Livelihood Security of Rural Poor through MNREGAs- A Study of Kurukshetra District in Haryana

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is the largest and most ambitious employment generation program to ensure livelihood security in rural India. It aims to provide at 100 days guaranteed employment at minimum wage rate to every rural household in a financial year. It provides a legal right to work and helps the poor to come out from the poverty trap. There is a great debate among the society regarding the functioning of MNREGA in the country.
The present study is an attempt to analyze the challenges and potential of MNREGA in generating employment opportunities in Kurukshetra District of Haryana. It is based on both primary as well as secondary data. The primary data has been collected with the help of detailed questionnaire from 100 beneficiaries and non beneficiaries of the scheme of Thanesar block of Kurukshetra district. The main focus of the paper is to examine the performance of MNREGA especially in terms of employment generation and assets creation. It highlights the major issues related to awareness among the beneficiaries, person-days generated and assets created over the years in Kurukshetra district. The study finds out that MNREGS has a positive impact on income earning capacity of the beneficiaries. The long-run sustainability of MNREGA has been examined through its contribution to create productive assets in rural areas.
Keynotes: MNREGA; Employment generation; assets creation.