A Study on Impact of Mahtma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Annagram Block, Cuddalore District, Tamilnadu

Abstract

The impacts of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the study area are discussed in the present study. A development programme, when implemented properly and promptly, ought to have certain impact on the beneficiaries and society as well. An attempt was made in the present investigation to analyze the changes brought about by the Scheme in terms of supplementing employment and livelihood opportunities, economic and social empowerment of women through equal wages and greater work Opportunities, income and wages, inclusive growth particularly among disadvantaged groups, namely, Below Poverty Line/Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Differently-disabled, financial inclusion, creation of durable and productive public assets, effective convergence practices, regeneration of natural resource base through water conservation and other activities, stemming of migration, strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions, and building social capital in the study area. In order to determine the influencing factors of the MGNREGS as perceived by the sample households, Multiple Regression Analysis test has been employed in the respective tables. In other words Multiple Regression Analysis has been employed to find the influence of the independent variables considered on the dependent variable. Perhaps the most important of all, and of lasting impact, is that a process for the empowerment of the poor is merging around the MGNREGA 2005. This process has commenced in several parts of the country where poor families have been able to assert themselves and demand the payment of minimum wages, Seek and obtain employment allowance from the administration. In fact, the programme has provided the stimulus for the mobilization of the poor across the country, possibly for first time in the recent history in some of the states in India.