Context:

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been one of the main avenues for the Centre to provide employment to returning migrants and others in rural areas who have been rendered jobless due to the lockdown.

The mandate of the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA)

• The mandate of the Act is to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled. manual work.
• The MGNREGA provides a legal guarantee for wage employment.
• It is a demand-driven programme where the provision of work is triggered by the demand for work by wage-seekers.
• There are legal provisions for allowances and compensation both in cases of failure to provide work on demand and delays in payment of wages for work undertaken.
• The Act incentivises States to provide employment, as 100 per cent of the unskilled labour cost and 75% of the material cost of the programme is borne by the Centre.
• Gram Panchayats (GPs) are to implement at least 50 per cent of the works in terms of cost. This order of devolution of financial resources to GPs is unprecedented.
• Social audit is a new feature that is an integral part of MGNREGA. Potentially, this creates unprecedented accountability of performance, especially towards immediate stakeholders.