Book review: Ashok Pankaj,Inclusive Development Through Guaranteed Employment. India’s MGNREGA Experiences

This latest book by Professor Ashok Pankaj, dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi as the apostle of the dignity of labour, brings together in nine chapters his research findings on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), implemented by the Indian government in 2005. Earlier, Pankaj (2012) had published a path-breaking edited volume, examining the scheme’s state-wise progress. He also produced several important essays, including a review article in 2016 in South Asia Research 36(3). In this new study, Pankaj emphasises India’s increasingly acknowledged status as one of the world’s fastest growing economies and suggests that India’s model of Employment Guarantee Schemes (EGS) holds important policy lessons, particularly for Asian and African countries (p. 25) and maybe even the USA.

In a comprehensive introduction (pp. 1–27), Pankaj is highly critical of the effects of liberalisation in terms of the neglect of rural India (p. 2) and its sluggish agriculture and the persistence of earlier figures indicating more than 300 million poor rural Indians (p. 6). Arguing that the basic MGNREGS set of values ‘resonates with grassroots democracy’ (p. 2), he critically reassesses the ‘objective of reasserting the welfare nature of the Indian state’ (p. 3), given that there is still an acknowledged deficiency of inclusive growth (p. 7). Pankaj asserts that his largely positive analysis of how India’s huge rural employment project functions is not an uncritical glorification of the MGNREGS (p. 25), the possible potential of which largely remains untapped.

Introducing an EGS project may have been a matter of electoral politics in the 1970s under Indira Gandhi (p. 10), or in 2005, but such employment-related concerns continue to be relevant today in the world’s largest democracy. Chapter 2 (pp. 29–48) focuses on the enormous ongoing challenges of managing inclusive growth with justice (p. 46), scrutinising indicators of good governance. Pankaj reiterates that the neoliberal policies pursued since 1991 became a source of exclusion and inequality for India’s rural poor (p. 33). The neoliberal state of course could not just stand by (p. 35), but had to take action through EGS initiatives (pp. 38–46) that would protect the fundamental right to life of all Indian citizens. Relying on constitutionally anchored perceptions, inspired in principle by Mahatma Gandhi, to the effect that India’s able-bodied citizens have a duty to contribute to the nation’s development (p. 8), rather than merely a fundamental right to work, MGNREGS was thus neither devised as a free government handout, nor a programme to be availed by anyone. Later in the book, Pankaj argues that it would be a mistake to abandon MGNREGS in favour of some tempting model of the Universal Basic Income (UBI) scheme. Better governance of MGNREGS and improved quality of rural livelihood security through equitable allocation of durable assets creation are presented as major public policy challenges.

Chapter 3 (pp. 49–59) emphasises the salience of programme design and succinctly discusses the policy choice between universal coverage and targeted schemes. Pankaj finds that MGNREGS has favoured a truncated universal approach which, importantly, has been combined with self-selection of eligible applicants (p. 51). Examining various aspects of design criteria, including recently increased attention to regeneration of the natural resource base (p. 55), he finds that the inclusive development features of the scheme ‘have worked quite impressively’ (p. 59). Similar positive evidence is available from recent field studies that show how MGNREGS projects are now effectively combined with other government schemes (Dasthagir, 2024; Gupta & Gupta, 2023; Panda et al., 2018).

Chapter 4 (pp. 60–88) critiques targeting errors under the MGNREGS especially regarding efficiency and inclusivity. Pankaj presents detailed observations from the field (pp. 76–81), supported by numerous tables and figures spread throughout this book, regarding the massive coverage of MGNREGS beneficiaries. Prominently, these include historically disadvantaged SC/ST populations and Indian rural women, whose participation in the scheme reflects significant regional variations. Nevertheless, the lion’s share of uptake of the scheme’s 100 federally funded days of guaranteed wages per year is held by women (pp. 71–5) in much higher numbers than was originally expected (p. 82). The higher feminisation of MGNREGS labour in India’s southern states also reflects the fact that wages under the scheme in these states are far lower than market wages. Hence men go in search of higher market wages, while more women stay in the village to work under MGNREGS.

