Assessment of Benefits and Problems of MGNREGA in Karamadai Block in Coimabatore District

Abstract

Traditionally, “development” refers to the capacity of a national economy to generate and sustain an annual increase in its gross national product (GNP). In the 1950s and 1960s a large number of the Third World countries, including India, achieved their growth targets, but the levels of living and quality of life of the masses for the most part remained unchanged (Todaro 1985). This somber situation caused the “dethronement” of the GNP from the definition of development. In 1970s economic development was redefined in terms of elimination of poverty, inequality, unemployment, disease and illiteracy (Seers 1969). Therefore, development is now ‘conceived of as a multi-dimensional process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes and national institutions as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and eradication of absolute poverty’ (Todaro 1985).