India's (maharashtra) Employment Guarantee Scheme: Lessons from Long Experience

By now it is well recognized that the instrument of rural works programs (RWPs) has become an important component of strategies to alleviate poverty and hunger in many developing countries. The case for RWPs lies in the self-targeting nature of the schemes (see Dreze and Sen 1990; Ravallion 1991; Besley and Coate 1992; Besley and Kanbur 1993). Also, discriminations prevalent in some agricultural labor markets can be avoided in public works programs (Foster and Rosenzweig 1992). In India, employment provision has been used extensively as a tool for protecting entitlements for centuries. Since the fourth century B.C., when Kautilya, the ancient Indian political economist, wrote his Arthasastra, India's rulers and governments have emphasized public relief works, particularly during famine. Employment in public works later became the main element of strategies for famine prevention in India and it has proved effective (World Bank 1990). After India's independence in 1947, there were many central government-sponsored schemes, beginning with the Rural Manpower Program in 1960. The most important program at the state level is the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS), which was introduced in 1972. The Maharashtra EGS is one of the most researched and discussed programs in the country. The United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) Human Development Report (1993, 43) commends Maharashtra's EGS as one of the largest public programs in the developing world. Compared to the programs in other countries, the EGS has been in existence for a long time—20 years. The rest of the states in India and the other countries in Asia and Africa are eager to learn from the scheme's success, particularly its sustainability over time. The EGS is an especially interesting example of a public works program for poverty