Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been in controversy since its inception in 2005 with regard to its implementation and transparency.

The law provide enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work with regard to road-building, well-digging, reforestation and the like.

After 10 years of MGNREGS implementation, 20% SC’s and 17% ST’s have been benefitted from the scheme and recorded 57% increase in women work force under MGNREGS.

Numerous cases from nook and cranny of the country proves that women’s workforce has steadily increased over the years.

Women now comprise over half the program’s workforce, and accounted for over 55 percent of person-days worked in 2015-16.

Ujjivana project of Caritas India in Karnataka is a stark example of increased women workforce under MGNREGS. Supported by Misereor, the programme has imparted various trainings to Anjaneva SHG on various government scheme like MGNREGS to educate and mobilise excluded communities to demand work under this government scheme.

Nagarathnamma (49), an active member of Anjaneya attended few trainings organized by the project partner Shivamoga Multipurpose Social Service Society on MGNREGS. She gained clarity on the scheme and motivated other villagers of Korachagondanahalli, Harahalli and Danehalli to utilize their job card to claim work under MGNREGS.

She took the initiative and applied for unskilled work from Ganganakote Panchayath under MGNREGS. The Panchayath allocated the cleaning work of Kumbaragondikere lake to her. She started the work along with 24 other villagers of Korachagondanahalli, Harahalli.

She motivated other villagers to avail the scheme and get the job of cleaning the lake. She was able to take more and more people along with her including 12 women members from Anjaneya SHG to avail the services.

“I am encouraging more and more villagers to do such kind of work. Now I have received 10 applications for new job cards. We send the photos of the work done to the District Collector, so that we get the wages immediately” shared Nagarathnamma to Robert D’Souza, State Officer for Karnataka. She also expressed her gratefulness to Shivamoga Multipurpose Social Service Society for promoting the group and providing necessary trainings through Ujjivana programme.