Impact of MGNREGA on Poverty and Ameliorate Socio-economic Status: A Study in Pauri Garhwal District of Uttarakhand

Abstract

India is mostly an agricultural country in which the power of rural unskilled labour is very high and the most people of the rural poor depend mostly on the wages they earn through unskilled, informal, and manual labour. The main effect of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is to improve the livelihood conditions of the rural poor by providing employment. The Act provides an opportunity to work in the lean season, which helps rural poor to keep the consumption level and strengthen the livelihood resource base during this critical period. Only the growth of the economy cannot create social justice and balanced development unless it is attached with poverty improvement and employment generating opportunity for a poor and marginalised section of the society. It was perhaps the largest and most ambitious social security and public works programme in the world. Thus, a study on the impact of MGNREGA in generating employment and increase in income of the selected respondents in selected blocks of the district Pauri Garhwal and linear regression has been used as the statistical tool to measure such impact. The results revealed that there is a significant impact of MGNREGA in generating employment and increase in income of the respondents in the selected village of the district.