Over the last eight years, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) bas become an important instrument for equitable growth, livelihood support, gender parity and social security in the country. In Odisha, the Scheme has been a strong pillar of support for the rural area in their quest for livelihood security. Today, more and more beneficiaries have come forward to regard the Scheme as a means of gainful employment. It has effectively targeted the most marginalized sections of society, including women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Now the State is moving towards increasing the scheme coverage, creating quality assets at the ground etc. It is strongly felt that a focused approach on implementation of MGNREGS will contribute towards the common and shared goals of empowerment of marginalized communities, and alleviation of rural poverty through creation of sustainable and productive assets. Hence the Department has brought out “MGNREGS in Odisha: The Path”
with the support of OMEGA (a DFID UK and Government of Odisha Partnership Initiative). The force field analysis made in this document to address the constraining forces in a logical way presents an interesting mosaic of different hues that would definitely provide a new flavour to MGNREGS implementation in the State.