1. NREGA
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Group 10
Ravi Shanker 280/45
Srikanth Kolli 208/45
Rahul Meena 276/45
Krishnenthu Raja 222/45

3. Wage Employment Programs
Historical Perspective
• Maharashtra Model
• Bureaucracy
• Shortage of funds
• Lack of right planning
• Lack of local focus

4. The National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (NREGA)
“Act of the people, by the people, and for the people”

5. NREGA - Overview
Salient Features
Employment to all those who are willing to work (100 days)
Free registration with a job guarantee within 15 days of application
At least 1/3rd of the employees must be women
Fixed minimum wage rate and no upper limit
Weekly disbursement of wages and delays not beyond a fortnight
Unlimited supply of funds for this project

6. Objective of NREGA
Unemployment
• Enhancement of
livelihood security of
households
• Arrest rural migration
Sustained Development
• Create rural assets
• Create livelihood
resource base
• Restore environment

7. Expectations from
Expectations from
NREGA
NREGA
Primary
Supplement employment opportunities
Auxiliary
 Regenerate natural resource base
of rural livelihood for sustainable
development
Process Outcomes
Strengthen grass root processes of
democracy
 Infuse transparency and accountability
in governance

8. NREGA COVERAGE (1st Nationwide employment scheme )

9. State and Local Govt.
Roles and Responsibilities

10. State and Local Government
State Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (REGS)
• 25 per cent of the cost of material and wages for semiskilled/ skilled workers
• Unemployment allowance if the state is unable to
provide employment within 15 days
• Administrative expenses of the State Employment
Guarantee Council

11. Other Institutions

12. Funds

13. Funds
NREGA ‘09 Budget Allocation -39,000 Cr.
Central Govt. provides only 75% of the material costs,
promoting labour intensive works in NREGA

14. Components of Expenditure
• Material Cost
• Tamilnadu and Mizoram have achieved almost Zero
expense on material
• Orissa has high Material expenses owing to “royalties”
• Expenditure on Wages
• Administrative expenses
• Nagaland and Gujarat have high administrative
expenses

15. A Snapshot for 07-08

16. Progress Report

17. Implementation & Effectiveness of NREGA
144 Crore person-days of employment
34 Mn Households benefited
• Improved – ‘employment per rural household’, share
of women in workforce, expenditure per district, share
of wages in total expenditure
•Decreased % of ST’s benefiting from NREGA
•Increase in daily wages by whopping 15%
•Improved utilization of funds from 73% to 80%

18. State wise performance

20. State wise performance
Leaders
• Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
• Account for more than
half of the total
employment
• Haryana and Uttarakhand
• Improved Women
workforce
Laggards
• Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana,
Maharashtra, Punjab and
West Bengal
• Perform worse than
previous years
• Punjab, Bihar and HP
• Less than 33% women
workforce

21. Participation of Women
WOMEN
43%
•Tamil Nadu (82%)
•Rajasthan (69%)
•Kerala (67%)
•Andhra Pradesh (56%)
•Karnataka (52%)
•Gujarat (49%)
•UP (15%)
•J&K(1%)
At least 1/3rd of the beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested for work under the Scheme (NREGA ACT,
Schedule II, Section 6) Year-2007-08

22. Regenerating Natural Resource Base of Rural Livelihood

23. Community Building
Building Rural India

25. Field Visit To Block Office
Facts
• Observations
• 3000 beneficiaries in
2009 out of 30,000
bpl households
• 10% women < state
average of 17%
• All projects are on
rural connectivity
• Rs 80 a day as base
• Central role of Gram
Panchayat
• Unlimited funds, yet
Delays in wage
checks and Job cards
• No record of
measuring asset
creation

26. Case : NREGA in Kerala

27. NREGA in Kerala
• Highest literacy rate (90.86)
• Very high rate of unemployment
• Tendency to link literacy to employment (myth)
• First implemented on 5th Feb 2006
• Only in 4 districts (Palakkad, Waynad, Idukki and Kasargod)
• These districts had very low unemployment rate

28. Major features
• Popularity of Trade Unions
• Village Panchayats played the pivotal role with the
help of technical staffs
• Effectiveness of ‘Kudumbasree’
– Organized into Neighborhood group (NHG)  Area
Development Society (ADS)  Community Development
Society (CDS)
– ADS played a pivotal part in NREGA

29. Major features
• Focus on eco-restoration works
• Wages are paid directly to individual bank accounts

30. Problems
• Lag in the implementation (only 4/14 districts)

31. Problems
• Minimal participation from SC’s and ST’s
• One of the lowest

32. Achievements
• Major progresses after 2007
• Total corruption free implementation
– Panchayats took the responsibility seriously
– Implemented the programme very fast
• Effectiveness of Kudumbasree system
– Community of poor people
– Created a feeling of unity among them
– Doing work for their localities created an urgency

33. Achievements
• Participation of women
– Helped to empower women
– Participated in important decisions of her family
and society
– Equal wage for men and women

34. Achievements
Participation of women in NREGA

35. Achievements
• Public works done by local peoples
– Reduced corruption
– Increased urgency
• Importance given to natural resource
management and environment protection
• Setup of Labour Banks
– Develop skills of the workers
– Panchayats to teach Panchayats

36. Way Ahead

37. Way Ahead
• NREGA is here to stay
 Monitor the programme effectively
 Village level resource planning and development
 Other development programs like Bharat Nirman should sync
with NREGA
 From quantitative employment generation to sustainable
development through asset building
• Representatives
 Proper election and training
 More power to Panchayat Raj

38. Thank You