Transparency and Accountability in Implementation of MNEREGS: A Study of Haryana.
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Date
2015
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Abstract
After independence India, ushered into the era of planned development and one
of the major thrust of the successive Five Year Plans has been to generate
employment opportunities so that the problem of unemployment might be tackled.
The government has made several efforts both in terms of starting new and innovative
schemes as also providing funds to generate employment in the rural areas. However,
despite that the problem of unemployment could not tackled and rather it is becoming
graver. This highlighted the need of more concerted efforts towards solving the
problem of unemployment in India and the need to devise some right-based
employment programme was realized. This culminated into the enactment of
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Programme in 2005.
The significance of MNREGA lies in the fact that it creates a right–based
framework for wage employment programmes and makes the government legally
accountable for providing employment to those who ask for it. This Act was
introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people,
primarily semi or unskilled work to people living in rural India whether or not they
are below the poverty line. It was initially called NREGA but was renamed on
October 2, 2009 as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
The MNREGA can never meet its objectives without the active participation
of people in its implementation. And in this context, transparency and social
accountability has an indispensable role to play as a tool in the hands of the poor to
fight leakages, claim entitlements and make the MNREGA meaningful for
themselves. Transparency means that decisions taken and their enforcement are done
in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means information is freely
available and directly assessable to those who will be affected by this decision.
Social accountability is a process of engagement with government to check the
conduct and performance of public officials and service providers. The Act developed
a new relation between officials and citizens as service providers (panchayat
functionaries) and client (beneficiaries) to ensure transparency and social
accountability in implementation. The supposition of this thesis has an attempt to
review the transparency and accountability in implementation of MGNREGS. The
thesis demonstrates this relation through study of six blocks of three districts bysecondary and primary data generated from beneficiaries, panchayat functionaries,
block and district programme officials of the Scheme.
Key Words: MGNREGA, transparency, social accountability.
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Keywords
Employment Generation Programmes, Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, NREGA in Haryana, The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act