1 Mark Questions
Question 1 : List any two responsibilities of the Gram Panchayat under MGNREGA.
Answer : The two responsibilities of Gram Panchayat under MGNREGA are:
(i) Under MGNREGA, the Gram Panchayat of a village does the registration of the households who want to join MGNREGA.
(ii) After registration, job card with photograph is issued to the members by the Gram Panchayat.
Question 2 : When was DWCRA scheme introduced?
Answer : DWCRA scheme was introduced during the sixth five year plan in 1982-83 by the Government of India.
Question 3 : Into how many districts DWCRA scheme was inroduced?
Answer : DWCRA scheme was introduced in 50 districts and later on it spread to many other states and districts.
Question 4 : In what two ways have the villagers been benefited from MGNREGA.
or
List any two benefits of MGNREGA.
or
Mention two benfits of MGNREGA.
Answer : The villagers have been benefited from MGNREGA in the following ways:
(i) The villagers are provided at least 100-150 days of guaranteed wages of employment in each financial year.
(ii) Work should be provided within 5 km radius of the village. If distance is more than 5 km, the villagers will get extra wages of 10% to meet additional transportation and living expenses.
Question 5 : In what two ways have the village women benefited from MGNREGA?
Answer : Village women have benefited from MGNREGA in the following ways:
(i) One third of employment opportunities under MGNREGA are given to women in the village.
(ii) Toilet facilities, water and shed for children are also provided.
Question 6 : List any two activities in the village for which MGNREGA has been responsible.
Answer : Activities in the village for which MGNREGA has been responsible are:
(i) Water conservation.
(ii) Drought proofing.
Question 7 : List two salient features of MGNREGA.
Answer : Two salient features of MGNREGA are:
(i) 100-150 days per year of guaranteed wage employment.
(ii) Unemployment allowance.
2 Marks Questions
Question 8 : What do you understand by DWCRA? List its objectives.
Answer : The full form of DWCRA is Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas.
Main objectives of DWCRA are:
(i) To improve the quality of life of women and children living in rural areas.
(ii) To provide opportunities to women to be financially independent by earning through their capabilities and skills.
(iii) To help rural women to utilise available local resources and suitable marketing facilities for their business ventures.
(iv) Make the women capable to be self-dependent even after the support and help from government is withdrawn.
Question 9 : Mention two main strategies adopted by DWCRA.
Answer : The main strategies adopted by DWCRA are:
(i) Facilitate access of poor women to employment, skill upgradation, training, credit and other support services so that the DWCRA women as a group can take up income generation activities for supplementing their incomes.
(ii) Encourage collective action in the form of group activities that are known to work better and are more sustainable than the individual efforts.
Question 10 : How does NRLM help unemployed youths living in rural areas?
Answer : NRLM will initiates skill development projects which help these unemployed youth for finding employment or getting self-employed by setting up their own ventures. Their skills would be upgraded through short term training courses in high demand sectors.
3 Marks Questions
Question 11 : What are six limitations of DWCRA?
Answer : The limitations of DWCRA are:
(i) Financial assistance provided under the scheme is very meagre, so the ventures either become unsuccessful after some time or not start at all.
(ii) No guarantee is given for additional loans from banks.
(iii) There are restrictions on the middleman’s role.
(iv) There is bureaucratic intervention in the selection and working of groups.
(v) Gramsabha is loaded with work so it can’t give full attention to the project.
(vi) There is lack of commitment by the officials running the scheme.
Question 12 : Ramu and Deva, two brothers of village Bahadur Nagar, district Bulandshahr in UP, were unable to find a job for the last two and a half months. They were quite unhappy and frustrated. They went to village headman for getting some financial help to sustain themselves.
The village headman suggested to them to enrol themselves in MGNREGA, where they could get a minimum 100 days of employment alongwith subsidised foodgrains. He asked them to suggest this scheme to other unemployed men and women also. What scheme is the village Headman talking about? What does it aim at?
