Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)

#GS-02 Social Welfare, #GS-03 Employment

MGNREGS:

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched on 2nd February 2006 under the MGNREG Act.
Its aim is to guarantee 100 days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work.
It also aims to create durable assets in rural areas such as wells, ponds, roads and canals.
MGNREGS can help reduce migration from rural areas to urban areas, thereby reducing the population stress felt by major cities in India.

Unlike previous employment guarantee schemes, MGNREGS aims at tackling the root causes of poverty by creating a rights–based framework which will also help to improve public infrastructure.
The statutory obligations of MGNREGS says that at least one-third of beneficiaries have to be women.
The minimum wages specified for agricultural labourers in the state under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 must be paid to workers under MGNREGA.
Employment must be provided to the applicant within 15 days of the application.
Works conducted under MGNREGS must undergo social audit.
The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) is the implementing agency for MGNREGS.

National Mobile Monitoring System app was launched by Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) on May 2021.
The app is meant for “improving citizen oversight and increasing transparency” in MGNREGS works.
The app allows for the real-time, photographed, geo-tagged attendance to be taken for every worker once in each half of the day.
The app is to be deployed by MGNREGA Mates who are local women who are selected and trained to monitor MGNREGS worksites.
Attendance of workers employed under the MGNREGS all over the country needs to be captured using NMMS from January 1^st 2023