One of the most significant feature of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has been the demand based principle, which allows for no rationing of the labourers, who seek work under the scheme. However, studies have found that rationing has been one of the significant problem of...

Does information dissemination among beneficiaries of welfare programs mitigate implementation failures that undermine these programs? We present experimental evidence on this question in the context of the rural public works program in India. A noble intervention that involves accessing micro...

One major indicator of success of a social welfare programme is the accuracy of targeting of the benefits to the intended population or groups. Using nationally as well as state representative data for 2009-10 and 2011-12, this paper attempts to assess the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment...

Decentralization at the local level in developing economies can be seen as a force of social change with the power at the hands of the citizens to influence policies according to their needs. However, the problem of political clientelism may be imminent where public resources are allocated to...

Population ageing is intriguing phenomenon and especially important for India, where social benefits for the older population are low. Against the absence of social security and growing nuclearization of families, the aged individuals may have to resort to wage labor. In this context, using...

One of the main issues that concerns policymakers and development scholars working in India is the rapid increase of rural out-migration over the past two decades. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was passed in 2005 with a view to curb rural out-migration...

Given the well-recognised role of education in the process of social and economic development, this paper uses primary data collected from four villages of West Bengal to evaluate the impact of household participation in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a large scale...

One important dimension of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs apart from its conditionality is the provision of continuous frequency of payouts. On the contrary, the “Apni Beti Apna Dhan” program, implemented in the state of Haryana in India from 1994 to 1998 offers a “promised” amount...

Signalling social status through visible goods consumption is often perceived as a way in which individuals seek to emulate or move up within the community. This paper assesses the impact of transnational migration on status goods consumption in the Indian state of Kerala. We utilize the...