Proceddings of Seminar

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL SEMINAR

on

MGNREGA AND GENDER EQUITY

held on

April 17-18, 2013

in

Conference Hall, IIPA, New Delhi

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CONTENTSPg. no.

1. Executive Summary 3

2. Opening Remarks and Introduction 4

3. Panel Discussion on Policy Components in MGNREGA

for Overcoming Gender Discrimination and Inequality. 13

4. Technical Sessions

I. Gendered Participation in MGNREGA Programme:

Change and Continuity 21

II. Implications of MGNREGA for Women as an Agency

of Change: Voices from the Fields 34

III. Initiative To Encourage Women’s Participation in MGNREGA 40

IV. Effective Measures For Striking Gender Equity

through MGNREGA 42

V. MGNREGA and Creation of Productive Assets:

Gender Concerns 48

VI. Women Workers and Perceptions of MGNREGA:

Case Studies 53

VII. Initiative to Encourage Women’s Participation in MGNREGA 57

5. Abstracts of Papers Presented 62

6. Programme Schedule 92

7. List of Participants 97

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Executive Summary: MGNREGA1 is a unique employment opportunity for rural women who really get a chance to earn through their own income. Women earn same as men on MGNERGA, in a survey it is mentioned that majority of women workers collect their own wages (79%) and also keep them (68%)2. MGNREGA has significant achievements with regard to mobilisation of women wage workers, gender parity of wages and increased control over women’s earnings from MGNREGA. There have been acceptability from large sections of society that MGNREGA has provided better working conditions, exploitation free work culture and of course better wages for women. Though not conceived on the gender lines, Schedule II of the paragraph six of the Act emphasises on the word, priority, which is itself evident of gender mainstreaming, as the text denotes that “Priority” should be given to women in the allocation of work in such a way that “at least one-third of the beneficiaries shall be women”3. It has incidentally impacted on the empowerment of women at the rural level. The statistics from the 2006 to the year 2010 show that the participation of the women at national level had increased from 42% to 48.8% 4 which is clearly determining how the scheme has roped in the women at the village and made them the catalyst of rural growth. In fact the states termed as BIMARU states of country has registered a noted growth of the women participation in the development projects run under the MGNREGA. It has certainly provided mobility to women at village level, which is one of the essential factors of empowerment. Moreover, all work provided within 5 km of residence is again a peculiarity of the legislation as women need not to travel miles to earn livelihood.

The share of SC/ST families in the work provided under MGNREGA has been 55 per cent and 45 per cent of workers are women5. MGNREGA has several important provisions which are aimed to improve the participation of women and even relatively small level of MGNREGA employment have resulted in significant benefits to women section. The serious problem remains at the implementation level across States like lack of crèches for mothers of young children and illegal presence of contractors etc. Given the critical gains made by women workers in terms of enhanced women’s economic independence and sense of equality, it is important that the problems in implementation do not derail the gains and a more comprehensive perspective on gender equity needs to be built.

In a move to make scheme more women friendly, rural development minister Shri Jairam Ramesh has made a series of suggestions to state chief ministers seeking special and priority jobs for widowed, destitute and disabled women. In identical letters to all

1 An Act to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, Preface, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005.2 Khera, Ritika (2011), The Battle for Employment Guarantee, pp 54, Oxford University Press. 3 Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, Schedule II, Section 6.4 Mahatma Gandhi NREGA National Reports 2006-10 , MoRD (http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspx)5 Preface, Report of the Committee for Revision of MGNREGA Operational Guidelines, 2012 ( Mihir Shah)

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state chief ministers, Shri Ramesh wrote, “if implemented would greatly add to the empowerment of women”. The suggestions included, identifying “widowed, deserted and destitute women...to ensure that they are provided job cards and are given 100 days of work, Ensure special works, which require less effort and those that are close to their house, are given to pregnant women and lactating mothers. Another suggestion is related to ensuring at least 50% of worksite supervisors are women”. “Priority should be given to women workers who have put in maximum work in the last three years or their daughters. Within this, first priority may be given to disabled women.” The Seminar “MGNREGA and Gender Equity,” discussed the impact of the MGNREGA on gender equity and identified major constraints on women’s access to productive employment opportunities through the employment guarantee program. The seminar tried to address the underlying premise by deliberating on the following thematic concerns

Policy Components in MGNREGA for Overcoming Gender Discrimination andInequality

Gendered Participation in MGNREGA Programme: Change and Continuity

Women Workers and Perceptions of MGNREGA:  Case Studies

Implications of MGNREGA for Women as an Agency Of Change:  Voices from the Field

Initiative to Encourage Women’s Participation in MGNREGA MGNREGA and Creation of Productive Assets: Gender Concerns 

OPENING REMARKSAND INTRODUCTION

DR. NUPUR TIWARI welcomed all the dignitaries and delegates of the seminar She introduced the dignitaries with the delegates

“Dr. Yogendra Narain Ji, former Defence Secretary to the Government of India and former Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha, who is going to Chair this

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inaugural session. We have Dr. S.M. Vijayanand, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, Smt. K. Ratna Prabha, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development and it is a pleasure to have with us Smt. Annie D. Raja who is the General Secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, the women’s wing of the CPI. We also have with us Jaswant Singh Rawat Ji who is Sarpanch of Masuda district, Ajmer, Rajasthan”

DR. NUPUR TIWARI spoke a few words about this national seminar. “The name that we have given to this seminar is ‘MGNREGA and Gender

Equity’. How gender inclusive is MGNREGA is the biggest concern here. Although promoting gender equity was not an explicit goal of this Act, MGNREGA has prompted female participation in the Indian workforce. The Act is committed to ensuring that at least 33 per cent of participating workers are women and stipulates equal wage for men and women. But female participation in the public employment programme is far higher than the quota’s mandate. Nationwide female participation stands at 51.8 per cent while there is even higher participation in certain States like Rajasthan from where we have a representative here, where it is 80 per cent, and in Kerala it is 79 per cent. The statistics imply that MGNREGA fosters greater gender inclusivity specially, given that women form only 28.7 per cent of India’s total workforce according to the latest National Sample Survey Organisation’s data, and the Survey also suggests that this programme attracts the poor and the migrant women in particular. So, through this seminar, we hope to address this underlying premise by deliberating on certain thematic concerns which I would like to speak about, which are there in the structure of this programme. We are going to deliberate on the “Policy

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Components in MGNREGA for Overcoming Gender Discrimination and Inequality”, “Gendered Participation in MGNREGA Programme: Change and Continuity”, then, we have another technical session on “Women Workers and Perceptions of MGNREGA: Change and Continuity”, There is “Voices from the Fields” where we have called the actual case studies and grass-roots workers from the fields. Then we have a session on “Implications of MGNREGA” for Women as an Agency of Change” and another session on “MGNREGA and Creation of Productive Assets: Gender Concerns”. This will be an opportunity to share the findings and learn from immense experience of field workers and practitioners. We have around 40 participants who include experts, development practitioners, administrators, policy makers, field workers and also social activists.”

DR. YOGENDRA NARAIN started by congratulating Dr. Nupur Tiwari for gathering such a number of field level workers and Sarpanches heading panchayats etc. in this seminar. Further he praised MGNREGA to be the largest ever Employment guarantee programme in the world.

“In India where 70% of population live in villages, it is necessary to provide employment to them at village level, the statistics from the year 2011-12 shows Five crores families have been benefitted from it and it had generated 211 crore person days of work. Women partipation in Kerala is extremely high, which is the sign of gender equity but participation in states like UP and Bihar is very low, even lower than national average. Another important point is that we had witnessed increment in rural wages, in post MGNREGA era, wages went up by 9.7 % and people are now complaining of shortage in agriculture labour. Second point is that the purchasing power has increased in rural areas. This act has legalized the right to work. Women are getting wages through banks, which in turn are giving financial empowerment to them. Second indirect effect coming out of this is the population conrol as working women tend to have smaller families,

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further it will help to reduce the fertility rate. NREGA had increased the purchasing power of the women as MGNREGA had established a law of equal wages among men and women. He further stressed on the 12 th plan document which had insisted on training of women workers once in a month regarding the rights under the act. He advised that construction of toilets for females should be included in the shelf of projects.Women should be allowed to work for 150 days as against existing 100 days norm.”

SHRI S.M. VIJAYANAND: “It is an Act which came from the people. Of course, all Acts can trace their

roots to some demand, but this was structured by the people. So, it is an activists Act, it is naturally pro-poor, pro-people and pro-women. This is the only development legislation which gives the central place to panchayats. Of course, panchayats are not very popular in most parts of India but still, at least in about 8 to 10 States, 50 per cent of the panchayat members are women. So, it is an institution of potential, it is a local government system where women have a say, more than anywhere in the world, in India. So, this is the only legislation which puts the village panchayats, particularly, in the central place. This is one of the few public programmes where the content is shaped really from the bottom, from the workers. It is worker-centric. The core objective of the Act, as the Act itself says, is enhancement of livelihood security. We think it is just giving 100 days of unskilled work to some worker who comes. No. There is a larger design which we need to be sensitive about.

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There are a lot of gender-friendly features, one-third of the jobs have to be given to women – now it is almost 52 per cent, last year it was less than 50 per cent, and my guess is, it should go up to two-third in about 3-4 years. Though for equality of wages, there is an Act of Parliament, it is not in practice. For example, in a highly trade unionized system, like in Kerala, there is no equal wage. It is only on paper. But for the first time, we have equal wages realized on ground through MGNREGA.

There are some minor things like providing facilities at the worksite, crèches caring for children, planning by the panchayat where women have a big role to play, and then the important point is, works which are doable by women.

He further informed the house that last year an amendement to the Act was brought in to include toilets, including school toilets, and late last year, to include Anganwadis, which are the ultimate institutions for the women and children together in the village. There are some other points, e.g., in the State Employment Guarantee Council and all that, one-third have to be women, transparency and social audit.

Another thing which any State has not realized is gender-sensitive schedule of rates. You are paid based on the out-turn, for most of the public works, the out-turn by women has to be less than the men, for most of the items. So, unless you bring a gender-sensitive schedule of rates, you will have the problem of women getting less wages, even though we have equality of wages. So, that is something which we need to look ahead.

There are SHGs of women to be in the central place for all aspects of MGNREGA right from sensitization of people about the potential of getting work, getting the job cards, planning for work, and more importantly, organising the works. In India, public works are organized by men. It is male-dominated and then male perspectives take over. Nobody has seen a woman contractor, all contractors, right from the village level benami contractors who do the work for the panchayat up to big multinational contractors. Organising the workers is very important for sustaining the gains of women. Over the next few years India would have about 8 to 10 crore families organized through women into about 80 lakh SHGs as part of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).

There are micro evidences of positive spending like savings for health, education of children and assets of value. Things which are needed to be done in future is to reduce corruption, to improve livelihood, particularly to reduce poverty, and then, of course, to make it really demand-based. Women should be the mate, the key organizers of the work, not just a participant in the work, and

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then, from a mate, she can graduate to a barefoot engineer and from an ordinary worker she can graduate to a semi-skilled worker and probably a skilled worker. The process will come only if MGNREGA is linked to SHG movement.

The new guidelines released by the Prime Minister (2nd February) mandated the organization of the workers into labour groups. Andhra Pradesh is a leader in this as they have Shram Shakti Sanghas – the workers’ groups.

The negative practices are to be rooted out, for this worker’s organistions are must though not in a trade union form and this organization should be seen as a sub-system of the SHG network.

Another one is, improving the skills of the labour, and linking up with the ICDS system. A large number of tools which women use are not gender-friendly, hence they need to be redesigned, but it is a commercial operation and more than five crore tools will be required. So, that is a major challenge which is being addressed but very slowly.

Then, community–based monitoring and social audit are required which can be done through the women collectives, the people’s groups, the SHGs which will also empower women as it will give them the right to question, it will be a critical component of empowerment.

Gender senitization of panchayats are required, and this can be done well in central Indian states where women partiticpation in panchayats is around 50 percent.

MGNREGA is not just a work based scheme, it should be linked up with all the anti-poverty programmes like NRLM, Indira Awas Yojana, National Social Assistance Programme, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana as it is a large basket of anti-poverty programmes. MGNREGA can be called an anti-poverty sub-plan or a poverty alleviation sub-plan where women would be the key micro planners.

Smt. Ratna Prabha: MGNREGA had given an assured income for not only women, but also assured income for men as well, as earlier men used to get low wages in fields as there was much exploitation.

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The convergence of various programmes and schemes for the overall

development of the women is the need of an hour. Apart from all qualitative improvement in the life of women what is required is a gender sensitized approach should be followed to change the mind set of men. More permanent assets should be created like Anganwadis, school buildings, female toilets etc.

MS. ANNIE D. RAJA:NREGA is the product of national and international circumstances, as internationally UN’s mandate to end poverty by 2015 along with UPA I agenda to end hunger, poverty, migration etc. brought in the legislation for right to work.The constitution of India vide directive principles, enshrined in it, directs the state to ensure meaningful and decent livelihood of the citizens. MGNREGA has given economic opportunity to women, in Kerala where most of the men are living in Gulf countries. In a social audit conducted in Tiruchur district a women labour told that she bought gold earings from the savings from MGNREGA. In an another audit in Villipuram district of Tamil Nadu, an elder women told that she had bought gifts for her grand daughter from her savings from MGNREGA income.

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Role of women has changed as women can now contribute to family expenditure, they have now got an opportunity to occupy rural public spaces, they now have a visible contribution in decision making at home.

Bank balance and assets should not be the base to assess the impact of MGNREGA on women and on the entire village. On the other hand, NREGA had given a chance to rural women to decide on the matter of rural development.

Oppurtunities for women mobilization has increased, as now women are making unions, they have now found a new identity, and they now have got a role in planning process.

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There are some grey areas in this. The most important grey area is delay in wage payment; even compensation is not paid in many circumstances. The panchayat members are not getting salary/allowances for its implementation, which in turn is affecting MGNREGA. To address the issue of corruption PRIs should be entitled to salaries.

We have to look the schedule of rates, as in Bihar and West Bengal men and women are getting different wages. Special women gram sabha should be there, from top to bottom 50 percent should be women, whether it is in implementing agency or labour force.

A debate has been there against MGNREGA since long, that it has affected agriculture as now there is less labour available for the agro fields. But this notion is completely wrong as till date agriculture labour were being exploited, no one cared about the Minimum Wages Act. MGNREGA has spread awareness in citizens regarding their minimum wages and now they are not ready to work below minimum wages.

Secondly, gram sabhas has right to fix the schedule of work, hence there remains no issue of NREGA work being in clash with agriculture season. The lack of gram sabha’s coordination is responsible for it and not the MGNREGA.

There is now the law for women, assets created under this scheme has gender angle in them, i.e, if water level of some village increases due to MGNREGA work, it directly impacts women as now they don’t have to go 15-20 kms to fetch water.

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Panel Discussion on Policy Components in MGNREGA for Overcoming

Gender Discrimination and Inequality

Chairperson: Ms. Ratna M. Sudarshan

DR. BIDYUT MOHANTY: We need much more such right-based measures, both taking care of family and public place. Only then we may get gender equity. Good thing is, the percentage of women workers is much higher than that of men, but this is only in southern States and Rajasthan but not in northern States and

eastern India. The panchayats should be instrumental in demanding work, only then things will work.

DR. SANDEEP SHARMA: On positive side, there has been participation of women in MGNREGA. For example, in Madhya Pradesh, we found it is around 40 per cent, but in disbursement of work, there is a kind of gender bias. For example, in Madhya

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Pradesh, women are generally given soft work, like, they are just throwing the soil from dug wells, which requires fewer workdays. So, at the end of it what happens is, since they are given certain selected work, their total workdays get reduced.

Again, the positive side is, there is equal wage. In Madhya Pradesh and some other States also we have seen that men and women both get the same wage. But whether it has affected the decision making at the household level, again there is a question mark. It is not necessary that a woman

getting the same money as the man will come back home with that money and whether it actually leads to her decision making in consumption expenditure. Though there have been some positive examples showing they have a say, but mostly it is limited to food consumption. The bargaining power has not happened as it was presupposed.

There are two basic barriers, one is cultural barrier and the other is institutional barrier. Institutional barrier, for instance, is like MGNREGA does not take into account life cycle vulnerabilities of women, provision for pregnant women or nursing women. There is no special provision for them. Though there is a mention that mobile crèches should be there on the worksite, in reality it has not

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happened. In our study we have found out that there were around four or five per cent of the worksites where actually the mobile crèches were there.This affects the mother as she has to take care of the child, and when that facility is not provided, it is obvious that she has to come back to house or leave the child at home.

The other problem is creation of assets. It is understood that one of the indirect effects of MGNREGA is creation of assets which will lead to overall development, watershed development and all. But there have been issues raised by women that why not we also focus on certain assets which actually direct the gender concern, say, creating a healthy facility or a self-defence facility. Many times it has happened that actual assets were created but they were not of much use for the village, nor does it have that kind of effect on the overall development of the village. There are studies which have said that actual assets creation has not been done. From gender perspective, probably we can also think of some assets which are of a direct gender concern.

The other barrier is the cultural barrier. Women are not encouraged to go for community participation. When we have social audit or when there is a meeting discussing the type of asset that has been created at the village level, there again the women participation is less because they are not in the process of decision making, this is defeating the purpose of MGNREGA scheme.

We also found out that in some States like Uttar Pradesh, women complained that the job cards were in their husband’s name. Even the bank accounts were in their husband’s name. So, that creates a problem for them. Also, there is a complaint about the kind of equipments they get at the worksite for women workers. They feel the equipments are not good enough for them to do the work. They also have a complaint that the supervisor of the work is a male. So, sometimes they feel unsafe when the supervisor at the worksite is a male.

So, basically, these are some of the problems that we have identified from our field studies. Overall, it seems that we need to strengthen the philosophy that it is a right-based work and not only men, but even women should go and demand for work. SHRI MANOJ RAI: The MGNREGA had activated the panchayats to much extent, but there remains skepticism whether the socio-political component of panchayats had been killed by the MGNREGA. The Panchayats had been engrossed by too much work under MGNREGA which is becoming burdensome.

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SHRI JOY ELAMON: NREGA is a right based Act and governance goes together. Gram Sabha is the village assembly where everyone can participate. So, we need to strengthen that as a system. Otherwise it cannot be a project. NREGA is not a project. Gender equity cannot happen through a project, it is part of it. Self help groups is very important for strengthening the NREGA as they are the sub systems of panchayat system. We need to bring in men also, let them also understand what gender is. That is why again I say that let us confront this conspiracy of silence i.e above 90% women participation in Kerala, men need to be there.

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The next point is this gender sensitive schedule of rights. As you said, it is good to have everything designed. But how this gender sensitive schedule of rights actually happens, how the gender sensitive schedule of rights is implemented? To know this, one need to do a lot of study on that. Then only we can find it out.

