages earned under

MGNREGS are taking care of the other needs of the villagers. As a result migration from village

to Thirupur in search of work has almost stopped. Due to increased availability of water,

villagers are experimenting in agriculture and trying to make it profitable. Many farmers have

started growing vegetable in their farms. Villagers are hoping that in coming 2-3 years

MGNREGS will help stop migration of each and every family of the village. The stability and

security of the villagers will also help them to be more sensitive on the issues of health and

education which are neglected so far. For the people of Pithalaippati village MGNREGS has

proven to be a blessing which had curtailed the exodus of villagers to Thirupur.

Case Study: 10 –Enhanced Annual Income

Mr. Saravana. K belongs to Kalikampatti Village of Athoor block in Dindigul district.

His job Card No. is TN-22-002-015-015/319-A. He owns 1 acre of agricultural land in the

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village but due to water scarcity, the land became drying up, remained unfertile and partially

cultivable, with only cotton and maize being cultivated. With MGNREGS, Mr. Saravana. K had

benefited the most through the provision of a well construction under Sub Scheme of

MGNREGS. He had constructed his bore well with 80 – 85% funding from MGNREGS. Only

15-to-20% of the expenditure for the construction of his well under was bored by him and the

remaining 80 – 85% was funded centrally through MGNREGS. After that only he started to get

his agricultural land properly irrigated. According to him, before MGNREGS the yield of cotton

was 1 quintals and maize was 2 quintals. The income from cotton was Rs. 1500 while and

around Rs.1000 from maize. Thus the total annual income from his agriculture was only

Rs.2500. But construction of well on his farm land increase production and his income was

increased more than four times. Because of irrigation facilities available in half acre, he started to

cultivate wheat crop as well. Saravana received a yield of around 2 quintal of cotton and 3

quintal of maize last year apart from that 2 quintal of wheat. He earned around Rs.6000 from

cotton, Rs.3200 from maize and Rs.2400 from wheat, which made a total annual income of

around Rs.11600. Employment Guarantee Scheme has helped him a lot in farming as his annual

income rose four times which was far better than his previous annual income. In addition he is

also getting Rs.1500 wage employment under the MGNREGS. This change increased his social

status and quality of life and also ensured food security within the village.

Case Study: 11 - Individual Benefit under Sub-Scheme switch Laborers to Owners

The family of Mohanraj. P/Kausalya. P resides in the Kalikampatti village of Athoor

block in Dindigul. This is a family of the lower caste and owns about 1.5. Acres of agricultural

land. Prior to the NREGS, the family was entirely dependent on the monsoon for their irrigation

and cultivated corn and soybean with much difficulty. As the NREGS Act was established,

Mohanraj. P/Kausalya. P was chosen as a beneficiary of MGNREGS well construction project.

For this, Rs. 145000 was made available. Mohanraj had to put in some payment and much of his

labour too. In conversation, he also spoke of the extra money it had cost him as the labourers

found the wages too low or the payment was not being made on time. After the well was

constructed, Mohanraj said as most of his agricultural land now had water his produced had

increased marginally. During the discussion Mohanraj admitted that before the well was

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constructed he had no proper means of irrigation and as a result had to work on other people‘s

field to make ends meet. But after the construction of the well, he can now work much better on

his own field and the final product had improved too. His family is very happy with the

MGNREGS scheme for constructing the well. He says that as a poor and illiterate farmer he did

not have the means to build his own well, nor to take a loan for the same. Because of the well,

the entire family now works on their own crops and overall production has increased. They do

not need to work as labourers on others fields anymore. The family feels self sufficient. Thus

through the MGNREGS, the family has benefitted a lot and they now feel like owners, not

workers!

Concluding Remarks

As the case studies above reflect, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee scheme has positively impacted the beneficiary households in multiple ways. The

impact of MGNREGS on households can be viewed in terms of the extent to which it has come

to have a bearing on the lives of the people most dependent on it. MGNREGS has enhanced the

lives of the workers by helping them generate more livelihood options from their immediate

surroundings by making work available to everyone, preferably women and aged, within their

easy reach. It has managed to generate employment, for the first time, at fair and equal wages in

the village itself. However, on the flip side, as there was no visible wage discrimination between

men and women the existing rate of wages under MGNREGS is becoming inconvenient for men,

who prefer working outside the village where they can earn higher daily wages. It has provided a

source of supplementary income to families. Majority of the families were spending the

increased income from MGNREGS on food basket followed by children’s education and health.

Consumption expenditures have increased in families. In particular, the food habits of the

households have significantly changed. The income from MGNREGS has brought about

significant improvement in the quality of food being consumed by households. The significant

impact of MGNREGS was also felt more during the off – session when it has provided the

unemployed a means of sustenance. It has become the only sustainable principal source of

earning alternate income in rural Tamil Nadu. Finally, the MGNREGS work has enhanced the

bargaining power of the rural households in negotiating their wages in the open market. It has

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brought back home, the dignity of labour. It has added significantly to the purchasing power of

the beneficiaries who are spending the additional income on better quality of life and human

development related issues, which is a good sign for the better future of the state and its people.

Moreover, when poor households started spending this additional income from MGNREGS, they

create demand for commodities. The production of these commodities in turn, creates demands

for capital, raw materials and workers. This multiplier effect is reflected in the expansion of

business and commercial activities in and around the villages under investigation.

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Documents

Evaluating Household Level Impact of MGNREGA Scheme in