Approach:

• Introduce MGNREGA with its objectives
• In the body part comment upon MNREGA & COVID times
• Conclude with suggestions for better implementation and efficacy of the scheme.

Answer:

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed in 2005, and the demand-driven scheme guarantees 100 days of unskilled work per year for every rural household that wants it.

The objectives of the act are to provide safety nets for vulnerable groups, provide an engine for the agricultural sustainable development, empower the rural poor and promote new ways of doing businesses by providing work for unskilled workers at the wage rate specified by the Central Government.

MGNREGA & COVID

• MGNREGA acted as a crucial safety net during the COVID pandemic as the number of person days of work provided under the scheme rose drastically in FY 2020-21.
• MGNREGA’s role for reducing vulnerability has been reemphasized and continues to be of vital importance in post-pandemic times.
• For households who found work in both the periods (pre-Covid and Covid), increased earnings from MGNREGA were able to compensate for somewhere between 20 to 80 percent of income loss depending on the block.

Way forward

• Institutional mechanisms, including governance and administrative structures, for more effective utilization of funds, especially to address poverty need to be examined.
• In addition to manual updating of information on job cards, equip each panchayat to a job card printing facility similar to passbook updation facilities in banks.
• It is to be ensured that the GPs (gram panchayats) get funds in advance and have more authority in sanctioning works. This will ensure that the mandate of the 73rd constitutional amendment is honoured and work is available on demand.