The next is about organising of workers as another organisation. Again, we are creating another parallel body. It is such a small village and you have hundreds of committees. The same people have to go to attend the meetings of every committee. Nobody knows what is happening. Instead, make the Gram Sabha as the platform which is sustainable, which is legal, which is constitutional, and go forward.

Finally, I will only tell that it is not an answer to all the questions but it has a lot of potential to contribute to gender equity. We have this problem of getting something and saying, this is the end of the world. No. This is one of the things. So, there needs to be convergence of other schemes, other programmes, everything, and it is all linked basically. So, where can convergence happen? Convergence cannot happen at the national level. Different Secretaries would not even meet because of so many reasons. At the State level also, same thing is there. Then where will you find everyone together, every ideas together? It is only in the Gram Sabha, it is only in the

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panchayat, and we need to focus on NREGA, anchoring it to panchayats because then only it becomes sustainable. Otherwise, after all these Missions and other things, nothing will be left and you close and you jump into another programme.

DR. SHAMS KHWAJA: In Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, I have found certain very glaring and disturbing definitions and legal crafting issues. First specific instance is section 2(f) which defines a household “Household means the members of a family related to each other by blood” - which can be even a father and a son – “marriage or adoption, and normally residing together and sharing meals or holding a common ration card.”

Those of you who have had the good fortune of traversing the length and breadth of this country know that in our rural countryside across the States, across regions, east, west, north and south, there is the tradition of what you call as a joint family household. There the sons and grandsons usually share the same meal and usually, unless there is acrimony between them, have all the names in the common ration card.

Next definition problem is in section 2(h) which defines a minimum wage. The minimum wage as defined in the NREGA has been “The minimum wage fixed by the concerned State Government for agricultural labourers in that

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particular State or region”. Now, this again comes from not understanding the minimum wage defined in the Minimum Wages Act. That is what it refers to ‘under the Minimum Wages Act’. The Minimum Wages Act, was an Act that had the basic jurisprudence on two cornerstones. Number one was, it had to be a minimum wage which was deliverable by a comercially viable entity. If I am a private contractor, if I employ you guys, I should not be asked to make you pay as much as would result in shutting down of my enterprise. That was one important commercial viability consideration. The other was, of course, the local minimum needs of living. However, in NREGA, the wage giver is not a commercial entity; it is only the government, either the State or the Central. So, my agitation on this missing out the jurisprudence of minimum wages is, and the suggestion could be, we need to have a minimum wage which is either uniform for the country or if not uniform, then it has to be refactored according to the regions. You cannot leave it at the mercy of the Minimum Wages Act.

Third definition problem is section 2(r), Section 2(r) reads, “Unskilled manual work means any physical work which any adult is capable of doing without any skill or special training”. It sounds good, but in legal parlance, it would be better if instead of ‘any adult’, we call it “the particular adult is capable of doing it”. Supposing I have certain physical limitations and you are the Gram Pradhan, you cannot ask me ‘hey, pick up this piece of mud and shove it there’. I have a physical limitation. Hence, it should be ‘any kind of manual unskilled work which that particular adult is capable of doing’. Pregnant women need to be given a different kind of work.

Brijmohan Sharma: In the Sirohi district of Rajasthan, 186 families in a block do not have citizenship of India because of lack of relevant identification papers, hence they cannot afford the job cards. In Rajasthan a separate vigilance committee for women has been formed. Recently Rajasthan has started Gram Sachivalya Yojana which will be very beneficial for NREGA. The state celebrates ‘NREGA Day’ every Thursday. NREGA has few week points which are as follows, first one is the wages given to workers is out public money the same ways collector’s salary is drawn, when a collector gets full salary even for non-performance, why to cut the salaries of these workers for a mere non-performance. NREGA lacks social protection, if some one dies while on site, a sum of Rs 25,000 as compensation will be given to his/her family but not a job like it is given in government services. Rajasthan lacks expert workforce to manage worksites which is a grave concern.

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Casteism is a big hurdle to women participation in MGNREGA, Rajasthan also has a unique feature of NREGA debate at block, district and State level which focuses on the local problems, but it has been stopped since few months. It should be started again. NREGA does not have special allowances for the pregnant women working on fields hence it should be started. The workers doesnot get the minimum stipulated wages i.e Rs 135/- instead they get Rs 100/-, it should be taken care off.

Migration has been controlled due to MGNREGA, also rural workers now have surplus stocks of grains which they had bought due to NREGA work. Female enrollment in schools had increased due to NREGA, recently Deccan Herald had published a case study of Lonol gram panchayat which had achieved 100 % school enrollment ratio and immunization. All this has happened because of MGNREGA, else the rural families would have sent these children to work in tobacco and cotton fields of Gujarat inspite of schools. Essentially the status of women had become better than it was in pre-NREGA time.

Shri Ramswarup Saukariya: Due to rise in material cost the ration of 60:40 should be relaxed wherever it is necessary. The roads built under MGNREGA should be pakka roads to ensure connectivity even in the rainy season. To avoid any negative impact on agriculture NREGA should be integrated with it, and workers should be provided for agricultural works. Work wages should be distributed timely.

Shri Rameshwar Prasad: Most of the women are not allowed to work because of certain social structures. We in Pratapgarh district organized a Nari Shakti Sangh of ten-fifteen members to create awareness in the villages regarding MGNREGA scheme. At present they are working in 16 villages of the district and now are an organization of around 300 members. In a unique case of Medava village of Lalganj block of Pratapgarh district, where a NREGA worker has been elected as a gram sarpanch, but still she want to work as NREGA worker, which is being opposed by BDO.

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TECHNICAL SESSION-I

Gendered Participation in MGNREGA Programme: Change and Continuity

Chairperson: Dr. Bidyut MohantyCo-chairman: Dr. Masroor Ahmad Beg

Paper PresentersDr. S.C. Roy Gender Empowerment And Social Justice: Role

Of MNREGA In New MillenniumDr Smita Nayak Impact of MGNREGA on tribal women of Odisha:

A case study of Rajgangpur blockDr. Manju Panwar Barriers to Women’s Participation in MNREGA-

A Case study of Sonipat and Mahendergarh districts of Haryana State.

Shri Suresh Chandra Ch Problems Of Women Labour Under MGNREGS – A Comparative Study With Special Reference To Women Labour In Agriculture

Shri Saroj Mishra Concept of Employability and its relevance in employment opportunities in context to Gender Equity with respect to MGNREGA.

Dr. Xavier Susairaj Economic Analysis Of MGNREGS: A Study In Vellore District Tamil Nadu

CHAIRPERSON: NREGA has certainly impacted on the Male-Female ratio as women are becoming more aware.

DR. GURUKALYAN: NREGA can turn out to be a major instrument for galvanising panchayati raj institutions in India due to lack of mobilisation of disadvantaged group like women, cultural non-acceptance of female participation in the labour force, non-parity of wages, non-availability of work facility and non-involvement or less involvement of civil society organisations and simultaneously, Right to Information Act, 2005.

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Although corruption is prevailing in many States, the right of the weakest

special women can be protected and fortified through Gram Sabha and panchayati raj institutions. MGNREGA should be implemented through Gram Panchayat, but the real problem is the lack of implementation capability among panchayati raj institutions. The support structure is utterly inadequate. Not all but most States only provide, if at all, for Gram Rozgar Sevak, without providing him due authority and responsibility.

Dr Smita Nayak: Sundargarh district of Orissa is a tribal dominated area. Out of 62 tribals, 40 tribals are living there. Rajgangpur block is one of the blocks which come under Sundergarh district. The area of my study is Malidih, which is coming under one of the Gram Panchayats of Rajgangpur. Under Malidih, four villages are there, so, I have collected ten tribal women respondents from each of the villages and my topic is ‘Impact of MGNREGA on tribal women’

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The findings of the questionnaire are rest-sheds and drinking water facilities. This is the water body from where they used to get water earlier. You can see some buffaloes are in the water and they also used this water for their domestic consumption and other things.

In case of equal pay, there is difference between the wage of a man and a woman. Another important thing is, the bank transactions are not acting as a game changer as they are not well conversant with the banking system because they are ignorant, illiterate and shy. SHRI SURESH CHANDRA: My Paper for this particular seminar is on “Problems of Women Labour under MGNREGS – A Comparative Study with special reference to Women Labour in Agriculture. I have covered three main objectives. In my first objective, I have covered the statistics regarding participation of women in this particular MGNREGS in Andhra Pradesh State, in my second objective, I have studied about the various problems that these women are facing at the workplace, and in my third objective, I have focussed on the comparative study, like what are the similar problems and what are the amenities that are being got by agricultural labour as well as the workers from MGNREGS. I have covered two select villages from two districts, that is, Warangal and Karimnagar.

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When it comes to the participation of women, in the entire State of Andhra Pradesh, according to the recent statistics of March, the women’s contribution is somewhat more compared to men. 58 per cent women are participating in this particular scheme compared to 41 per cent men.

Coming to the portion of caste, SCs are 24 per cent, STs are 15 per cent and the remaining are 61 per cent. Specially in Andhra Pradesh, out of 45 lakhs of works taken up so far, only 1,87,000 works were completed and still there is a huge scope of 43 lakhs of works. So, this shows that there is still a lot of potential for participation under this particular Scheme.

I observed through the questionnaire around 80 respondents, one of the important observations I got is delay in obtaining unemployment allowance due to delay in getting jobs. When I asked this question, most of the people said they were unaware that this kind of allowance is applicable for them. One of the other problems which were mentioned by these people was delay in getting job cards. The problems of delay in work payment and wage differences are comparatively less in these particular areas.

Coming to the problems at workplace, out of 80 women which I have selected, more than 40 are carrying their children to the workplace. The main observation I got according to their reaction is, lack of crèches and lack of shading tents. Most of the people after working are taking their lunch and they are feeding milk to their children in the shadow of a particular tree.

One of the important observations is ex-gratia payment in case of injuries. They are completely unaware that they can access to this kind of financial facility due to their participation in the Scheme.

Coming to the comparative analysis, the only facility which the MGNREGS workers and agricultural labour are getting is drinking water facility.

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Although that water is not hygienic but this is the only facility they are getting at the workplace.

The facility of resting tents is comparatively low. When it comes to agricultural labour, it is almost zero.

Coming to the transport facilities, 93 per cent of the MGNREGS workers are saying that they are completely not getting any facility of transportation to the workplace whereas for the agricultural labour, depending on the demand and depending on the season, the farmers are providing the transportation or they are providing reimbursement of the auto fares. So, these people are able to get the transport facilities but the facility is not there for the MGNREGS workers.

Coming to the factors contributing to joining the particular scheme, as majority of the women whom I studied were having low level of skills as they are working for this particular scheme, inability to get employment and lack of assets and resources encouraged them to work for this particular scheme.

Coming to the problems at the workplace, both the MGNREGS workers and agricultural labour are facing hardships in unskilled manual labour as all the time they are carrying mud. The weight of the mud is comparatively very high which they are carrying, which is equal to the weight carried by men. In that way, they are facing severe problem in carrying the mud or doing some such kind of works. Due to lack of awareness and skills, especially the agricultural labour are facing this problem compared to MGNREGS workers.

Coming to the problems of women with reference to children due to work, when I supplied this questionnaire during the period of February, a day after the polio drops were given to the children all over India, and I asked them whether they were aware of this child vaccination and these health measures that can take care of their children, most of them said they were completely unaware that the vaccination was given on the previous day and will be given for the next two days.

One of the other problems is, they are getting less time for feeding milk because they are doing the manual labour work throughout the day.

Coming to the perception when it comes to gender equity, the women working for this MGNREG Scheme said that in wage pattern and assignment of work, they are getting discrimination compared to men, but when it comes to agricultural labour, they are also facing the same problem when it comes to wage pattern and assignment of work. But the choice of preference is comparatively better for agricultural labour compared to women working for NREGS.

Coming to the benefits they are getting at workplace, most of the MGNREGS people are not getting the benefits. The only benefit is, they are able

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to get timely payment of wages. But when it comes to agricultural labour, agricultural labour are able to get more benefits like they are able to get advance for the work and they are able to get on-field benefits like, if the farmers are making them to work for a field where they have to cut the mangoes, they are able to get some limited portion of that yield.

The final question which I asked them was, are you willing to continue this particular work? Here, almost 60 per cent of the MGNREGS workers said, although they are facing some problem, still they are willing to continue the present work.

I have observed that MGNREGS has absolute potential to effectively stimulate the local development, thereby ensuring women empowerment. If the policy makers and the implementers can take the responsibility in terms of wage pattern and structure of the work pattern, then definitely they can be able to encourage the women and the women labour will get the boost from the facilities and they will continue their participation in the MGNREG Scheme.

DR. MANJU PANWAR: I am going to present my Paper on “Barriers to Women’s Participation in MGNREGA. The first problem that the women are facing is the social norms. We found that majority of the women wanted to work under the Scheme but they were not allowed to work, either by their husbands or the male members of the family. Number two is the lack of child care facilities. Majority of the women were not aware that crèches are available. Third is the illegal presence of contractors. Most of the contractors were of the opinion that under this scheme, women are not fit to work. So, that was the problem that the women faced. Fourth is the delayed payment, when we asked the Block Development Panchayat Officer and the Sarpanch, they were of the opinion that they were not getting the funds from the top, so, how could they pay the money to the women? Lack of participation in the Gram Sabha meetings: In the field we found that women were confused between the term ‘Gram Sabha’ and ‘Gram Panchayat’. We all know that Gram Sabha is a platform where all the people come together and they discuss the development issues. But in the field we found that women were confused between these two terms. In most of the Gram panchayats, the Sarpanches do not inform the women about the day, time and place of the Gram Sabha meeting. Bank payment: On this point we got a mixed response from the women. On the one hand, women were of the opinion that it is a great experience that their

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accounts have been opened in the bank and they are exposed to the bank environment, but on the other hand, the women were saying that it is not comfortable for them to go to the bank and they have to stand in a long queue, they have to travel a lot and, apart from this, the bankers also adopt an indifferent attitude towards these women. Poor maintenance of job cards: This is another problem that the women have been facing. Lack of transparency in the muster roll: In the field we found that there are two kinds of muster rolls, one is kuchcha muster roll, another one is pucca muster roll. So, the kuchcha muster roll was at the worksite and the pucca muster roll was filled later on when the environment is peaceful and when there is no disturbance. Unemployment allowance: In none of the Gram Panchayat we found this unemployment allowance being paid.Instruments and tools for the work: Most of the tools and instruments are very expensive. So, the women could not purchase these items, because of which they could not work under the Scheme.

The last point is, less choice in the selection of works. Women were not made aware of the list of activities. So, they just accepted the work which the Sarpanch gave to them.

SHRI JITENDRA KUMAR: After conducting the above mentioned survey, we listed some of the suggestions. Gram Rozgar Sevak are not gender sensitised persons. They are generally males and they are not handling the women properly. They are not maintaining the job cards and other things. Generally we have seen in the field that they are frustrated persons because they are getting only Rs.2,000. I think it should be increased from Rs.2,000 to Rs.5,000.

Nearer and dearer persons of the Sarpanch are kept as Gram Rozgar Sevaks. In the Mahendragarh district, one college going girl was employed as a Gram Rozgar Sevak but in lieu of her, her father was working.

The very important point under the Scheme is the awareness generation. Generally the rural masses are not aware about their rights, their entitlements. This task can be done properly by the NGOs, some of the research institutions, some of the research scholars, activists and some of the folk media methods, just like poster making, nukkad nataks, folk media may be used so that people may be made aware about their rights and entitlements. There is lack of training and capacity building, lack of expert staff .

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Convergence is a very important component. Even the Ministry issued some guidelines for converging other programmes. If this programme converges with other rural development programmes, agricultural programmes, PMGSY and the social sector programmes, this programme will give more fruitful results. Even the Act says that there should be some facilities provided at the worksite, e.g., crèche, drinking water and first aid box, but in our study, we never found this type of facilities. This is hampering the work, especially of the women.

SHRI SAROJ MISHRA: I am going to make my presentation on “Concept of Employability and its relevance in employment opportunities in context to Gender

Equity with respect of MGNREGA.” In 2004, in urban areas, the unskilled workers were 58 per cent, semi-skilled were 28 per cent and skilled workers were 14 per cent whereas in rural areas, the unskilled workers were 84 per cent, semi-

skilled were 13 per cent and skilled were just 3 per cent. This data clearly establishes that urban women have participation of just 11.88 per cent. There is

something more to it. Seventy-five per cent of these women in urban areas work in just four sectors. These are education, household, medicine kind of thing. Seventy-five per cent of these urban women work in these sectors. If you calculate, 75 per cent of 11.88 per cent comes to around 9 per cent. In urban areas 9 per cent women work with 75 per cent of the economic sector. What I am trying to establish is that employability of women reduces as we go up the ladder in the economy. Once economy develops, what happens is, the unskilled jobs shift to semi-skilled and skilled ones. Once that shifting takes place, the employability of women reduces. This process is slow in rural areas, this process is very fast in urban areas. Because of that, what has really happened is that in

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rural areas the women participation rate is still 30.79 per cent whereas in urban areas it has come down to 11.88 per cent.

NREGA is the only scheme since Independence which has provided jobs to, my last data says 48 per cent but today speakers told it is 52 per cent. It is the only scheme where women have more than 50 per cent share in the workforce. There is no other scheme in India which has more than 50 per cent share as far as women are concerned. There are so many reasons why this is taking place, but more than anything else, it is the employability status. We have got 84 per cent unskilled labour force in the villages and the model of NREGA work employment generation is such that most of the jobs are created in unskilled sphere. So, women have the equal opportunity, and once women have equal opportunity, they are the most gainers from this.

I visited a site in Bundelkhand and found that there is lot of problems. I had spoken to a lot of women and based on that, what I could find was that there are four basic problems which women face as far as NREGA is concerned. The first one is, people say that women are irregular as far as their job is concerned. Basically this was a health issue. So, the first is health issue, the second is child care, and the third is, there are certain sites which are far away from their living place. The fourth one is that these women do not like to work alone or when they are fewer in number; they want to work in women’s groups.

It made a research based on use of sanitary napkins. That report says that only 88 per cent of women in India use sanitary napkins. That A.C. Nelson finding says that 50 per cent of girl child in schools have to skip two or three days of school, 23 per cent of the school dropouts is because of this menstruation cycle period. It was a curiosity point for me once I was doing my study. I wanted to know how it happens with NREGA women workers. I did my study in Bara Gaon block of Bundelkhand area (also known as Jhansi area). It is a very conservative society. I took the help of a woman health worker. With the help of that woman health worker we counselled some of the women workers and we found that none of them ever used sanitary napkins.Another thing that we found is that most of the women have to skip two to three days of work because of their monthly period.

