Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA/MGNREGA)

NREGA/MGNREGA, 2005:

• Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA) is Indian labor law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. This was passed in September 2005 under the UPA government of PM Dr. Manmohan Singh and launched on 2nd February 2006 from Bandapalli in Andhra Pradesh.
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• It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Another aim is to create durable assets (such as roads, canals, ponds, wells).

• Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant's residence, and minimum wages are to be paid. If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to unemployment allowances. That is if the government fails to provide employment it has to provide certain unemployment allowances to those people. Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement. It is to be implemented mainly by Gram Panchayats and the involvement of contractors is banned.

• Apart from providing economic security and creating rural assets, it can help protect the environment, empower rural women, reduce rural-urban migration, and foster social equity.

• 'Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojana and 'Kaam Ke Badle Anaj' have been merged in this scheme. 

• The cost of the scheme is shared by the Centre and the State in the ratio of 90:10. According to Mahendra Dev Committee, the minimum wage shall be paid based on wages fixed by regulations. This will be reviewed concerning Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Rural Inflation Index.

• Mihir Shah Committee played a significant role in making MGNREGA more effective and giving it a new shape. Based on these recommendations, changes were incorporated in MGNREGA to ensure that its execution helped in improving the productivity of smallholding. MGNREGA projects have now been linked to the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).

• Under Geo-MGNREGA, 99 thousand assets have been geotagged in Jharkhand. Mates have been selected for the successful execution of the scheme. 50% of the position of selected mates has been reserved for women. The members of the self-help group (Sakhi Mandal) are given preference in selection mates. Only female mates are chosen in the block where Cluster Facilitation Team (CFT) is functional.

• CFT is functioning in 76 blocks of 21 districts in the state. They are responsible to assist workers in getting work and job cards, augmenting the capacity of Sakhi Mandal, etc. This team is being managed by the Ministry of Rural Developments, Government of India since July 2014. 28 new blocks in the state have been included under CFT-II.
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