Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the world's largest poverty eradication programme launched by the government of India which aims at enhancing the livelihood security of rural poor by providing 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work with reservation of one-third employment for women. This act is also sensitive for empowerment of women as it advocates for providing legal guarantee of works within 5 km, crèches and equal wages for both male and female. On this backdrop, an attempt has been taken to assess the impact of MGNREGA on socio-economic empowerment of rural women in Kochinda Block of Sambalpur district. This study is based on both secondary and primary data collected from 60 women beneficiaries by using simple random sampling. The analysis of data reveals the positive impact of MGNREGA on economic empowerment of women. However, the impact on social empowerment is not remarkable due to illiteracy, ignorance and lack of awareness among the rural women.
MGNREGA, Empowerment, Beneficiaries, Household, Livelihood
