MGNREGS in Gujarat: Initial experience and early signals

National Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is an important land-mark for promoting inclusive growth in India NREGS can play an important role in boosting overall economic growth by raising wage income through creation of productive assets, in an underinvested and stagnant rural economy. Although Gujarat stands out in terms of most of the parameters favouring better implementation of the scheme, yet the progress of the scheme there has been somewhat dismal. Given this backdrop, this study tries to examine the experiences of the initial phase of NREGS in Gujarat with special focus on certain important aspects of the implementation of the scheme. For the study, four relatively more backward districts were selected, namely, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Narmada and Valsad. In each district, two talukas were selected - one having relatively higher concentration of project activity and another with low level of such activities. A quota sample of 35 households was selected from each village, comprising 20 beneficiary and 15 non-beneficiary households. Random sampling was used for selection of the households. In all, 320 beneficiary and 240 non-beneficiary households were covered under the study. The study analyzed various aspects of implementation of the scheme, such as coverage and activities of the scheme, awareness among the households and the impact of the scheme. Eventually, the paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations for the meaningful implementation of the scheme in the coming years.