Mediating effects on poverty reduction in India through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme

Abstract

The employment opportunities in rural areas have signifi cantly decreased for the last few decades in India. Th erefore, Government of India introduced Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP) to create employment opportunities for ru ral people. Th e Programme is considered as a “silver bullet” for eradicating rural poverty and unemployment in India. Th e purpose of this empirical research study is to develop a new model for poverty reduction in rural India through this Programme. Th e novelty of this article is an attempt to develop an empirical research model that assists the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme when mapping the level of economics service quality and thereby enhance the same. Th is Programme provides an alternative source of livelihood, which will have an impact on reducing migration, restricting child labor, alleviating poverty, and making villages self-sustaining through productive assets creation such as road construction, cleaning up of water tanks, soil and water conservation work, etc. for which it has been considered as the largest anti-poverty programme in the world. Th e paper critically examines the implementation process of this Programme and its impact on tribal livelihoods. Th e following research methodology is used in the article: the data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Th e sampling procedure used for this study is stratifi ed random sampling. Th e stratifi cation is done based on the Taluks are Kumbakonam (Th anjavur District), Keeranur (Pudukottai District) and Nagappatinam (Nagappatinam District) of Tamilnadu state of South-India for the nature of region South, East, Centre, West and North while selecting the MGNREGP Employees from each category, non-probabilistic convenience and judgmental sampling technique is used. Th e fi ndings and conclusions of the study reveal that millions of rural poor with the inclusion of new works under this Programme could able to get some employment which supports their livelihoods. Eff orts are exerted to improve more transparency and accountability in implementing this programme to ensure that the benefi ts reach out to the poor and the needy villagers. Th e regression analysis revealed that the Poverty Eradication on the various dimensions of Economic Development, infl uenced Economic Development followed by Social Development. Th e visual representation of results suggest that the relationships between the dimensions of Economic Development, Social development resulted in a signifi cant impact on the mediated factor ‘Poverty Eradication’. Th e paper suggests the policy framework for the stakeholders in eff ective implementation of the Programme.