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An ambitious workfare scheme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), was launched by the Indian government in 2005 to respond to the needs of the country`s poor. The scheme guarantees hundred days of employment in unskilled manual labour at a minimum wage to any rural household in a year.The statistics, however, reveal a bleak picture, and it has been observed that money has continually been siphoned off from the scheme.
How can the state become more responsive to its citizens? How can citizens, especially the poor and less privileged, in turn ensure such responsiveness on the part of the state so as to reduce poverty and corruption? In Battling Corruption, the authors, using qualitative and quantitative analysis, measure the effectiveness of formal and informal mechanisms—political decentralization, community social audits, access to information, membership in networks, political competition—in reducing corrupt practices and enhancing poor people`s welfare,thereby enabling NREGA to reach its intended beneficiaries in the Indian states of Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
The book also tries to understand the reasons why these mechanisms worked or failed in changing the dominant structure of institutional and social interactions, and transforming the ability of the poor to take advantage of these changes. The book will be invaluable to those studying economics, public administration, political science, and development studies.
Policymakers, NGOs, and various bilateral and multilateral donor agencies will also find it resourceful.
ISBN - 9780198085003
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Pages : 288
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