MGNREGA and Women

♤ MGNREGA provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work- related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage.

♤ Act covers entire country except for districts which have 100% urban population.

♤ More than 65 per cent of the works taken up under the programme are linked to agriculture and allied activities.

♤ In the initial years, MNREGA was a true game-changer, rural wages started climbing and reports also pointed towards a decline in migration to urban centres.

♤ More than half the jobs going to women workers and almost a third to members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

♤ 57% of all workers are women, more than the statutory requirement of 33% and the highest in three years.

♤ It gave a large number of women their first opportunity to earn income in cash, reduced reliance on moneylenders

♤ It has led to a substantial increase in women’s control over resources, including cash in hand and the likelihood of having a bank account, and improvement in women’s ability to make independent decisions about their health.