The renamed Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) was introducedin India in 2006 as a flagship programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government to provide employment to the rural households as part of the “right to work” enacted in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005. The scheme has now gained great momentum all over the country propagating its magical generation of employment for the poor and the resultant alleviation of rural poverty. The promise of 100 days of work for all rural households with a guarantee of unemployment allowance for the unmet demand for work is quite an innovative scheme different from the diverse wage employment programmes so far introduced in the country. Though the scheme is also not free from criticism, it has been operating everywhere in the country reporting stories of triumph. The state of Kerala, popularly known as the God’s Own Country, started implementing the scheme since 2006 in a phased manner and by 2008 the rural households of the whole state were put under the cover of the scheme. As the unemployment rate is the highest in Kerala among other Indian states, wage employment schemes like MNREGS assume extreme importance to provisionally remedy the situation. The paper examines the intricacies of the scheme in one of the Grama Panchayats – Aikkaranadu – in Ernakulam district of Kerala.

Keywords: MNREGP; MNREGA; MNREGS; NREGP; NREGS; Rural employment; Employment guarantee programme; Wage employment programmes; Poverty alleviation; Right to work.