MGNREGA: A Study of Inclusion and Barriers in Participation in India

MGNREGA, the flagship programme of India is considered to be the world¿s largest social security intervention. As the self-selection framework of the scheme is expected to generate a pro-poor participation profile, the issue of inclusion has been taken care of in the study. In question of inclusion the cases of women, SC, ST and persons with disabilities (PwD) have been dealt in the study with analytical point of view with the help of secondary data. In MGNREGA, there are a lot of clauses conducive for inclusion of the under privileged sections of the society. At the same time myriad of factors are prevalent within the system of implementation as well as externally existing in the society barring the participation of the marginal classes of the society especially the women under the scheme. Their right to work is denied even in such a right-based programme. The study deals with all those barriers accounting for poor participation of women under the scheme, especially focusing on social discrimination prevalent in rural West Bengal, India on the basis of micro level data.