So, I have a specific recommendation as far as this is concerned, that under NREGA, all women workers should be given sanitary napkins free of cost. As far as U.P. is concerned, it is Rs.125 per day and if 100 women are employed, the cost

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comes to Rs.12,500 per day. In 100 days of working cycle, they will require 15 or 20 sanitary napkins. If you take the cost of a sanitary napkin as Rs.10, it costs Rs.150. It is 0.012 per cent of the total cost, which is very meagre.

Secondly, I have a specific recommendation as far as child care is concerned. I wish to recommend that on a group of 20 women, 21st woman worker should be exclusively deputed to look after the children of the women who work, and that women who will be looking after the children should be given wages of a NREGA worker. It will increase the cost by 5 per cent but it will be very useful. Then, I have a specific recommendation that a make-shift or mobile Anganwadi centre should be introduced at the site itself.

To conclude, I will say that NREGA is a very good scheme. I would just like to add one more thing. All of you who are from Lucknow, must have visited Imambada. There is a place near Imambada which is called some Baoli. If you visit that place, the guide will tell you that when Asafudaullah was the Nawab, there was a famine. What used to happen was that it was built in the morning and dismantled by the night, to create jobs. So, there was a kind of job-creation. What if everytime a new structure is built rather dismantling same again and again. Perhaps NREGA is doing the same kind of thing. Bidyut Mohanty: ICDS, Anganwadi Cenres, NRHM should be made mobile so that health, education, vaccination, mid-day meal, nutrition, everything can be done at the worksite.

Dr. M. A. Beg (CO-CHAIRMAN): I am just floating this question to the floor that should we think about this that we should try to create a kind of a job which can be taken up by the women. We have been all the time talking about ladies being gracious, ladies first, ladies being first citizen or second citizen of the

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country and many more things. We call her better half in our lectures here and there. But when the question arises about providing a job to an illiterate lady, don’t you think that we can create so many jobs in their homes itself, such as, weaving job or bidi making job. There can be hundreds of jobs that can be created within the home, particularly when we are talking about the Muslim women as jobseekers. Some of them have already highlighted that Muslims are the poor participants in West Bengal. Can we expect a burqa-clad woman to carry mud on her head? Is it possible? They will perhaps die but they will not do this work. So, I float this question to the audience and to all our participants that they should provide some intuition, some idea that we should create a job which is convenient and cordial, keeping in view the legacy of a woman.

DR. SHAMS KHWAJA: My observation is the house - probably that is a presumption - but certainly some speakers are concerned about loss of days that happen due to the menstruation cycle. I am amazed how can we even talk of consistency of women working, or regularity of women working, in a job scenario like NREGA which itself is irregular? It is not a regular job. So, how can you talk in terms of consistency or regularity of women. That is one. Part (b) of my observation is, it is time that Indian sociologists and Indian economists grow up. I am sorry if it sounds hurting. A woman is not by option, running through a menstruation cycle or whatever. That is a physiological factor. You have to factor it in terms of humanity. If you believe in human rights, then you cannot find fault with her on that. Whenever she is requiring those couple of days or three days, you do not want to cut wages, you want to roll on wages on it. This is a basic dignity accorded and accordable to women. I am sure, this country can afford to show

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that kind of a courtesy to its women folk. They call her better half. Let us not say that they are the battered half.

Secondly, as regards the very important point which an eminent economist like Prof. Beg made here, what other kinds of jobs can we create for women? With one line I shall close my submission and that is, go back two years earlier. Gandhiji created a work profile, that was khadi which can be done by women, which can be done by burqa-clad people, which can be done everywhere. I am sorry that khadi does not appear in NREGA agenda.

A LADY PARTICIPANT: I am doing research on panchayats and rural women’s economic empowerment. I am working in Bulandshahar as well as Ghaziabad district. The thing I want to point out over here is the food and vegetables production in India is the second largest in the world. Still 30 to 40 per cent of the wastage is from India, which is equivalent to U.K.’s consumption. What I would like to specify over here is, for hundred per cent utilisation of the production of food and vegetables, can NREGA help us? I just wanted to ask this question. Women can participate in this to the maximum extent. We are giving training to the rural women in Bulandshahar as well as in Ghaziabad where they are taking up the value added products like kinoo squash, lime squash with minimal processing, which they can market later on. So, all these things we are doing. If NREGA also can contribute to this and if they can throw light on this, this can help the women workers. We can create a linkage through self-help groups and NGOs.

MS. MEHZABIN: the concept should not be only about generating employment. But we need to focus on ILO’s decent work agenda for maintaining the dignity of not only women but of all employees.

COL. U.B. SINGH: I just wanted to draw attention to the parameters under which this NREGA came out. There are instructions that the Act that has been passed and there are certain types of jobs which you can do under NREG Scheme. One of the aims is the empowerment of women. Now, this empowerment of women is probably in terms of finances because you earn the money. I have also travelled a lot of places in the last six years when I was associated with the Ministry of Rural Development. I think women can take up any job. It is not that they cannot do. I have seen them working. It is a question of a better job. For better jobs there are better schemes. Then, linkages have to be established and these types of jobs can be transferred. But the option should be open to the women who are ready to take

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up any job to earn the money, and that type of women are there on the ground who are seeking the job. It is a demand-driven project.

Dr. Vinod Kumar: I want to bring a fact into the notice of the house that, in hilly states like Himachal, the ration of 60:40 with respect to material and labour should be enhanced, as there is more labour work involved as compared to other states i.e use of horses etc.

Brijmohan Sharma: Plans being prepared at gram sabha level are changed by the authorities at district level or state level, which is against the spirit of this law; I want to bring this to notice as why is this practice prevalent?

Dr Inderjeet Kaur: the accountability at the operational part is needed to be fixed, also strict measures should be taken in case the gram sabhas are not called, such gram sabhas should be marked as defaulter and there names should be put in public domains

COL. U.B. SINGH: The problem was there when, there were certain projects under the NREGA, like check dam, where the material cost is 80 per cent and the labour cost is 20 per cent. Check dam is a water conservation project which is very important and it gets priority. Earlier the ratio was fixed at panchayat level, but slowly the Ministry realised this and then it was brought to the block level and subsequently at the district level. So, the whole thing at the district level has to be 60:40. Hence it is done in a balanced way. If 20 check dams are being made, then 40 talabs will be dug and that will be balanced. Actually, this 60:40 was an earlier problem. At the district level it is balanced.

Dr. Smita Nayak: I have seen a lot of tribal families staying in our campus in almost all the outhouses. When the names were being enrolled, all of them rushed to their village to enrol their names in the register so that they would get their job card and all that. They are staying in the towns and their names are there in the village, their job cards are there but they are being used by somebody else. Even the Gram Saathi, the mediator, is collecting the job cards and paying them Rs.25 per day. So, this is also there. And they are happy because they are staying here and they are getting every thing. So, this is also the other part of this thing. But through e-governance, there will be some control over that.

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CO-CHAIRMAN (Dr. M. A. Beg): If you really believe in the inclusion of the society, particularly the marginalised and the minorities, in Lucknow, particularly, the chicken work is very very popular. Why should NREGA not evolve a methodology to include chicken work as one of the tasks that can be given to women? SHRI MANOJ RAI: I have experience in the field at the community-based organisations that are existing in the village, like the self-help groups or the existing self-help groups which are there in the villages or the youth clubs or the Saakshar Mahila Samoohs which are in Haryana. So, that can be instrumental in mobilising the people for the Gram Sabha meeting.

Secondly, when we are talking about the self-help groups, most of the women want to form the self-help groups but they also want to start some income generating activity. The problem is that they are not mobilised effectively. Secondly, marketing is another problem because of which they do not want to form themselves into self-help groups.

Technical Session II

Implications of MGNREGA for Women as anAgency of Change: Voices from the Fields

Chairperson: Prof. D.B. GuptaFormer Professor, Institute of Economic Growth

NCAER, New Delhi

SpeakersSmt. Manpreet Kaur Field Worker, UPSh. Rameshwar Prasad Field Worker, UP Shri Jaswant Singh Field Worker, RajasthanShri Raghwendra Singh Field Worker, RajasthanShri S.K. Tripathi Field Worker, Madhya Pradesh

Shri Jaswant Singh: Let me first tell this house that how NREGA was born, it was first introduced in Biyavar of the Ajmer district. During the famine relief programme the sarpanches used to usurp the money by putting the names of villagers without bringing this to their notice. The villagers with the help of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan protested this with a slogan “Har Hath ko Kaam

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Do, Har Kaam ko Poora Daam Do” for 45 days and thus steps were taken by the central government to implement an Employment guarantee act.

In Rajasthan labourers lack awareness, they face problems while enrolling for muster rolls, filling up form 6. Even if they get enrolled, they don’t get form 6, nepotism is prevalent while issuing job cards and assigning work. Sarpanch doesnot take keen interest in NREGA because he doesn’t get anything from it. Many labourers work in panch’s fields in place of worksites.

Worksites doesn’t have facilities like clean water, crèches, and skilled workforce to measure the work and calculate the wages, there are no assistant engineers to support panchayats.Very few laborers get 100 days employment, tractor etc. that should be provided to panchayats to carry labourers to worksites. In many cases wages are paid after six months, lack of trainings and awareness campaigns for labourers is a major concern. Use of contractors is still prevalent; job card renewal is another issue. Workers are not allowed to return back home once the work is complete, infact they had to wait till all others finish so that individual work can be measured. Many times the person dealing with measurement is absent from the fields, so these workers had to wait for long to get there work measured. No doctors are available at worksites in time of any casuality. I would suggest that if worker is hospitalized due to some causuality he should be marked present at worksite and wages should be distributed to him. Workers showing excellent performance should be motivated through incentives. Once the tools provided by government get broken no new tools are provided, and the workers purchase them on their on own. There should be medical leave in case some gets ill during workdays.

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CHAIRPERSON: The problems of muster roll are too well known because that is part of any contractor’s life. This is one of the earliest things that anybody who is associated with a contractor and who has to keep the registers etc. knows.

Shri Raghvendra Singh: This scheme has both negative and positive aspects: Positive are that MGNREGA has provided new hope to the rural families, now women can also earn and contribute in the family income. It has increased the purchasing power of the rural household; villagers now spend on fast moving consumer goods. School enrollment ratio has increased several times.

Nevertheless, it has negative aspects as well, workers get low wages because they work in group and the group work is measured, the men in groups don’t work whereas women work, the wages are distributed group wise hence men get wages without working whereas women get low wages while working more. Another grave issue is with senior citizen, you can notice workers of 70 years of age at worksites, but they are not productive assets as they don’t do work and get the wages. The work timings should be flexible as when the work is completed the worker may go. Water facilities are not adequate; one women worker is recruited to serve 40 workers, she has to bring water from from well, which is very far from worksites.

The mechanism for social audits should be strengthened; vigilance committee should be set up, social security should be enhanced, compensations in case of accidents should be increased. Many times work got messed up due to political preassure, workers dearer to sarpanch don’t work but get full wages.

We should keep in mind the 3 M’s for MGNREGA, 1st M will be for monitoring, whether it be departmental, or for NGO’s, 2nd M will be the Management, for efficient work and 3rd M will be motivation, to motivate the workers to give best output.

Shri S. K. Tripathi: The people from lower class used to work as bonded labourers but now they are working happily in MGNREGA. More transparency should be brought in with the help of NGO’s.

CHAIRPERSON: What has come out is the key role of the panchayat, whether as a facilitator or a nuisance factor, apart from the political parties.

Smt. Manpreet Kaur: Management is the key constituent of MGNREGA, things has to be taken care of. For eg. road construction takes place during rainy seasons,

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women after working for 100 days remain unemployed for next 265 days, so it becomes tough to bring them back next year. Hence some policies should be brought in to engage them for full year period, which will be a motivating factor to work.

Economic benefits like more wages etc should be there for women, special programs for women awareness should be conducted on routine basis.

CHAIRPERSON: The second aspect is the gender equity, man vs. woman - to what extent the field workers have really seen this particular aspect. The word equity is much wider than equality, as it has the concept of justice also. So cater this we need to strengthen the measures of social audits and monitoring.

Second aspect is that the workers should know how much money is being allocated for the said project and how much has been spent.

DR. MASROOR AHMAD BEG: Since morning we have been talking about MGNREGA and what is MGNREGA. That means, Government wants to develop the rural areas by the people from those rural areas. Now, the question is, who is getting job and who is not getting job? So, the question of gender equity arises. This has never been taken as a long-term strategy by the Government because today we are here, tomorrow we will not be here, but India will remain here only. Everybody is talking about protection from sunshine, measurement of work and several kinds of things. Why should the Government not have an integrated view of the village development and involve both men and women? So, my basic assertion about MGNREGA is, why don’t we have a complete integrated development of village? There should be a permanent solution for the permanent problem. DR. SMITA NAYAK: But in my area the male persons are migrating to towns because they are getting more wages. Women are staying back and they are doing that work, and they are happy with that, though they are getting very less - Rs.50 per day. But still they are very happy with that because they are of the opinion that earlier they were not getting anything, now they are getting at least Rs. 50.

The other thing is that all the women are not getting jobs. I was showing through my slides a woman sitting in front of her house ideally and watching other women working because the contractor has his own set of labour and he always employs and re-employs them. This woman, who is from a poor family and is sitting ideal without any job, is watching how the other women are working. So,

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such type of things is there. Though we are talking about gender equity but it is not visible in a proper way, as you mentioned it.

DR. INDER JEET KAUR: Uptil when we can continue this prograame, will our next generation come to work in this??

CHAIRPERSON: Actually, it is a good question in the sense that can we construct a life table of this scheme as to when it will taper off and we write its obituary. As far as I can see, in terms of sheer conception and sheer design, except in some problems of spelling out some of the things which the field workers have mentioned, they have mentioned the problems that arise. In design, I do not think we should have much of a problem with it. Our problem is its implementation and the intention. If it is a question of assisting the poor, why not take on to the cash transfer scheme? If you do not want to make it straightforward cash transfer, you make it conditional cash transfer. In fact, some of these yojanas that you have of the young kids when she is born, for 18 years, some money would be given, you keep it in deposit and then, when she achieves the age of 18, etc. etc., Ladli scheme or some other scheme – many of the State Governments have those schemes – if that is the thing, then why not we think of cash transfer scheme in whatever form we want to? But if it is a public works scheme, in addition to helping the poor, whatever the life of the NREGA is, then I have a feeling that the evaluations that have been done so far which merely say how many people are given employment, how much money was disbursed, how much money was spent on various schemes. But apart from that, there is nothing that we have. So, I think there is a big merit in going a little further. In evaluation, involve engineers and say, okay, in this particular district so much is spent on NREGA etc. etc., how much worth of work has been executed? If 20 paise out of one rupee is well utilised, I shall give it full marks. The question is whether it has been done or not. Even what I see from this, whether the social objectives that NREGA stands for have often achieved or not?

DR. SMITA NAYAK: I have seen that they are coming out of their houses and discussing their problems with other women in a way that their awareness is increasing. As Madam told, definitely there was also one question that you are illiterate, you say that corruption is going on, you are geting less payment, but what about your children? There was an answer that no, our children will not be like us. We will give them education. So, they are so

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conscious about their present status and, therefore, they wanted that their children will be very educated and they will get all the facilities. So, that is there.CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. So, it is not for posterity, Madam. There will be an end to it one day. I think we should not be so impatient about it.

Dr. Nupur Tiwari: In Meghalaya, we went for a rural trip from IIPA and it was found that women are more involved in this MGNREGA, reason being the wage that they get. Men do not want to get involved in MGNREGA because for the same work they get higher wage outside and women are working in MGNREGA because this is within five kilometres and they have the security that they get, because most men are not taking it.

Second thing is that men get very very high payment for skilled labour which women do not have. So, they are forced to take this kind of work. Kerala, for example, has more than 90 per cent participation of women. That is definitely a very very dangerous sign and it is a dangerous silent revolution. Another thing which was very important and which has been highlighted here is that the focus of MGNREGA has been on infrastructure development rather than long term social re-organisation and upliftment. So, it is time that we should take up this gender equity concern more seriously than to just talk of how many women are getting this wage or not.

DAY TWO

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Thursday,18 April ,2013Technical Session I

Initiative To Encourage Women’s Participation In MGNREGATime: 10.00-11.15 a.m.

ChairpersonProf. Sushma Yadav

IIPA, New DelhiRapporteur: Ms. Lalita, Research Scholar, JMI

Dr. Santhosh Areekkuzhiyil Empowerment Of Rural Women Through MGNREGS

Dr. Masroor Ahmad Beg Economic Empowerment of Women in India with special reference to MGNREGA

Shri Tabish Samdani Critical Study of MGNREGA: Its Impact and Women's Participation in Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh

Dr. Ved Pal Deswal Various Impediments Of Women’s Participation In MNREGA

Dr. Inder Jeet Kaur MGNERGA- Gender Perspective

Dr. M.A. Beg: In the context of developing countries like India, an employment guarantee act/ programme is likely to address effectively a number of barriers to equality for women. Along with promoting poverty alleviation of the households at the bottom, generating productive assets and facilitating pro-poor growth in the economy, an employment guarantee can reduce gender inequalities in multiple ways: It can guarantee employment at the legal minimum wages to men as well as to women, can generate assets that reduce drudgery of women, give ownership of assets to women also, and can empower women in many other ways by giving wages in their hands. An employment guarantee programme can also encourage mobilization of women, giving them collective strength to bargain for a better deal in the economy.

Shri Tabish Samdani: The women in the Indian society have to primarily work within the domestic boundaries of home and cater to the needs of their family. Though amongst the

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existing social ossifications MGNREGA has acted as a watershed on the menu of popular policy recipe for enhancing women‘s well-being in India, yet the scheme witness dismal participation of women due to the various existing barriers

Dr. Inder Jeet Kaur: The fallouts of MGNREGA for WP are multi-angular. These are the by-product of archaic social relations (wherein women is seen subordinate or subservient to men irrespective their higher calibre and higher share in running the family than their male counterparts and this attitude is carried forward public arena as well), lack of gender sensitivity in the society, her own physical limits, her familial responsibility particularly child rearing and above all, flawed execution of the programme.

Dr. S.C. Roy: The MNREGA is such a tool in the hands of the gram panchayats that it can bring total change in the rural India. It requires to be reviewed and some addition is essential. The Reserved job for women has to be increased from 33 percent to minimum 75 percent. The restriction for job card for BPL seems to be removed. The training program in skill development to all women in slack seasons will develop entrepreneurship. The mandatory quorum for women in the social audit will build up confidence and encourage dialogue between men and women. It will open new window through which the evils of the society will go out. Since, the reasons of social problems lie in the lack of dialogue, therefore MNREGS can be created a platform for vibration in the society. It can be submitted that proper representation of women can bring social change in thought, words and action. The misuse of fund on different sector can be minimised and the aim of gender empowerment can be achieved within a five year plan.

