India: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA)
Ms. Subhalakshmi Nandi
Programme Specialist, Women’s Economic Empowerment
UN Women Office for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka
ADB Regional Seminar on Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment
Bangkok, 20th May 2015
Status of Women in India
32% in India lives below the poverty line
11% marginalised HHs headed by women
943 females to 1000 males (CSR 914)
65.4% women literate
Maternal mortality at 212 per 100,000 births
Above 70% women have nutrition deficiencies
35% women have faced sexual/physical violence in the lifetime
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Female work participation rate at lowest: 22.8%
21 million women exited the workforce between 2004-05 and 2009-10
Over 93% workers in informal employment | Majority women | 79% rural women in agriculture (of which 81% belong to marginalised groups) | Only 9% women own land
51% of women’s work unpaid
18% women have no say on how their income is spent
(Census, ILO, NSSO, UN Women)
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MGNREGA: Key Features
Legal entitlement, passed on the demand of farmers’ and workers’ organisations
Provides 100 days’ wage employment every year
Ensures minimum, equal wages + unemployment allowance
Leads to creation of rural assets – earth-works, soil water conservation
Aims at strengthening bodies of local self-governance
Inbuilt mechanisms for transparency, accountability and community participation 4
Pro-women Provisions under MGNREGA
One-third workers to be women
Equal pay for work of equal value
Provision of creche facilities
Provision of work within a 5 km radius of home
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2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13
Total Available Fund 12074 19306 37397 45682 52649 41564 38835
Expenditure 8823 15857 15857 37910 39377 37549 39440
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
In R
s. C
rore
s
1. Available Funds and Expenditure under MGNREGA
IMPLEMENTATION (1)
0
100
2006-07 2007-08 2008-092009-10
2010-112011-12
2012-13
43 42 48 54 47 42 44
Person days Guaranteed Number of Days
Number of Person Days Against the Guaranteed 100 Days of Work
States with Maximum and Minimum HHs with 100 days Employment
States with Highest and Lowest Participation of Women*
* Person-days by women as a percentage of total person-days
IMPLEMENTATION (2)
SCs STs Women
22% 18%
51%
23% 18%
53%
22% 17%
54%
2012-13 2013-14 2014-15
Percentage Participation of Marginalised Groups and Women (In Person Days)
IMPLEMENTATION (3)
Regional Variations States with Highest and Lowest Participation of Women*
* Person-days by women as a percentage of total person-days (2014-15)
KERALA 92% UTTAR PRADESH 25%
TAMIL NADU 85% JAMMU & KASHMIR 25%
MGNREGA responds to the crisis of poverty by…
Providing wage employment with guaranteed minimum wages + wage parity
Generating resources for agriculture, farming and subsistence work
Addressing distress migration
Reaching the most marginalised
Strengthening local governance
Promoting transparency and accountability mechanisms
Addressing women’s rights at the workplace (e.g. crèche)
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Case Study: UN Women’s Work in Uttar Pradesh
A pilot project: Dalit Women’s Livelihoods Accountability Initiative (DWLAI)
Supported by UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality (FGE), in partnership with Gender at Work, local organisations, and local government
Reached out to 30,000 women from SC community, enabling their access to NREGA
Ensured 9,000 women opened bank accounts, and controlled their earnings
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Project Results
Paradigm shift ‘right’, not a ‘dole’
Increase in income and employment: 77% improvement in economic condition
Women’s access to and control over financial resources:
40% increase in individual bank accounts
20% increase in controlling own accounts
Women trained in skilled and semi-skilled work: supervisory roles, work measurement
Innovations: all-women worksites, women trained as supervisors (module developed), women in social audit process
Impact on rural/agricultural wages (30-40% increase; reduction in gender wage gap)
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Policy Outcomes
Revision of guidelines by Ministry:
Job Cards for single women
Individual bank accounts
Gender-responsive ‘schedule of rates’ (SOR)
50% worksite supervisors to be women
UN Women invited to support such work in 4 states (below 33% participation of women) ongoing technical support
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Learnings & Areas for Future Work
Address socioeconomic disadvantage:
Feudal system
Social protection within macroeconomic policies
End discrimination and violence: Gender, caste and class-based discrimination
Promote voice, agency and participation:
Interface between women from marginalised communities and the state
Support for organising
Women as supervisors, managers, planners, leaders
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Need of the hour (POWW, UN Women, 2015)
‘Transforming Economies, Realising Rights’
For gender equality and women’s empowerment
For stronger economies
What:
Women’s socioeconomic disadvantage
Ensuring freedom from discrimination and violence
Promoting voice, agency and participation
How:
Engendering macroeconomics from a human rights lens
Promote ‘decent work’
Ensure gender-responsive social protection
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Thank You !