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The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, India: Examining Pathways towards Establishing Rights-Based Social Contracts

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Abstract

This article aims to assess the type of social contracts that led to the passage of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) by analysing the debates prevalent during the Act’s formulation, and the underlying beliefs about the existing social contract. The article argues that while existing social contracts shape the design of social policies, each policy may also have an aspiration of a particular type of social contract built into its design. Accordingly, it analyses the nature of social contract envisioned in the design of the MGNREGA, and the extent to which this social contract is being realised through the Act’s implementation.

Abstract

Cet article vise à examiner les types de contrats sociaux qui ont conduit à l’adoption de la loi nationale Mahatma Gandhi sur la garantie de l’emploi dans les zones rurales (MGNREGA), en analysant les débats qui ont prévalu au cours du processus d’élaboration de cette loi, ainsi que les croyances sous-jacentes concernant le contrat social existant. Nous faisons valoir que, bien que les contrats sociaux existants façonnent l’élaboration des politiques sociales, la conception de chaque politique peut également intégrer l’ambition d’un type particulier de contrat social. Cet article propose donc une analyse de la nature du contrat social envisagé dans la conception du MGNREGA, et dans quelle mesure ce contrat social se concrétise à travers la mise en œuvre de la Loi.

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Notes

  1. The party’s official name is the Indian National Congress (INC). It will be referred to as the Congress throughout the text.

  2. State-wise and national statistics pertaining to the MGNREGA are available at nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspx.

  3. While I do not discuss this here, my conception of state–society relations follows Houtzager’s (2005) polity approach of problematising the state, and also the iterative nature of state–society interactions.

  4. The story of this long drawn out struggle to obtain government documents has been documented in Chopra (2014).

  5. The discussion that follows shows the heterogeneity of these actors – all civil society activists did not have the same views on the various debates, with specific interest groups negotiating harder for what they deemed most significant in the Bill. For example, some of these civil society activists were leaders of social movements working in rural areas in India, while others were working with women’s trade unions. In addition, all actors did not neatly fit into one classification or the other – for example, there were civil society activists who were part of the NAC, some also having strong associations with political parties, academics and the media.

  6. As a compromise for this, and for addressing concerns of women being marginalised, the clause relating to one-third reservations for women workers was brought into the Act, especially on the insistence of Left party leaders.

  7. Some authors have started to link awareness and information with the level of corruption possible in the MGNREGA too (Gaiha et al, 2011).

  8. There have been some attempts at unionisation as a way forward – for example, DISHA in Gujarat. In addition, MKSS has launched a NREGA workers union – but recognition by the government is again required.

  9. See www.disha-india.org/nrega_main.html for more details, accessed 19 September 2012.

  10. ntui.org.in/labour-news/item/rajasthan-refuses-to-recognise-nrega-workers-union/, accessed 19 September 2012.

  11. Similar employment guarantee policies have already been introduced in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.

  12. These differences may also explain in part the wide variation in implementation outcomes not only across states but also within states – across districts and blocks and villages.

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Chopra, D. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, India: Examining Pathways towards Establishing Rights-Based Social Contracts. Eur J Dev Res 26, 355–369 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2014.6

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