Opinion Indian women are working more. Here’s why

With over five lakh women Community Resource Persons who have climbed out of poverty, the mission has reached the most deprived households. Professionals at the cluster, block, district, state and national level, along with National Resource Organisations (NROs) like the Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), National Dairy Development Board services, Kudumbsree, etc., have transformed lives and livelihoods at scale. Employment combined with durable community and individual assets that provide livelihood security have helped women find wage employment on a large scale, albeit at low MGNREGS wages The low wage rates have resulted in more than 54 per cent of workers in MGNREGS being women, as men move to higher-paying jobs in the market. The DAY-NRLM has also covered over 3.55 crore women farmers under agroecological practice interventions during this period. Over 1.19 lakh banking correspondents from among the DAY-NRLM women are now making digital payments possible in the remotest regions and households. The Deendayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), a part of DAY-NRLM, has also focused on women and helped develop skillsets for farm and non-farm livelihoods.

Evaluation studies by the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (2018) under Pramod Kumar Singh, and the Stanford University team under Anjini Kochar (2020), have confirmed a nearly 20 per cent increase in incomes of households covered under the mission and a maturing period of 6-8 years in newly-formed SHGs. Social capital makes a difference, as seen in the low NPAs.

The MGNREGS started implementing a 60:40 unskilled labour to material ratio at the district level in 2016 and has extensively promoted individual beneficiary schemes that raise incomes like animal sheds, farm ponds, vermicomposting. Ninety days of work under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana, which in over 70 per cent of cases is also in the woman’s name, has seen women get higher employment in MGNREGS. Over 260 crore person days of work have been generated each year and over half of them for women.

In agriculture, men own most land. Because of this, women’s role in the field was undervalued. However, in practice, over half the lands are cultivated by women. In 2011, the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) was started under the DAY-NRLM to develop skill sets through Community Resource Persons such as Krishi Sakhi and Pashu Sakhi. Para professionals were developed to diversify livelihoods and raise incomes. Many women’s collectives were leased land to take up vegetable and horticultural crop cultivation and intercropping. Since 2017-18, the Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) was also started as part of which men from mission households were also eligible for bank assistance and higher community investment funds. The Quality Council of India evaluated the SVEP in 2019 to find that the incomes of nearly 99 per cent of the over two lakh beneficiaries had significantly improved. The SVEP was an end-to-end solution for entrepreneurs from poor families. A cadre of Community Resource Persons for Enterprise was also developed in partnership with the Entrepreneurship Development of India (EDI) and Kudumbshree to provide seamless support for enterprise to first-generation entrepreneurs.

The wage rates under the MGNREGS are linked to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL). As the basket of goods and services used for CPI-AL was dated, there was an excess weightage for foodgrains that are available for free under the Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. This brought down CPI-AL-based wages. As a consequence, women’s participation is high in states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is over 50 per cent nationally as well. The MGNREGS provides equal wages to men and women. Its wage rates determine the floor rates in many states. Raising MGNREGS wage rates along with an increase in productivity can be a good strategy for securing lives of dignity for the poor and moving them up on the skilling ladder. Initiatives for skilling need to be expanded to shrink the large pool of unskilled wage earners.

Evidence from the ground suggests the DAY-NRLM and MGNREGS play a crucial role in improving the female labour force participation rate. The MGNREGS is not a dole; it helps build durable assets that raise livelihood security. The social capital of women’s collectives has transformed the rural scenario. They are even more effective when they work with elected Panchayat leaders of whom 43 per cent are also women. Local governments and women’s collectives are showing the way.

The writer is a retired civil servant. Views are personal