IFPRI-IGIDR Workshop on Implementation of MGNREGA in India A Review of Impacts for Future Learning - NREGA: A Brief Overview - Reetika Khera
Download as PPTX, PDF1 like591 views
This document provides an overview of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in India. It discusses how NREGA is self-targeting in design and implementation, benefiting the rural poor. Data shows nominal wages under NREGA have doubled from 2006-2013, though the real increase is smaller. While NREGA faces issues like corruption and asset quality, studies have found low leakage rates and positive returns on assets created. However, negative perceptions of the program persist due to anecdotes outweighing rigorous evidence and muddled public thinking.
IFPRI-IGIDR Workshop on Implementation of MGNREGA in India A Review of Impacts for Future Learning - NREGA: A Brief Overview - Reetika Khera
- 1. NREGA: A brief overview Reetika Khera (IIT Delhi)
- 2. Wide-ranging support for NREGA • Self-targeted in design: • Temporal, regional and economic • Self-targeting in implementation • Engler and Ravi (see figure) • Liu and Barrett • Zimmerman, Imbert and Papp – wage effects primarily for female labourers
- 4. 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 45000 2006-7 2007-8 2008-9 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Totalpersondaysofemployment(crores) Totalexpenditure(Rs.Crores) NREGA: Expenditure and Employment Nominal expenditure on NREGA has been stagnating for the past three years. Total Expenditure (in crores) MPR employment MIS empoyment
- 5. 65 75 79.6 86.8 97.1 114.9 121.4 124.4 392 423 463 536 585 625 663 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 2006-7 2007-8 2008-9 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Nominal wages under NREGA have doubled between 2006-7 and 2012-13 (from Rs. 65 to Rs. 124 per day). In real terms, however, the increase is smaller since the consumer price index has risen at a faster rate during the same period. NREGA wage CPIAL
- 6. Areas of concern • There are *many*! • Corruption • Quality of asset creation • Technocratization/centralization: • History of “demand capture” • UID
- 7. NREGA leakages: IHDS vs. NSS 2007-8 2011-12 NSS 44-58% 22-32% IHDS - <5%
- 8. Asset creation • No nationally representative study, so we just don’t know. • But the labour-material ratio is not the main hurdle • Very few studies, with relatively positive results • Narayanan et al (Maharashtra): 87% assets exist and are being used • Aggarwal et al (Jharkhand): 4.5% rate of return on NREGA wells • IISC study: environmental impact
- 9. Why is the overall impression so negative • Because the people who benefit from these programmes do not write in newspapers! • False equality between anecdotes and rigorous evidence “The politician admitted that the problem was bad governance and corruption. ‘Just take a scheme like NREGA. You people sitting in Delhi constantly write in praise of this scheme as if it had solved all our problems but do you know that nearly half the funds that the Centre sends for this scheme are eaten up along the way? Do you know that there are long lists of fake beneficiaries in every district of Rajasthan?” (TS, IE, May 2010)
- 10. Muddled thinking • “These were legislated without devoting any thought to their effects. One type of law militated against the environment (The National Food Security Act, 2013 would have either required more intensive agricultural practices or outright seizures of foodgrains from producers or resort to imports) while the others created their own problems (the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act, 2005, sought to preserve watersheds, build productive assets etc).” (Siddharth Singh, Live Mint, Dec, 2014)