Mostly Economics

Jean Dreze and Rahul R present 20 year history of MNREGA in 10 charts:

India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), enacted in 2005, has completed 20 years. In this post, Jean Drèze and Rahul R initiate some reflection on the programme’s achievements, failures, and future. In 10 charts based on official statistics, they present an overview of major MNREGA trends, pertaining for instance to employment generation, the participation of marginalised groups, real wages, administrative expenditure, and the comparative experiences of different states.

Summary?

If we take official statistics at face value, MNREGA has an impressive record. The programme generates a huge amount of fallback employment for disadvantaged groups, especially in times of crisis. It has shown much resilience over 20 years despite economic contingencies, changes of government, and attempted cuts. The picture is all the more encouraging if we read it together with the rich literature on MNREGA’s wide-ranging benefits.²⁵

MNREGA’s achievements, however, are heavily concentrated in a few states. In many other states, the basic principle of work on demand is yet to become a reality, and MNREGA is little more than a large but still top-down public-works programme. These states, unfortunately, include many of India’s poorest states.

Further, it is important to note that the official picture is incomplete, and possibly even misleading in some respects. Official statistics, for instance, tell us very little about the unmet demand for MNREGA work, delays in wage payments, or failures of grievance redressal.²⁶ More importantly, it is no secret that MNREGA’s official employment figures are inflated. Indeed, it is principally by inflating worksite attendance sheets (“muster rolls”) that corrupt middlemen siphon off MNREGA funds.

This is one reason why official statistics need to be validated from independent sources such as household surveys. In this respect, there is a gaping hole. The last year for which official MNREGA statistics have been validated from independent surveys is 2011-12. After that, we are in the dark, though some useful information is available from the Periodic Labour Force Surveys.²⁷