Improving the Public Expenditure Outcomes of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme through Social Accountability Interventions in Sirohi District, Rajasthan, India
Patel, Darshana ; Shah, Parmesh ; Chakrabarti, Poulomi ; Arya, Om Prakash ; Cheriyan, George ; Agarwal, Sanjay
The National Rural Employment GuaranteeAct (NREGA), enacted by the government of India in 2006,recognizes employment as a universal legal right for everyrural household. Breaking from earlier employment schemesand development programs, NREGA is significant in that it is'a regime of rights' for poor rural communities.NREGA provides a comprehensive set of entitlements that notonly outline judicially enforceable terms for employment butalso give citizens a central role in all stages ofimplementation. The overall objective of this socialaccountability intervention was to assess NREGSimplementation, identify lacunae in program implementation,and build ownership of the findings of this interventionwithin all levels of government. NREGS has a system ofcontinuous external monitoring and verification to curbcorruption and maintain quality implementation. The CitizenReport Card (CRC) survey found that 56 percent of theproject worksites were visited fewer than three times byupper level government authorities.