Aspects of Inclusion and Peoples’ Empowerment Related to National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

ABSTRACT

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, launched in the year 2006, is dubbed as one of the major flagship strategies of the Government of India, in coherence with the objective of removing poverty and unemployment. While scope of employment in rural asset creation protects environment, the earning opportunities address the issue of financial and social inclusion. Principal Component Analysis has been applied to calculate Financial, Social, Environmental, and finally Overall Inclusion Index as well as Empowerment Index. The results reveal significant association between Overall Inclusion and Empowerment index. Using multiple regression, Overall Inclusion is explained by certain significant variables.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusion
• empowerment
• NREGS
• principal component analysis