MGNREGA and Rural Women Empowerment in India: a case
from Bankura, West Bengal
Pinaki
Banerjee, Indrasish Banerjee and Purnabha Dasgupta
The
enactment of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in 2005 is indeed
a significant development or the giant leap forward to eliminate or at least
reduce the degree and intensity of absolute poverty from the nation. In other
words, it symbolizes the achievement of a very long civil society and people’s
movement towards ensuring right to food through ensuring right to work. The
Indian Parliament passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in
August 2005, which provides for a minimum of 100 days of guaranteed employment
to every rural household. Women (mainly unskilled) after 58 years of British
Raj somehow got an opportunity to earn their meager living through the help of
this Act. The act provides for 100 days of guaranteed employment to every rural
household in a financial year for unskilled manual work.
The
Act initially notified in 200 districts, however ultimately covered all the
rural districts (99% of the districts in the country) and expected to benefit
some 5.5 crore poorest households in the year 2009-10 (Sharma 2009). With the
budget allocation of Rs. 11,300 crore in 2006-07, under the umbrella of the
NREGA, this is probably the largest rights-based social protection initiative
in the world (Farrington et al. 2007). As per the Schedule I of the Act, the
work under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) will be
essentially creation of sustainable rural assets. As a result, after the year
2009 -10 lots of research work on this policy intervention was taken up by
various researchers’ throughout the country to study the impact or pros and
cons of the project as a whole but not focusing the most vulnerable economic
group of our country, i.e., women. To converge this academic as well as policy
interest researchers’ of this study endeavored to go beyond livelihood issues
of the women and inferred deep to introspect their empowerment issue.
Selection of the issue
Backwardness of women is common and not seen as a sin
in our nation. They are worshipped as the goddess of prosperity (by the
majority) while keeping their avatars in our home as the symbols of poverty and
agony. Men in this patriarchic society believe to have every pleasure for them
only e.g.- job, sex, land etc. No wonder, India hosts over one-third of the
poor in the world, as lack of empowerment of women is a significant cause of this
poverty. Without the active participation of women, establishment of a new
social order will not be a successful one, because women constitute half of the
population. Women should realize that they have constitutional rights to
quality health care, economic security, access to education, conjugal life and
political power. Equity is a pre-condition for any development to be
sustainable in the long run. The empowerment of women and rural development is
of cardinal importance in attaining equitable and sustained economic development.
In countries with high unemployment rates, transfer benefits from welfare
programmes can prevent poverty from worsening, particularly during lean
periods. Durable assets that these programmes create may have the potential to
generate second-round employment benefits as needed infrastructure is
developed.
Research Objectives:
·
To study
the general profile of the women MGNREGA workers in the study area,
·
To study
the worksite facilities of MGNREGA in the study area,
·
To study
the rural women’s perception about their economic empowerment through MGNREGA,
·
To study
the rural women’s perception regarding their social empowerment through
MGNREGA;
Locale of the study
Research Design
In this research, exploratory
research designing has been used as no other related studies were found in the
study area. For this reason during the pilot survey researcher has used check
list and open ended question to explore the research problem in the study area.
In this design the substantial qualitative data collection becomes a
means for developing quantitative instruments. In the later phase categorical
information found from qualitative endeavor used to develop a quantitative
structure for the study. (Onwuegbuzie, and Collins, 2007).
Systhesis of the Findings from the
study
Ø 58% MGNREGA women workers were more
dependent on Panchayat members regarding the information about the availability
of MGNREGA work in the study area.
Ø 60% of the respondents in the study
area did not apply for job under MGNREGA but considered by the Panchayat as
potential unskilled laborer under this Act directly.
Ø 70% of the respondents told that
their family was getting less than 50 days of work in a year. 20% of the
respondents told that their family was getting less than 75 days of work in the
study area. Only 10% of the respondents told that they were getting 100 days of
work from the MGNREGA programme
Ø 62% of the respondents got payment
after 14 days of work
Ø 18% of the respondents told that male
supervisor was causing problems to them in the study area
Ø 42 % of the respondents told that
they were getting drinking water facilities in the MGNREGA wok site.
