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Journal of Contemporary Politics

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Empowering Rural Women: An Assessment of MGNREGA’s Impact on Generating Employment and Independence for Women
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Journal of Contemporary Politics

DOI: 10.53989/jcp.v4i1.7

Year: 2025, Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 33-40

Original Article

Empowering Rural Women: An Assessment of MGNREGA’s Impact on Generating Employment and Independence for Women

Pihu Porwal1,∗

1Neerja Modi School, Shipra Path, Shanthi Nagar, Mansarovar, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

*Corresponding Author
Email: [email protected]

Received Date:22 February 2025, Accepted Date:15 May 2025, Published Date:10 June 2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

MGNREGA is one of the most revolutionary social welfare programs devised for India, aimed at ensuring livelihood security by providing a legal guarantee of 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to any rural household. The paper assesses the impact of MGNREGA on the socio-economic condition of rural women in terms of employable opportunities, financial freedom, and gender roles as perceived by the world at large. It explains how the scheme helps women become empowered through equal wages, arrangements for childcare facilities, and issuing payments through direct bank transfers to develop financial understanding and control. It places the policy within a broader discourse of how to reconcile democracy and development, with the contention that MGNREGA represents a model for participatory governance that intersects structural inequalities directly. Anchoring the right to work in a democratic framework, inclusiveness is promoted with infrastructure development and local resource management bonuses. It points out how democratic ideals of self-determination and equality interact with economic development's imperatives and addresses the tension between market-driven development and state-driven social welfare. But despite such successes, delayed payments at worksites with poor childcare provisions, coupled with deep-rooted societal norms, continue to be barriers. This study reflects on the two-way impact: economic and social strengthening of women and the failure of the system to achieve its objectives.

Keywords: MGNREGA, Women's Empowerment, Rural Employment, Financial Independence, Gender Equality

References

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Copyright

© 2025 Published by Bangalore University. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 

  • 10 June 2025

Year: 2025, Volume: 4, Issue: 1

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