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Technical Session IIEffective Measures For Striking gender Equity through MGNREGA

Time: 11.30-01.00 p.m.Chairperson

Prof M.P SinghFormer Head, Dept of Political Science

Delhi UniversityRapporteur: Ms. Lalita, Research Scholar, JMI

Paper PresentersDr. Anil Kumar Mohapatra Securing SC and ST women’s dignity,

safety and employment-security through electronic fund management system (EFMS) in MGNREGS: A case study of Nayagarh District of Odisha

Dr. Biswajit Mohpatra Women Workers and MGNREGA- Perceptions to Policy Realisation

Ms. Sharmistha Sinha Critical gender concern MGNREGA

Shri Kushal Yadav The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) : Guaranteeing The Right To Livelihood

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Ms. Maitrayee Deka MGNREGA And Gender Equity – An Analysis Of The Legal Guarantees

Dr. Notan Bhusan Kar: Although, it has been five years since its inception and many people know about the scheme, but there are a number of people, who are still in the dark. Therefore, it is imperative to spread awareness by distributing leaflets and organizing palli sabha at regular basis. Convergence of NREGS with other departments is to be needed at an urgent basis.Unnecessary time gap between registration and issue of job card is noticeable. Wages should be paid in time.Though women participation is satisfactory of NREGA work in the area but more women participation is to be included and it requires organizing regular workshop/seminar/meeting etc. by the local panchayat office. A small medical unit should be set up during project work. Interval period should be extended for workers especially to women having their own and nursing of their babies.

Dr. Joseph: The philosophical goal of the MGNREGA is for inclusive growth in rural India through its impact on social protection, livelihood security and democratic empowerment particularly to the weaker section in the society. It has given rise to the largest employment programme under our ‘National programme’ that has ever existed. Its structure, formulated in a ‘bottom-up, people (poverty) centred, demand-driven, self-selecting, rights-based design is new and unprecedented’. Particularly, among the various goals of the MGNREGA, we can see that it has entailed and guaranteed social protection for the most vulnerable section of people living in rural India, empowerment of the socially disadvantaged, especially women, scheduled castes and schedules tribes, through the processes of a rights-based legislation. It is therefore necessary to look into the working of the MGNREGA as it provides social and political goals for the weaker sections in the society apart from the promise of economic development.

In the case of Mizoram, unlike the other states in India, the people are tribals and therefore, instead of PRIs the Village Council is used as a system for local governance. At the same time, the Village Council is democratically structured unlike similar systems prevailling in other tribal dominated states in the Northeast. On the other end, unlike the PRIs, it is functioned in such a way that the presence of women in the Village Council is negligible. Therefore, a question can be raised on the issue of ‘gender equity’ on the very nature of the functioning of the grassroots institution which is exclusive of women.

Ms. Rekha Rani: In today’s globalized world, every country is facing challenges of cut throat competition, privatization, liberalization, economy development and allied problems. India is facing same problems along with development of rural India. If we

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concentrate on development of rural area by applying suitable (Human Resource Development) HRD parameters, it will strengthen the economy of India. Because rural

development offers an important window through which we learn about the impact of accountability mechanisms on governance structures at the grassroots. In the present study it has been found that in Devprayag Block of Tehri Garhwal district the participation rate of women’s is very high. This makes a great contribution in the empowerment of the rural women. Information received from the field survey depicts some below mentioned points;

The education level of the total respondents of the sample size comprised of literate as well as illiterate workers, getting equal wage for equal work.

The intra house hold decision to participate in the MGNREGA programme is highly influenced by women’s own decision. But there are more factors which influenced the decision regarding the women’s participation i.e., head of the household and other family members.

In the opinion of respondents MGNREGA programme provides protection against poverty and enhanced food security.

Eighty five percent of the total respondents are economically benefited by this scheme. As after participating in this scheme women living in villages are now able to meet their daily small needs.

Now the workers received their daily wages directly in their bank accounts. The chances of corruption are reduced upto a limit.

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Out of the total respondents half (50) getting the one hundred days work, but the remaining workers do not receive the unemployment allowance as mentioned in the provision under this Act.

The collection and retention of the earnings under MGNREGA are done by 79 percent of the total respondents. Although there are some cases in which the women collect their wages, but hand it over either to the male heads of their household or to their husbands. Sometimes, they retain a portion and surrender the rest.

In the opinion of the women workers this scheme makes its contribution in good quality assets creation. The respondents that after the MGNREGA implementation, water level is increased resulting in water availability for domestic use, livestock and irrigation for a long period in the year.

With the comparison made between the women’s own income to meet personal needs with the Pre and Post NREGA implementation, it is clear that before the introduction of the NREGA programme out of the total sample size of 100 respondents only 32 percent women’s have their own income to meet their personal needs, and after the introduction of this scheme the percent of women’s having their own income increased to 83 percent. This is really a big achievement of this scheme.

There are some women workers about 47% having source of earnings in additions to the wages they received from MGNREGA. These are through sale of agricultural products (grains), dairy products, through old age/widow pension there are 53 percent of the total respondents who have earnings only through MGNREGA.

Shri Srikant Bhagat: It is worth mentioning that in Kerala the credit for the success of MGNREGA goes to ‘Kudumbasree’, a Self Help Group, hence this model can be applied throughout India and various other tasks can be added to it.

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The various enterprises which is women friendly can be initiated;

Food Processing ( chips, pickles, squash, papad, namkeen, biscuit) Cloth Making/Fabric making/Stitching/Weaving Toys making Carpet Soap, broom, wiper Seat cover, Machine cover, Phone cover Book binding, register making Cooperative farming of vegetables on govt. leased land (Spare

land) Agarbatti, dhoop Bambo work

Focus should also be given on activities or enterprise where traditionally male dominance has been seen like

Furniture making, wood carving. Bakery Tool making Printing Dairy farm, Fish supply, Poultry Electronic repairs Shoe and sandal making

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Reduce burden of Panchayat as it has been seen that MGNREGA has diverted them from other functions of governance especially where the scheme is working comparatively well.

Ms. Madiha Khan/Ms. Roopam Chaudhary: We would like to give certain suggestions and recommendations which must be embodied in the MGNREGA in order to remove the barriers against women workers to a certain extent. These are as follows:

Opening of the bank accounts individually for women proves to be a stepping stone for their economic security.

More preference should be given to single women, widows and deserted women by providing them with job cards.

Another necessary area of concern is to make a special provision for pregnant women by providing them maternity benefits.

In addition to these, worksite counsellors or other qualified officials should be employed by government specially and particularly for women and contractors must be banned.

Though provision regarding child- care has been already mentioned in the Act but now the time comes when amendment is required for the said. There must be crèche facilities for little children at worksites so that women workers will not worry about the safety for their children. There must be certain provisions for the supervisors who will take care of the children at the work sites.

Adequate and regular payment of wages must be made at lesser intervals say for 15 days instead of monthly basis.

Awareness programmes, workshops and campaigns from the government side and NGOs are required so that women should be aware about their rights which are embodied in MGNREGA scheme. This also leads to more and more involvement in the said programme. They should know that one- third of the seat is reserved for them under MGNREGA scheme.

Transparent auditing and accounting system is required in MGNREGA scheme to avoid further hurdles.

Therefore a sense of awareness in terms of social action is the urgent requirement to tackle this very problem.

Provision for clean drinking water and hygienic food should be there in the MGNREGA Act.

Training should be given to women so that they are able to work more efficiently in the labour market.

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Technical Session IIIMGNREGA and Creation of Productive Assets: Gender Concerns

Time: 02.00-.03.15 pmChairperson

Prof. Furqan AhmadDept of Political Science

JMI, New Delhi

Paper PresentersDr. Notan Bhusan Kar Impact of NREGA on Women : A Case

Study of Berachampa Gram Panchayat, Dist : North 24-Parganas, West Bengal

Dr. Joseph MGNREGA and its Impact on Women Socio-Political Development in Mizoram

Ms. Rekha Rani Women Participation in MGNREGA. A Study of Tehri Garhwal District of Uttarakhand

Dr. D. Raja Jebasingh MGNREGA: Guiding Force for Economic Sustainalibty and Rural Women Empowerment

Ms. Nadiha Khan Barriers to Women Participation in MGNREGA

Dr. Anil Kumar Mohapatra: The MGNREGA is one of the most progressive legislations enacted since independence. Empowerment of rural women, more particularly the tribal women has emerged as an unintended positive outcome of MGNREGS. Women have been benefitted more as workers than as a community. Women as individuals gained because of their ability to earn independently, made possible due to the paid employment opportunity under MGNREGS. Their increased presence in the Gram Sabha , the increasing number of women speaking out in the Gram Sabha , access to banks and post offices are new development that has drastically changed their life giving them a sense of dignity not only in their social life but also in their family life. They are now living with a sense of security that in the adverse condition of life , they can manage to live and take care of their own children even without the support of their husband. NREGS has acted as a “magic pill” more particularly for the single poor rural illiterate women. It has helped them in getting employment without losing their dignity in the male dominated community.

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Dr. Biswajit Mohpatra: Though NREGA is a rights based programme, guaranteeing 100 days of employment to poor household in rural areas, yet due to the existing poor awareness amongst rural population, people seem to be unaware about their basic entitlements such as job cards, minimum wage amount, minimum number of employment days, unemployment allowance, etc under the scheme. The unfortunate part is that the executing agency like Panchayats and BDOs are said to be very poorly informed about various processes like registering household, forming vigilance committees, making muster roll, etc. and do not show much interest on the plea of heavy workload. It has been highlighted that such poor awareness has not only led to corruption but also to a very shoddy management of the scheme, resulting in the denial of its promised benefits to the rural poor.

Ms. Sharmistha Sinha: Women’s participation in MGNREGA highlights some unique and often contradicting aspects. States not known for women’s participation in workforce are reporting a high number of women joining this National Rural Employment Guarantee programme.

In Kerala, where women account for about 15 per cent of the workforce, under the Act they take up 79 per cent of the employment created. Two other states, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, with low share of women in workforce have 82 per cent and 69 per

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cent women workers under MGNREGA, respectively, indicating, perhaps, a latent demand for work among women.

States with greater casual labour potential, like Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, report low women participation (22-33 per cent). States with labour-intensive farming like paddy cultivation generally pull more women into workforce. The MGNREGA data shows the opposite in paddy-intensive Odisha and West Bengal.

Women’s share on works under MGNREGS is greater than their share of work in the casual wage labour market across all States. In a study conducted across ten sample districts of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, 70 percent of the women confirmed that MGNREGA is their major source of income; 50% responded that without this they would have either worked at home or remained unemployed.

Dr. Pranaya Kumar Parida: This study is basically about development and participation, but the Paper is a case study to know the impact of NREGA on women in particular in a Gram Panchayat of North 24-Parganas area of West Bengal. The problems encountered, as per the researcher, from the field under this scheme are:

(1) Implementation of NREGA Scheme in West Bengal as a whole is a moderate achiever in terms of performance-based indicators, looking to the

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whole country like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, I mean some of the States which are doing extraordinary work.

(2) Another point is the bureaucratic lengthy procedure of sanctioning the NREGA works and release of funds has caused delay to a certain extent.

(3) Unnecessary delay in receiving payment of the work is a common problem in many parts of the country.

(4) Many people are leaving this work not for delayed payment as such but otherwise, just because this work involves heavy physical labour, particularly for women. Keeping in view the nature of physical capacity of women, probably NREGA has not addressed those issues which can be conducive to the women in particular in doing the NREGA work.

(5) Particularly in the agriculture sector, in many parts of the country, including Nandigram and Singur - the last episode had happened there - people practice agriculture for their own land and often leave this 100 days work in cropping season, the reason being that agriculture is the main source of their income.

Why women’s participation has failed, we observed that there are 3-4 points as follows:

(1) Feudal social norms against women working outside home, which is very critical and very practical, which they encounter in their day-to-day life, is creating problem in terms of women coming out of home and practically participating in physical labour activities.

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(2) The continued physical work is a significant negative factor affecting the availability of women workers particularly because of a number of social/cultural practices.

(3) Women of Muslim community do not participate. As a matter of fact, West Bengal has a substantial proportion of Muslim community in the population.

(4) Delayed payment which also is another factor or barrier. The recommendations of the study are like this:

(1) Although it has been five years since its inception and many people know about the scheme, there are a number of people who are still in dark. Therefore, it is imperative to create awareness.

(2) Penetrating to the local hinterland and making the people aware and coming to the forefront demanding the work is another problem. How to addressed this?

(3) Convergence of NREGA – Madam was talking about just a couple of minutes ago – with other departments, such as, NRHM, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, etc. But the point is how the women can do a substantial amount of major works as far as the NREGA is concerned, whatever the scheme is, keeping in view the nature of work, keeping in view the physical attributes of the women and keeping in view the social/cultural practices into mind.

(4) Another point is unnecessary time gap between registration and issue of job card is also noticeable in many cases. This problem should be avoided so that the people who demand the job and come for registration, at least within a couple of days they should be provided the job.

(5) Then, wages should be paid in time. The lack of payment of wages in appropriate time is another major problem because in rural areas people need the money instantly, immediately to run their household activities. If it is delayed, say, for a week or two, probably it is creating havoc in their personal life and the family life also.

(6) Small facilities like crèche – it was discussed a couple of minutes ago – can be of reasonable help to the women, particularly keeping in view their problems because of the nature.

(7) So also, interval period should be extended for work, especially to women having their own problems and for nursing of the babies. Beyond a certain point of time, continuous walking is not conducive to anybody.

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So, keeping in view the nature of physical attributes, probably those issues can be considered while giving space to women as far as implementation of NREGA is concerned.

Time: 03.30- 04.45 p.m.

JNU, New Delhi

Paper PresentersDr. Bijender Pradhan Women Participation in Mahatma Gandhi

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: Issues and Challenges in Bundelkhand Region of Central India

Shri Krishna Singh Determinants of Women Job Participation in MGNREGA Scheme – A Case Study of Burdwan District in West Bengal

Shri D.K.Ranjan Barriers to Women’s Participation in MGNREGA – A study of Barkagaon Block (Hazaribag, Jharkhand)

Shri Ashok Behera Women’s Participation in MGNREGS – A Case Study on Majhihara Gram Panchayat, Khordha District of Odisha

Ms. Rimki Patgiri Participation Of Women In Rural Development: A Study Of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act In Nalbari District Of Assam

Dr. Bijender Pradhan: Empowerment of rural women has emerged as an unintended consequence of MGNREGS. Women have benefited more as workers than as a community. MGNREGA has positive impact on gender and gender empowerment. Women have benefited both as individual and community. Women as individuals have gained because of their ability to earn independently, made possible due to the paid employment opportunity under MGNREGS, spend some money for their own needs, contribute in family expenditure etc. This has helped women in registering their tangible contribution to the household’s income. But the poor implementation across the nation such as lack of child care facility, worksite facility accrued the gender sensitiveness of this act. Certain initiatives and changes should be taken to remove these barriers. The valuable gains should not be derailed for poor implementation.

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Technical Session IVWomen Workers and Perceptions of MGNREGA: Case Studies

ChairpersonProf Amaresh Dubey

Centre for Study of Regional Development

Shri Krishna Singh: There is needed expansion in the permissible areas of MGNREGA work from the perspective of broadening scope of women employment, requiring less physical effort, suitable to their natural instinct and can be undertaken around their habitat. These might include construction of compost /soak pits, kitchen gardens and services like cleaning public places, care of elderly or chronically ill, bare foot extension workers and skill development etc. Apart from providing increased scope of access to wage employment of women, one plausible reason for introducing such extended set of activities is that the present scope of MGNREGS cannot be sustained beyond certain point as we cannot continue constructing water harvesting projects, minor irrigation, flood proofing or digging pond etc. because of limited land mass and saturation of need of such works in specific geographical areas. MGNREGS should also be extended to educated youth (post metric) for mobilising them in creating social awareness about literacy, rights of women in such programmes, sanitation, health care, balanced nutritional diet, anti-liquor, family planning, child care and removing child labour. These are likely to redress the health related female hardship and enhance the efficiency of MGNREGS. Increased participation of women in planning and social audits is likely to lead to their enhanced role in asset management and better livelihood. In general ensuring better health related provisions and social protection potential of the programme together with broadening the scope of their employment is likely to make it more popular among women and pave the way for their socio-economic empowerment.

Shri D.K. Ranjan: Despite numerous indicators that show a firm positive link between gender equity and MGNREGA, there are many barriers in achieving gender equity by MGNREGA. Those are – a). Socially & culturally constructed division of works i.e., women for households or private affairs and men for public affairs; b). Unhealthy & unfair involvement of political agents, haves etc. in the selection of stakeholders; c). The issue of fraud, misuse of funds and corruption; d). Non-availability of facilities for women at worksite; e). Paucity of awareness among women about the scheme; f). Ill-practices in the implementation & monitoring of scheme; g). Center-State issues in germane to the number of stakeholders; h). Lack of transparent accountability.

Shri Ashok Behera: The following suggestions are made on the basis of the overall findings of the study which can ensure speed way of implementation of MGNREGA in proper direction ensuring more employment to maximum people of all the sections of the

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society particularly women to bring them in the mainstream such as: (i) There should be continuous efforts towards creating adequate awareness on different provisions of MGNREGA amongst the people, especially the women aspirants. Such attempts should be initiated by the people’s representatives and panchayat officials at the GP level. There is a need for sufficient canvassing on the scheme at the village level in vernacular language. Also, civil society organisations and community based organisations like youth clubs, farmers clubs, mahila mandals, SHGs should be involved directly in the environment building, planning and implementation. (ii) Grama Sabha should be lively and participatory instead of being informal or irregular. The tit and bit of MGNREGS implementation should be discussed in the grama sabha and other special meetings with the representation of all sections of the society, especially women from poor and marginalized sections of the society. There need to be a facilitating agency to ensure proper grama sabha with recordings and documentation. (iii) There should be continuous training and capacity building programmes for the personnel engaged in the implementation of MGNREGS to bring an efficient and people-friendly work environment. Women facilitators/personnel should be encouraged. With changing scenario of e-Governance, the personnel should be well trained on computer, internet and other digital operations to serve people faster and in a better way. (iv) Since the study finds clear lacunas in maintaining transparency in the operation of the programme, there should be a well-designed mechanism to ensure transparency and accountability required for the programme to streamline the women into work, (iv) a proper environment to be created by authorities in the villages for people making complaints and grievances in front of the authorities and in response they are sorted out democratically with best satisfaction to the people. A functional grievance redressal mechanism should be

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operational in the GP office so that people can raise their voices against corruption and mal-practice. Once again, an intermediary agency should be deployed to collect people’s grievances, especially from the illiterate people and to place them to concerned authorities and follow up till the issue properly redressed, a separate grievance cell for women with the presence or women staff would solve various issues related to MGNREGS (vi) There should be proper care of women workers who carry their children to work sites, as per the mandate of MGNREGA. (vii) Since the study clearly reveals that ‘Unemployment Allowance’ is not given to the job card holder and most of them are women, the practice should be immediately stopped. (Viii) It has clearly come out from the findings of the study that there is no proper coordination and demarcation of responsibilities in MGNREGS planning and implementation. Hence the responsibility of mapping should be done properly and should be properly entrusted to various panchayat level functionaries followed by the principle of subsidiarity.

