New Opportunity And Performance Analysis Of Mgnrega During Covid-19: A Case Study Of Purulia District

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was implemented and came into force on February 2, 2006. It was the first act of its kind in the world wherein an economic safety net is provided to around 2/3rd of the population through a right to work. The rural poor by providing guaranteed employment for 100 days. Some of the programmes are very much target oriented and playing vital role in this area. MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) is one of the programme who has attained considerable recognition among rural masses and significantly uplifting the livelihood by creation of new jobs and involving rural people in some of the States. This study revealed that there is a noteworthy improvement in the awareness level among the beneficiaries in rural areas and positive effects of these programmes especially in villages can be identified during Covid-19. Now rural local bodies such as Gram Panchayats are also actively participating in the rural development process during Covid-19. In this paper an attempt has made to evaluate the financial and physical progress under MGNREGA in the Purulia District of West Bengal State. The positive impact of MGNREGA in Purulia District cannot be ignored; which is an encouraging indicator for State and Central governments. It has also been suggested in the paper that; in future, more such target oriented programmes should be implemented so that, the gap between poor and rich and rural and urban areas could be bridged.