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Volume : IV, Issue : II, March - 2014 ENVISIONING PARADIGM SHIFT TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY AND GENDERED INCLUSION: BEYOND THE OBVIOUS OF LIVELIHOODS SECURITY Priyanka P. Thipsay, V.V.Kulkarni and Saurabh G. Vispute By : Laxmi Book Publication Abstract : The Constitutional 73rd Amendment Act and the establishment of a local governance system
in India through three-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) have marked a new chapter in the history of
democratic decentralization in India. The vision behind this has been that these local government
institutions will be the pivots fostering inclusion in an era of high economic growth. This paper argues
that the challenges of inclusion are formidable and the articulation of this vision has been hampered by an
ineffective devolution of funds, functions and functionaries to the PRIs. In this context, it examines the
experience of the MGNREGA to see how its outcomes have fallen short of its potential due to inadequate
support structures at the grassroots. It then attempts to spell out a blueprint of reforms that are needed for
MGNREGA to realize its true potential. Since funds to PRIs are not so much of an issue after
MGNREGA, functionaries are the real bottleneck, which must be taken care of by re-visioning the
cutting edge of implementation of the Act. The study also examines impact of MGNREGA on
sustainable development and suggests how it can be strengthened. It proposes that to ensure proper
monitoring, evaluation, deployment of human resources and their development, innovations, and for
grievance redress, a national authority for MGNREGA is needed to anchor and support implementation.
It further argues that while such support and resource deployment are necessary conditions, rural
development and the empowerment of the poor cannot happen through techno-managerial provisioning
alone but need grassroots mobilization. In the tasks of mobilization and support to GSs and PRIs for
making MGNREGA more effective, civil society has a role to play and this role needs to be
mainstreamed. Such reforms in MGNREGA can effectively transform governance at the grassroots and
also empower rural communities. Over time such reforms can become the way forward for all
interventions targeting the rural poor. Keywords : Unable to cast object of type 'System.DBNull' to type 'System.String'.
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