A Geographical Study of the Ground Realities of Rural Safety Net in India: A village level study of MGNREGS

Rural safety nets are indispensable ingredients of boosting economy of a developing country like India. MGNREGS is one of the most discussed safety net of the vast Indian subcontinent. The spread and provisions of MGNREGS has made the scheme a pillar of Indian rural development. This is the landmark scheme of Indian Government which provides employment to the job seekers with a right based approach. Though the initial aim of this scheme was to provide employment to the unemployed rural youth, a strategy of sustainable livelihood is hidden under the policy. Much highlight has been given to the employment generation aspect of the scheme, as this was the prime focus of the Act. The aspect of generation of common property resources through MGNREGS is not much discussed and evaluated by the researchers. The quality and sustainability of rural CPRs is significant for generating sustainable rural livelihood. This paper provides an attempt to see the realities of MGNREGS generated CPRs on an empirical basis. The gap of theoretical overview and real implementation is evaluated in this paper with empirical observation.