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MGNREGA Works and Their Impacts
This study reports on a survey of 4,881 users of more than 4,100 works created under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Maharashtra. It provides evidence that MGNREGA works support agriculture, and benefit a large number of small and marginal farmers. An overwhelming 90% of the respondents considered the works very useful or somewhat useful, while only 8% felt they were useless. Further, most works continue to be maintained and are in a good condition. Overall, this study suggests that the widespread perception that the MGNREGA does not create anything productive appears to be misplaced, although there is scope for improving the choice of works, their design, and their execution.
This study was commissioned by the Department of Employment Guarantee Scheme, Government of Maharashtra, as an independent assessment of the works created under the MGNREGA in Maharashtra. We thank V Giriraj, S Muthukrishnan, and Vimala Ramesh for facilitating this study and S Mahendra Dev, Jean Drèze, and participants in a workshop at the IGIDR for valuable suggestions. Thanks are also due to a number of faculty members and students from various agricultural colleges across Maharashtra who participated in the survey and the interns who verifi ed the data. We remain responsible for the contents of this paper.
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