TY  - BOOK
AU  - Dkhar, Dahun Shisha 
AU  - Tripathi, A. K.
TI  - Socio-economic study on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gaurantee Act (MGNREGA) in East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya
U1  - 361.60954164 
PY  - 2012///
CY  - Umiam
PB  - CPGS, CAU
KW  - Socio-economic study
KW  - Meghalaya
KW  - Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
N2  - Abstract:

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) came into existence after the enactment of a Parliament Act 'National Rural Employment Guarantee Act' (2005) in September 2005. Agricultural employment growth rate of 0.40 % during 1993-94 to 2004-05 and that of non-agricultural employment growth rate is 3.52% during the same period (GOI, 2010) indicating that the rural areas did not get adequate opportunities for employment. Hence, a scheme like NREGS has a great potential to fill this gap. There are studies that have documented the impact of MGNREGA in various states indicating that due to the scheme progress, the socio-economic status of the farmers has changed. However, only one study has been conducted in Meghalaya under this aspect. With the given background, the present study was undertaken with the following objectives: 1. To evaluate the impact of MGNREGA on livelihood of the beneficiaries. 2. To study the constraints faced by the rural households. The primary data were collected from two blocks of East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya i. e., Pynursla and Khatarshnong-Laitkroh Block. Two villages were selected randomly from each block and from the two villages, 30 beneficiaries and 15 non-beneficiaries were selected randomly making a total of 90 respondents. From the present study it was evident that there was 27.43 per cent increase in the income of beneficiaries after working in MGNREGA. The present income of the beneficiaries was higher by 19.66 per cent as compared to the non- beneficiaries. The average monthly expenditure on food and nonfood items of beneficiaries (after MGNREGA) has increased by 5.20 per cent and 14.23 per cent respectively. The average monthly expenditure of beneficiaries on food items was higher by 12.72 per cent and on non-food items by 21.19 per cent when compared with the non- beneficiaries. The number of households having cell phones, television-sets, poultry and pigs have increased due to the increased in the purchasing power of the beneficiaries. The living conditions of the beneficiaries have improved as the number of households who were able to have house construction increased by 50 per cent and pucca houses increased by 6.66 per cent. The major problems faced by the rural households were irregularity of employment, hike in food price, lack of awareness of different schemes and low price of farm products. It can be concluded that the scheme has improved the socioeconomic status of the beneficiaries since their income as been increased as they were able to get employment by participation in the scheme
ER  -