Ms. Rimki Patgiri: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is tool of empowerment for the most vulnerable sections of society and also provides better

employment opportunity to the rural poor. The implementation of MGNREGA in Nalbari district is very poor due to the inadequate facilities and poor implementation, such as lack

of childcare facilities, drinking water, irregularities of job cards and delay in payment of wages etc. There is a huge gap between job card distribution and actual provision of employment in Nalbari District. Because of that the level of women participation is low under MGNREGA in all blocks of Nalbari district. Further, Women are preferred skilled work instead of unskilled work. However, MGNREGA helps women earn additional income and enable them to get space in public sphere. Besides this, it also encourages them to participate in Gram Sabha meeting.

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Time: 04.45- 05.45 p.m.

IIPA, New Delhi

Paper PresentersDr. Prachee Sharma A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Chhattisgarh

Shri Vijender Singh Beniwal Rural Women Empowerment Through MGNREGA In Haryana

Dr. Hastimal Sagara Looking at MGNREGS through a Gender Spectrum: a case of Rajasthan

Ms. Swati Srivastav Women workers and perceptions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India

Dr. S.M. Vanitha Economic Empowerment Of Women Through Participation In Mgnrega

Dr. Vikas Soren Society, Women and MGNREGA

Dr. Vinod Kumar Socio-Economic Impact Of MGNREGA On Rural People: A Study In Mandi District Of Himachal Pradesh

Valedictory SessionTime: 05.45-6.15 p.m.

Shri Birendra Kumar Sinha (IAS Retd.)Administrative Member, Central

Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Delhi Branch, CAT, New Delhi

Dr. Prachee Sharma: A well implemented NREGS could potentially herald a revolution in rural governance and results in a substantial reduction in rural poverty of Chhattisgarh.

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Technical Session VInitiative to Encourage Women’s Participation in MGNREGA

ChairpersonProf. V.K. Sharma

Shri Vijender Singh Beniwal: Empowerment of rural women has emerged as an unintended consequence of MGNREGS. Women have benefited more as workers than as a community. Women as individuals have gained because of their ability to earn independently, made possible due to the paid employment opportunity under MGNREGS. Independent and monetised earning have increased consumption choices and reduced economic dependence. This has helped women in registering their tangible contribution to the household’s income. Their increased presence in the gram sabha, the increasing number of women speaking out in the gram sabha, frequent interactions with government officials and PRI representatives, and access to banks and post offices are new developments. Additionally, the female mate system has reversed the traditional gender roles, albeit in a limited manner. Some adolescent girls are reported to have left their studies to avail of the job opportunity under

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MGNREGS. The challenges lie in horizontal and vertical expansion of benefits first. The high participation of women ensures horizontal spread of benefits. Realisation of greater numbers of person days ensures better individual-level effects. Districts with high SC and ST populations and states with high human and gender development indices and greater levels of state and civil society mobilisation have benefited more. However, other than SC, ST, and OBC women, others are not forthcoming in availing this paid job opportunity.

Ms. Swati Srivastav: Over the past three years, employment works opened under the MGNREGA in India have had a significant impact on the lives of women and men workers. In the case of women, it is important to note that relatively miniscule levels of MGNREGA employment have resulted in the significant perceived benefits from the MGNREGA. Serious problems remain in the nature of implementation across states

(such as the lack of availability of crèches for mothers of young children and the continued illegal presence of contractors). The urgent need to remove these problems in implementation cannot be overemphasized. Given the critical gains made by women workers – in accessing work and an income, food and healthcare for themselves and their families, and in leaving potentially hazardous work – it is important that the problems in implementation should not derail the gains.

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Dr. Vikas Saharan: MGNREGA aims at the integration of women into development process. It exhibits important consequences about the gender sensitivity of the programmes and their capacities to empower the women. Empowerment of rural women has emerged as an unintended consequence of MGNREGA. Women have benefited more as workers than as a community. The MGNREGA has broadened choices for rural women in two ways. One, it has opened for them an entirely new avenue for paid employment. Two, it has broadened their choices and capability as a result. An important fact is that a large number of women decided on their own to work under MGNREGA. Women as individuals have gained because of their ability to earn independently, made possible due to the paid employment opportunity under MGNREGA. Independent and monetized earnings have increased consumption choices and reduced economic dependence. This has helped women in registering their tangible contribution to the household’s income. The overall effects of these have translated into an increased say for

women in household affairs. Women as a community, however, have been slow in realising the potential benefits of the scheme. Additionally, the female mate system has reversed the traditional gender roles, albeit in a limited manner. Nevertheless, their increased presence in the gram sabha, the increasing number of women speaking out in the gram sabha, frequent interactions with government officials and PRI representatives, and access to banks and post offices are new developments.

Concluded

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ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS PRESENTED61

SECURING TRIBAL WOMEN DIGNITY, SAFETY AND EMPLOYMENT-SECURITY THROUGH ELECTRONIC FUND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (EFMS) IN MGNREGS: A CASE STUDY OF NAYAGARH DISTRICT OF

ODISHADr. Anil Kumar Mohapatra

Ms. Sonali Mohanty

Article Type: Case Study

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), later renamed in 2009 after Mahatma Gandhi, has been one of the flagship schemes of the Central Government in India since 2005. The job guarantee scheme was introduced eight years back with an aim of providing work to the rural poor in general and women in particular. Around 1/3 rd

of its beneficiaries are women. The MGNREGA has been proved to be a breather for the women. This 100-days-work guarantee scheme has helped them to augment their family incomes. The higher participation of women in MGNREGA scheme is a very positive trend in the direction of women empowerment and gender equality.

To make the scheme more transparent and hassle free, there has been the introduction of electronic fund management system (EFMS). It’s an independent tool developed by the National Informatics Centre for facilitating online transfer of funds to the beneficiaries account directly who are enrolled under the MGNREGS . It maintains a valid list of enrolled workers. This has enabled timely and accurate payment. By opening an account in the name of a woman, it gives her a status and dignity which helps her not to face hassles in queuing for wages, and it eliminates the possibility of facing sexual harassment sometimes and getting economically exploited.

The proposed paper shall look into the working of MGNREGA in two blocks (Daspallla and Odogaon) of Nayagarh district of Odisha with regard to the effectiveness of the EFMS in meeting the objectives as stated earlier. The district has a population of 8.65 lakhs out of which women constitute 48.39 per cent. The said two blocks have the largest concentration of STs in the district. However, the enrolment-list shows a gloomy picture about the percentage (which is less than even one per cent) of tribal women benefited from the scheme. The non-existence of Post Offices and Banks in the remote villages has been one of the hindrances in implementing the EFMS in the district. The paper will thus make an assessment of the tribal-women beneficiaries in these two blocks and the problems they might have encountered during the scheme.

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MGNREGA FOSTERING GENDER INCLUSIVITY IN RURAL INDIA : THE SAGA OF PARTICIPATION AND INCLUSION

Dr. Nupur Tiwari

Article Type: Conceptual

Though not conceived on the gender lines, Schedule II of the paragraph six of the Act emphasises on the word, priority, which is itself evident of gender mainstreaming, as the text denotes that “Priority” should be given to women in the allocation of work in such a way that “at least one-third of the beneficiaries shall be women”. MGNREGA is a unique employment opportunity for rural women who really get a chance to earn through their own income. It has incidentally impacted on the empowerment of women at the rural level. Moreover, all work provided within 5 km of residence is again a peculiarity of the legislation as women need not to travel miles to earn livelihood.Given the critical gains made by women workers in terms of enhanced women’s economic independence and sense of equality, it is important that the problems in implementation do not derail the gains and a more comprehensive perspective on gender equity needs to be built.

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN INDIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MGNREGA

Dr. Masroor Ahmad Beg

Article Type: Empirical

In February 2006, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) – now called the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), was launched in the 200 most backward districts of India. As a component of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s Common Minimum Programme, its intention was to create waged work during the lean agricultural season through a public works programme available on demand and guaranteed by the Act. In addition to the Act being a safety net by providing a minimum income when no other work is available, it was hoped that distress migration would be checked, village assets created, a process of sustainable development initiated and women empowered. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) legally enshrines the right to work for 100 days, is demand driven, now has national coverage and in-built mechanisms for accountability and shows a measure of gender sensitivity in its design. For example, it allows for crèche facilities to be provided on worksites and requires that one-third of all beneficiaries be women. Wages paid cannot discriminate between the sexes. Other requirements include the participation of women in the monitoring and management of the scheme. A notable aspect of the NREGS is the large number of women who have sought work under the programme. The official data for 2009/10 shows that just over 48 per cent of those who participated were women, while in 2007 it was around 43 per cent. There are complex issues surrounding women’s participation in public works programmes. As the only work on offer is manual labour, several questions arise: does

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this leave some skills unutilized or even lead to de-skilling; what is the effect on local labour markets and the local economy more generally; what are the conditions of work and how assured is the income; what is the interplay between paid work, unpaid work and care responsibilities; are there pathways out of public works into other, more productive work, and so on. There are significant differences in the level of women’s participation under the NREGA, both across and within states. The objectives of this study included first, to understand the reasons behind women’s observed level of participation in the scheme in different parts of the country; and second, to identify ways in which the wellbeing of women participants could be further enhanced, and the social protection potential of the programme better realized. The broad hypothesis of this paper is that these variations are not accidental or irrelevant, and that specific factors explaining varying levels of participation in different contexts offer useful cues for the strengthening of the social protection umbrella in the country, through the NREGA as well as other complementary programmes.

A STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NATIONAL RURAL

EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (NREGS) IN CHHATTISGARH

Dr. Prachee Sharma

Article Type: Case Study

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) – an important policy response of the ‘United Progressive Alliance’ government that promised various policy initiatives in its Common Minimum Programme – was launched by Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh in February 2006. NREGS guarantees a minimum of hundred days’ employment at minimum wages every year to each rural household on demand (in the selected districts of its operation).

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was mooted by the Union Government for many deprived villagers in Chhattisgarh. This ambitious NREGS programme was launched to provide employment to the unemployed and landless villagers. For instance, this scheme has benefitted the residents of Kanchanpur village in Koriya district of Chhattisgarh to a great extent. Evident are the instances of these villagers being regularly employed as such their worries over hunting for jobs elsewhere have been literally erased. Now they don't have to venture out for their daily bread anymore. Under this scheme many villagers in the district are being ensured of employment in various categories like land development, rural connectivity, water conservation and water harvesting among others. "Under the rural employment scheme, activities like land leveling, construction of wells, digging of new ponds is focused. In afforestation category, they provide employment in agriculture and horticulture activities," In this paper to know the scheme effectiveness in the state Chi-Square Test is used.

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MGNREGA: GUIDING FORCE FOR ECONOMIC SUSTAINALIBTY AND

RURAL WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Dr. D.Raja JebasinghMr. Mohamed Ashfaque

Article Type: Conceptual

MGNREGA exhibit an income generating scheme that offers citizens breathing in poverty with access to financial services by helping them to engage in sustainable revenue breeding proceedings. For this reason, it was deigned to engage people in economic activities that could help them to improve their livelihood and furthermore alleviate poverty. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which provides enrollees with 100 days work at slightly more than US$2 per day. It is anticipated that of the US$9 billion annual expenditure for NREGS, up to US$3.6 billion is lost to mid-level corruption; enrollees consequently typically receive only 60 percent of the promised income. According to the statistics, in that later year, almost 53 million rural households were reportedly offered with 2862 million days of wage employment in MGNREGS. Forty-eight percent of the beneficiaries of this scheme have been women, and over 50 per cent come from India’s neglected scheduled castes and tribes. Access to savings and credit can initiate or build up a series of interlinked and equally reinforcing means of empowerment. The need of the hour is Monitoring process of various stages of work and makes ensure its transparency and safeguards the beneficiaries. The present paper is an attempt to study the dimension of MGNREGA involvement in promoting women empowerment in rural India. The study is mainly based on secondary data collected from various research journal articles, Working papers of Planning Commission, Mahatma Gandhi NREGA National Reports etc. Keywords: MGNREGA, Women Empowerment, Poverty Alleviation

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BARRIERS TO WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN MGNREGA – A STUDY OF BARKAGAON BLOCK

(HAZARIBAG, JHARKHAND)

Shri D.K.Ranjan

Article Type: Case Study

MGNREGA supported by UNDP seems addressing the goal 3: Promote Gender equality & empower women of MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) by providing at least one-third share of women in wage employment in non-agricultural sector – the organized one. Gender is culturally and socially constructed i.e., gender is social classification of people. The employment scheme addresses a very few aspects of gender equity: firstly, equal pay for equal work and secondly, rejects traditional patriarchal mindset that treats masculine gender as the sole in-charge of external or public affairs. Today also, the unpaid household’s work is regarded as non-productive. The non-availability of facilities for women at MGNREGA work site, lack of transparent accountability at all levels of scheme, and also it fails to provide a decent work to all especially to women have been raising numerous fingers in achieving gender equity by MGNREGA.

REVIEW OF MGNREGA- A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

Dr. Inderjeet Kaur 

Article Type: Conceptual

 In the proposed study, my endeavor would be to look into the genesis of the Act pertaining guarantee of 100 days work to each household in villages from gender perspective. Hence, the paper would like to harp upon the following questions:

  Are there sufficient statutory provisions regarding employment of women and gender equity in the Act?

  What rules and regulations have been adopted to make these provisions effective?

  How far have  these been implemented?

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  What had been lags and snags in the implementation from the perspective of gender equity?

  Have all the states succeeded in ensuring women’s participation in the scheme?

  Has there been any state which succeeded in creating  a benchmark for gender equity?

  Hence, by comparing the efforts of different actors the paper would strive to find out the favourable and non-favourable variables for ensuring gender equity.

  Lastly, in paper a humble effort would be made to suggest some corrective measures  for improving and enhancing gender equity

The study will be based on the critical analytical  and comparative approach by  applying primary and secondary sources of data.

WOMEN WORKERS AND MGNREGA: PERCEPTIONS TO POLICY REALISATION

Dr Biswajit Mohapatra

Article Type: Conceptual

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), enacted by the Government of India in 2005, is one of the most ambitious anti-poverty scheme ever designed towards realisation of the human beings’ right to work. It is further aimed at enhancing and securing people's livelihood on a sustained basis, by developing sound economic and social infrastructure in the rural areas. One of the most distinguishing features of the NREGA lies in its unique approach towards empowerment of citizens for playing an active role in the implementation of employment guarantee schemes, through gram sabhas, social audit, participatory planning and other allied activities. Though NREGA is a rights based programme, guaranteeing 100 days of employment to poor household in rural areas,yet due to the existing poor awareness amongst rural population, people seem to be unaware about their basic entitlements such as job cards, minimum wage amount, minimum number of employment days, unemployment allowance, etc under the scheme. The unfortunate part is that the executing agency like Panchayats and BDOs are said to be very poorly informed about various processes like registering household, forming vigilance committees, making muster roll, etc. and do not show much interest on the plea of heavy workload. It has been highlighted that such poor awareness has not only led to corruption but also to a very shoddy management of the scheme, resulting in the denial of its promised benefits to the rural poor.

Though MNREGA promises equal wages and equal conditions of work to people from rural India without any discrimination of caste or gender. to earn their own income by virtue of remaining engaged in productive work and creation of productive assets in the rural areas, yet there have been occasional complaints of women being poorly paid and often denied the right to work ,due to unavailability of specific facilities for women

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workers at the worksite and existing socio economic barriers of our society, which is pitted against women ,against their socio economic empowerment. All these seem to be acting as discouragement and harassment to rural women who are determined to work for increasing the socio economic standard of their families and above all for the wellbeing of their kids, whom they want to see better educated and better positioned in the society.

In my paper ,I propose to carry out a detailed analysis of the barriers which at present seem to have prevented participation of women in large number under MNREGA and consider developing some mechanisms by way of policy intervention to make the scheme beneficial to women workers in keeping with the desired goal of the Act.

LOOKING AT MGNREGS THROUGH A GENDER SPECTRUM: A CASE OF

RAJASTHAN

Dr. Hastimal G Sagara

Article Type: Case Study

The paper attempts to examine role of the ‘Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) from a gender perspective in the desert prone districts of Rajasthan. The paper through a research study, funded by ICSSR New Delhi, takes a closer look at how has the MGNREGS benefitted women worker in terms of socio-economic status and general well-being. It tries to map the participation of women and SCs/STs in total work force, their participation in social audits, and problems at work places.

MGNREGA AND ITS IMPACT ON WOMEN SOCIO-POLITICALDEVELOPMENT IN MIZORAM

Shri Joseph K LalfakzualaShri B. Lalzarliana

Article Type: Case Study

The philosophical goal of the MGNREGA is for inclusive growth in rural India through its impact on social protection, livelihood security and democratic empowerment particularly to the weaker section in the society. It has given rise to the largest employment programme under our ‘National programme’ that has ever existed. Its structure, formulated in a ‘bottom-up, people (poverty) - centred, demand-driven, self-selecting, rights-based design is new and unprecedented’. Particularly, among the various goals of the MGNREGA, we can see that it has entailed and guaranteed social protection for the most vulnerable section of people living in rural India, empowerment of the socially disadvantaged, especially women, scheduled castes and schedules tribes, through the processes of a rights-based legislation. It is therefore necessary to look into the

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working of the MGNREGA as it provides social and political goals for the weaker sections in the society apart from the promise of economic development.

In the case of Mizoram, unlike the other states in India, the people are tribals and therefore, instead of PRIs the Village Council is used as a system for local governance. At the same time, the Village Council is democratically structured unlike similar systems prevailling in other tribal dominated states in the Northeast. On the other end, unlike the PRIs, it is functioned in such a way that the presence of women in the Village Council is negligible. Therefore, a question can be raised on the issue of ‘gender equity’ on the very nature of the functioning of the grassroots institution which is exclusive of women. Thus, in this context two important issues will be presented in this paper which impacts on the socio-political development of women in Mizoram. First, whether the Village Council needs to be restructured in accordance with that of the 73rd CAA in which not less than one third of the membership in the PRI is reserved for women political development and the second issue will focus on the participation of women under the MGNREGA and it social impact.

