Reflection of MGNREGA on rural employment, sustainable livelihood and poverty Alleviation: A case study of hanbad

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 legally enshrines the “right to work” and ensures livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. An important effective implementation of MGNREGA is the creation of awareness among rural people and other stake holders, particularly MGNREGA workers in respect of the scheme provisions as well as their rights and entitlements. IEC (Information Education and Communication) activities should aim at facilitating dissemination of right based provisions of the act to ensure that the workers know their right to demand wage employment and exercise their right by applying for jobs as per their need. The strategy also aims to create awareness among rural people and other stake holders with special focus on MGNREGA workers about various aspects of MGNREGA. The Jharkhand state MANREGA council has decided to increase honorarium paid to contract employees working for effective implementation of the central scheme. As per the on line reports received from State Government, 1.04 lakh schemes sanctioned for Rural Drinking Water Supply in the State, out of these 486 schemes are for piped water supply. As per on-line monitoring reports, the Government of Jharkhand has achieved 35.76% sanitation coverage and 60% of rural habitations have rural connectivity out of total number of habitations under rural road development plan respectively. Currently 24 District of Jharkhand are listed under MGNREGA, and Dhanbad is one of them. Dhanbad district is situated in the state of Jharkhand. As Dhanbad comes under coal bearing area the MGNREGA programme is less effective in these reasons but Inspite of that the interior rural areas like Tundi etc are benefited through MGNREGA. Presently 0.6 lakhs active workers are there in Dhanbad district and 20.05 lakhs of active workers are there in Jharkhand State. Total No of HHs completed 100 Days of Wage Employment have increased from 2257 to 4663. Apart from rural employment it also results in assets creation through rural connectivity, wells and ponds.