India: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA)

Ms. Subhalakshmi Nandi

Programme Specialist, Women’s Economic Empowerment

UN Women Office for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka

ADB Regional Seminar on Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment

Bangkok, 20th May 2015

Status of Women in India

32% in India lives below the poverty line

11% marginalised HHs headed by women

943 females to 1000 males (CSR 914)

65.4% women literate

Maternal mortality at 212 per 100,000 births

Above 70% women have nutrition deficiencies

35% women have faced sexual/physical violence in the lifetime

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Female work participation rate at lowest: 22.8%

21 million women exited the workforce between 2004-05 and 2009-10

Over 93% workers in informal employment | Majority women | 79% rural women in agriculture (of which 81% belong to marginalised groups) | Only 9% women own land

51% of women’s work unpaid

18% women have no say on how their income is spent

(Census, ILO, NSSO, UN Women)

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MGNREGA: Key Features

Legal entitlement, passed on the demand of farmers’ and workers’ organisations

Provides 100 days’ wage employment every year

Ensures minimum, equal wages + unemployment allowance

Leads to creation of rural assets – earth-works, soil water conservation

Aims at strengthening bodies of local self-governance

Inbuilt mechanisms for transparency, accountability and community participation 4

Pro-women Provisions under MGNREGA

One-third workers to be women

Equal pay for work of equal value

Provision of creche facilities

Provision of work within a 5 km radius of home

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2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

Total Available Fund 12074 19306 37397 45682 52649 41564 38835

Expenditure 8823 15857 15857 37910 39377 37549 39440

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

In R

s. C

rore

s

1. Available Funds and Expenditure under MGNREGA

IMPLEMENTATION (1)

0

100

2006-07 2007-08 2008-092009-10

2010-112011-12

2012-13

43 42 48 54 47 42 44

Person days Guaranteed Number of Days

Number of Person Days Against the Guaranteed 100 Days of Work

States with Maximum and Minimum HHs with 100 days Employment

States with Highest and Lowest Participation of Women*

* Person-days by women as a percentage of total person-days

IMPLEMENTATION (2)

SCs STs Women

22% 18%

51%

23% 18%

53%

22% 17%

54%

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

Percentage Participation of Marginalised Groups and Women (In Person Days)

IMPLEMENTATION (3)

Regional Variations States with Highest and Lowest Participation of Women*

* Person-days by women as a percentage of total person-days (2014-15)

KERALA 92% UTTAR PRADESH 25%

TAMIL NADU 85% JAMMU & KASHMIR 25%

MGNREGA responds to the crisis of poverty by…

Providing wage employment with guaranteed minimum wages + wage parity

Generating resources for agriculture, farming and subsistence work

Addressing distress migration

Reaching the most marginalised

Strengthening local governance

Promoting transparency and accountability mechanisms

Addressing women’s rights at the workplace (e.g. crèche)

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Case Study: UN Women’s Work in Uttar Pradesh

A pilot project: Dalit Women’s Livelihoods Accountability Initiative (DWLAI)

Supported by UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality (FGE), in partnership with Gender at Work, local organisations, and local government

Reached out to 30,000 women from SC community, enabling their access to NREGA

Ensured 9,000 women opened bank accounts, and controlled their earnings

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Project Results

Paradigm shift ‘right’, not a ‘dole’

Increase in income and employment: 77% improvement in economic condition

Women’s access to and control over financial resources:

40% increase in individual bank accounts

20% increase in controlling own accounts

Women trained in skilled and semi-skilled work: supervisory roles, work measurement

Innovations: all-women worksites, women trained as supervisors (module developed), women in social audit process

Impact on rural/agricultural wages (30-40% increase; reduction in gender wage gap)

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Policy Outcomes

Revision of guidelines by Ministry:

Job Cards for single women

Individual bank accounts

Gender-responsive ‘schedule of rates’ (SOR)

50% worksite supervisors to be women

UN Women invited to support such work in 4 states (below 33% participation of women) ongoing technical support

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Learnings & Areas for Future Work

Address socioeconomic disadvantage:

Feudal system

Social protection within macroeconomic policies

End discrimination and violence: Gender, caste and class-based discrimination

Promote voice, agency and participation:

Interface between women from marginalised communities and the state

Support for organising

Women as supervisors, managers, planners, leaders

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Need of the hour (POWW, UN Women, 2015)

‘Transforming Economies, Realising Rights’

For gender equality and women’s empowerment

For stronger economies

What:

Women’s socioeconomic disadvantage

Ensuring freedom from discrimination and violence

Promoting voice, agency and participation

How:

Engendering macroeconomics from a human rights lens

Promote ‘decent work’

Ensure gender-responsive social protection

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Thank You !