WOMEN NEEDS MORE PROTECTION THROUGH MGNREGA: ROLE OF

GRAM SABHA AND PRIs

Dr. Gurukalyana Rout

Article Type: Conceptual

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is

the central government scheme in response to the constitutional provision of Directive

principles of state policy (DPSP) and specially manifested right to work and means to

promote livelihood security in India’s rural areas by providing 100 days work in a

financial year. By generating employment for women at fair wages in the village,

NREGA plays a substantial role in economically empowering women and laying the

basis for greater independence and self-esteem. The most distinguishing feature of

MGNREGA is its approach towards empowering women citizen to play an active role in

the implementation of the scheme, through gram sabha, panchayat raj institution and

participatory planning. But the MGNREGA can’t turn out to be a major instrument for

galvanizing panchayati raj institution in India due to lack of mobilization of

disadvantaged group like women, cultural non-acceptance of female participation in the

labour force, non-parity of wages, non-availability of worksite facility, non-involvement

of self help group & civil society organisation and non-implementation of an

indispensable tool like Right to Information Act 2005 which are highlighted in the paper.

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The paper concludes with some policy suggestions by which women should be kept in

forefront for planning, implementing and evaluation of the MGNREGA programme.

WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN BUNDELKHAND REGION OF CENTRAL INDIA

Dr. B. PradhanShri Jitendra K Verma

Article Type: Case Study, Empirical

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), renamed in October

2009 as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was

a response by the then UPA government to the distress in rural India. It ensures the

livelihood security of the poor households in the rural areas by providing at least 100

days of guaranteed wage employment, to the adult members who are willing to do

unskilled manual labour, in every financial year. Independent India’s serious efforts to

alleviate poverty began with the famous slogan ‘Gharibi Hatao’ of the 1970’s. It was

soon followed by a flood of wage employment programme to eradicate poverty; like

National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Rural Landless Employment

Programme (RLEGP), Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY), Employment Assurance Scheme

(EAS) and Jawhar Gram Samrithi Yojana (JGSY). But the huge backlog of rural

unemployed poor stands testimony to the limited success of these wage employment

programmes. The MGREGA wage is critical in this aspect. Using data from official sites

and filed data, the paper finds: (a) that women’s participation in the NREGA has been

increasing; (b) women’s participation in the programme is positively correlated with

women’s participation in rural areas, though women’s participation in MGREGA is often

higher than women’s participation in other forms of recorded work so far; and (c)

women’s participation is negatively correlated with the existing gender wage gap in

unskilled agricultural labour. The paper is based on primary data and secondary data. The

paper presents a brief discussion of the women participation in MGREGA. It also deals

with a brief discussion of the unique features of MGREGA as a wage employment

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programme and attempt to evaluate the performance of MGREGA as a wage

employment programme and to analyze the impact of MGREGA on rural women.

BARRIERS TO WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN MNREGA- A CASE STUDY

OF SONIPAT AND MAHENDERGARH DISTRICTS OF HARYANA STATE

Ms. Manju Panwar

Shri Jitendra Kumar

Article Type: Case Study, Empirical

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005

commenced in 200 districts from 2 February 2006. During 2007-2008,it was extended to

133 districts and finally in 2008-09 it was extended to all the districts of the country. It

assures livelihood guarantee to the entire population above 18 years of age residing in

rural areas of the country. The size of the programme has progressively expanded. The

Act provides for the legal guarantee of livelihood to rural households, timely payment of

wages and social audit of the processes and outcomes of the implementation of the Act

along with provision of at least 33% of employment to women. Schedule II paragraph 6

of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment guarantee Act, 2005 provides for

participation of women in employment guarantee under the Act. It specifically provides

that at least 33% of the women who have requested for employment should be provided

employment. There are two areas where gender in employment guarantee has been

focused. One is the women’s equitable access to jobs. The second one is to design the

projects in a way that assets created and the services delivered are focused on poor

women. It is mentioned that one third of the beneficiaries are to be women. There are

other provisions such as ensuring of locally available employment, equal pay for men and

women special space to feed and take for child care at the work site.

The Eleventh Plan Approach paper also says that “special focused efforts will be made to

rid society of malaise by creating an enabling environment for women to become

economically, politically and socially empowered”. It is mentioned in MNREGA that one

third of the beneficiaries are to be women. There are other provisions such as ensuring of

locally available employment, equal pay for men and women and take care for children

of female workers at the work site.

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IMPACT OF NREGA ON WOMEN: A CASE STUDY OF BERACHAMPA GRAM PANCHAYAT, DIST : NORTH 24-

PARGANAS, WEST BENGAL

Dr. Notan Bhusan Kar

Article Type: Case Study, Empirical

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is the most powerful and developmental step of Government in the direction of providing rural employment to rural workers atleast 100 days of every year to every household whose adult members are ready to participate in unskilled manual work. This Act has special provisions to ensure full participation of rural women and perhaps, this Act has succeeded in bringing large numbers of women into paid work, many of them are the first time. NREGA has made female workers more self sufficient and it is expected that the living standard of rural poor women would be brought up. Women participation during the execution of the scheme in Berachampa Gram Panchayat has been very high. Out of total employment generated in that Gram Panchayat, the women beneficiaries were 28.2 percent in 2007-08 increased to 37.9 percent in 2011-12.

The objective of the study is an attempt to examine the performance and drawbacks of NREGA of that GP and to analysis the impact of NREGA on the empowerment of women. This paper also tries to explore the socio-economic condition changes of women under that GP and also discusses the barriers of women’s participation.

CONCEPT OF EMPLOYABILITY AND ITS RELEVANCE IN EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN CONTEXT TO GENDER EQUITY WITH RESPECT TO

MGNREGAShri Saroj Mishra

Article Type: Conceptual

Objective of this paper is to discuss concept of employability and its relevance in employment opportunities in context to gender equity with respect to MGNREGA. This research paper is based on thorough research through online as well as offline resources. Multiple visits to MGNREGA real project site in Bundelkhand region of UP were made, to find out actual problems on first hand basis. Detailed long discussions were done with few women workers employed on site in a MGNREGA project in order to read their conscious as well as subconscious mind.

WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN MGNREGA

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A STUDY OF TEHRI GARHWAL DISTRICT OF UTTARAKHAND

Dr. A.K. Pokheriyal Ms. Rekha Rani

Article Type: Conceptual

For the proper development of the northern hilly area the Central Government has taken a step in 9thNov, 2000 and a new state Uttaranchal (now Uttarakhand) came out of Uttar Pradesh. The economy of this state is known as Money- Order based economy. Because scarcity of employment mostly in the rural part of this State forced the peoples to go other part and earn their livelihood. Growing unemployment, mass poverty and lack of proper infrastructure are the basic requirement of any rural region. The Central and State government launched a list of schemes and programmes to overcome such situations. For this purpose the Gandhian Approach and Techniques for integrated rural development has been analysed as an alternative path for rural development. In 2nd Feb, 2006 the Central Government started its very ambitious programme named National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) which is known as Mahatma Gandhi NREGA from 2nd Oct, 2009. This programme guarantees one hundred (100) days of unskilled work per rural household. For the empowerment of the rural women this programme ensures that of the total workers at least one third workers should be women. More importantally, the Act aims at eradication of extreme poverty and at making villages self sustaining through productive assets creation. In this paper the study area is the Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand. A sample of 100 women respondents are taken for the study purpose. In our results we can see that the condition of the rural women is improved after this programme. Now they have sufficient amount in their hands to meet there small daily expenditures. Their participation rate in the programme is more than seventy five percent out of the total beneficiary in a particular area. MGNREGA programme proves as a very effective tool for the socio-economic upliftment of the rural women.

VARIOUS IMPEDEMENTS OF WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN MNREGA Dr. Ved Pal Singh Deswal

Article Type: Conceptual

Being a welfare State, the Indian Parliament passed landmark legislation, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in August 2005. The NREGA is a national beneficial law funded largely by the central government and implemented in all states in the country, which creates a justiciable ‘right to work’ for all households in rural India. Under the NREGA, households in rural India have a legal right to get ‘at least’ 100 days of unskilled manual labour in each financial year which, as per law, is to be provided by local government when work is demanded by any worker or group of workers registered

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under the NREGA. Women and men are paid an equal wage, which is the statutory minimum wage ascertained by the state government.

Significant benefits have been reported by the women which include increased food security and a better ability to avoid hazardous work. The availability of local wage employment at the statutory minimum wage for women is a new development associated with the NREGA in many of the areas.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MGNREGA ON RURAL PEOPLE: A STUDY IN MANDI DISTRICT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH.

Dr. Vinod Kumar

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGAS) is an important strategy in the current economic context of global economic crisis and national economic slowdown, where raising aggregate demand is a major task for the government. Fiscal policy that provides more wage income directly to unskilled workers in the rural areas is likely to be much more effective in increasing aggregate incomes than other forms of public spending. It is also increasingly recognized that the MGNREGAS has the potential to transform rural economic and social relations at many levels. It is this capacity to engender change is a source of strength and a weakness for the implementation of the programme. In fact, the huge potential of the MGNREGA has already been evident particularly in the enthusiastic response of the local people, landless, the marginal farmers and women workers in particular, wherever information about the programme has been properly disseminated .On the socio-economic empowerment of women (as the Act mandates at least 33% participation for women) where the MGNREGA has led to a significant increase in women’s paid work, there are likely to be substantial social changes as well. These would be in addition to other changes such as the decline in distress migration and the improvement in food consumption among certain families. Not only does the MGNREGA provide money incomes directly to those women participating in it, in many states the wage delivery mechanism is linked to the opening of post office or bank accounts. This involves the access of a much greater number of women in institutional finance from which they have been largely excluded. Intra-household gender relations are also likely to be affected, but these changes will occur over a longer time and would require more extensive sociological study to identify. Nonetheless, this greater participation of women in the MGNREGA, particularly in some states, is clearly a positive indicator that shows that inclusive potential of program in unanticipated ways. Himachal Pradesh has emerged as a leading economy in the country and is also a leader in Hill Area Development, Agriculture and Horticulture revolution. Himachal Pradesh is an ideal destination for investment in power and tourism sectors. Responsive administration and conducive macro economic conditions have induced a competitive environment in the economic performance in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The economy of the state has been progressing at a uniform pace and it is expected to achieve a high growth rate of 7.6 percent in the current financial year which is comparatively better than the national growth of 6.9 percent. Agriculture in the main occupation of the people of Himachal Pradesh. It has an important place in the economy of the state. The

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State of Himachal Pradesh is the only state in the country whose 89.96 percent as per 2011 census of population lives in rural areas. Therefore, dependency on Agriculture/Horticulture is eminent as it provides direct employment to the workers of the state. Agriculture happens to be premier source of state income. About 16 percent of total GSDP comes from agriculture and its allied sectors. Out of the total geographical area of 55.67 lakh hectares, the area of operational holding is about 9.68 lakh hectares and is operated by 9.33 lakh farmers. The average holding size comes to 1.04 hectare. Distribution of land holdings according to 2005-06, agricultural census shows that 87.03 percent of the total holdings are of small and marginal farmers, 12.54 percent of holdings are owned by semi medium/medium farmers only 0.43 percent by large farmers.

The present papers study has been carried out in Sadar block of district Mandi of Himachal Pradesh. Sadar block is having total 61 Panchayats. The total area of the block is 600.81 sq. kms. As per 2001 census, the total population of the block is 1,14,791 persons. It was not possible to carry out the study in all panchayats of sadar block due to the limited resources and time constrains at the disposal of the researcher.Therefore, one panchayat namely kamand in this block of district Mandi in Himachal Pradesh has been selected for the study purpose. The area selected for the present study is mainly because this panchayat is the first model panchayat of the Sadar block in the performance of MGNREGA scheme in the year 2010-2011. The number of job cards issued to registered households and the number of households who have worked under this scheme is highest in this panchayat as compared to other panchayats of this block. Further, no substantial study of this nature has so far been attempted before in this part of the state. The sample for the present study has been selected randomly. The total number of households in the panchayat are 666 out of which 641 households are registered for employment under MGNREGA and have also got the job cards in the year 2010-2011. Out of these 641 households, 503 households have worked under MGNREGA during this period and the total population is 2578 persons. The universe of the study is all the 503 head of the households who have worked under MGNREGA in this selected panchayat. To keep the sample size manageable and keeping in view the resources and time constrains at the disposal of the researcher, a sample of one fourth (25%) i.e. 126 head of the households has been drawn randomly. Thus, the actual size of the sample is 126 respondents.The data for the present papers study have been collected with the help of primary as well as secondary sources. The primary source consists of interviewing the respondents with the help of interview schedule, which include both structured as well as unstructured questions related to the different aspects of the research problem. The secondary data has been collected with the help of record, reports, DRDA records, panchayat record, books, magazines, newspapers, articles and website etc. Besides this, observation method has also been used by the researcher in order to have a close view of the phenomenon so as to collect some additional information.

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GENDER EMPOWERMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: ROLE OF MNREGA IN

NEW MILLENIUM

Dr. S.C.RoyArticle Type: Conceptual

Discrimination against women is not a new phenomenon. Women have been victim of gender injustice from ages. This has created lots of social abuses and evils. In order to protect and promote women against the inequality and injustice, women empowerment has been taken as movement. Generally empowerment suggests enactment of pro-feminist legislations and making them aware of their rights. Of course, it cannot be denied. But the rights without confidence are the same as sword in the hand of a feeble man. Thus empowerment refers to strengthening an individual –mentally, educationally, socially, economically, politically, spiritually etc. It is rationalisation of individuals towards his/her rights and duties. It is not simply economic empowerment that suffices the need for empowerment. The economic empowerment inculcates confidence for further development. As gender is a creation of male dominant society determining their role from beginning to end? The society determines the sphere of women in all terms. Thus gender inequality makes the women marginalised. Marginalised people lack self-confidence, self-sufficiency, become dependent on the male counterpart and live on the charity. They lose self-confidence because they cannot be fully self-supportive. They have to face various limitations, i.e. moving out, talking to other people, wearing particular dress, going alone and too far ,participation in decision making ,etc. In this way woman become victim of gender inequality and further social slavery. This ultimately hinders the family development in all respect. Therefore, the first way of empowering women seems to provide them employment opportunities within their reach locally. Since the employment advances the cultural life of human being, here women can fight against the agents of gender inequality and injustice.

In this context, MNREGA has guaranteed for work in the local area of the village panchayats reserving 33 percent jobs for them. It has a hidden purpose of gender empowerment. The MNREGA is trying to encourage both –man and woman, to learn the skill, invest in the work and earn money along with socio-economic moral confidence. The work culture at MNREGA can create an ambience of understanding towards gender issues. The women, on the other hand, can earn and pay the debt and retrieve the pawned gold, can take care of the children’s education, enable them to meet day to day house hold expenses and save money for future. Here they can design the project suitable to them and take part in social audit too. In fact it reflects the concept of worker’s participation in management. But the work is not designed keeping women in centre. Due to increase in working hours, their leisure time has vanished. They have to bear with physical and emotional strains. The woman has to finish the house-hold work before going to the work places. Even during the lunch break, they have to return to take care of their children and other family members. More wage payment is linked to task-based, earning less in comparison to the male counterpart. This is much- more difficult for old, physically weak and lactating women. The crèches are not available at work places, or sanitary facilities. In this background, this paper seeks to study as to how MNREGA can bring change in the mind-set of the male members of the society for gender empowerment. If women centric planning is formulated, they can avail maximum

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empowerment opportunity which will be a great contribution to the family, society and the nation in all aspects. This paper will try to formulate certain model suitable to women workers at MNREGA so that the goal of gender empowerment can be achieved for social justice in new millennium.

CRITICAL GENDER CONCERNS IN MGNREGA

Ms. Sharmistha Sinha

Dr. Kavita

Article Type: EmpiricalThe National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA) now called the

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is ‘first ever law internationally that guarantees wage employment at an unprecedented scale’. It is envisaged as a gender sensitive scheme with facilities designed to improve the work participation of women through the processes of a rights-based legislation and therefore aiding towards economic empowerment of women. Various provisions under the Act and its Guidelines aim to ensure that women have equitable and easy access to work, decent working conditions, equal payment of wages and representation on decision-making bodies. The programme certainly elicits processes towards ensuring social protection for the most vulnerable people living in rural India, enabling mobilization of collective strength and participation in Gram Sabhas and Social Audit, improving livelihood security and therefore moves towards holistic empowerment of women. It guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year to any rural household whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work. The Act has come into force with effect from February, 2006 in 200 districts initially and later on extended to all the rural districts of India from the financial year 2008-09. This paper examines critical gender concerns in this employment guarantee act and analyses issues of women’s employment and decent work in it. It explores the constraints faced by women.

WOMEN WORKERS AND PERCEPTIONS OF THE MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT

IN INDIA

Ms. Swati SrivastavaArticle Type: Conceptual

This paper is based on a survey of 1000 MGNREGA workers conducted in January- February, 2012 in six Hindi-speaking states of North India. The paper focuses on the female workers in the sample to highlight the impact of the MGNREGA in the lives of women workers. Significant benefits reported by the women include increased food security and a better ability to avoid hazardous work. The availability of local wage employment at the statutory minimum wage for women is a new development associated with the MGNREGA in many of the areas covered by the survey. However, the

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participation of women varies widely across the survey regions. The paper ends by identifying some of the barriers to women’s participation in the MGNREGA.

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH PARTICIPATION IN MGNREGA

Dr. S M Vanitha

Article Type: Case Study, EmpiricalAn economic analysis of MGNREG programme was made in Mysore district of

Karnataka during the year 2009-10. The women participation out of total registered workers in the sample villages was 47.8%, as the average market wage rate for women (Rs 74 per day) was less than the MGNREGA wage rate (Rs 82 per day for both men and women) compared to that of men (Rs 130 per day). ). Out of the total number of works executed under MGNREGS in the sample villages, 96.77% were related to natural resource management and 74.19% were community works. About 31.67% women participants were found highly empowered compared to 5% of non-participant women.

IMPACT OF MGNREGA ON TRIBAL WOMEN OF ODISHA:A CASE STUDY OF RAJGANGPUR BLOCK

Dr. Smita Nayak

Article Type: Case Study, EmpiricalIt is quite widely known that most of India's rural inhabitants are poor and live in

poverty, which has been supported by several studies. This is a fact, that even after 66 years of independence and 63 years of implementation of several policies on development and various new legislations and schemes adopted for better human development in tribal areas by the national and state governments from time to time, yet this is very unfortunate that the living standard of tribals of Odisha has hardly improved and state of Odisha continues to occupy the top position in the poverty map of the country.

The study for the present purpose was conducted in Rajgangpur Block of Sundargarh district of Odisha. The district has a large tribal population. Out of 62 tribes notified as Scheduled Tribe for Odisha State as many as 40 tribes are found in this district alone. The numerically important tribes are Orans, Mundas, Kharia, Kisan, Bhuyians and Gonds. Concentration of ST is highest in Sundargarh Subdivision.

The tribals of Sundargarh district lead a primitive life and inhabit the remote and less accessible areas of the district. They have a rich and diverse cultural heritage of their own. The main sources of livelihood of these tribals are food gathering and hunting, collection of forest produce. Some of the tribes have agriculture as their main occupation

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while others have adopted cattle breeding, shifting cultivation, artisanship like basket weaving, rope and broom making and pottery and tool making etc.

