Strengthening Agricultural Household Livelihoods through Guaranteed Employment: Differential Welfare Effects of MGNREGA in India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48165/IJEE.2026.62412Keywords:
Employment guarantee, MGNREGA, Agricultural households, Sustainable rural development, Livelihood security, IndebtednessAbstract
Enhancing the livelihood security of agricultural households remains a central challenge for rural development policy in India. As India’s largest welfare programme, MGNREGA, which is presently renamed as Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), seeks to address this challenge by providing supplementary wage employment and strengthening rural economic security. This study examined MGNREGA’s impact (presently, VB-G RAM G) on the socio-economic well-being of agricultural households, with emphasis on income, consumption expenditure, and indebtedness, using unit-level data from NSSO Situation Assessment Survey covering 42,819 households. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) was employed to estimate the average treatment effect while addressing selection bias, and propensity score-weighted regression was used to assess robustness. The findings indicated that programme participation improved income and consumption outcomes, although its effects on indebtedness varied across beneficiary groups. The disaggregated analysis revealed substantial heterogeneity in programme impacts across social categories, gender, educational and farmer groups. Household income increased by up to 20.2% among beneficiary groups, with comparatively larger gains observed for graduate households (19.5%) and small farmers (20.1%). The findings reaffirm importance of employment guarantees in strengthening agricultural livelihoods and promoting inclusive rural development while highlighting need for targeted extension and livelihood interventions.
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