The Geographer

  • Year: 2017
  • Volume: 64
  • Issue: 1

Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Livelihood Security: A Case Study of Mirzapur District (UP)

  • Author:
  • Ravi S. Singh, Parmanand Tirpathi, Kamala Kant
  • Total Page Count: 12
  • DOI:
  • Page Number: 68 to 79

*Professor, Dept. of Geography, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, 221005

**Research Scholar, Dept. of Geography, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, 221005

***Research Scholar, Dept. of Geography, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, 221005, E-mail: acmohapatradr@gmail.com

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) enhances the livelihood security of rural poor by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year. The present paper tries to understand the impacts of MGNREGA on rural livelihood in Eastern Uttar Pradesh—one of the most backward regions of India-through a case study undertaken in Mirzapur district. It has been found in this case study that during financial year 2013–14 the implementation of the Act was misguided and diverted far from the track by the responsible bodies like Gram Panchayat (GP) as well as Development Block (DB). There is also an ample gap between the aims and objective of the Act and its outcomes as the benefits did not go in favour of rural poor for whom it is basically meant. The findings of the present study show ambivalence of MGNREGA and its ground realities in the district. As consequence of it, the MGNREGA registrants and beneficiaries both suffer with livelihood insecurity in the study area.

Keywords

Beneficiaries, Livelihood, MGNREGA, Registrants, Rural, Women