Who Participates in MGNREGA? Analyses from Longitudinal Data

Abstract

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was enacted in 2005 and has completed a little over a decade in India. It is the largest public employment programme in the world and has promoted a wider participation from rural households across the country. This paper examines the issue of programme participation in MGNREGA holistically by looking at household and individual-level participation and controlling for regional heterogeneity, using a unique panel data from the nationally representative India Human Development Survey. Using a binary logistic model and fixed effects models at the state and village level, the paper finds that poor households with a low asset base and those belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories are more likely to participate in the programme, but the support base of MGNREGA is not just limited to these groups and is rather broad-based. It also shows that as compared to other types of work, women suffer less disadvantage than men, thereby providing empowerment opportunities to women.