ABSTRACT
People’s participation is highly important in the successful implementation of government welfare policies. Historically, the welfare policies have been caught in social1 and financial corruption2 in their implementation. To solve the problem of corruption in social welfare schemes, it is required to make community aware and empowered, which can be possible only by their participation at policy planning, implementation and evaluation. This opportunity has been given by National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) by making provision of social audit by Gram Sabhas (p. 9, Section 17, I and II of the act). This particular provision gives platform to communities to participate in the planning process of NREGA and thereby ensure its effective implementation. The act thus empowers intended communities to scrutinize programme expenditure and to monitor and keep track on programme delivery (Afridi 2013: 2).
