Social welfare through guaranteed wage employment: experience of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in an Indian state

Abstract

Recognition of the significance of public wage employment programmes in tackling unpredictable community “covariate” shocks and ensuring livelihood security of the rural poor has led to the enactment of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, with state guarantee of work. Implementation of the Act, our empirical findings tell us, has become the site of tangible exchanges between state and society, with factors such as the level of material support for it, the balance of power between the local state and the poor on the ground, and the larger socio-economic structure determining programme outcomes.

Keywords:

• wage employment
• state
• poverty
• empowerment

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank NISER, Panchayat and Rural Development Department of West Bengal and Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India for providing the required support.

Notes

West Bengal has a predominantly rural population (72.03%), with the below-poverty-line families constituting more than one-third of the state population (34.12%). The respective below-poverty-line population figures for the selected districts are Purulia (32.85%), Malda (39.17%), Birbhum (42.33%) and Burdwan (33.50%). Districts were purposively selected in consultation with the state government officials based on criteria of programme performance (number of man-days generated), phase of launching (I, II and III phases), geographical representation, and so forth. While a second-phase district (Burdwan) was selected from the good performing category, two average performing districts (i.e. Birbhum and Malda) and one poor performing district (i.e. Purulia) were selected from the phase I category.

The 10 first-phase districts include Bankura, Birbhum, Malda, Purulia, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Murshidabad, South 24 Parganas and Paschim Midnapore. The seven second-phase districts include Purba Midnapore, Hooghly, Burdwan, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, Cooch Behar and Darjeeling.