Awareness of Tribal Womenfolk Regarding Different Provisions of MGNREGA: a Study in Longjap Gram Panchayat under Kathiatoli Development Block of Nagaon District, Assam, India

Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was enacted by the Indian Parliament on 25^th August, 2005 with an aim of enhancing the livelihood security of rural households by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to every household in a year whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual works. The Act was implemented on 2^nd February, 2006. The study area is Longjap Gram Panchayat (GP) located in Kathiatoli Development Block of Nagaon district, Assam. The objective of this paper is to examine the awareness of tribal womenfolk regarding different provisions of MGNREGA in the GP. Based on primary data, collected from 100 nos. of sample tribal women, it is found that although tribal womenfolk in the study area have substantial awareness on some provisions of MGNREGA, their awareness on several important provisions is not encouraging.  There is, thus, a need to adopt new techniques to spread awareness among the villagers regarding different provisions of MGNREGA in the study area.