Impact of drought on MGNREGS demand

and works and in Chhanbey block of

Mirzapur

1. Introduction
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(Act) is an Indian labour law
and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘right to work’ by providing atleast 100
days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members
volunteer to do unskilled manual work[1]. Over time, MGNREGS which was initiated in 200
most backward districts of India covered all the districts of India from April 2008. In addition to
providing wage employment, the other aim of the act is to create durable community assets for
the rural community by creating infrastructure for water harvesting, drought relief and
agriculture and allied sectors.

2. Background and justification (including literature)

Literature review reflects that though a good number of studies have been conducted on the
impact of MGNREGS on different aspects of economy such as livelihood, food-security etc. but
there is a scarcity of studies on impact of climatological conditions on this scheme and its
implementation.

Even a cursory glance on the distribution of labour-budget across states and districts would tell
us that the distribution of budget of MGNREGS is uneven and skewed towards the areas with
less agricultural productivity. It is imperative in such a situation that work-plans are directed
towards those works which will increase the availability of water. If this demand is captured and
analyzed, it would lead to reduction in the incidences of drought and would certainly ensure a
better approach to watershed management.
3. Research problem

How has MGNREGS work demand and work-progress moved with drought ?

Has MGNREGS created assets necessary for drought proofing of the region?

4. Research objectives

 To test the following hypothesis:

i. Assess the increase in MGNREGS work demand during drought years.

ii. To assess the increase in MGNREGS works during the drought period for
the creation of village assets which are necessary for drought proofing.

5. Research questions
Objective 1: Assess the increase in MGNREGS work demand during drought years.

 Analyse the trends in work participation amongst different section of the society such
as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, women, disabled etc.
 Analyse the spatio-temporal variation in work-demand with respect to hydrological
patterns.

Objective 2: To assess the increase in MGNREGS works during the drought period for the
creation of village assets which are necessary for drought proofing.

 Analyse the trends in works listed under work-plan and sanctioned works.
 Analyse the physical and financial progress of drought-related works under MGNREGS.
 Analyze the financial outlay of the scheme in the drought

6. Conceptual Framework

Various concepts that are to be used for the study are defined below:

(a) "Adult" means a person who has completed his eighteenth years of age;
(b) "applicant" means the head of a household or any of its other adult members who has applied
for employment under the Scheme;

(c) "Block" means a community development area within a district comprising a group of Gram
Panchayats;

(d) "Central Council" means the Central Employment Guarantee Council constituted under sub-
section (1) of section 10;

(e) "household" means the members of a family related to each other by blood, marriage or
adoption and normally residing together and sharing meals or holding a common ration card;

(f) "implementing agency" includes any departrnent of the Central Government or a State'
Government, a Zila Parishad, Panchayat at intermediate level, Gram Panchayat or any local
authority or Government undertaking or non-governmental organisation authorised by the
Central Government or the State Government- to undertake the implementation of any work
taken up under a Scheme;

(g) "minimum wage", in relation to any area, means the minimum wage fixed by the State
Government under section 3 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for agricultural labourers as
applicable in that area;

(h) "preferred work" means any work which is taken up for implementation on a priority basis
under a Scheme; ,

(i) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act

(j) "rural area" means any area in a State except those areas covered by any urban local body or
a Cantonment Board established or constituted under any law for the time being in force

(k) "unskilled manual work" means any physical work which any adult person is capable of
doing without any skill or special training;

(l) "wage rate" means the wage rate referred to in section 6 of Naional Rural Employment
Guarantee Act, 2005[2]

(m) “drought” is a situation occurring in any area when the mean annual rainfall is less than 75%
of the normal rainfall.

7. Research Design

Universe of Study
The study will be carried out in Chhanbey Block of Mirzapur. The study area was selected as the
researcher is posted in this particular district as a Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellow,
with Chhanbey, the block under consideration as the largest block of the district, in terms of
geographical area.

Sampling

For the selection of works and respondents two stages will be followed. In the first stage
purposive sampling method will be adopted for the selection of the MGNREGS works. In the
second stage, for selecting the sample respondents, random sampling method will be adopted.

Data Collection

Data will be collected both from primary and secondary sources. Primary data will be sought
from different stakeholders of MGNREGS including the cutting edge functionaries. This data
will be collected through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussion and case narratives.

Secondary data will be collected from the MGNREGS MIS and books of records pertaining to
different levels of Panchayat i.e. Zila Panchayat, Block Panchayat and Gram Panchayat. Transect
walk into the MGNREGS worksites will be conducted to have a firsthand experience on the
MGNREGS works at the community level.

Data Analysis

Both qualitative and quantitative data will be analyzed in the backdrop of the project objectives.
No properietary/paid software will be used for analyzing the data. The researcher will be
responsible for writing the code for a tool to analyze the qunatitative data, which will be
interpreted based on the information collected from the field.

Bibliography/References

1. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rural_Employment_Guarantee_Act_2005)
(accessed on 2nd of May 2016).
2. The Gazette of India, NREG Act (http://nrega.nic.in/rajaswa.pdf) (accessed on 2nd of May
2016).