IJSP is an International, Peer Reviewed/ Refereed, Indexed, Open Access, Online Journal of Arts and Social Sciences. Call for Paper: Vol 12 (02): 2025, Publication date: 31 July 2025 (Online), 15 August 2025 (Print), Last date of Submission : 15 June 2025

Contextualising National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India

Rohit Sharma

Affiliations:

Assistant Professor at the PG Department of Political Science, Arya College, Ludhiana, Punjab INDIA

Download

In the recent times, the government initiated various programmes to change the trajectory of development model and make it more inclusive and pro- poor oriented. The programmes like, mid-day meal, National Rural Health Mission , Bharat Nirman and Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) were initiated in order to ensure that growth is evenly distributed and tried to revive the rural economy which was neglected by liberalisation policies. In this context the present paper is an attempt to locate and contextualise NREGA, within a rights discourse to have an analytical understanding.

Keywords:
Employment, MGNAREGA, Social Welfare

‘Challenges And Opportunities Global Financial Crisis In India Economics Essay’, <http://www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/challenges-and-opportunities-global-financial-crisis-in-india-economics-essay.php> (accessed 27, May 2014).
2005. ‘National Rural Employment Guarantee Act’. < http://nrega.nic.in/rajaswa.pdf> (accessed15, February 2014).
2008. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) - Operational Guidelines (3^rd edition) by Ministry of Rural Development.
A Fact Sheet on the Right to Work and Employment Guarantee. <http://www.righttofoodindia.org/data/RTW_factsheet_anuradha.doc> (accessed 10, April 2014).
Banerjee, Kaustav. 2010. The Right to Work in theory and in practice: A Case study of the NREGA, India. <http://www.jnu.ac.in/SSS/CSSP/Kaustav2.pdf> (accessed 26, July 2014).
Bhaduri, Amit. 2004. ‘Guaranteeing Employment’, The Hindu, December 27.
Bhaduri, Amit. 2005 a. Commentary- “FIRST PRIORITY: Guarantee Employment and the Right to Information”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XL, No. 04 January 22-28, pp. 267-269.
Bhaduri, Amit. 2005 b. Development with Dignity, New Delhi. National Book Trust.
Chand, Ramesh et.al. 2007. Growth Crisis in Agriculture: Severity and Options at National and State Levles, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, no. 26, 30 June 2007, pp. 2528-33.
Cornwal, A., and Nyamu- Musembi. 2004. Putting the “rights based approach” to development into perspective. Third World Quarterly, 25 (8), pp. 1415-1437. <http://transparentsea.co/images/4/46/Cornwall_etal.2004.pdf> (accessed 05, May 2014).
Dev, S Mahendra. 2008. Inclusive Growth in India: Agriculture, Poverty, and Human Development. New Delhi. Oxford University Press.
Dreze, Jean. 2004a. Democracy and the Right to Food. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39 No. 17, 24-30 April, pp. 1723-1731.
Dreze, Jean. 2004b. Employment Guarantee as a Social Responsibility. The Hindu, 22 November. <http://www.hindu.com/2004/11/22/stories/2004112205071000.htm> (accessed 20, May 2014).
Food Security Must Be On The Table At Rio+20 <http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/food-security-must-be-table-rio20> (accessed 15, June 2014).
Gautam, Bahn. 2012. The Policing of Desire, Hindustan Times, Monday, July 02.
Ghosh, Jayati. 2006. “The "Right to Work" and Recent Legislation in India”, Social Scientist, Vol. 34, No. 1-2, January - February, pp. 88-102.
Zaidi, Hussain H. 2012.Jobless Growth. <http://www.dawn.com/news/696798/jobless-growth> (accessed 28, February 2014).
Joshi, Anuradha. 2010. ‘Do Rights Work? Law, Activism, and the Employment Guarantee Scheme’. World Development. Vol. 38, No.4, pp. 620-630. <http://www.aajeevika.gov.in/hindi/studies/important-analysis/do-rights-work-law-activism-and-the-egs.pdf> (accessed 05, May 2014).
Khan, Amir Ullah and M R Saluja. 2010. ‘Impact of the NREGP on Rural Livelihoods’. <http://www.idfresearch.org/rural-employment.pdf> (accessed 12, June 2014).
Khera, Reetika. (ed.) 2011. The Battle for Employment Guarantee, New Delhi. Oxford University Press.
Kohli, Atul. 2012. Poverty Amid Plenty in New India. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Kumar, A. Ganesh, Srijit Mishra and Manoj Panda. 2004. “Employment Guarantee for Rural India”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 51, December 18-24, pp. 5359-5361.
MacAuslan, Ian. 2008. ‘India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: A case study for how change happens’. <http://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/oxfam/bitstream/10546/112481/1/fp2p-cs-india%27s-national-rural-employment-guarantee-act-140608-en.pdf > (assessed 23, May 2014).
Ministry of Rural Development and Government of India. 2012. MGNREGA Sameeksha: An Anthology of Research Studies on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 2006–2012. New Delhi. Orient BlackSwan.
Mooij, Jos. (ed.) 2005.The Politics of Economic Reforms in India, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Mujumdar, N.A. 2007. Inclusive Growth: Developmental Perspectives in Indian Economy. New Delhi. Academic Foundation.
Narayan, Swati ‘Why India is Losing its War on Hunger’. <http://www.oxfamindia.org/sites/www.oxfamindia.org/files/cs-why-india-losing-war-hunger-010611-en.pdf> (accessed 23, July 2014).
National Common Minimum Programme of United Progressive Alliance Government. <http://nceuis.nic.in/NCMP.htm.> (accessed 21, February 2014).
Nayar, Baldev Raj. 2009. The Myth of the Shrinking State: Globalization and the State in India, New Delhi. Oxford University Press.
Nayar, Baldev Raj. 2009. The Myth of the Shrinking State: Globalization and the State in India, New Delhi. Oxford University Press.
Nyamu- Musembi, C. 2005. An actor oriented approach to rights in development. IDS Bulletin, 36 (1), 41-51. <https://www.ids.ac.uk/publication/an-actor-oriented-approach-to-rights-in-development> (accessed 05, May 2014).
Sainath, P. (2009) OP-ED- ‘NREGS: not caste in stone’, The Hindu, September 14.
Shah, Anup. 2011. Poverty Around The World. http://www.globalissues.org/article/4/poverty-around-the-world (accessed on 23, July 2014).
Shah, Mihir .2007. Perspective- “Employment Guarantee, Civil Society and Indian Democracy”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLII, No. 45-46, November 10-23, pp. 43-51.
Shah, Mihir 2009 a. ‘Multiplier accelerator synergy in NREGA’, The Hindu, April 30.
Shah, Mihir 2009 b.‘Taking goals of NREGA-I forward’, The Hindu, August 14.
Shah, Mihir and Pramathesh Ambasta. 2008. “NREGA: Andhra Pradesh shows the way”, The Hindu, Sep 8.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. <http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr> (accessed 23, March 2014).
Varshney, Ashutosh. 1995. Democracy, Development, and the Countryside: Urban-Rural Struggles in India, Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
World Development Report-2000/2001, Attacking Poverty. World Bank. Oxford University Press.