Corruption in MGNREGA: A case study of district Kulgam

Abstract

The demonetization drive clearly exposed one thing: universalization of corruption is the most secular character of the nation where it cuts across the spheres of departments, regions, and even caste, creed, sex, community and everything. Corruption exists everywhere and in every department. It has not even spared the so called social welfare legislations and employment guarantee schemes. MGNREGA is one of such legislation which has become hub of corrupt practices. In District Kulgam, the Act was introduced in phase II in the year 2007.The launching of such a programme has generated a ray of hope for the poor rural people of the district in building a strong rural society for employment generation and creation of much needed village assets. So with this background the present study was an attempt to study the performance of MGNREGA programme in Kulgam district and its impact on the socio economic life of its rural people. Moreover the problems in the implementation of the scheme were also analyzed like; delayed payments, incomplete wages, non-allocation of extra compensation and unemployment allowance etc.