Prof' Samar K' Datta Coordinator, IIM, Ahmedabad Study team

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Prof. Samar K. DattaCoordinator, IIM, Ahmedabad
Study team
NREGS FINDINGS AND STRATEGIES FOR THE NEXT LEVEL
skdatta.iima_at_gmail.com
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As NREGA Document says

• ..The primary objective of the Act is augmenting
  wage employment. Its auxiliary objective is
  strengthening natural resource management through
  works address causes of chronic poverty, like
  drought, deforestation, and soil erosion and so
  encourage sustainable development. The process
  outcomes include strengthening grass-root
  processes of democracy and infusing transparency
  and accountability in governance
• Source The National Rural Employment Guarantee
  Act (NREGA) Design, Process Impact UNDP
  Chapter 1, p.9

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Objectives of the study

• To identify the proximate factors influencing
  NREGA employment among two types of households
• Those receiving employment supports
• Those not receiving employment supports
• To identify the perceived impact of NREGA in
  rural India
• Findings on process part being fairly well-known,
  emphasis is placed on rigorous statistical
  relations to extract some explanatory power

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Sampling Design

• Districts with the highest proportion of job-card
  holders under SC/ST category chosen.
• Dangs in Gujarat (100) and Jalpaiguri in West
  Bengal (72.19)
• Blocks with highest proportion of ST job-card
  holders identified in West Bengal Nagrakata
  (58.4) Kalchini (57.6). Dangs have only one
  Block -- Ahwa

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Sampling Design (Contd..)

• GPs in the blocks chosen Sulkapara (48.85 ST)
  from Nagrakata Block and Mendabari (90.31 ST)
  from Kalchini Block
• Two contiguous villages chosen randomly from the
  identified GPs Sulkapara IV V and Mendabari
  II III.
• 50 households chosen from each GP through
  stratified sampling 40 out of those possessing
  job cards and getting employment and 10 out of
  job card holders, presumably not getting
  employment as per muster roll available on
  website for West Bengal as on 31.12.2008.
• HHs arranged in ascending order of cumulative
  employment provided till 31.12.2008 with 10 HHs
  chosen randomly from each quartile.
• As data were not available on the website for
  Dangs, two villages chosen through careful
  consideration after visits to 7-8 villages
  namely, Linga and Shakarpatal. However, similar
  exercise carried out to identify sample
  households based on muster rolls.

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Data Analysis

• Carried out at two levels
• Using secondary data for 486 districts for the
  year 2008-09 (till 31st December, 2008) as
  downloaded from NREGA website, supplemented by
  land use data from indiastat.com Agricultural
  Census or state govt. websites
• Using primary data from 196 households (4 HHs
  found short in one category in Linga) collected
  during March 2009 from Dangs in Gujarat and
  Jalpaiguri in West Bengal

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Statistically Significant Results at Macro Level
Secondary Data for 480 districts

• Cropping intensity has a negative incidence on
  NREGA employment, as expected gt emphasis on
  traditional policy tools
• Larger potential in terms of potential land use
  leads to larger employment gt use of macro
  regional planning for NREGA also going beyond
  
• Larger of households demanding work among
  cardholders increases average employment per job
  card gt need for awareness creation proper
  registering of demand
• Minimum wage exhibits a positive significant
  effect on NREGA employment gt need for concerns
  over distortions in labor market possible
  non-viability of small farm agriculture
• Successful districts identified by MoRD fared
  comparatively better than the rest gt
  enthusiastic, efficient transparent
  administration pays
• States ruled by non-UPA governments apparently
  more efficient in creating more employment days
  per job card. Also expenditure per employment day
  especially on non-wage component - turned out
  to be smaller in such states. Corroborates
  earlier findings by Dreze Oldiges (2007) using
  2006-07 data
• Results stable significant even after
  White-corrections for hetroscedasticity.

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RESULTS Micro Household Level Primary Data

• Jalpaiguri created higher employment per job card
  than that in the Dangs.
• Closeness in relation to Panchayat ensures larger
  employment
• ST/SC/OBC BPL households receive relatively
  more employment
• Families having more dependence on animal
  husbandry receive relatively more employment
• Families with greater availability of labor
  receive more employment consistent with results
  from district level data, though availability is
  an endogenous rather than an exogenous variable.
• Availability of non-NREGA employment higher
  non-NREGA wages reduce NREGA employment
• Human and non-human assets like schooling,
  literacy, house type, land ownership, irrigation,
  and even income has no significant explanatory
  power over employment creation

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RESULTS Primary Data

• For households having job cards but not recording
  significant employment per job card
• 8.33 in either place found not interested in
  getting job
• 2.33 in Dangs found the jobs not acceptable
  because of social stigma
• One third of the job card holders in Dangs and
  13.89 in Jalpaiguri found better jobs at higher
  wages
• One third of job card holders not offered
  employment opportunities in Jalpaiguri, even
  though they were interested. None exist under
  this category in Dangs

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Indirect Impact Analysis based on respondents
perceptions

Difference across places statistically
significant as per t-test with equal/unequal
variance
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Further studies needed for Sustainable Rural
Development
MAJOR FACTORS IN DECISION MAKING
LAYERS

• Population that will be part of NREG
• Poverty distribution on a geographical spread
• Present assets in the area
• Assets needed in the area
• Job creating ability of the area
• Farm level facilities available in the area
• Traveling radius as per the NREG guidelines
• Land holding pattern and average farm size
• Past trends of participation in NREGA

• Land use
• Hydro- geomorphology
• Existing Assets
• Drainage
• Road map
• Poverty
• Census data
• Water bodies
• Village maps

Development of areas through value generating
assets creation at suitable locations