LOW PARTICIPATION OF SMALL AND MARGINAL FARMERS IN MGNREGA IN HARYANA: UNAVAILABILITY OF WORK IN LEAN PERIOD

RAKESH KUMAR¹*, RAVINDER KUMAR², S.K. GOYAL³, DINESH KUMAR^4
1ADO, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of Haryana
²ADO, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of Haryana
³Professor and Head, Department of Business Management, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 125004, Haryana, India
⁴Rural Development Officer, Union Bank of India
* Corresponding Author : ryrakeshpau1@gmail.com

Received : 02-06-2018     Accepted : 12-06-2018     Published : 15-06-2018
Volume : 10     Issue : 11       Pages : 6314 - 6316
Int J Agr Sci 10.11 (2018):6314-6316

Keywords : MGNREGS, employment, man days, job cards, marginal farmer
Academic Editor : Dr Pankaj Sood
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Author thankful to Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. 125004, Haryana, India.
Author Contribution : All author equally contributed

MGNREGA is the most popular scheme to provide employment to rural workers of India. In Haryana state present study was conducted in Mahendragarh district. From the selected district, two villages were selected randomly from all the blocks, totaling 10 villages. The sum of samples comprised of 100 respondents because of random selection of ten MGNREGS job card holders were selected from each village. The proportion of persons doing actual work to the total job cards issued was very low in almost all the selected blocks. Majority of job card holders did not get employment in almost all the years. In the year 2011-12, 63 percent of workers did not get work for even a single day. In the year 2006-07, the average employment per respondent was about 23 days which decreased to about 14 days in 2011-12. This is the indication of very low participation of workers in MGNREGA in the study area. The root cause of low participation is lack of information/awareness about MGNREGS and non availability of work in lean period. There is a need of further strengthening of the MGNREGS to generate sufficient employment for rural workers along with small and marginal farmers which helps to improve economic condition of rural households.

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