MGNREGA in Andhra Pradesh's Tribal Areas

India’s scheduled tribes are among the most deprived socio-economic groups and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme has great potential in tribal areas. While the Andhra Pradesh government has made an effort to ensure implementation of the scheme in the scheduled areas, the gap between administrative orders and the grass-roots level is wide. This article lists measures that could radically improve implementation of the scheme in tribal areas.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is likely to change significantly in the coming months. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has promised to make it more outcome-oriented, less prone to theft and to improve implementation. Changes are likely to occur at the state level too, especially where there were changes of government. Andhra Pradesh (AP) is a case in point. On the one hand, the bifurcation of the state will probably translate into quite radical administrative changes; on the other hand, the new Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government has already started talking about introducing potentially radical policy changes.