IMPACT OF MGNREGS ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT - A STUDY ONBOLANGIR DISTRICT OF ODISHA

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) played a very
vital role by providing wage employment for one hundred days in a year to each rural household
whose adult member volunteer to do unskilled manual work. It acts as a fall back measures
during these lean seasons by becoming an alternative source of income for these poor household,
acting as a social safety net for them. This study analyses the impact of the program on the rural
development. Rural development is the overall development of rural areas with respect to food
security, economic security, habitat security, health security, nutritional security etc. So,
respective index are being constructed to find the impact on rural development. Randomized
selection of beneficiary and non-beneficiary communities has been done. A propensity-score
matching (PSM) design was used with households eligible and Probit model of regression has
been applied to find out the rural development index (RDI). It has been found that there is
significant impact of the program on the rural development.