Table of Content 1. Chapter: Introduction 10 1.1. Background 10 1.2. Need for the study 11 1.3. Objectives and Research Questions 12 1.3.1. Objectives 12 1.3.2. Research Questions 13 1.4. Methodology 13 1.4.1. Study Area Selection 14 1.4.2. Data Collection Approach 14 1.5. Scope and limitation 15 1.6. Structure of the Study 15 2. Chapter: Review of literature 18 2.1. Poverty trends in India 18 2.2. Rural poverty and wage employment in India 20 2.3. Wage employment Vs self Employmet 21 2.4. Wage employment in India- Recent trends 22 2.5. MGNREGA as an Act(2005) not a general welfare scheme 22 2.6. MGNREGA at 2005 23 2.7. Main objective of the act 26 2.8. Goals of MGNREGA 28 2.9. Finance 29 2.10. Public Accountability 30 2.11. Vigilance and Transparency 30 2.12. Linkages (convergance) with Other Development Programmes 31 2.13. Impact and outcome of the act/scheme in rural Gujarat 32 2.14. Rearch opportunities for better understanding of MGNREGA implementation 33 3. Chapter: Implementation of MGNREGA in the study area 34 3.1. Study Area Profile 36 3.2. Implementation of MGNREGA in study area 37 3.2.1. District level 37 3.2.2. Taluka level 39 3.2.3. Village level 40 4. Chapter: Impact of MGNREGA in study area 43 4.1. Household Characteristics 43 4.2. Effect of Implementation of MGNREGA 47 4.2.1. Building Social Capital 47 4.2.2. Effect on Weaker section 49 4.2.3. Gender Empowerment 51 4.3. On ground Functionality of MGNREGA 53 5. Chapter: Finding and conclusion 55 5.1. Findings 55 5.2. Conclusion 58 Bibliography Annexure