IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v11y2021i4p21582440211052281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Has India’s Employment Guarantee Program Achieved Intended Targets?

Author

Listed:
  • A. Amarender Reddy
  • Namrata Singha Roy
  • Divya Pradeep

Abstract

This paper explores the performance of the world’s largest employment guarantee program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India, both nationally and through a sub-national-level comparison based on key performance indicators viz. (i) financial indicators, (ii) physical performance indicators, and (iii) inclusiveness indicators. The paper is based on administrative data taken from the Ministry of Rural Development from 2006 to 2019. Despite sharp increases in fund allocation, total expenditures, and utilization rates, there was deceleration in majority of physical performance indicators after 2016, including total person-days employment and person-days of employment per household, with wide variation in sub-national level implementation capabilities. The finding also rejects the falsity of saturation of MGNREGA work in the rural areas, which is reflected in a strong positive correlation between fund allocation and employment generation. Its broader objective of social safety net for vulnerable people in rural areas shows an achievement, although with some gaps in implementation. JEL classification: H53, J43, P25

Suggested Citation

  • A. Amarender Reddy & Namrata Singha Roy & Divya Pradeep, 2021. "Has India’s Employment Guarantee Program Achieved Intended Targets?," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:4:p:21582440211052281
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440211052281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440211052281
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440211052281?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D. Narasimha Reddy & Rukmini Tankha & C. Upendranadh & Alakh N. Sharma, 2010. "National Rural Employment Guarantee as Social Protection," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(4), pages 63-76, July.
    2. Fischer, Harry W. & Ali, Syed Shoaib, 2019. "Reshaping the public domain: Decentralization, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and trajectories of local democracy in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 147-158.
    3. Narayanan, Sudha & Das, Upasak & Liu, Yanyan & Barrett, Christopher B., 2017. "The “Discouraged Worker Effect†in public works programs: Evidence from the MGNREGA in India," IFPRI discussion papers 1633, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. N. Nagaraj & P.S. Srikantha Murthy & M. G. Chandrakanth & Madhusudan Bhattarai & Namrata Singha Roy, 2018. "Economic Impacts of MGNREGA in Dryland Region of India: A Meso and Micro Study in Selected States," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: Madhusudan Bhattarai & P.K. Viswanathan & Rudra N. Mishra & Cynthia Bantilan (ed.), Employment Guarantee Programme and Dynamics of Rural Transformation in India, chapter 0, pages 265-287, Springer.
    5. Raabe, Katharina & Birner, Regina & Sekher, Madhushree & Gayathridevi, K.G. & Shilpi, Amrita & Schiffer, Eva, 2010. "How to overcome the governance challenges of implementing NREGA," IFPRI discussion papers 963, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. D. Narasimha Reddy & A. Amarender Reddy & Madhusudan Bhattarai & N. Nagaraj & Cynthia Bantilan, 2018. "MGNREGS Implementations and the Dynamics of Rural Labour Markets," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: Madhusudan Bhattarai & P.K. Viswanathan & Rudra N. Mishra & Cynthia Bantilan (ed.), Employment Guarantee Programme and Dynamics of Rural Transformation in India, chapter 0, pages 71-101, Springer.
    7. Narayanan, Sudha & Das, Upasak & Liu, Yanyan & Barrett, Christopher B., 2017. "The “Discouraged Worker Effect” in Public Works Programs: Evidence from the MGNREGA in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 31-44.
    8. Nagaraj, N. & Bantilan, Cynthia & Pandey, Lalmani & Roy, Namrata Singha, 2016. "Impact of MGNREGA on Rural Agricultural Wages, Farm Productivity and Net Returns: An Economic Analysis Across SAT Villages," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 71(2), June.
    9. Das, Upasak & Maiorano, Diego, 2019. "Post-clientelistic initiatives in a patronage democracy: The distributive politics of India’s MGNREGA," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 239-252.
    10. Arvind Panagariya and Vishal More, 2013. "Poverty by Social, Religious and Economic Groups in India and its Largest States, 1993-94 to 2011-12," Working Papers 201302, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, revised Oct 2013.
    11. Deepta Chopra, 2019. "Taking Care into Account: Leveraging India's MGNREGA for Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(6), pages 1687-1716, November.
