MGNREGA in Tamil Nadu: A Story of Success and Transformation?
MGNREGA in Tamil Nadu: A Story of Success and Transformation?
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DOI：
10.1111/joac.12054
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发表时间：
2014-10-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
De Neve, Geert
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Carswell, Grace;De Neve, Geert
在二十一世纪初，社会保护已成为发展政策的一个关键驱动因素。它被广泛认为是一件“好事”，不仅有可能减轻贫困和脆弱性，而且还有可能在赋权和社会正义方面产生更具变革性的成果。基于对印度最重要的社会保障政策--《圣雄甘地国家农村就业保障法》(MGNREGA)的执行情况进行的民族志研究，本文对这一政策的成功构成进行了批判性的审视。这项研究是在泰米尔纳德邦进行的，该邦在MGNREGA的实施方面被广泛描述为“成功”，描述了谁参与了该计划，以及在不同的社会和官僚层面上如何理解和表达成功。就MGNREGA的成果而言，我们得出的结论是，该计划使最贫穷的家庭--特别是达利特人和妇女--受益，特别是在提供安全网和作为减贫工具方面。但该计划的作用不止于此。它还对农村劳动者产生了重大的变革性成果，例如推高了农村工资水平，提高了低种姓工人在劳动力市场上的议价能力，减少了他们对高种姓雇主的依赖。这些好处不仅是实质性的，而且还具有变革性，因为它们影响到农村生产关系，有助于增强农村贫困劳动者的能力。然而，就创造持久资产和促进基层民主而言，该计划的结果并不令人鼓舞。
Social protection has emerged as a key driver of development policy at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is widely considered a 'good thing' that has the potential not only to alleviate poverty and vulnerability, but also to generate more transformative outcomes in terms of empowerment and social justice. Based on an ethnographic study of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), India's flagship social protection policy, this paper takes a critical look at what this policy's 'success' consists of. The study was carried out in Tamil Nadu, a state widely presented as a 'success' in terms of MGNREGA's implementation, and describes who participates in the scheme and how success is understood and expressed at different social and bureaucratic levels. In terms of MGNREGA's outcomes, we conclude that the scheme is benefitting the poorest households - and Dalits and women in particular - especially in terms of providing a safety net and as a tool for poverty alleviation. But the scheme does more than that. It has also produced significant transformative outcomes for rural labourers, such as pushing up rural wage levels, enhancing low-caste workers' bargaining power in the labour market and reducing their dependency on high-caste employers. These benefits are not only substantial but also transformative in that they affect rural relations of production and contribute to the empowerment of the rural labouring poor. However, in terms of creating durable assets and promoting grassroots democracy, the scheme's outcomes are much less encouraging.