In Chapter 5 (pp. 89–121) Pankaj shows how the scheme’s impact on poverty, wages and the general labour market and its experience with inclusive development has been extremely beneficial (p. 118). The scheme has led to a rise in private rural wages, which then of course affects the profit margins of farmers and other rural employers, indicating stress over a different developmental bottleneck in twenty-first century India. Pankaj also examines inclusive development assets creation and multiplier effects in Chapter 6 (pp. 123–46), showing how MGNREGS establishes ‘a fine balance between the twin goals of employment and assets creation’ (p. 123). Here again, public investment in the scheme triggers impacts in private investment and initiatives, especially for recharging of water bodies (p. 124). Pankaj produces fascinating evidence of significant transformational impacts on livestock, fisheries, horticulture and even individual assets creation such as housing for the rural poor (p. 131), the latter also observed by Gupta and Gupta (2023: 373).

Chapter 7 (pp. 147–70) focuses on social empowerment effects of the scheme and the partly unintended ‘shift from patronizing to participatory governance’ (p. 147). The mounting accountability pressure on rural officials (p. 148) and a huge churning of the democratic process have resulted in turning the stagnating structure of the Gram Sabha into a ‘vibrant site of grassroots level political participation’ (p. 149). This chapter is particularly valuable for its detailed evidence and discussion of the most spectacular achievement of the MGNREGA, namely the increased participation of rural women and associated empowerment effects (pp. 159–70). Pan-India, women comprise 50% of the workforce under MGNREGS (p. 160). They benefit from financial inclusion with bank and post office accounts to receive payments (p. 163), as well as increased presence and participation in Gram Sabhas and their decision-making processes (p. 164).

Chapter 8 (pp. 171–98) rigorously scrutinises the mixed bag of achievements and failures of the scheme, which has achieved so much, but also exhibits debilitating implementation deficits (p. 171). The chapter does not remain limited to applauding the sharp decline in rural poverty through the scheme’s ‘awesome coverage’ (p. 172) of one third of rural households and the undoubtedly positive social security effects (p. 173) of this Indian way of providing support for the rural poor by offering them ‘dignified work’ (p. 174). Contrasting this with three major areas of failure or deficits in programme implementation (p. 176), Pankaj highlights the large unmet demand for such work, continued difficulties with timely payments, and the problem that assets creation issues have not been sufficiently clarified and implemented, with huge inter-state and intra-state variations (p. 178). Overall, Pankaj diagnoses a serious gap of expectations and capacity of the MGNREGS.

The scheme’s vast potential, described as ‘oceanic’ (p. 171), is then discussed in detail in terms of poverty reduction, labour market impacts and last mile social security, together with further points about the importance of creating individual assets and ensuring that these are fairly allocated. The huge ‘Himalayan’ (pp. 171, 191) hurdles for the scheme, including insufficient work placements, stagnation of around 50-person days instead of the programme’s target of 100 days of work per year, and the prohibition of using machines that would replace manual labour are also discussed. Regarding the unrelenting attacks on the scheme (p. 196), Pankaj characterises these as ‘complaints’ rather than serious critiques and highlights how this massive EGS has many characteristics of an affirmative action scheme.

Chapter 9 (pp. 199–286) contains detailed conclusions, supplemented with numerous additional tables. Altogether 13 points are raised, clarifying the realisation that water-related work remains prominent and individual assets creation is considered extremely useful (p. 203). The strong acknowledgement that MGNREGS is going to prosper through convergence with other government schemes (p. 204) leads to the cautious final comment that this scheme is neither a perfect solution nor the only component to be considered. This is India’s work in progress in terms of sustainably providing meaningful justice for all its diverse citizens. For Pankaj, who writes with empathy for the unskilled wage-earning MGNREGS workers and their quest for a life of dignity, the scheme is a suitable pathway to gender justice and human dignity. For this reason, too, his analysis of how to review wage rates is not portrayed from the prism of cost to the state. Rather, this is always seen as an income that results in leading a life of dignity, in line with the values taught by Mahatma Gandhi.