Scores of tribal and rural development programmes have been implemented across tribal areas since independence. However, it is unfortunate that tribals especially tribal women of Odisha are still not an effective part of these inclusive development policies introduced by our national government. Innocent and ignorant tribals are also victims of displacement, losing their land and livelihood, when the question of livelihood is at stake; they are ultimately forced to migrate to cities and neighboring states in large numbers. The rehabilitation package of the displaced tribals does not solve their miseries. Thus, this paper is an attempt to examine the potencies and loopholes in the existing MGNREA and its impact on tribal women in Odisha, especially Rajgangpur Block, which are causing ‘more alienation than development’.

The present study relates to a particular area. But the complexities and dimensions of poverty differ from region to region thus the strategy has to be devised accordingly. Hence the study underlines ‘the need to prepare target-group and region specific policies’ in the Poverty Alleviation Programmes both in rural and tribal areas.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF MGNREGS: A STUDY IN VELLORE DISTRICT

TAMIL NADU

Dr. A. Xavier Susairaj

Article Type: Case Study, Empirical

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act NREGA was enacted by the Indian parliament in 2005 to provide a minimum guaranteed wage employment of one hundred days in every fiscal year to rural households with unemployed adult members prepared to do unskilled manual work. It was renamed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in 2009 as innovative anti- poverty intervention (Dev and Ranade2001). MGNREGA was notified in 200 districts in the first phase 2006 and then extended to an additional 130 district in the year 2008. To absorb the surplus labour what Arthur Lewis called as the unlimited supply of labour (Arthur Lewis).The present study also highlights the differential performance of Tamil Nadu states in terms of implementation and tries to explore the reason thereof,

PROBLEMS OF WOMEN LABOUR UNDER MGNREGS – A COMPARATIVE

STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WOMEN LABOUR IN

AGRICULTURE

Dr. Suresh Chandra.ChArticle Type: Case Study, Conceptual

The women’s contribution to family and society is highly significant as they are regarded as the nation builders. The women labour especially under Mahatma Gandhi

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National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is in the lime light in the recent past especially in the globalized era. The rural women labour earlier used to depend heavily on agriculture for employment, and now they are shifting their trend towards MGNREG Scheme. The various provisions under MGNREG scheme has excelled their preference to work. The past 5 years have significantly witnessed the trend in employment especially in rural areas with reference to women labour. The changing gender composition of agricultural wage labour and in MGNREG Scheme has brought a clear picture that the proportion of women is increasing considerably. But, the women problems especially in both areas have not been recognized properly. The quantum of work, leisure hours and special provisions for women in extreme cases were not been fulfilled. Though there is a considerable change in the wage pattern, the basic amenities are still unsolved problems. In view of these issues, the present paper will provide complete field based observations on women labour both under MGNREG Scheme and as well as for the women agricultural labourers. The study will brought a clear picture on the various problems faced by the women labour especially in both areas with special consideration on the quantum of works and other amenities provided. The study is conducted in the select villages of Warangal and Karimnagar Districts of North Telangana Region in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The study mainly focuses on analyzing the various similarities and special observations on the problems faced by the women labour in MGNREG Scheme and as well as in agriculture field. Further, the study also provide a base for critically examine the gender equity issues in wage pattern, quantum of work and special benefits received by the women labour in both the cases.

PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT: A STUDY OF

MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT

IN NALBARI DISTRICT OF ASSAM

Ms. Rimki PatgiriProf. R. Borgohain

Article Type: Case Study, EmpiricalMahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is a distinctive

employment guarantee act which is designed to allow women equity in both access to work and in the payment of wages. The most significant feature of the MGNREGA is to provide some explicit entitlements for women to facilitate their full participation at worksites. Further, the Ministry has accorded utmost importance to the organization of ombudsmen in each district to consider complaints relating to the implementation of MGNREGA. Nalbari district of Assam is home to indigenous populations like Bodos, Rabhas and Nepalis along with migrant tea garden workers and plain indigenous Assamese people. Moreover, schedule caste and schedule tribe population constitute the major percentage in the district. MGNREGA has been implemented in Nalbari district in the financial years 2007-08. According 2010-11financial year, 99101 job cards were issued to the households in 7 blocks in the district. This paper will primarily focus on women’s participation in rural development with special reference to MGNREGA to

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examine the extent to which women have been benefited from the provisions and implementation of such scheme.

DETERMINANTS OF WOMEN JOB PARTICIPATION IN MGNREGA SCHEME – A CASE STUDY OF BURDWAN DISTRICT IN WEST BENGAL

Shri Krishna Singh Dr. Soumyendra Kishore Datta

Article Type: Case Study, Empirical

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) programme in India offers a lucrative opportunity for the rural women to participate in job market, earn income and have control over life events.The most important objective beneath these provisions is to ensure economic empowerment of women.The increased economic and social status enjoyed by female members in a family through participation in MGNREGA jobs is supposed to make a wide ranging impact on the society in terms of their control on spending money for childrens’ education, controlled family size, influence in making of local plan and formationof such village asset that might enhance their access to more sustainable and productive activities.However variation in participation of women in MGNREGS and in generation of employment days across the blocks is not accidental or random. It is influenced by various socio-economic factors like education, caste, religion, alternative income, etc. There are also location and context specific factors that explain variation in women’s participation in the scheme and efficiency of the programme in generating employment days. Since one of the major objectives of the scheme is to ensure enhanced empowerment of the poor women folk, it is all the more desirable that social ambience be accordingly promoted to enable them to increasingly participate in the programme. In this context Tobit regression and DEA efficiency analysis is done to analyse the issue of women participation and share of employment days in the context of Burdwan district in West Bengal. We also consider tabular analysis to show how the scheme influences the livelihood of the rural women.

WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN MGNREGS – A CASE STUDY ON MAJHIHARA GRAM PANCHAYAT, KHORDHA DISTRICT OF

ODISHAShri Ashok Behera

Shri Janmejay Sahu

Article Type: Case Study, Empirical

This study aims to review and appraise the overall implementation process of MGNREGS on various angles of the participation of women, as their role and contribution, is considered as a major key to the success of this mega flagship programme. Today, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is adjudged as the biggest employment and livelihood security programme of the human history. The effective implementation of this flagship programme of the government of India is quintessential due to her prolonged vulnerability to the challenges

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of poverty, unemployment and social injustice. Equal Participation of women, as it consist the mandate of the programme would not only open the doors of opportunities, but it will empower them to a large extent. The study, thus, has been immensely inspired with the above backdrop and was conducted in a Gram Panchayat called Majhihara under Balipatana block of Khordha district which belongs to the coastal part of Odisha State. The study is based on the social survey method and descriptive in nature. With the empirical findings, the perception of the PRI representatives, Government officials and general public was also critically observed and reflected in the study. The study finds a number of loopholes in the implementation stage of MGNREGS in the field area that actually impedes the progress of the scheme towards achieving the objective, especially the one that guarantees 100 days of employment for women. Among the findings, lack of awareness about the scheme among the beneficiaries, poor enabling environment for women’s participation, gender bias in the society, lack of a grievance redressal mechanism, lack of transparency and accountability in the implementation, problem related to Nature of Works, are the prominent ones. The fate of MGNREGS is largely depends upon women’s participation in all stages of its implementation which is currently lacking as per the study findings. The demand driven approach of women is no where visible in the study area which is a serious concern for the success of the programme inviting urgent attention of the government think-tank for redesigning the programme, especially in the areas of environment building, grievance redressal and nature of works. However, the findings of the study affirms that the socio-economic status of the rural women can be considerably uplifted through MGNREGS if it is properly planned, implemented and monitored at the grass root level with a healthy collaboration, convergence and mutual understanding between various actors of governance.

WOMEN LABOURS AND MGNREGA - PERCEPTION TO POLICY REALIZATION

Ms. Saltanat Adilkhasym Mukash

Article Type: ConceptualMahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), enacted by the Government of India in 2005, is one of the most ambitious anti-poverty scheme ever designed towards realisation of the human beings’ right to work. It is further aimed at enhancing and securing people's livelihood on a sustained basis, by developing sound economic and social infrastructure in the rural areas.

One of the most distinguishing features of the MNREGA lies in its unique approach towards empowerment of citizens for playing an active role in the implementation of employment guarantee schemes, through gram sabhas, social audit, participatory planning and other allied activities.

Though MNREGA promises equal wages and equal conditions of work to people from rural India without any discrimination of caste or gender to earn their own income by virtue of remaining engaged in productive work and creation of productive assets in

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the rural areas, yet there have been occasional complaints of women being poorly paid and often denied the right to work ,due to unavailability of specific facilities for women workers at the worksite and existing socio economic barriers of our society, which is pitted against women ,against their socio economic empowerment.

All these seem to be acting as discouragement and harassment to rural women who are determined to work for increasing the socio economic standard of their families and above all for the wellbeing of their kids, whom they want to see better educated and better positioned in the society.

Also MNREGA offers a lucrative opportunity for the rural women to participate in job market, earn income, and have control over life events. However women's decision for participation as well as share in NREGA jobs are influenced by various socio-economic factors like education, caste, religion, alternative income, health-related achievements, and fund availability.

Paper analyzes analysis of the barriers which at present seem to have prevented participation of women in large number under MNREGA and consider developing some mechanisms by way of policy intervention to make the scheme beneficial to women workers in keeping with the desired goal of the Act.

The purpose of the paper is to highlight the difference in employment and empowerment attainment among women in rural India.

THE ROLE OF MGNREGA IN RURAL AREA OF INDIAMs. Gulnar Khabibullina

Article Type: ConceptualUnderlining the critical role played by the MGNREGA, this paper exemplifies the

issues, challenges and significance of MGNREGA particularly in the context of rural India. Primary Data was collected using used mainly from the official website of MGNREGA and other information. MGNREGA has been proved to be the largest employment programme particularly for the rural India and has contributed towards the increase in purchasing power by being a major source of income for the bottom of the pyramid people in the Society. It has helped in solving problems of rural distress but a lot needs to be done. This paper evaluates the impact of MGNREGA on income generation and labour supply in rural area of India. Paper also makes recommendation on using MGNREGA to improve the condition of population also on reducing the poverty of rural area in India

CRITICAL STUDY OF MGNREGA: ITS IMPACT AND WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN BIHAR, RAJASTHAN, UTTAR PRADESH, SIKKIM AND

MADHYA PRADESHMs. Tabish SamdaniShri Soumya Kapoor

Article Type: Conceptual

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Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a remarkable legislationproviding beneficial and effective employment opportunities for the unemployed or underemployedrural masses of the country. The paper focuses on providingconstitutional mandateswhich protects and safeguard women by providing them right to work and means to provide livelihood enshrined in Article 41 of the Indian Constitutionand shall further inspect the role of the local government institutions towards fostering economic independence and self-esteem. The research shall elaborate on social ossifications due to lack of awareness of the scheme that has left women burdened and vulnerable. A comprehensive study of quandary faced by women in participating under such schemes has been taken up in states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh.

The researchers shall discuss the feminist historiography and contextualise the anguish and struggle of the women working under MGNREGA (in context of the patriarchal traditional society). The paper shall elaborate the dominant signature of modernity i.e. “rights” and “equality” that tends to universalize gender equality and provide social security against any sort of physical or mental harassment at the worksites. In furtherance of the discussion, the policy shall be evaluated in context of,whether the scheme merely has lofty and mundane claims or is actually mobilizing, supporting and facilitating effective employment at grass root levels?

The researchers shall evaluate the lacunas of the scheme in context of women workers which are failing to participate in such employment scheme, either due to social stigmas, low wage structure and the obligations they owe towards their family which restrains them to be independent, and hence subjugated by the tribulations of their male counterparts .The paper shall provide suggestions to the present implementation of the scheme for its more effective implementation so that the women can reap benefits out them and surmount “what they deserve”.

MGNREGA AND GENDER EQUITY – AN ANALYSIS OF THE LEGAL GUARANTEES

Ms. Moitrayee Deka

Article Type: ConceptualIts well known that the Government Of India has formulated the National Rural

Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 2005 as a wage employment programme not only to provide wage income to poor men and women in the rural areas ,who had been denied heretofore an opportunity to have a decent life and participation in the ongoing nation building. With its legal framework and rights-based approach, MGNREGA, promises employment to people on demand .This Act is hailed as a paradigm shift from the Central Government‘s earlier programmes for poverty eradication. With effect from April 1, 2008, the Act now covers the whole of India, every adult member of each rural household, who is interested to do unskilled manual work, now is entitled to guaranteed wage employment. The MGNREGA not only aims at

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enhancing livelihood security but also women empowerment, as it is mandatory that at least one-third of beneficiaries should be women.

THE MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT (MGNREGA) : GUARANTEEING THE RIGHT TO LIVELIHOOD

Shri Kushal YadavArticle Type: Conceptual

The Constitution of our Country declares that a fundamental purpose of its adoption is to “improve the quality of life of all citizens and to free the potential of each person......” Ours is the society that must be based on human dignity, equality and freedom. Our Constitution acknowledges that the equitable, just and humane society contemplated in it cannot be achieved by its promulgation alone. It provides a framework and facilities the achievement of the society described in it, it authorizes and obliges us to make every effort to benefit the society.

In the 56th year of the Republic and working of the Constitution, the Parliament of India passed the MGNREGA 2005 towards partial fulfilment of a constitutional obligation under Article 39(a) and 41 of the Directive Principles of the State Policy, contained in Part IV of the Indian Constitution.

The judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court, more so in the phase of judicial activism, has tried to teach some of these rights through positive interpretation of the provisions, and often pleaded for its enforcement through incorporation in laws and policies. Despite these attempts by the judiciary, most of the socio-economic rights contained in Part IV of the Constitution, remained for long, or still remain, merely moral preaching to the state. Constraint of resource mobilization due to low levels of economic development, and, hence, low resource base, to enforce these provisions could be a plausible explanation. But the inability of political parties and their governments to priotrize development policies and goals in consonance with the directive principles and the failure of the civil society to bring these issues to the forefront of their social and political mobilization is perhaps a more realistic explanation for keeping these rights dormant for 55 years.

The paper focuses on the female workers in the sample to highlight the impact of the NREGA in the lives of women workers. Significant benefits reported by the women include increased food security and a better ability to avoid hazardous work. The availability of local wage employment at the statutory minimum wage for women is a new development associated with the NREGA in many of the areas covered by the survey. However, the participation of women varies widely across the survey regions. The paper ends by identifying some of the barriers to women’s participation in the NREGA.

MGNREGA AND GENDER EQUITY: A CRITICAL STUDY OF BIHARShri Kapil Sikka

Article Type: Case StudyThe National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005(NREGA) notified on 7th

September 2005 and came into effect on February 2, 2006 in 200 of India's most

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backward districts. However, from April 1, 2008 the Act covers all of rural India. Vide an amendment in the NREG Act, on 2nd October 2009, the name of the act has been changed to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

The preface of the act clearly mentions the reason behind the implementation “An Act to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.

MGNREGA is a unique employment opportunity for rural women who really get a chance to earn through their own income. Women earn same as men on MGNREGA, in a survey it is mentioned that majority of women workers collect their own wages (79%) and also keep them (68%). MGNREGA has significant achievements with regard to mobilization of women wage workers, gender parity of wages and increased control over women’s earnings from MGNREGA. There has been acceptability from large sections of society that MGNREGA has provided better working conditions, exploitation free work culture and of course better wages for women. Though not conceived on the gender lines, it incidentally impacted the empowerment of women at the rural level as it certainly provided the mobility to women at village level, which is one of the essential factors of empowerment. The statistics from the 2006 to the year 2010 show that the participation of the women at national level had increased from 42% to 48.8% which is clearly determining how the scheme has roped in the women at the village and made them the catalyst of rural growth.

RURAL WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH MGNREGA IN HARYANA

Shri Vijender Singh Beniwal

Article Type: ConceptualMahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is an

epoch making event in the history of independent India. The scheme guarantees myriad promises from the perspective of women’s empowerment as well. MGNREGA aims to reduce prevailing gender disparity especially in rural India by providing opportunities for gainful employment as well as equal wages. The act stipulates that wages will be equal for men and women. It is also committed to ensuring that at least 33 percent of the workers shall be women. By generating employment for women at fair wages in the village, MGNREGA can play a substantial role in economically empowering women and laying the basis forgreater independence and self-esteem. This study examines women’s participation in NREGS(National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) in selected areas of Rohtak district inHaryana. The enquiry has found that NREGS has succeeded in bringing large numbers ofwomen into paid work, many of them for the first time. Further, the scheme has achievedsome success in empowering women especially economically and socially. The study explores the main impediments encountered by rural women while participating in this

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scheme are registration process, delayed wage payment, absence of proper crèche facilities,harassment of women workers by contractors, lack of worksite facilities among others.Finally, the study suggests measures that could maximise impact of NREGS in empoweringwomen.

SOCIETY, WOMEN AND MGNREGA

Shri Vikas Saharan

Article Type: ConceptualThe removal of poverty and supporting the vulnerable has been an important

objective of the Indian planning since the country gained its independence in 1947. Major proportion of population lives in the villages. So there has been an emphasis in improving the lives of the rural poor by mechanisms of social protection or safety nets for the rural poor. In order to recognise the right to employment, the flagship scheme known as National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched in the form of an Act of Parliament in 2005, which was later renamed as Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act. The scheme not only recognises the right of an individual but also contains specific provisions for improving the social and economic status of the rural women because due to lack of secured livelihood, and unavailability of alternative sources of income, it is impossible for rural women to get out of this poverty cycle. Women of the rural areas are surrounded by many discriminatory social and cultural practices. Patriarchal norms and practices have tended to maintain women and particularly poor women, subordinated in society. The complex social structure places women in a disadvantageous position. Traditionally she is vested with the task of discharging the care role in the society; and this contribution of her is non-monetary in nature. The confines of home and cultural traditions have limited her in accessing a larger role in the society. As women face multiple deprivations due to their gender roles, MGNREGA appeared to have created spaces for women to engage in public works and earn decent wages mostly on par with men, that has the potential to alter gender relations within the family as well as in the broader community. The dignity that comes with the work since it is seen as working for the government rather than for a landlord or contractor. This paper focuses on certain factors which inhibit participation women in MGNREGA which include local social and cultural norms which run against women’s wage work, inadequate worksite facilities like childcare, gender insensitivity of the nature of work, work measurement and schedule of rates, and in some cases, exclusion of single women in the definition of household. Paper dwells on whether MGNREGA has broadened choices for rural women by opening a new avenue of paid employment and broadening their choices and capabilities by reducing dependence on other family members. This paper also take example of rural women from field survey on their participation, integration in the scheme, Role of caste, unequal divisions of labour and power imbalances between men and women, impact of scheme on rural economy and social security and elite capture and control of the programme. Paper also look into role of MGNREGA in women empowerment, reducing gender wage gap, increasing market

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wages, income of households, improving child well being, avoiding hunger, migration and creating useful assets in the village.

