Many programmes have been introduced in India since Sixth Five Year Plan to provide gainful employment to rural people. These programmes generated employment, but their effect and coverage was not as satisfactory as expected due to various limitations. Based on experiences of these programmes, a demand-driven National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was implemented in 2006 with an additional feature of providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment. This paper aims at analyzing the institutional set up required for effective implementation of NREGS as well as the impact of NREGS on the household income, status of women and rural resource base. The paper also examines the extent to which the Information Technology has been used for monitoring and evaluation of the scheme. Four districts of Orissa namely - Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Naupada and Sundargarh - were selected to cover all the four agro-climatic/geo-physical zones. Blocks and Gram Panchayats were selected on the basis of number of person-days of employment per household. Major finding of the paper is that the participating households were satisfied with the NREGS as it was instrumental in providing critical subsistence support as well as that in providing additional incomes for meeting useful social and contingency expenses. Also, NREGS provided platform for empowering women by putting additional money in their hand, thereby providing them a greater control over household expenditure. However, micro-level evidence and study on migration suggests that NREGS may not be the sole factor in arresting individual household's decision to migrate. The paper suggests enhancement in participatory planning and spreading the awareness about the various aspects of programme.
