Issues and Challenges of MGNREGA- Evidence from Pondicherry Union Territory

Abstract

A vast majority of the poor in rural areas of India depend mainly on the wages they earn through unskilled, casual, and manual labour. They are often on threshold levels of subsistence, and are vulnerable to the possibility of sinking from transient to chronic poverty. Inadequate Labour demand or unpredictable crises that may be general in nature, like natural disaster or personal like ill-health, all adversely impact their employment opportunities, which enabled the government to design NREGA as a safety net to reduce migration by rural poor households in the lean period through hundred days of guaranteed unskilled manual labour provided when demanded at minimum wage on works focused on water conservation, land development & drought proofing. The present study covers rural poor of 98 villages of three blocks i.e., Ariyankuppam block (37 villages), Villianur block (34 villages), and Karaikal block (27 villages), in Puducherry and Karaikal districts of Puducherry region aimed to give a demographic explanation of caste-wise, gender-wise details focusing with some of the issues and challenges faced by them like delay in payment of wages, part payment, mode of payment, and lack of adequate facility provided in workplace, etc. The study proved that there is a significant relationship between growth in MGNREGA and agriculture related activities in Puducherry and Karaikal districts of Puducherry Union Territory