MGNREGA: DOES IT REALLY QUENCH THE THIRST OF

GENDER EQUITY?Ms. Rupam

Ms. Madiha Khan

Article Type: ConceptualSooner or later, Indian Government had finally realized the prominence for the

women empowerment in our developing society, which results into a plethora of policies and schemes laid down by various Indian legislative bodies. MGNREGA is one of them which is outlined as a bold flagship scheme, initiated by Government of India for the overall development and empowerment of the poor. Though the main objective of the MGNREGA is not strengthening the position of women, yet it is proved as a catalyst in enhancing the women’s position in the society in various ways.In almost every spheres of the life, we found the gender discrimination. This manifestation is regarded as an origin as well as an outcome of unequal power relations between men and women. Our paper traces these significant barriers to the women’s involvement under MGNREGA. The lower mobility in the labor market and the poor occupational diversification acts as a witness to the existence of such barriers.

Even though the empowerment of the rural women has been seen as an unplanned upshot of MGNREGA, we are emphasizing on certain reasons behind the extreme adverse impacts under the said scheme. The objective of our research paper is to highlight the social and cultural context which had drawn a line to show the unhealthy discrimination towards women in India

Finally an attempt has been made to answer why a great sensitivity is expected and required on the executing part of MGNREGA by giving special focus on the need for having an efficient as well as full-fledged institutional setup, and to examine how gender mainstreaming rhetoric neutralizes the discrimination between men and women. We also address the issue of perception and approach of MGNERGA towards the social, economic, political and cultural development of women.

IMPLICATIONS OF MGNREGA ON WOMEN WORKERS: A MICRO LEVEL CASE STUDY

Dr. Kartar Singh

Article Type: Case StudyThe Central Government of India formulated the National Rural Employment

Guarantee Act (NREGA) in 2005. ‘National Rural Employment Guarantee Act’ 2005 (NREGA) was launched with effect from 2nd February, 2006. The NREGA has been rechristened as The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) through an amendment held during 2009-10. The primary objective of the Act is augmenting wage employment. MGNREGA aims at enhancing livelihood

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security of households in rural areas of the country. The MGNREGA guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year to any rural household whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work. It is provided in the Act that while providing employment, priority shall be given to women in such a way that at least 1/3rd of the beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested for work under the Scheme.

Apart from theoretical features of the scheme the Present paper discusses the implications of MGNREGA on Women Workers which are based on a micro level case study of village Brah Khurd in Jind District of Haryana. The study was conducted to achieve its objectives which were primarily based on certain components of the scheme like generation of employment, type of work generated in the village, participation status of women workers in employment, system of payments, role of Panchayati Raj Institutions, perceptions of women workers on MGNREGA, suggestions to make the scheme effective from women workers point of view etc.

EMPOWERMENT OF RURAL WOMEN THROUGH MGNREGSDr. Santhosh Areekkuzhiyil

Ms. Prajisha. K

Article Type: Conceptual

The development of any society depend greatly on the empowerment of women. Because usually the potentials of women are remain unutilised in many socities, including India. Opportunity for emplyement is not only a source for income generation, but a role in nation building, a way to self develepment, and a strategy for empowerment. The The Mahathma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been intoduced by the government of India with a vision to empower the rural people especially the women. The Mahathma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) legally enshrines the right to work for 100 days, is demand driven, now has national coverage and in-built mechanisms for accountability and shows a measure of gender sensitivity in its design.

The present study examine what extend MGNREGS has achieved the purpose of empowering rural women. The study is an empirical one, which examine the type of employement provided by the scheme, the benefite derived by the women by taking part in the scheme, how the scheme enriched their sccial, emotional and family life. The study analyse the challenges and problems faced by the women participants and search ways to overcome the same. The women participants have lot of suggestion to improve the scheme at the grassroot level. The study analyse the feasibility of such suggestions and discusses the need for converting the unskilled workers to skilled and thereby contributing more to the development of the society and the individuals. The study tries to analyse the impact of the MGNREGS at micro level. It is expected that the findings of the study is helpful to understand the impact of the MGNREGS in the empowerment of rural women and the rural society.

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A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATION WOMEN IN MGNREGA- CASE STUDY OF KALAHANDI, ODISHA

Ms. Smita Raut

Dr. Pradip Kumar Parida

Article Type: Case StudyThis paper tries to explore the possibilities of looking into the future of the

participative economic democracy from a substantial political output process rather merely normative process. Though there is considerable space for action oriented programmes for enhancing women’s economic participation in the economic process in our country, it is not being reflected in action, rather than only in rhetoric. Though there is increasing demand for due recognition and space to women in the rural development sphere, more particularly MNREGA, its impact is not positive for women in general. A prismatic look into the policy guideline of this scheme clearly reflects the gender biasedness. Hence there is need of change in policy to address the critical component of genders sensitivity to cover the specific problems of women in the rural backward areas like Kalahandi. In this context, the authors try to explore the possible reasons for those conditions as well as looking forward for a future course of action to overcome this, from the experience in the field.Issues to be covered:Women in Politics and Economy:Indian Scenario across the CountryWomen in Rural DevelopmentMNREGA and womenSpecificity of KalahandiProblems Encountered there:Some Remedial MeasuresPublic Policy Dimension

RURAL LIVELIHOOD THROUGH MNREGA- REFLECTIONS OF GENDER ASPECT

Ms. Seema DeyDr. Pranaya Kumar Parida

Article Type: ConceptualThis paper tries to explore the causes and consequences of women’s participation

in livelihood aspects of rural development programmes in India in general. As a matter of a fact in rural hinterlands of the country it is the women who takes care of the family and livelihood generation activities, i.e. food gathering, wood collection, NTFP collection from nearby forest, portable drinking water collection from the nearby streams rivers and ponds etc. The Rural Development programmes have not given them due space barring very few. If there is some legislative support to women in rural development programmes, they might provide some impact on the larger space provided to our women folk, beyond household, which might be economic or otherwise. Comparing to the situation at the global level, it is giving very sad picture. Though in terms of human development indicators, the situation is not encouraging, simultaneous legislative scenario in the context of rural development programmes are also equally bad. In this

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context, the authors try to explore the possible reasons for those conditions as well as looking forward for a possible future course of action to overcome this.Issues to be covered:The Role of Women in Rural LivelihoodRural Development and WomenProblems Encountered by Women in this ContextLegal Issues and Legislative SupportPolicy Issues and Dimensions

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PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

INAUGURAL SESSION Wednesday, 17 April 2013

Venue: Conference Hall , 1st Floor , IIPA9.30 -10.00 am Registration

10.00 – 10.10 am Welcome Dr. Nupur TiwariFaculty, IIPA

10.10- 10.20 am Opening RemarksShri U.C. Agarwal(IAS Retd.)Director, IIPA

10.20-10.45 am Introductory AddressShri T.N. Chaturvedi, (IAS Retd.)Former Governor of Karnataka,Chairman, IIPA

10.45-11.00 am Inaugural AddressSmt. K. Ratna PrabhaAddl Secretary, Ministry of Women and Chid Development, GoI

11.00-11.25 am Keynote Address Shri S.M. VijayanandAddl Secretary , Ministry of Rural Development, GoI

11.25- 11.45 am Special AddressDr. Yogender Narain (IAS Retd.)Former Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha

Vote of Thanks11.45-12.00 Tea Break

PANEL DISCUSSIONPolicy Components In MGNREGA For Overcoming Gender Discrimination and Inequality

Time: 12.00- 01.30 pm.Moderator

Ms. Ratna M. SudarshanAdvisor

The Institute of Social Studies Trust , New DelhiSpeakers

Dr. Bidyut Mohanty Professor, ISS, New DelhiDr. C. Raj Kumar Professor & Vice Chancellor

O. P. Jindal Global UniversityMemberNational Legal Knowledge Council

Dr. Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal Director & Principal Research Fellow Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi

Dr. Mahipal Director, MoRD, GoIShri Manoj Rai Director, PRIA, New Delhi

Shri Joy Elamon CEO, Intercooperation, New Delhi

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Dr. Shams Khwaja Adjunct Professor of Law

Lunch01.30-02.30 pm

Hostel Mess

Technical Session IGendered Participation in MGNREGA Programme: Change and Continuity

Time: 02.30 pm- 03.45 pmChairperson

Dr. Bidyut MohantyProfessor, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi

Paper PresentersDr. S.C. Roy Gender Empowerment And Social Justice: Role

Of MNREGA In New MillenniumDr Smita Nayak Impact of MGNREGA on tribal women of Odisha:

A case study of Rajgangpur blockDr. Manju Panwar Barriers to Women’s Participation in MNREGA-

A Case study of Sonipat and Mahendergarh districts of Haryana State.

Shri Suresh Chandra Ch Problems Of Women Labour Under MGNREGS – A Comparative Study With Special Reference To Women Labour In Agriculture

Shri Saroj Mishra Concept of Employability and its relevance in employment opportunities in context to Gender Equity with respect to MGNREGA.

Dr. Xavier Susairaj Economic Analysis Of MGNREGS: A Study In Vellore District Tamil Nadu

Technical Session IIImplications of MGNREGA For Women As An Agency Of Change: Voices From The Fields

Time: 04.00-05.30 pmChairperson

Prof D.B. GuptaFormer Professor, Institute of Economic Growth

NCAER, New DelhiSpeakers

Smt. Manpreet Kaur Field Worker, UPSh. Rameshwar Prasad Field Worker, UP Shri Jaswant Singh Field Worker, RajasthanShri Raghwendra Singh Field Worker, RajasthanShri S.K. Tripathi Field Worker, Madhya Pradesh

Summing Up and Future StrategiesTime: 05.30 p.m.Dr. Nupur Tiwari

DAY TWO Thursday,18 April ,2013Technical Session I

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Initiative To Encourage Women’s Participation In MGNREGATime: 10.00-11.15 a.m.

ChairpersonProf. Sushma Yadav

IIPA, New DelhiPaper Presenters

Dr. Santhosh Areekkuzhiyil Empowerment Of Rural Women Through MGNREGS

Dr. Masroor Ahmad Beg Economic Empowerment of Women in India with special reference to MGNREGA

Shri Tabish Samdani Critical Study of MGNREGA: Its Impact and Women's Participation in Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and Madhya Pradesh

Dr. Ved Pal Deswal Various Impediments Of Women’s Participation In MNREGA

Dr. Inder Jeet Kaur MGNERGA- Gender Perspective11.15-11.30 Tea Break

Technical Session IIMGNREGA and Creation of Productive Assets: Gender Concerns

Time: 11.30-01.00 p.m.Chairperson

Prof. Furqan AhmadDept of Political Science

JMI, New DelhiPaper Presenters

Dr. Anil Kumar Mohapatra Securing SC and ST women’s dignity, safety and employment-security through electronic fund management system (EFMS) in MGNREGS: A case study of Nayagarh District of Odisha

Dr. Biswajit Mohpatra Women Workers and MGNREGA- Perceptions to Policy Realisation

Ms. Sharmistha Sinha Critical gender concern MGNREGA

Shri Kushal Yadav The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) : Guaranteeing The Right To Livelihood

Ms. Maitrayee Deka MGNREGA And Gender Equity – An Analysis Of The Legal Guarantees

Lunch01.00-02.00 pm

Hostel MessTechnical Session III

Effective Measures For Striking gender Equity through MGNREGA Time: 02.00-.03.15 pm

ChairpersonProf M.P Singh

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Former Head, Dept of Political ScienceDelhi University

Paper PresentersDr. Notan Bhusan Kar Impact of NREGA on Women : A Case

Study of Berachampa Gram Panchayat, Dist : North 24-Parganas, West Bengal

Dr. Joseph MGNREGA and its Impact on Women Socio-Political Development in Mizoram

Ms. Rekha Rani Women Participation in MGNREGA. A Study of Tehri Garhwal District of Uttarakhand

Dr. D. Raja Jebasingh MGNREGA: Guiding Force for Economic Sustainalibty and Rural Women Empowerment

Ms. Madiha Khan Barriers to Women Participation in MGNREGA

03.15-03.30 Tea Break

Technical Session IVWomen Workers and Perceptions of MGNREGA: Case Studies

Time: 03.30- 04.45 p.m.Chairperson

Prof Amaresh DubeyCentre for Study of Regional Development

JNU, New DelhiPaper Presenters

Dr. Bijender Pradhan Women Participation in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: Issues and Challenges in Bundelkhand Region of Central India

Shri Krishna Singh Determinants of Women Job Participation in MGNREGA Scheme – A Case Study of Burdwan District in West Bengal

Shri D.K.Ranjan Barriers to Women’s Participation in MGNREGA – A study of Barkagaon Block (Hazaribag, Jharkhand)

Shri Ashok Behera Women’s Participation in MGNREGS – A Case Study on Majhihara Gram Panchayat, Khordha District of Odisha

Ms. Rimki Patgiri Participation Of Women In Rural Development: A Study Of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act In Nalbari District Of Assam

Technical Session VInitiative To Encourage Women’s Participation In MGNREGA

Time: 04.45- 05.45 p.m.Chairperson

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Prof. V.K. SharmaIIPA, New Delhi

Paper PresentersDr. Prachee Sharma A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of National

Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Chhattisgarh

Shri Vijender Singh Beniwal Rural Women Empowerment Through MGNREGA In Haryana

Dr. Hastimal Sagara Looking at MGNREGS through a Gender Spectrum: a case of Rajasthan

Ms. Swati Srivastav Women workers and perceptions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India

Dr. S.M. Vanitha Economic Empowerment Of Women Through Participation In Mgnrega

Dr. Vikas Saharan Society, Women and MGNREGA

Dr. Vinod Kumar Socio-Economic Impact Of MGNREGA On Rural People: A Study In Mandi District Of Himachal Pradesh

Valedictory SessionTime: 05.45-6.15 p.m.

Shri Birendra Kumar Sinha (IAS Retd.)Administrative Member, Central

Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Delhi Branch, CAT, New Delhi

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LIST OF PARTICIPANTSS. No. Name Designation/ Department Contact Details

1. Dr. Nupur Tiwari Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi

2. Prof. Furqan Ahmad Dept of Political Science, JMI, New Delhi

3. Prof M.P Singh Former Head, Dept of Political Science, Delhi University

4. Smt. K. Ratna Prabha Additional Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development

5. Prof. Sushma Yadav IIPA, New Delhi6. Jaswant Singh Rawat Sarpanch of Masuda

district, Ajmer, Rajasthan7. Prof. D.B. Gupta Former Professor,

Institute of Economic Growth, NCAER, New Delhi

8. Dr. S.C. Roy Associate Professor, Chanakya National Law University, Patna

9. Dr Smita Nayak Associate professor, P.G. Department of Political Science, Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar

10. Dr. Manju Panwar Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, B.P.S Women’s University, Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat, Haryana.

11. Suresh Chandra Ch Assistant Professor in Business Management, Vaagdevi Degree & PG College, Hanamkonda, Warangal District.

suresh.scholar@gmail.com

12. Saroj Mishra Works As Manager With A Corporate

13. Dr. Xavier Susairaj Associate Professor, Sacred Heart college, Autonomous, Tirupattur, Vellore dt.

floraxavier@rediffmail.com

14. Dr. Santhosh Areekkuzhiyil Asst. Professor, Govt. santhoshclt@gmail.com

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Brennen College of Teacher Education, Thalassery, Kerela

15. Tabish Samdani Student, IIIrd Year, Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad

16. Dr. Ved Pal Deswal Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, M. D. University, Rohtak

vpdeswal@gmail.com, M.No: 09466901134

17. Dr. Inder Jeet Kaur, Associate Professor (Retd.) Delhi University

18. Lalita Research Scholar, JMI19. Dr. Anil Kumar Mohapatra Lecturer, P.G. Department

of Political Science, Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar

anilmohapatra68@gmail.com

20. Dr. Biswajit Mohapatra Faculty, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong

21. Sharmistha Sinha Senior Research Officer at the National Mission for Empowerment of Women

22. Kushal Yadav Research Scholar - LL.M., The Indian Law Institute, Bhagwan Dass Road, Opp. Supreme Court of India, New Delhi

advkky@gmail.com

23. Ms. Maitrayee Deka Research Scholar, Post Graduate Dept Of Law, Gauhati University, Guwahati

24. Dr. Prachee Sharma Assistant Professor, FOM ,DES, Raipur

drpracheesharma@yahoomail.com

25. Vijender Singh Beniwal Research Scholar, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi

26. Dr. Hastimal Sagara Assistant Professor ,GLS Institute of Commerce, Ahmedabad

hastimalgs@yahoo.co.in

27. Dr. S.M. Vanitha Scientist (P), Agril. Economics, Division of Crop Production, Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi

vanitha.gkvk@gmail.com

28. Swati Srivastav Research scholar,

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department of commerce, H.N.B. Garhwal Central University, Srinagar, Garhwal Uttarakhand

29. Dr. Vikas Saharan Research Scholar, JNU vikas.Sw18@gmail.Com 30. Dr. Vinod Kumar Department Of Public

Administration, Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla

31. Dr. Notan Bhusan Kar Independent Researcher from Kolkata

32. Dr. Joseph Govt. J. Buana College, Dept. of Political Science, Lunglei, Mizoram

33. Rekha Rani Research Scholar, HNB Garhwal University

34. Dr. D. Raja Jebasingh Assistant Professor, PG & Research Department of Commerce, St. Joseph’s College of Commerce (Autonomous), Bangalore

profjeba@gmail.com.

35. Madiha Khan Student, IVth year, B.A.LL.B (Hons.),Faculty of Law, Jamia Millia Islamia, Central university, New Delhi

madihakhan813@gmail.com.

36. Rimki Patgiri Department of Political Science, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya

37. Ashok Behera Research Scholar, Local Governance, RGNIYD

38. D.K.Ranjan Assistant Professor, (Rural Development & Marketing Management), University Department of Management, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribag

39. Krishna Singh Research Scholar, Department of Economics, Burdwan University

40. Dr. Bijender Pradhan Assit. Prof.,Department of Social Work, JVBI, Ladnun, Rajasthan

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41. Seema Dey, Senior Teacher, Army Public School, Sukna, Siliguri

semade123@gmail.com

42. Dr. Pranaya Kumar Parida Asst. Professor, Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana

pranayaparida@gmail.com

43. Shri U.C. Agarwal (IAS Retd.), Director, IIPA44. Manpreet Kaur Field Worker, UP45. Rameshwar Prasad Field Worker, UP 46. Jaswant Singh Field Worker, Rajasthan47. Raghwendra Singh Field Worker, Rajasthan48. S.K. Tripathi Field Worker, Madhya

Pradesh

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