ECONOMIC AND LIVELIHOOD SURVEY ON MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT (MGNREGA) PROGRAMME IN KARNATAKA STATE

The Government of India has greatly focused on rural economy way back in 1956 to integrate the co axial changes of poverty eradication of Poor people living in Rural areas, as per the national sample survey (NSSO) organization many unfold programmes has been implemented and vein for the development of unemployed youths and the poor. In which ,the MNREGA is one of the unique programmes implemented by the Government of India across the country , the programme aims at enhancing livelihood security of people in Rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to the rural house hold whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work to lead a sustainable livelihood and increase the annual Income of family. These development programmes focus in strengthening the social aspect of human being by providing an array of various services that cater the basic needs like education , health ,shelter and economic augmentation to maintain overall quality of life (QOL) . Various issues and challenges pose to evaluate the existing policy due to lack of human resources, skilled experts, dishonesty of government officials and numerous problems derived for the economic and livelihood assessment of the MGNREGA. In this view , the present study attempts to evaluate the practical impact of MGNREGA augmented for socio economic changes among economically weaker section population in the selected districts of Karnataka. Three districts namely Tumkur, Ramanagaram and Hassan was purposively selected for the study purpose with three stage stratified random sampling. Beneficiaries were selected based on the participation level (>200 days actively participated) , and individual respondents were selected from each district .A total of 95 respondents (total 285) were selected based on the population density and retention rate of programme. The Pretested and structured questionnaires were administered for beneficiaries to know the socio economic status. The collected data was analysed by using SPSS -16.50 statistical software version. Multiple logistic and step wise regression methods were used for testing the hypothetical statement of the research objectives. The results revealed that, after involvement of MGNREGA , the family income shows sub optimal stage and economic trend move positively and strongly correlated with education of children, food , shelter and fulfilled basic needs and necessities in leading their sustainable life. In addition to that, the study found that, Tumkur is the highest economic index ( 63) p<0.05 followed by Hassan (62) ,p<0.05 and Ramanagaram (58). More sensitization programme need to be focused to illiterate population in order to increase the participation level, especially virtual registration should be made easy to receive identification cards and need to orient the unemployed educated youths through virtual mode to increase participation level . Apart from the development of economy level, on time performance should be made by the concerned government authority.