AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH MGNREGP : A MICRO LEVEL STUDY.

Government of India is implementing a lot of programmes like Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP, 1978), National Rural Employment Program (NREP, 1980), Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP, 1983), Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS, 1993) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA, 2005) in order to provide employment opportunities to the rural poor. Among them the latest one, i.e MGNREGP is said to be making a lot of improvements. This programme aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The scheme not only provides employment opportunities to the rural masses but also helps for the upliftment of the rural area. The various activities undertaken by MGNEGRA are water conservation and water harvesting; drought proofing (including afforestation and tree plantation; irrigation canals including micro and minor irrigation works; land development , renovation of traditional water bodies including desilting of tanks; etc. To test the claims of MGNREGA a micro level study was conducted in a Odayagoundenpalayam village in TN Palayam of Block of Erode district. In this village, number of persons registered in MGNREGP were 553, out of which 306 belongs to SCs and the remaining 247 belongs to other caste. It was found that the major works undertaken in this village were delisting of ponds and deepening and strengthening of inlet canals. These works can be considered as useful given the agricultural background of the selected village.