Impact of DBT on effectiveness of MGNREGS: Economic Survey 2019

Governance Issues E-Governance

The benefits of careful and effective targeting of government programmes by demonstrating that DBT-enabled MGNREGS has indeed helped to alleviate distress of workers. Post DBT payment delays in the payment of wages, under MGNREGS, has reduced significantly thereby providing livelihood security to people in distress. This impact can be shown as follows;

Coverage

Muster rolls are a form of an attendance register. Higher number of filled muster rolls represent higher worker turnout on site.
Filled muster rolls have shown a significant increase after implementation of DBT indicating that more people are reporting for work.
The total person days and total person days of vulnerable sections (women, SCs and STs) is also higher in the post DBT years as compared to pre-DBT years
This indicates that employment generated is higher post implementation of DBT.
90 per cent of the person days benefit the vulnerable sections.

Timely Payment of Wages

DBT focused on directly transferring funds into the beneficiary bank account.
The NREGASoft monitors generation of payment of wages within 15 days. Thus, implementation of ALP has positively impacted the flow of payments under the scheme.
More funds flowed through DBT after ALP [Aadhaar Linked Payment] was instituted. ALP improves the efficiency of the programme, then there should be a significant reduction in the delay in wage payments.
After the implementation of ALP, it is found that the delay in payments reduced by almost one third in the post-ALP period.

Demand for MGNREGS Work

Given that there has been an increase in amount disbursed to bank accounts post implementation of ALP and a decline in delayed payments, it is expected that there will be an increase in demand for work under the programme in distressed areas
It appears, therefore, that before the implementation of ALP, the rural poor treated MGNREGS as an option to earn additional income during good times rather than a shock absorber during bad times.
Post implementation of ALP, there is a reversal of trend, wherein an increase in demand for work under MGNREGS is observed in drought affected areas.
The change post ALP implementation suggests that reduction in the delay of payments has an immediate positive effect on the demand for work in distressed times.

Supply of MGNREGS work

The supply of work under MGNREGS also responds to the increase in demand in the blocks affected by drought.
It can be inferred that the increased state capacity to implement anti-poverty programmes brought about by ALP can potentially bridge the demand supply gap in MGNREGS.
With reliable data, it is possible that the Central and State governments will be able to effectively monitor the implementation of MGNREGS and nudge the officials to provide jobs wherever and whenever they are needed the most.

Work Done under MGNREGS

The actual work done under MGNREGS also increased significantly in blocks affected by drought due to the use of ALP.
This increase was more than double the increase in blocks that were unaffected by drought.

Impact on Vulnerable Sections of the Society

In the post ALP period, represented to the right of zero, there has been a large increase in person days worked by the vulnerable sections of the society in blocks affected by drought.
This means that after implementation of ALP, women, SC and ST workforce increased under MGNREGS during times of economic distress

छोटे Courses बड़े Results

Master E-Governance

Prepare through Micro-courses