MGNREGS: A step towards inclusive development in Andhra Pradesh - A case study of Krishana District

Human Development Strategy of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is an attempt to understand the role of income for economic development and the role of human development for well-being. The key word is ‘access’ to income. Even though there is accumulated wealth in abundance, we notice deprivation of income that stifles personal growth and well-being. Since independence of India, we notice that there has been an accumulation of wealth in a limited number of families and business households, the per capita distribution of income remains very low even now. As a nation, it is not enough to accumulate GDP wealth in economic terms, the priority must be to enhance the national well-being by enabling better access to income. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) can be considered as a small step in this direction of enabling poor persons and households to have access to income that enhance well-being. Japan, after the Second World War, struggled hard to become an economic power. Let us have a new vision to look at each country scenario and find new paths that sustain income distribution as is envisioned in the MGNREGA. Together with such policies, human development approach is a way forward to enhance people's well-being. Growth rates have gone up in India in recent years but the growth is perceived to have excluded disadvantaged groups of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), minorities and women as Indian society is stratified in terms of social, economic-and human capital endowments. It is now believed that rapid economic growth could exacerbate pre-existing inequalities rather than narrowing them in an inclusive way and hence, inclusive growth (wherein people contribute to and benefit from economic growth policies are needed. This paper deals with the role of inclusive development of human development startegy of MGNREGS in the district of Krishna of Andhra Pradesh.