An Analytical Study of Awareness of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) Functionaries in Different Regions of Punjab, India

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), is the largest work guarantee programme in the world, was enacted in 2005 with the primary objective of guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment per year to rural households. Implementation of programme at village level had done through village level functionaries i.e. Gram Rojgar Sevak (an official employee under MGNREGA) and Mates (chosen by the Gram Panchayat or Gram Rojgar Sevak (GRS) for marking attendance). Right of the workers and implementing procedure is written under the act. This study aimed to find the awareness of village level functionaries about the right of the workers and implementing procedure. It covered all socio-cultural region of Punjab. A total 44 (28 from Malwa, 8 from Majha, 8 from Doaba) village level functionaries were selected for the study from the all socio-cultural regions of Punjab i.e. Malwa, Majha and Doaba through probability proportionate to sampling size. The results of the study showed that overall, Doaba region high level of awareness was observed regarding the aspects such as ‘right to employment’, ‘gram panchayat responsibilities’, ‘procedure to obtain job cards’, ‘work and wage rates’, ‘implementation and wage disbursement’ and medium level of awareness was observed in ‘social audit and public scrutiny’ whereas in Malwa and Majha region in all the aspects high level of awareness was observed. Overall, the functionaries had a high level of awareness regarding all types of provisions under the act but since the functionaries included both the GRS and Mates, so the educational background of mates influenced the results as mates comparatively were less educated and consequently found less aware. Although, functionaries were found highly aware of the provisions under act but due to excessive workload they were not able to implement the programme effectively. There is need to plan the workload judiciously so that they can implement it properly.