MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT

• In a first providing empirical evidence, a study conducted on the impact of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) during the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that the wages earned under the Act helped people compensate between 20% and 80% of the income loss incurred because of the lockdown.
• The report also said that around 39% all job card-holding households interested in working under the MGNREGA did not get a single day of work in the year 2020-21.
• The study titled, “Employment guarantee during COVID-19- The Role of MGNREGA in the year after the 2020 lockdown” conducted by Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University, collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD), Samaj Pragati Sahyog and NREGA
• The study was aimed at determining the extent to which working in the programme provided income support to vulnerable households during the pandemic.
• The team surveyed a total of eight blocks in four States — Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
• The final report of the survey that was conducted in December 2021 said, “ For households who had not worked in the pre-COVID year but did find work during the COVID year,
• The study, however, also pointed out that MGNREGA was unable to meet with the actual demand from the ground.
• Across the eight blocks on an average 39% of households did not get a single day’s work.
• “This means two out of five households that needed work in the COVID year did not get even a single day of MGNREGA work.
• And, those households that did not get a single day of work, actually wanted 77 days of work in the year on average,” the study pointed out.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 

• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 or MNREGA, earlier known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘right to work’.
• This act was passed in 23 August 2005 under the UPA government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following tabling of the bill in parliament by the Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh
• It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to at least one member of every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
• Women are guaranteed one third of the jobs made available under the MGNREGA
• Another aim of MGNREGA is to 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.
• That is, if the government fails to provide employment, it has to provide certain unemployment allowances to those people.
• Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement. Apart from providing economic security and creating rural assets, other things said to promote NREGA are that it can help in protecting the environment, empowering rural women, reducing rural-urban migration and fostering social equity, among others.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB