State Level Performance of MGNREGA in India: A Comparative Study

Abstract

In this comparative study, we have attempted to analyze the state-wise performance of the MGNREGA and its impact on various streams of agriculture and rural agricultural wages.  To start with, funding of the scheme has been very balancing between the state and center.  It ranges around 80:20 of share to the implementation of scheme between the Center and the States.  In terms of employability, states that around 13,332 crore person days are created and 7.08 lakh assets are built, out of 25.98 lakh taken up under the programme. Of the total person days created, 51.02 percent are the person days by the women labourers.  When it comes to coverage of population, the states that claim to have covered more than 50 percent of the households are Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, with both of them having poverty rates that are much higher than the national average; followed by Bihar and Jharkhand, with over 30 percent coverage but very high levels of poverty.  Besides, at the total expenditures suggests that Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have distributed Rs.10-17 billion as wage payments followed by Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Bihar, with the utilized amounts ranging between Rs.5 and 10 billion each.  Another important thing to consider about the scheme is about the impact on farm mechanization of agriculture.  Ultimately, it is worth mentioning here that the MGNREGS has benefited the agricultural labourers not only directly, but also indirectly as the scheme pressured the Minimum Agricultural Wage Rate (MAWR) to be increased.