Answer : The village headman is talking about the scheme launched by the Government of India under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in September 2005. Later, it was renamed as ‘Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act’ 2005.
The act provides for the enhancement of livelihood security to households in rural areas by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household.
It also aims at the creation of durable community, social and economic assets and infrastructural development of rural areas alongwith employment generation so as to eradicate rural poverty.
4 Marks Questions
Question 13 : How is MGNREGA implemented? What schemes are merged in MGNREGA?
Answer : MGNREGA is the biggest upliftment scheme for the poor in the world by any nation.
Government of India allotted 40 thousand crore rupees for this scheme initially.
The implementation of this scheme is done as follows:
(i) Gram Panchayat implements this scheme.
(ii) Gram Panchayat is responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring the programme.
(iii) All agencies attached to MGNREGA are accountable to the public.
(iv) Social audit and RTI Act are applicable.
(v) A local vigilance and monitoring committee is set up.
(vi) The Act was notified initially in 200 districts and has been systematically implemented in the whole country within the next five years after starting in 2006.
The schemes in MGNREGA are:
(i) Jawahar Employment Scheme.
(ii) Employment Insurance Scheme.
(iii) Complete Rural Employment.
Question 14 : Write any eight features of MGNREGA?
Answer : Features of MGNREGA are as follows:
(i) Adult members of a rural household may apply for employment if they are willing to do unskilled manual work.
(ii) Such a household will have to apply for registration to the local Gram Panchayat in writing or orally.
(iii) The Gram Panchayat, after due verification, will issue a Job Card to the household as a whole. The Job Card will bear the photograph of all adult members of the household willing to work inder MGNREGA. The Job Card with photograph is provided free of cost.
(iv) A job card holding household may submit a written application for employment to the Gram Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought. The minimum days of employment have to be fifteen.
(v) The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of written application for employment, against which the guarantee of providing employment within 15 days operates.
(vi) Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work by an employment seeker.
(vii) If employment is not provided within 15 days, daily unemployment allowance, in cash, has to be paid. Liability of payment of unemployment allowance is with the states.
(viii) At least one-third of persons to whom work is allotted have to be women.
5 Marks Questions
Question 15 : What is DWCRA? What obstacles were faced by some NGOs people who were working under DWCRA? How has it helped in community development by overcoming these obstacles?
Answer : DWCRA stands for Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas. It is a special scheme directed at improving the living conditions of women and children through the provision of opportunities for self employment and access to basic social services.
NGOs who were working under DWCRA faced many obstacles in the initial stages; when they tried to call women for a meeting, very few women attended the meeting. The women were also reluctant to speak, as they were not used to talk in public; so the staff had to go to their houses to meet the women.
Most of the women were uneducated. Girls were withdrawn from school as soon as they attained puberty and were married off. Most of the women were in poor health and looked anaemic.
DWCRA staff tried to take care of these problems and slowly self help groups of women were formed. Initially, the focus of the groups was on saving money. Financing DWCRA helped women to start income generating activities. Women became socially aware and realised the importance of education. The number of girls going to school were increased. Additional income further increased the standard of living and reduced dependence on money lenders.
Question 16 : Under MGNREGA which type of employment is given in villages? Write about its two drawbacks.
Answer : Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) ensures livelihood security security in rural areas by providing atleast 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year.
Areas where villagers get work are:
(i) Water conservation and harvesting.
(ii) Drought proofing including micro and minor irrigation work.
(iii) Irrigational canals for micro and minor irrigation work.
(iv) Irrigational facilities for rural families having even small piece of land. People of SC and ST background are also benefitted.
(v) Renovation of traditional water- bodies and desilting of tanks.
(vi) Land-development.
(vii) Village connectivity by making roads.
(viii) Any other development work cited by government.
Some demerits of MGNREGA are:
(i) Corruption at national level as labourers have to give bribe to get their wages.
(ii) Fictitious labourers are entered and distributed fictitious job cards.
(iii) It affects the agricultural labourers, so during harvesting, MGNREGA projects are kept on hold.