Notably, the book is supplemented by two major Postscripts of great relevance. The first (pp. 287–302) revisits the old debate over cash transfer through a UBI scheme versus guaranteed employment as under MGNREGS and other programmes. Reporting on the animated discussions over assertions that there is now fiscal space for launching UBI in India, Pankaj remains wary about the appropriateness of UBI for India. Arguing that MGNREGS also creates important assets and contributes to the empowerment of women (p. 297), his strongest point is that while claims in favour of UBI are equally valid for EGS (p. 298), the latter also generates a moral sense of ownership and not just feelings of entitlement in rural workers. Given that informal workers make up 92% of India’s workforce, Pankaj firmly concludes that the UBI would be more problematic than the admittedly imperfect MGNREGS. An important argument here, too, could have been that MGNREGS helps to bridge the infrastructure deficits in rural India, empowering rural people to engage in self-help (Gupta & Gupta, 2023: 373), even in urban spaces (Dasthagir, 2024). Countries with large infrastructure deficits thus might be well-advised to put resources for the implementation of infrastructure programmes through workfare, rather than undertake UBI.

Finally, Postscript II (pp. 303–13) convincingly argues that when India was faced with lockdown under COVID-19, and demands for rural jobs suddenly shot up to unmanageably high proportions, MGNREGS became an effective safety net for the poor (p. 307). Without it, millions of people would have starved in India at that time (p. 309). Thus, the focus on generating a basic income for underemployed or jobless rural beneficiaries has basically remained a sound basis, in conjunction with India’s numerous other affirmative action schemes that focus on deprived citizens of one kind or another, rather than trying to please some imagined liberal notion of absolute equality.

This book, like Pankaj (2012), reflects the author’s depth of knowledge and experience of MGNREGS and is recommended as essential reading for policy makers and programme implementation professionals. It provides a comprehensive, evidence-based assessment of what the scheme set out to do, what it has achieved so far, and what remains to be done. Notably, it is not afraid to begin discussions about scaling back MGNREGS in those parts of India where it is no longer needed. Pankaj captures particularly well the changing thrust on assets creation and on convergence with other programmes. Emphasising the transformational capacity of MGNREGS in securing dignity for the poor and deprived workers, rather than turning them into hapless recipients of reluctantly distributed freebies, he also makes a strong case for higher wages under MGNREGS to lift rural people out of chronic poverty and to contribute to greater human well-being.

I speak from personal experience when I observe that this book is undoubtedly a great contribution to the understanding of MGNREGS not only from a management and policy perspective but also within a more humanistic frame of reference. Pankaj (2012) was the first book that I read cover to cover to understand the state of MGNREGS implementation in India’s states after I had joined the Ministry of Rural Development in April 2015. Spending several days in understanding the challenges of MGNREGS implementation, I found this very useful then. Pankaj’s new book is a precious addition to the literature on how to manage India’s ongoing battle against poverty. He sees the need for stronger decentralised and bottom-up management of the programme, even though the central state must continue to provide most of the financial resources for such a scheme. While copying Western welfare state models is not a viable option, he rightly highlights the scope for adapting India’s template in other parts of the world.

Like Pankaj (2012), this study is an enlightening guide for policy planners and researchers and a precious addition to the literature on MGNREGS. The battle against poverty can be fought more effectively if some of the suggestions in this book were followed. Future studies should provide deeper analysis of the various governance challenges that often make MGNREGS controversial, including leakages, as well as examine the impacts of some accountability and efficiency-enhancing measures.