Post-clientelistic initiatives in a patronage democracy: The distributive politics of India’s MGNREGA

Das, Upasak; Maiorano, Diego

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.01.011

Cited by 22 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Despite sharp increases in fund allocation, total expenditures, and utilization rates since 2015–2016, the study has found deceleration in most physical performance indicators. These findings corroborate some other studies, which point to slower growth in physical performance indicators due to slower growth in fund allocation despite 100% utilization of allocated funds (Das & Maiorano, 2019; Raabe et al, 2010). Physical performance indicators like person-days of overall employment generated and person-days employment generated per household have decelerated, particularly during 2010–2011 to 2017–2018.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…According to the United Nation’s Millenium Development Goal (MDG) program, 270 million, or 21.9% of people out of 1.2 billion Indians, lived below the poverty line of $1.25 in 2011–2012 (United Nations, 2015). Given the magnitude of rural poverty in India, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was introduced in 2006 to provide casual employment to rural households as a safety net; to provide a reasonable source of income through public works in rural areas where poverty is widespread and there are no employment and income opportunities either in agriculture and non-agricultural sectors (Carswell & De Neve, 2014; Das & Maiorano, 2019; Esteves et al, 2013; Fischer & Ali, 2019; Narayanan et al, 2017; Tiwari et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the complexities involved in the implementation of a rights-based program of the scale of MGNREGA and the differential implementation capabilities and success achieved by different sub-national (India was divided into 28 states) levels over time (Chopra, 2019; Das & Maiorano, 2019; Fischer & Ali, 2019; Narayanan et al, 2017; Varman & Kumar, 2020), this study explores the question of how the program has been performed since the time of its inception till date. We base the analysis of specific key performance indicators against the stated objectives of the program.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Has India’s Employment Guarantee Program Achieved Intended Targets?

2021

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This paper explores the performance of the world’s largest employment guarantee program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes in India, both nationally and through a sub-national-level comparison based on key performance indicators viz. (i) financial indicators, (ii) physical performance indicators, and (iii) inclusiveness indicators. The paper is based on administrative data taken from the Ministry of Rural Development from 2006 to 2019. Despite sharp increases in fund allocation, total expenditures, and utilization rates, there was deceleration in majority of physical performance indicators after 2016, including total person-days employment and person-days of employment per household, with wide variation in sub-national level implementation capabilities. The finding also rejects the falsity of saturation of MGNREGA work in the rural areas, which is reflected in a strong positive correlation between fund allocation and employment generation. Its broader objective of social safety net for vulnerable people in rural areas shows an achievement, although with some gaps in implementation. JEL classification: H53, J43, P25

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Has India’s Employment Guarantee Program Achieved Intended Targets?

2021

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“…These aspects of MGNREGS, despite criticisms about its politics [54], are clearly responsive to urgent ecosystem and climate change-related challenges that India faces. For example, the Green India Mission seeks to meet the country's goal to bring a third of its area under forest cover.…”

Section: (A) Mgnregs In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing employment-based social assistance programmes to scale up nature-based climate action

Norton

Seddon

Agrawal

et al. 2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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As the severity of the triple challenges of global inequality, climate change and biodiversity loss becomes clearer, governments and international development institutions must find effective policy instruments to respond. We examine the potential of social assistance policies in this context. Social assistance refers to transfers to poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups to reduce their vulnerability and livelihood risks, and to enhance their rights and status. Substantial public funds support social assistance programmes globally. Collectively, lower- and middle-income countries spend approximately 1.5% of their GDP on social assistance annually. We focus on the potential of paid employment schemes to promote effective ecosystem stewardship. Available evidence suggests such programmes can offer multiple benefits in terms of improvements in local ecosystems and natural capital, carbon sequestration and local biodiversity conservation. We review evidence from three key case studies: in India (the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), Ethiopia (the Productive Safety Nets Programme) and Mexico (the Temporary Employment Programme). We conclude that, to realize the potential of employment-based social assistance for ecosystem benefits it will be necessary to address two challenges: first, the weak design and maintenance of local public works outputs in many schemes, and second, the concern that social protection schemes may become less effective if they are overburdened with additional objectives. Overcoming these challenges requires an evolution of institutional systems for delivering social assistance to enable a more effective combination of social and environmental objectives. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions’.

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“…The position of the village head is treated as a commodity that can be traded according to rational calculations. The commoditization also often makes the village a political area that is turned into a kind of political market (Das & Maiorano, 2019). Not surprisingly, the strength and capital from outside the village played a role (Evans, Holtemeyer, & Kosec, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recall on Village Heads Election: An Election Law Reform

Kurnianto¹,

Kusumo²

2020

JLLR

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This study aims to analyze the model of holding village head elections between times with a case study in Reban Village, Reban District, Batang Regency. This study uses a qualitative method with a sociological juridical approach(Dawkins et al., 2019). The results of this study indicate that: 1). Inter-village head election procedures in Reban Village, Reban District, Batang Regency are in accordance with the mandate of Article 47 of Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages. However, referring to Article 45 of Government Regulation No. 43 of 2014 there are stages of selection that are not yet in accordance with technical rules: a). The holding of the election exceeds the specified time limit. Limitations of technical guidelines become the main obstacle b). Funding for the election is still fully burdened to the candidates for village heads. 2). The mechanism for electing village heads over time through a voting model with a representative system. Voters who have the right to vote are every family head who lives in Reban Village, proven by a Family Card. Elections are democratic with a turnout of 94.9%.

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Post-clientelistic initiatives in a patronage democracy: The distributive politics of India’s MGNREGA

Cited by 22 publications

References 31 publications

Has India’s Employment Guarantee Program Achieved Intended Targets?

Has India’s Employment Guarantee Program Achieved Intended Targets?

Harnessing employment-based social assistance programmes to scale up nature-based climate action

Recall on Village Heads Election: An Election Law Reform

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