MGNREGA Impacted Rural Women Empowerment: A Case Study of Mandya District

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is different from earlier employment programmes launched by the government of India as, on the one hand, it is a demand-driven scheme while, on the other hand, it treats employment as the right of the rural household. This act was adopted by the Indian government to reduce rural unemployment and poverty so that it leads to the reduction of rural-urban migration in search of employment. This scheme also provides income directly to unskilled workers in rural areas. Women Empowerment is the important objective of this act; emphasis was laid on promoting gender equality through providing wage employment to women. This paper will mainly focus on the impact of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on the empowerment of women in the five-gram panchayats of Mandya district of Karnataka. It also focuses on the significant improvement of the status of rural women through MGNREGA socially, economically, and psychologically.

• Socio-economic and psychological status of rural women under MGNREGA programme has been improved significantly and enhanced their livelihood security.

• Need more initiation and awareness programme about this programme to the rural poor women which in turn will increase their participation rate.

• Recent technological advancement, especially with the use of modern gadgets, have been greatly influenced to rural women in getting better information about the benefits of MGNREGA programme.