A Mirage or a Rural Life Line? Analysing the impact of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act on Women Beneficiaries of Assam

Abstract

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), launched in February 2006 was renamed in October 02, 2009 as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (henceforth, MGNREGA). It is an anti-poverty flagship programme of the Government of India. The key purpose of MGNREGA is to enhance wage employment in the rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed employment to every household in a financial year. The MGNREGA implementation status report for the financial year 2012-2013 unfolds that the programme has already provided employment to 44.9 million households across 28 districts and five union territories. Hence, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the impact of MGNREGA on women beneficiaries. A plethora of research argues that MGNREGA, which promotes inclusive growth, is a vehicle of change, a lifeline for rural women. So far, however, there has been very little discussion about the impact of MGNREGA on women beneficiaries of Assam. This research is an attempt to examine the participation of women in MGNREGA, Assam. It critically looks at the issues, problems and challenges confronted by the women while working at MGNREGA. Written from a feminist perspective on gender, poverty and women’s empowerment, the research seeks to address the problems of the women beneficiaries through their lived experiences. For this, we conducted in-depth interviews with the women beneficiaries in the months of August and September, 2009 in four remote areas namely, Burka, Chandrapur, Barbhang and Muguriya, the first two situated in Kamrup, while the third and the fourth in Barpeta districts of Assam, where the programme of MGNREGA is on-going. The findings of the research suggest measures so that the programme can be made more effective in the long run.

Drawing a Link—Women’s Empowerment and Mahatma GandhiNational Rural Employment Guarantee Act: A Study Conducted in the Goalpara District, Assam

“…Clearly, these analyses indicate that involvement of women in MGNREGA led to empowerment of rural women in the realms of education, savings, and access to credit, social participation and cash income earned through income generating activities. These findings bear resonance to a number of previous studies (Bhattacharyya et al, 2011;Bhattacharyya and Vauquline, 2013;Fraser, 2015;Sudarshan, 2011).…”

“…It remains well documented that economic empowerment is the backbone to women's empowerment that ensures provision of training, employment-and income-generation activities with both forward and backward linkages with the ultimate objective of making all women economically independent and selfreliant (Bhattacharyya et al, 2011;Bhattacharyya and Vauquline, 2013;Sarma, 2009). In this case, MGNREGA is an important step for ensuring economic empowerment of rural women-the findings suggest that in the Ambari village, women have been developing their 'power within' to empower themselves through the scheme-power with (Rowlands, 1995;Bhattacharyya et al, 2011;Bhattacharyya and Vauquline, 2013).…”

“…Women's economic empowerment can be achieved through equal access to and control over critical economic resources and opportunities, and the elimination of structural gender inequalities in the labour market including a better sharing of unpaid care work." As stated above, MGNREGA is an important milestone for prompting economic empowerment to the rural women (Bhattacharyya et al, 2011;Bhattacharyya and Vauquline, 2013;Fraser, 2015). The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 was passed unanimously in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament) on 23 August 2005 (Dutta et al, 2012;Fraser, 2015;Liu and Barret, 2013;Sudarshan, 2011 including drainage in water logged areas  Rural connectivity to provide all weather access  Any other works which may be notified by the Central Government in consultation with the State Government.…”

“…There is a large literature on issues linked to rural women's empowerment through the largest public works scheme of India-The National Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, first started in 200 districts since 2 February 2006 and renamed after the Father of the Nation as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) since 02 October 2009 on his 140th birth anniversary (Dutta et al, 2012;Fraser, 2015;Liu and Barret, 2013;Narayanan and Das, 2014; also Bhattacharyya and Vauquline, 2013;Bhattacharyya et al, 2011). Underscoring the human rights notion of 'right to work', the Act guarantees 100 days of paid employment in unskilled works to poor rural households within a financial year aimed at granting social security (Dutta et al, 2012).…”

“…However, after a decade of performance, evidence suggests that MGNREGA has been suffering from massive funding cuts apace with corruption and issues associated with poor implementation (Fraser, 2015;Ghosh, 2015). While the overall success and failure of this scheme has been widely researched upon in different states as well as India as a whole (Bhattacharyya and Vauquline, 2013;Bhattacharyya et al, 2011;Dutta et al, 2012;Fraser, 2015;Liu and Barret, 2013;Sudarshan, 2011), this research aims to examine the scale of economic empowerment gained by women engaged in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the district of Goalpara, Assam. The article begins with an attempt to draw a connection between women's empowerment and MGNREGA.…”