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Balasore is one of the coastal districts of Odisha with an area of 3806 sq.km, of which almost 9 per cent is forest land. It is located in the northern part of the state. The district is primarily a rural district as almost 89 per cent of the total population and almost 91 per cent of the total workforce of the district belongs to rural areas.

Around 57 per cent of total land is utilized for cultivation. Other than cultivation, fishery is an important source of livelihood in Balasore. However, land does not serve as the primary source of employment in Balasore. Around 74 per cent of the total rural working population engages in crop cultivation for less than 180 days. In addition to that, only 19 per cent of total rural working population receives agricultural wage work for more than 180 days in the district. Labour absorption capacity of the agriculture sector does not seem to be very high in Balasore. Unemployment rate is quite high at 68 per cent in Balasore district (http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html).

With the backdrop of poor economic status of the state, the present piece assesses the physical performance of MGNREGS in Balasore district since 2015-16. In doing so, it analyses the generation of employment opportunity at the district and how effectively MGNREGS has been implemented in the district.

We looked at MIS data from the MGNREGS official website (https://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspx) for the period 2015-16 to 2018-19. For estimating physical progress, we looked into a) number of households registered under MGNREGS, b) number of households demanded and provided employment as share of total registered households, c) number of households provided employment as share of number of households demanded employment, d) gender and social group wise employment status, and e) households received 100 days of employment.

Findings:

A number of important findings emerged while analysing how MGNREGS has fared in terms of generating employment in the Balasore district.

a)The number of households registered under MGNREGS had increased by 4 per cent in 2018-19 from 2015-16 in Balasore district (Figure 1). To put it into perspective, the state average had declined by almost 3 per cent during the same period.

b)However, only a fraction of households registered under MGNREGS demanded employment in the past four years. Number of households demanded employment as a proportion of total registered households increased from 17 per cent in 2015-16 to 23 per cent in 2017-18, and declined thereafter to almost 20 per cent in 2018-19. The number of households which received employment as share of total registered households was almost stagnant at 2 per cent during the same period (Figure 2). The district seemed to have failed both in terms of generating demand and providing employment. Along with other factors, the district’s inability to provide employment has also caused declining demand.

c)Employment provided as percentage of employment demanded had increased marginally, from 90 per cent in 2014-15 to 94 per cent in 2018-19 (Figure, 3).

d)Number of households which received 100 days of employment had declined from 1411 in 2015-16 to below 200 in 2016-17, and hovering around the same figure since then (Table 1). This implies that the district failed to provide adequate employment to the households. One of the reasons of such failure could be attributed to the lack of funds with the district.

Figure 1 Number of Households Registered under MGNREGS, 2015-16 to 2018-19

Source: Compiled by authors from MIS, MGNREGS, Ministry of Rural Development, GoI.

Figure 2 Number of households which demanded and were provided employment as a share of total registered households, 2015-16 to 2018-19

Source: Compiled by authors from MIS, MGNREGS, Ministry of Rural Development, GoI.

Figure 3 Employment provided as percentage of employment demanded, Balasore district, 2014-15 to 2019-20

Source: Compiled by authors from MIS, MGNREGS, Ministry of Rural Development, GoI.

e)Men and women received equal wage for most of the work, except for rural connectivity, water conservation and water harvesting, and renovation of traditional water bodies under MGNREGS. Gender wage gap in the district was very less, it was found to be consistent at 0.7 per cent during the entire period under consideration. Apparently, wage figures highlight a fair practice of equality in work front as equal wage is paid for most of the work under MGNREGS and wage gap is very low for activities in which equal wage is not paid. However, if one looks into women’s participation in MGNREGS work, the picture does not seem to be quite satisfactory as women’s participation in total MGNREGS work has never been equal to or more than 50 per cent in the last four years in Balasore. Also, the average number of days of employment created across different occupation in the district under MGNREGS was always lower for women as compared to men (Figure 4).

Table 1 Number of Households which Received 100 Days of Employment in Balasore District, 20115-16 to 2018-19

 

Figure 4 Average Numbers of Days of Employment across Gender

Source: Compiled by authors from MIS, MGNREGS, Ministry of Rural Development, GoI.

f)Creation and distribution of job was not uniform across social groups. Out of total households which received employment, share of SC, ST and Other households were around 18, 9 and 73 per cent respectively in 2015-16. The status remained stagnant for the last four years (Figure 5).

Figure 5 Percentage of Households Provided Employment across Social Groups, (2015-16 to 2018-19)

Source: Compiled by authors from MIS, MGNREGS, Ministry of Rural Development, GoI.

Conclusion:

Although, the district had managed to generate employment for almost 94 per cent of the households which demanded employment, overall performance of the district in terms of implementing MGNREGS was not satisfactory as it failed to generate demand for employment, provide 100 days of work and improve women’s participation.

The district administration must encourage and facilitate convergence between MGNREGS and other projects (ICDS, agriculture) in order to generate more employment opportunities.

Balasore is a cyclone-prone district. Thus, resources can be mobilized to create more resilient infrastructure and the creation of disaster management infrastructure can be linked with MGNREGS work.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors, and don’t necessarily reflect the position of CBGA. You can reach Mampi Bose at mampi@cbgaindia.org and Naresh Kumar Nayak at naresh@cbgaindia.org.