Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand driven wage employment programme. The core objective of the Scheme is to provide not less than 100 days of unskilled manual work as a guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand, resulting in creation of productive assets of prescribed quality and durability. In the current financial year 2021-22 (as on 27.03.2022), a total of 83.82 lakh works have been completed and 133.09 lakh works are ongoing under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.

The Ministry regularly reviews the performance of the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS (including completion of ongoing works) in States/UTs through various fora viz., Mid-Term Review, Labour Budget meetings, Labour Budget Revision meetings, Programme Review meetings. Central Employment Guarantee Council and State Employment Guarantee Councils periodically monitor implementation of the programme.

Government of India has made assessment of implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS through third party study in terms of increase in household income, poverty alleviation etc. sponsored by NITI Aayog in 2020. Some of the key findings of the study are as below:

1. Mahatma Gandhi NREGA is a powerful instrument for inclusive growth in rural India through its impact on social protection, livelihood security and democratic empowerment.
2. Mahatma Gandhi NREGS provide livelihood security for the poor through creation of durable assets, improved water security, soil conservation and higher land productivity.
3. Mahatma Gandhi NREGS has had a positive impact on the standard of living of households through increase in household income by improvements in production from agriculture.
4. Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has led to major increases in wages of rural workers
5. SC, ST and Women along with socially excluded communities benefit from and are included in Mahatma Gandhi NREGA plans which could be a significant indicator of poverty alleviation in rural areas.

Year-wise number of works completed under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in the last five financial years 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 is given below:

 

(As per MIS)

 

The Ministry has a comprehensive system of monitoring and review mechanism for Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. Some of the important elements of the above framework are listed below:

1. The Ministry regularly reviews the performance of the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS in States/UTs through various fora viz., Mid-Term Review, Labour Budget meetings, Labour Budget Revision meetings, Programme Review meetings. Central Employment Guarantee Council and State Employment Guarantee Councils periodically monitor implementation of the programme.
2. National Level Monitors, Common Review Missions and Officers of the Ministry visit States/UTs at regular interval to review implementation of the programme. After the field visits, the findings/shortcomings and recommendations are shared with the States/UTs for appropriate action at their end.
3. Auditing Standards for Social Audit have been issued and States/UTs have been advised to establish independent Social Audit Units, conduct Social Audit as per Audit of Scheme Rules, 2011 and training of village resource persons for conducting Social Audit etc. Internal Audit Teams of the Department also conduct regular audit.
4. Steps have been taken to strengthen transparency and accountability which include geo-tagging of assets, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), National electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS), Aadhar Based Payment System (ABPS), Software for Estimate Calculation using rural rates for Employment (SECURE) and appointment of Ombudsperson in every district of States/UTs.
5. Steps have been taken for establishment of State Technical Cell at various level for qualitative monitoring and supervision of works under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS.
6. In order to ensure higher level of monitoring and oversight, National Mobile Monitoring System and Area Officer App have been introduced. In the former, attendance of workers on a particular work, where more than 20 workers are employed is taken daily along with a geo-tagged & time stamped photograph of theirs. The latter has been designed to ensure that field officials do conduct inspections in the requisite numbers and look into all the relevant aspects of the scheme.
7. In addition Central and State Employment Guarantee Councils, District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committees (DISHA) as also PRIs do also take up the monitoring and oversight of the Programme.

 

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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