Ø 26% of the respondents agreed to the
fact that they were getting First aid in the MGNREGA worksite
Ø 76% of the respondents told that
sheds were not available in the worksites.
Ø 96% of the respondents told that
crèche scheme was not available in the worksites
Ø 4% of the respondents told that they were
getting the toilet facility in the worksites.
Ø 48% of the respondents have withdrawn
money from post offices and 52 % respondents have withdrawn money from Bank
Ø 54% of the respondents agreed on the
fact that they had full right on MGNREGA income
Ø 62 % of the respondents told that
wages were accessed and controlled by their male counterparts in the study area
Ø All the respondents agreed to the
fact that they (getting from MGNREGA work ) for buying luxury food items like
meat, fruits , sweet and vegetables etc.
Ø 98% of the respondents while
describing their situation told that the monetary benefits from MGNREGA work
used it for health purposes which was not affordable to them previously
Ø 72% of the respondents told that they
spent their monetary income from MGNREGA for their children’s education purpose
in the study area
Ø 42% the respondents told that they had spent
their money to buy assets for their family from this income
Ø 34% of the respondents had noted
increase in the level of saving after participating in MGNREGA work in the
study area
Conclusion and Scenarios
In
a one liner it can be concluded that empowerment of rural women has emerged as
an unintended consequence of MGNREGA.
Women have benefited more as labors than as a community. Women as individuals
have gained because they are hard working in nature, made possible due to the
paid employment opportunity under MGNREGA. However, independent and monetized
earnings have increased consumption choices and reduced economic dependence in
the study area. This has helped women in registering their tangible
contribution to the household’s income. The overall effects of these have
translated into an increased voice for women in household affairs. Women as a
community, however, have been slow in realizing the potential benefits of the Act.
Nevertheless, their increased presence in the gram sabha, the increasing number
of women speaking out in the gram sabha, frequent interactions with government
officials and PRI representatives, and access to banks and post offices are new
developments. Additionally, the female mate system has reversed the traditional
gender roles, albeit in a limited manner. On the flipside, working hours for
women have increased;
leisure
time has vanished; and there are physical and emotional strains related to such
work. Lactating women and women with young children
work under emotional strain, as they remain separated from their children for
long hours. Some adolescent girls are reported to have left their studies to
avail of the job opportunity under MGNREGA, especially in Guabandh. The
challenges lie in horizontal and vertical expansion of benefits first. The high
participation of women ensures horizontal spread of benefits. Realization of
greater numbers of person days ensures better individual-level effects. This district
with high SC and ST populations and our state with relatively poor human and
gender development indices and greater levels of state and civil society
mobilization could have benefited more. However, other than SC, ST, and OBC
women, others are not forthcoming in availing this paid job opportunity. Apart
from implementation issues, there are social and cultural contexts that
restrict women’s participation in some villages. Persistent social and community mobilization
and a proactive role of the administration can compensate some of these social
and cultural deficits. Nonetheless, at the end it can be said safely that
intensity and chance of women empowerment through MGNREGA is conditional and
are still dependent on the societal choice and policy interventions
References
Sharma, Rita
(2009): “National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.” Paper presented at the
Observer Research Foundation (ORF) national workshop on NREGA for Water
Management, Delhi, India, October 30,
2009.
Farrington, J, R
Holmes and R Slater (2007): “Linking Social Protection and the Productive
Sectors”, Briefing Paper 28, Overseas Development Institute, London.
Onwuegbuzie, A.
J., & Collins, K. M. (2007). A Typology of Mixed Methods Sampling Designs
in Social Science Research. Qualitative Report, 12(2), 281-316.
*************
1Pinaki Banerjee, 2Indrasish Banerjee and 1Purnabha
Dasgupta
1IRDM Faculty Centre, Narendrapur, Ramakrishna Mission
Vivekananda University
2Belur Vidya Mandir College, Belur, Howrah
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