Social Audit of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MG NREGA): A Study of Hamirpur Block of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

Rural development has been the major concern areas since the implementation of the First Five Year Plan in our country. Governments at the Centre and State level have implemented many programmes and schemes to achieve socio-economic development of rural areas in the country. MGNREGA is one of those programmes and schemes. It came into force on February 2, 2006. This flagship programme of the Government of India aims at enhancing the livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The primary objective of the scheme is to augment wage employment. This is to be done while also focusing on strengthening natural resource management through works that address causes of chronic poverty like drought, deforestation, and soil erosion and thus encourage sustainable development. To review the implementation and working of the MGNREGA, social audit is one of the important tools evolved and implemented as a part of MGNREGA. It brings transparency and accountability not only in the implementation of MGNREGA but also in the working of Gram Panchayat. Therefore, this paper aimed at examining the effectiveness of social audit in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh.