Household Consumption Pattern and Nutritional Security among Poor Rural Households: Impact of MGNREGA^§

The paper has examined the changes in household food consumption and nutritional security of poor rural households and has assessed the impact of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on the dietary pattern and nutritional status of these households using the data from 66^th round of National Sample Survey (NSS) pertaining to the year 2009. Since getting a job card is the first step for linkage with the MGNREG scheme, only job card holder households were considered in the study. These were further grouped into job seekers and non-job seekers. The non-job seekers were those who were not serious on getting an employment under MGNREGA but had got the job card issued to be used under emergency or as a trump card for getting higher wages from the present employer. The job seekers were also classified as ‘beneficiaries’ (who got employment) and ‘non-beneficiaries (who did not get employment but got unemployment allowance). The study has revealed that MGNREGA has benefitted 22.5 per cent of the rural households by providing, on an average, wage employment for about 43 days. It has increased the income of rural households and has been successful in reducing the poverty level by 4 per cent. The MGNREGA has provided almost equal employment benefits to all the categories of farmsizes, household-types and income-groups. The state-wise study has revealed that though all the states have been benefitted, wide variations do exist. It is observed that the economically weaker states of the country have been benefitted maximum and have implemented the MGNREGA more vigorously. The study has shown that the raise in income could lead to increase in food consumption — both of cereals and non-cereals by all the categories of households. A diversification in the dietary pattern of households has also been observed, which is again a strong indicator of better food consumption. These developments have resulted into a substantial increase in calorie-intake as well as protein-intake by different categories of households, leading to a decrease in the undernourished and nutrition-deficit households by 8–9 per cent. In nutshell, the impact of MGNAREGA has been positive and effective in increasing household food consumption, changing dietary pattern and providing nutritional food security to the poor rural households of India.