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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Job Guarantee Scheme Fails Odisha Women -Diana Sahu

Job Guarantee Scheme Fails Odisha Women -Diana Sahu

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published Published on Jun 8, 2015   modified Modified on Jun 8, 2015
-The New Indian Express

BHUBANESWAR: Though lakhs of persons are enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the State, not many women benefit out of it.

The State, which has a huge casual labour population, continues to lag behind when it comes to participation of women in MGNREGS. This despite the fact that the scheme besides guaranteeing employment, is aimed at making a positive impact on the social and economic well-being of rural women. It was designed to provide women an opportunity to earn equal wages as men, and narrow the gender gap in income that is around 30 per cent at present across the country.

According to the Ministry of Rural Development, of the total person days generated under MGNREGS in the State, women participation is just 36.21 per cent (pc) against 63.79 pc men in the current financial year. While this contradicts the fact that poverty forces women to take up casual jobs, stakeholders claimed that the primary reason behind low participation of women in MGNREGS is male-domination and lack of motivation. Apparently, neighbouring States like Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have greater participation of women at 55.73 pc and 49.56 pc respectively.

The situation in Odisha has more or less been the same since 2012-13. The percentage of women work force declined from 39.06 pc in 2012-13 to 35.57 pc in 2013-2014. However, it saw a marginal rise of .19 per cent in the last fiscal when it was recorded at 35.76 per cent. Of the total 38,63,571 person days generated in 2015-16 financial year till today, women have worked on 14,17,558 person days. Although 81,00,343 women across the State are registered under MGNREGS, only 11,69,751 get jobs regularly.

Elsewhere in the country, labour intensive works like agriculture pulls more women in to the workforce, but the concept is just reverse when it comes to Odisha where paddy cultivation is taken up extensively. There is also a huge gap in women participation as far as tribal and general districts are concerned.

 Director, Panchayati Raj Department, Deba Prasad Das, said women are not coming forward in coastal areas to take up MGNREGS opportunity for economic freedom due to various reasons including male domination. “But, as women are the dominating force in tribal societies, we see a lot of them demanding work under MGNREGS,” he said. Tribal districts like Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Koraput, Malkangiri and Keonjhar have 32 pc to 39 pc women enrolled in MGNREGS projects but in districts like Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack and  Jajpur, it varies between 20 pc and 29 pc.

The Centre has, meanwhile, asked the State Government to increase women participation to at least 50 pc in the coming years. Secretary,  Panchayati Raj Department, DK Singh said a target has been set to increase women participation to 40 pc this year. “We are working on creating specific strategies to increase involvement of women in the job scheme. This includes taking up women-specific projects under MGNREGS, changing work hours to suit them and providing work-site amenities,” he said.


The New Indian Express, 7 June, 2015, http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/Job-Guarantee-Scheme-Fails-Odisha-Women/2015/06/07/article2853789.ece


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