- Came into Force: 2005
- Mission: It aims to enhance livelihood
- The act was first proposed in 1991 by P.V. Narasimha Rao
- Introduced by: Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister of Rural Development
- Statement: security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work".
Aims and Objectives
- Providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year, to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work
- create durable assets such as roads, canals, ponds and wells
- Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant's residence, and minimum wages are to be paid.
- If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to an unemployment allowance. Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement.
- Help in protecting the environment, empowering rural women, reducing rural-urban migration and fostering social equity, among others.
Coverage
- The Act was notified in 200 districts in the first phase with effect from February 2nd 2006 and then extended to an additional 130 districts in the financial year 2007-2008 The remaining districts have been notified under MGNREGA with effect from April 1, 2008.
- Thus, the MGNREGA covers the entire country with the exception of districts that have a hundred per cent urban population.
Key Stakeholders- Roles and Responsibilities
Village Level
Wage Seekers
- Right to get 10% extra wage in case of employment provided beyond 5 km of radius
- Medical treatment in case of injury in the course of employment including cost of hospitalization.
Gram Panchayat (GP)
- The GP is the pivotal body for planning and implementation
- Programme Officer (PO) is required to allot at least 50 per cent of the works in terms of cost to the GPs for implementation.
Block Level
Programme Officer
- The PO acts as a coordinator for Mahatma Gandhi NREGS (MGNREGS) at the Block level.
- The primary responsibility of the PO is to ensure that anyone who applies for work gets employment within 15 day.
Intermediate Panchayat
- Approve the Block level Plan for forwarding it to the district Panchayat at the district level for final approval
- Supervise and monitor the projects taken up at the Gram Panchayat and Block level
District level
District Programme Coordinator
- The State Government designates a DPC, who can be either the Chief Executive Officer of the District Panchayat (DP), or the District Collector (DC)
- Review, monitor and supervise the performance of the POs and all implementing agencies in relation to MGNREGA works
District Panchayat
- Consolidation of Annual Block Plans (within the District) into a District Plan
- Monitoring and supervision of the MGNREG Scheme in the District.
State level
State Employment Guarantee Council
- Advise the State Government on the implementation of the Scheme
- Review the monitoring and redressal mechanisms and suggest improvements
- Prepare the annual report to be laid before the State Legislature by the State Government.
State Government
- Establish a State Employment Guarantee Fund
- Delegate financial and administrative powers to the DPC and the Programme Officer.
Centre Level
Central Employment Guarantee Council
- The Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) (or ‘Central Council’) has been set up under the Chairmanship of the Union Minister of Rural Development
- Preparation of annual reports to be laid before Parliament by the Central Government on the implementation of this Act.
Ministry of Rural Development
- The Ministry of Rural Development is the nodal Ministry for the implementation of MGNREGA
- Set up National Management Team (NMT) within the Department of Rural Development to perform the national level functions under MGNREGA.
Miscellaneous Key Points
- Bhuvan: The NRSC developed the Bhuvan geo-portal app, a mobile-based geo-tagging application for the MGNREGA scheme. Within a short period, the ISRO’s Bhuvan app was linked with ‘NREGS-soft’, an interface operated under DoRD by National Informatics Centre(NIC) and enabled access to all state implementing departments.
- e-Saksham: It is a digital learning platform for MGNREGA.
- The central government increase the number of workdays under the rural job guarantee scheme from 100 to 150 in drought-affected areas.
- The government of India has allocated an additional Rs 6,084 crore to MGNREGA. This brings the total allocation to the scheme to Rs 61,084 crore in 2018-19, making it the highest ever allocation.
- It also applies to tribal and those tribals who have received land rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
- Ex-Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh released an anthologys of research studies on the MGNREGA called "MGNREGA Sameeksha" in New Delhi on 14 July 2012.
- The involvement of contractors is banned.
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocated Rs 55,000 crore for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) for the financial year 2018-19.
- In its World Development Report 2014, the World Bank termed it a "stellar example of rural development".
