English: Employment as a Right

Project implemented by Mahila Swarojgar Samiti, Varanasi

Uttar Pradesh, India

February 2011

Co-financed by the Dorabji Tata Trust, India 

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The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA or NREGA as it is popularly called) is a job guarantee scheme enacted by the Indian Government in August 2005 aimed at eradicating poverty and hunger (Millennium Development Goal 1). The Act aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage-employment, at 120Rs/day (around $2.70), in one financial year to rural households whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. This Act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living below poverty line in rural India.

The EUGAD team visited a village near Varanasi where a local NGO, Mahila Swarojgar Samiti (MSS), has been raising awareness among village women organised self help groups, conducting leadership skills training and helping women access the NREGA scheme, as part of a national drive to empower women. The EUGAD team interviewed women in the village and asked them about how their lives had changed after working in the NREGA scheme and working with NGOs like the MSS.Women in this village are largely illiterate. Before MSS started working in this village, women essentially used to manage their homes and rarely work outside to earn a living. Gradually women started gaining strength by coming together as a collective and bringing their voices across. They started becoming more self-confident, participating in local decision making processes. They started participating economically in the management of their households and spent the savings from their incomes in sending children to schools and accessing better health services.