ABSTRACT
The government of India passed the ‘National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005’ (NREGA, 2005) on 2 February 2006. The act guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year to any rural household whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work. It primarily targets to provide employment to the rural poor, particularly to schedule castes (SCs), schedule tribes (STs), landless labourers and marginal farmers. The other endeavours of the scheme are to improve land productivity, farm output, rural infrastructure and guaranteed employment, therefore enhancing overall income and living standards of rural poor. However, the scheme from its inception till date has undergone multiple changes. The scheme became operational in all the rural districts of India from the financial year 2008-9. Subsequently, the act was renamed as ‘Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005’ (MGNREGA, 2005).
