JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 2.417, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 4, Issue 8, September 2016 MGNREGA AND MINORITIES: STUDY OF TONK DISTRICT, RAJASTHAN GARIMA DIKSHIT* DR. SEEMA SHARMA** *Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Economics, Banasthali Vidyapith, Tonk, Rajasthan, India **Associate Professor & Head, Department of Economics, Banasthali Vidyapith, Tonk, Rajasthan, India Abstract Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act enshrines the legal right of one hundred days of guaranteed paid employment to any rural household who demand for work. Although its scope is national, there have been wide interstate as well as inter district variations in the achievements of the objectives of the act. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act enacted by Government of India on August 25, 2005 and it was renamed as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. In this paper an attempt has been made to identify the pattern of participation of minorities in the scheme and also the implementation of MGNREGA in Tonk district of Rajasthan. Emphasis has also been made to identify status of person days generated and, average wage rate and employment provided in a year in the area through the scheme MGNREGA. Through the study, it’s been found that participation of SCs and STs is impressive in some of the blocks whereas worst in rest of the blocks, average days of employment provided in a year and average wage rate per day per person is very stumpy. Keywords: MGNREGA, Minorities, Employment, Wage rate. I. Introduction National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) renamed as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) enacted on 25th August 2005. It guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year which recently increased to 150 days in a financial year to any rural household whose adult members are willing to do an unskilled manual work. The Act came into force from February 2, 2006. The act was implemented in total 3 phases, in first phase it covered 200 most backward districts in second phase, additional 133 districts were covered and in third phase, by year 2007-2008 it covered all districts of India excluding those districts having 100% urban population. India has a long history of poverty and unemployment alleviation programmes from pre-independence to post-independence era. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) came after almost 56 years of experience of various rural employment programmes. This comprises 167 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 2.417, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 4, Issue 8, September 2016 National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) 1980, Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) 1983, Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) 1989, Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) 1993, Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) 2001, National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP) 2004, among these SGRY and NFFWP have been merged with MGNREGA in 2005. The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) is implementing various schemes/programmes with the basic objective to provide employment to most disadvantaged section of the society, including SCs and STs. MoRD has also made specific provisions in guidelines of the programmes to ensure adequate flow of resources to the Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes. Ministry also releases fund for Scheduled Caste Special Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) under Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) and Swarn Jyanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SJGSY)/ National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)from 2011-12, but there is no earmarking of fund is made under SCSP and TSP under MGNREGA. II. Review of Literature: Aiyar, Y. et al. [2006] conducted a study to discuss the effectiveness of NREGA. The study reveals that there should be a clear separation of functions across tiers of government and citizens must play in monitoring the provision of public services. Chakraborty, P. [2007] explored a study on state-wise employment demand-supply data and the use of funds released under the NREGA by central government across the India. The study concludes that only half the total available funds were utilized during the year, there should be preparation of labour budget at panchayat level for effective implementation and better coordination by level of government is required particularly in poor states. Jha, R. etal. [2008] explored the study by allowing the participation of different socio- economic groups in NREGS programme. The study was conducted in three villages of Udaipur district of Rajasthan. It concludes that NREG programme was far from dismal, as merely one-third of the household participated in this scheme, most of the beneficiaries are from SC, ST groups and about one-fifth of the household worked for about 100 days in 2007. Dey, S. et al. [2010] conducted a study to check the functioning of NREGA in Birbhum district of West Bengal February 2006 to July 2009. The study reveals that in order to serve as an effective “employer of last resort”, the programme should provide proportionately more job-days during the agricultural lean season and wages should be paid in timely manner. 168 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 2.417, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 4, Issue 8, September 2016 De, B. et al. [2013] conducted a study to review the current status of implementation of NREGA in Sonamukhi block of Bankura district of West Bengal. 100 households have been chosen from 10 villages on stratified random sampling basis. The respondents have been asked through open-ended questionnaire on several aspects of MGNREGA. The study concludes that there is a lack of awareness among people about their rights and also people are dissatisfied by the quality of work done under this scheme. Jhamb, A. (2014) conducted a study to highlight the procedure adopted for the successful execution of MGNREGA in the rural area. An attempt is been made that government need more vigorous implementation to fully actualize the scheme. The study reveals that MGNREGA suffers from poor implementation and there is lack of trust among the people who avail the scheme. Poonia, J. (2012) shows that NREGA has the potential to stimulate local development, if the management and delivery are good; it is also concluded that benefits are due to a strong state apparatus and not to the demand of the citizens. The study is conducted in Kerala through a field survey whereas paper also reviews India’s approach to social protection since independence and places the NREGA within the broader social protection discourse. Bebarata, K. P. (2013) in his study on tribal people of Gajapati district of Odisha concluded that MGNREGA have benefitted the tribal peoples of Gajapati Districts in many ways by increasing their income and bringing change in their social and economic life. Mani, N. and Krishnan, N. (2014) conducted a research on erode district of Tamil Nadu to know about MGNREGA workers. Study concludes that success of the programme depends upon its proper implementation. Whereas the minimum and maximum number of workers are 117 in Bhavanisagar block and 4577 in Bhavani Block. Padma, K. (August, 2015) explored a study MGNREGA and Rural Distress in India for the year 2009-10 to 2011-2014 and focuses on implementation of the programme, performance of MGNREGA at national level as whole and also wage issues. Study concludes that MGNREGA is criticized on the ground of corruption, non-payment of minimum wages and poor quality of assets. MGNREGA is also criticized for pushing up wages of rural workers in a manner that makes farmers hard to compete in an uncertain world economy. 169 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 2.417, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 4, Issue 8, September 2016 III. Objectives of the Study: The primary objective of the study is to focus on the employment status of marginalized castes SCs and STs in the scheme called MGNREGA further it will also lay attention towards the person days generation, average days of employment provided in a year, average wage rate provided per day per person in Tonk district, Rajasthan. IV. Data Sources and Methodology: The methodology is the way of achieving the goal through the inference by observation, collection and differential analysis of relevant data relating to the study of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) with reference to Tonk, Rajasthan. The proposed study is a quantitative research. The statistical data for the study has been collected from secondary sources from government and non- government agencies, different reports of Ministry of Rural Development, surveys of NSSO, Annual reports of MGNREGA. Data is gathered for five consecutive years 2011-12 to 2015- 16 to study the participation of minorities in research area whereas to study the performance of MGNREGA in Tonk district data is gathered for two consecutive years 2014-15 and 2015- 16.. Simple percentage method and Mean is used to show the performance of MGNREGA in Tonk. The collected data is tabulated and analyzed on the basis of bar graphs. V.MGNREGA in Rajasthan: Rajasthan ranks among the worst state in term of sanitation in India1. Rajasthan is geographically the largest state in the country with area 342239 sq. km, total 33 districts, 66% of the land area is desert, livestock population is more than human population, low level of literacy whereas 22% of population is below poverty line. Table