Women empowerment through mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) in India with special reference to Assam Konch Upen Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Dhemaji College, Dhemaji, Assam, India Online published on 13 August, 2013. Abstract Women represent half of the global population and one-third of the total work force. They are considered to be more honest, sincere, excellent, meticulous and efficient. However, women have been humiliated, suppressed and exploited globally due to patriarchal norms in our society. In order to help women to be in the limelight, women need to be empowered. The term empowerment is a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional concept. It is a process to increase the spiritual, socio-economic, political and educational strength of the marginalized sections of the society. Women empowerment is a process in which women gain greater share of control over resources -marital, human and intellectual [knowledge, information ideas] and financial resources and control over decision-making in the home, community, society, nation and to gain ‘power’. Right from the inception of Five Year Plan, the Government of India (GoI) has initiated a lot of programmes for women empowerment and their socio-economic development. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the first ever Scheme internationally acclaimed that guarantees wage employment at an unprecedented scale is one of them. One of the avowed objectives of the Scheme is the empowering rural women by ensuring 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year within their native jurisdiction. Therefore, the study has made an honest attempt to examine the performances of MGNREGS in providing guaranteed wage employment for women. Besides, the study also explains the concept of women empowerment and the various provisions for women empowerment under MGNREGS. The important finding of the study is that though the women empowerment under NREGS is significant at the national level however, the achievement in Assam is not encourageable. Top Keywords MGNREGS, Empowerment, Women Empowerment, Person-days, Participation. Top |