Empowerment of rural women through mgnrega with special references to Palakkad

The empowerment of rural women is crucial for the development of the rural bharat. Women will have to empower themselves from below in order to compel the government to empower them from above. In the words of the former president APJ Abdul Kalam empowering women is a prerequisite for creating a good nation, when women are empowered, society with stability is assured. Now days, the MGNREGA has positive impact on empowerment and employment pattern of women. It aims at enhancing livelihood security by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household especially for women. Participation of women has increased significantly and perceived that it giving them a sense of independence and security. Women participation is very high with 80 percent of the total beneficiaries under the scheme. The concept of women's empowerment got wider popularity and acceptance in Kerala with the launching of decentralized planning in the state. Against this background the current study focused on analyzing empowerment of rural women through MGNREGA with special references to Palakkad. Data were collected from 80 women from rural villages in Palakkad using the simple random sampling. The findings of the study revealed that women are benefited individually because they are able to earn independently spend some money for their own hands, contribute for their family expenditure. The study concluded that MGNREGA economically empowering women and laying the basis for greater independence and self-esteem. It has become a beacon of light in the empowerment of the rural women and contributed substantially for the increased living and economic conditions.