MGNREGA and Women Empowerment

A lot has changed in Indian social and economic planning since the introduction of the grand rural employment guarantee scheme, now known as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA). The act has been implemented, suffered setbacks, established land-marks, drawn criticism, and collected accolades in all these years. But most significantly it has profoundly changed the character of the Indian women at large. Whether these changes are good for Indian democracy is a matter of debate, the sides in which are determined by the position on democracy and development taken by the participant.In this book, we seek to present different aspects of the Act, scheme and its implemen-tation so as to give the readers a common insight how successful this scheme has been and what needs to be done.This book would be useful for those who are interested in an informed and passionate debate about social policy in India and in the constitutional vision of bringing dignity to all fellow citizens._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Contents's Note —Pgs. 7Acknowledgements —Pgs. 9Abbreviations Used in the Book —Pgs. 11Introduction —Pgs. 151. Empowering the Marginalised —Pgs. 252. Engendering Social Empowerment —Pgs. 343. Modernity and Women Under the MGNREGA —Pgs. 434. Creating Wealth and Adding Assets —Pgs. 675. Labour, Migration and Agriculture —Pgs. 786. Environment and Sustainable Development —Pgs. 917. Implementation and Governance —Pgs. 99Appendix – A: The Assertions Tested During the Survey of Hazaribagh District —Pgs. 140Reference —Pgs. 148Endnotes —Pgs. 150