MGNREGS AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT – SOCIAL ISSUE
News: Women break new ground in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
What's in the news?
● The proportion of women workers participating in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has touched a ten-year high in the ongoing financial year. According to the latest statistics available with the Union Ministry of Rural Development, 57.8% of the workers who used the scheme this year were women, their highest level of participation since 2012-13.
● Out of the 15 States (Kerala, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh) that The Hindu reviewed, 14 States reported an upward trend in women’s participation.
Factors facilitating women participation in MGNREGS:
1. Legal back up:
● MNREGA, 2006 provides for atleast one-third beneficiaries to be women.
● Thus, the legal provisions favouring women participation in the scheme as it provides "Right to Work".
2. Nature of work:
● It does not require special knowledge.
● It provides for unskilled and semi-skilled workers, providing opportunities to the lower literate women to get useful employment.
3. Out migration of male members:
● The rural men migrate to urban areas in search of better employment opportunities.
● Thus, the circumstances in rural areas favor women participation in MNREGS.
4. Provision of equal wages:
● MGNREGA stipulates equal wages for men and women.
● According to an analysis by IWWAGE on the earnings gap in India, self-employed women earn only about 30% to 40% of the income earned by self-employed men, while the gap among regular workers was 52% to 67%.
● The wage parity in MGNREGA ensures that women do not have to bargain for better wages.
5. Innovative experiments in implementation:
● Several pilot projects by Gram Sabha’s and district administration in collaboration with local NGOs ensures increased participation of women in MNREGS.
6. Various provisions available at work site:
● There are several facilities at the workplace such as clean drinking water facility, shed, creche facility for women, medical kit and equipment required for the better implementation of the scheme towards women.
7. Synergy of MGNREGS with various programmes:
● MGNREGS has be converged with various schemes of agricultural and rural development such as National Rural Livelihood Program (NRLM), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchay Yojana (PMKSY), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Gramin (PMAY-G), etc. to bring out comprehensive development in rural areas along with development of women beneficiaries.
● Eg: MGNREGA has led to the formation of the country’s largest group of trained women well-diggers in Pookkottukavu village of Kerala’s Palakkad district.
8. Denials in organized sectors:
● Majority of illiterate women worked in MGNREGS, however, very less percentage of women who had got higher level of education worked in MGNREGS.
● The scheme proved to be a good venture for livelihood support to both illiterate and literate women but more beneficial for illiterate who were not eligible for employment anywhere else.
MGNREGS and Women Empowerment:
1. Gender parity of wages:
● It acts like a beacon of light in the empowerment of rural women and contributes substantially for better living and economic conditions by creating equal wages to male and female workers. Income generation and economic stability of the poor rural women helped them to think about the education of themselves and their children.
2. Legal right:
● Minimum one-third of the workers should be women as provided in the act.
● So, it is the duty of the government to ensure the mandated women participation in the scheme.
● An important objective of MGNREGA has been to encourage women’s effective participation, both as workers and as administrators.
3. Income gain:
● The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) gave a large number of women their first opportunity to earn cash income and provided economic security to her family as well.
● The programme reduced poverty by up to 32 percent and prevented 14 million people from falling into poverty.
● Children from MGNREGS households were likely to obtain higher levels of educational attainment than their non-MGNREGS peers.
4. Safety provisions:
● Provisions like work within a radius of five kilometers from the house, absence of contractors, and flexibility in terms of choosing period and months of employment not only helped women exclusively, but also, nevertheless have been conducive for rural women.
5. Flexibility in work:
● The flexibility in terms of women’s working hours and provision for gender-specific life cycle needs are likely to provide women with more time and opportunity to participate actively in MGNREGA.
● The MNREGS provides off-season work to rural women who are mostly dependent on agriculture and allied sectors for their livelihood which is mostly seasonal jobs.
6. Creche facilities:
● Facilities for crèche, work-side sheds for children and child care services provide greater opportunities for married women in MGNREGS.
7. Social empowerment:
● The additional income of the poor women from MGNREGA increased their social status in the family circle.
● The act has a great impact on liberty and decision making power of rural women.
● Their political consciousness and active participation in local Self Government and governance affairs become evident since its inception by increasing their social capital.
8. Political empowerment:
● Increasing women's participation in Gram Sabha in the form of
○ Selection of work
○ Social audit
○ Mobilization of civil society
○ Share in controlling and supervising
○ Management of created assets.
9. Financial inclusion:
● MGNREGS provide a greater opportunity to the government for financial inclusion and inclusive growth.
● The wage payment through banks ensures women under financial inclusion.
10. Shock absorber:
● MGNREGS acts as a shock absorber for many women during Covid-19 lockdowns as there were no job opportunities at the time.
Challenges:
1. Lowering participations:
● The participation of women in MGNREGS is reducing year after year to a five year low of 53.07% in 2020-21.
2. Lack of facilities:
● Women are excluded from planning of works as they are viewed to be mere laboring hands.
● Some research also shows that gendered work loafing and work-site facilities for women like a creche remain a challenge.
● The implementation with inadequate facilities across the nation (such as lack of child care facility, worksite facility etc.) resulted in gender insensitivity towards the mandatory provisions of the Act.
3. Only 100days work:
● The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a labor demand-driven programme, is limited to providing only 100 days of paid labor on public works projects per year.
● For the rest of the period, women workers have to continuously look for alternative sources of income to meet expenses.
4. Dual work:
● The dual work of women both as a mother and a working woman makes them suffer both physically and mentally.
5. Unskilled works:
● Rather than providing skilled jobs, MGNREGS only provides unskilled and semi-skilled jobs affecting women's economic participation.
6. Equal wages is merely an illusion:
● MGNREGA, 2006 provides for the equal wages provisions in paper but the ground reality makes out different things, where women were paid less wages in comparison with the men.
7. Wage gap:
● The gap between MGNREGA wages and market wages is high in the country.
● MGNREGS wages are less than the mere agricultural labor wage.
WAY FORWARD:
1. Converge with skill development schemes:
● MGNREGS offers semi-skilled and unskilled works needs to be converged with other skill development schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), etc. for better skill development to increase their presence in organized sector jobs for women.
2. Parity with agricultural wages:
● In many states, the MGNREGS wage is below the minimum wage provided in agriculture. Thus, the government needs to ensure that the MGNREGS is a right based employment and it needs to be in parity with the basic wages in agriculture for women.
3. Infrastructure facilities:
● The state needs to ensure basic minimum facilities to women such as toilet facilities, creche facilities and resting sites to ensure their effective participation in MGNREGS.
4. Increase number of days:
● The minimum number of working days in MGNREGS need to increase upto 150 days in normal areas and to 200 days in dryland areas to make it more effective and serve its rationale.
5. Leadership roles:
● Women need to be provided with leadership roles like managing, supervising and planning of works for the effective implementation of MGNREGS towards the cause of women empowerment.