04/06/2019 - Government Policies

KEY POINTS

·        Revised NREGA 3.0, in which 150 days of employment would be guaranteed to the rural poor.

·        Crucially, the most basic tenet of the NREGA — its self-targeting mechanism — does work.

·        While the DBT, loan waiver, PDS requires identification costs and it is difficult for the government to target the beneficiaries with available data.

·        Government still relies on Socio-economic caste census data 2011 for targeting poor in schemes like PMUY, Saubhagya yojana.

·        Poorer and disadvantaged households are more likely to seek NREGA work.

·        Given the enormous, though sometimes unmet, demand, has NREGA enabled the rural poor to cross the poverty line.

·        State-level studies show NREGA favours the most disadvantaged. In Andhra Pradesh, monthly per capita food consumption amongst the very poor who received work under NREGA increased by estimates of 9-10 per cent in the first year of implementation.

·        The poorest SC/ST households and those with a disabled member saw even higher growth in consumption and nutritional intake in the short-run, and in the medium-term, substantially increased their non-financial assets.

·        NREGA also plays a critical role in reducing vulnerability. Research indicates that NREGA provides employment after an adverse rainfall shock, enables workers to smoothen their consumption with variations in rainfall, and reduces risk during the lean season.

·        Despite been severely rationed, NREGA acts, as per its mandate, as a very desirable social protection mechanism amongst the most disadvantaged classes.

·        Compared to other proposals on the table, NREGA efficiently allows the most disadvantaged to spur their consumption in times of rural distress.

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