    12. Rhonda Breitkreuz & Carley‐Jane Stanton & Nurmaiya Brady & John Pattison‐Williams & E.D. King & Chudhury Mishra & Brent Swallow, 2017. "The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: A Policy Solution to Rural Poverty in India?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(3), pages 397-417, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anugu Amarender Reddy & Anindita Sarkar & Yumiko Onishi, 2022. "Assessing the Outreach of Targeted Development Programmes—A Case Study from a South Indian Village," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-22, July.
    2. Narayan Chandra Nayak & Bimal Kishore Sahoo & Alok Ranjan Mohanty, 2023. "Do Mahatma Gandhi NREGA and convergence measures arrest distress migration? An empirical assessment of the migration-prone regions of Odisha, India," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rodriguez, Zachary, 2022. "The power of employment: Effects of India’s employment guarantee on women empowerment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. Das, Upasak & Maiorano, Diego, 2019. "Post-clientelistic initiatives in a patronage democracy: The distributive politics of India’s MGNREGA," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 239-252.
    3. Tagat, Anirudh, 2020. "Female matters: Impact of a workfare program on intra-household female decision-making in rural India," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    4. Kartik Misra, 2022. "No employment without participation: An evaluation of India's employment programme in eastern Uttar Pradesh," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(6), November.
    5. Deininger, Klaus & Liu, Yanyan, 2019. "Heterogeneous welfare impacts of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 98-111.
    6. Narayanan, Sudha, 2021. "Food security from free collection of foods: Evidence from India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Jain Ritika, 2021. "Information and Communication Technology Adoption and the Demand for Female Labor: The Case of Indian Industry," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 695-722, April.
    8. Girish Kumar Agrawal, 2019. "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: Design Failure, Implementation Failure or Both?," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 44(4), pages 349-368, November.
    9. Emilio Congregado & Ewa Galecka-Burdziak & Antonio A. Golpe & Robert Pater, 2021. "Separating aggregate discouraged and added worker effects: the case of a former transition country," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 12(3), pages 729-760, September.
    10. Cerciello, Massimiliano & Agovino, Massimiliano & Garofalo, Antonio, 2019. "The caring hand that cripples? The effects of the European regional policy on local labour market participation in Southern Italy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    11. Agovino Massimiliano & Garofalo Antonio & Cerciello Massimiliano, 2019. "Do Local Institutions Affect Labour Market Participation? The Italian Case," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 1-21, April.
    12. Das Tushar Kanti, 2016. "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as Social Safety Net: Analysis of Public Works in Odisha, India," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 16(4), pages 337-360, December.
    13. Arvind Panagariya & Megha Mukim, 2014. "A Comprehensive Analysis of Poverty in India," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 31(1), pages 1-52, March.
    14. Sunil Khosla & Pradyot Ranjan Jena, 2022. "Analyzing vulnerability to poverty and assessing the role of universal public works and food security programs to reduce it: Evidence from an eastern Indian state," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 2296-2316, November.
    15. Pinaki Das & Bibek Paria & Shama Firdaush, 2021. "Juxtaposing Consumption Poverty and Multidimensional Poverty: A Study in Indian Context," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(2), pages 469-501, January.
    16. Srinivas Goli & Anu Rammohan & Sri Priya Reddy, 2021. "The interaction of household agricultural landholding and Caste on food security in rural Uttar Pradesh, India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(1), pages 219-237, February.
    17. Sarbajit Chaudhuri & Sushobhan Mahata & Salonkara Chaudhuri, 2022. "COVID-19 disaster and employment generation program in a developing economy," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 24(1), pages 46-64, June.
    18. Swati Narayan, 2022. "Fifteen Years of India’s NREGA: Employer of the Last Resort?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(3), pages 779-799, September.
    19. Armando Barrientos & Sony Pellissery, 2012. "Delivering effective social assistance: does politics matter?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-009-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    20. Ali, Amin Masud & Savoia, Antonio, 2023. "Decentralisation or patronage: What determines government's allocation of development spending in a unitary country? Evidence from Bangladesh," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    social protection; MGNREGA; rural labor; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • J43 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Agricultural Labor Markets
    • P25 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:4:p:21582440211052281. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.