• Debolina Ghosh

Self- efficacy determines when an individual will undertake new behaviors such as self-empowerment. Low self-efficacy beliefs of women in rural India often stem from the limited and disadvantaged positions women have in society. Empowerment includes cognitive and psychological elements, such as a women’s understanding of her condition of subordination and the causes of such conditions. (Mishra, 2006). To make women understand of self and the cultural and the social expectations, proper education and income are must. An economically independent woman can take part in decision making in her family, bear the cost of education of her children, and contribute in family income. Automatically she gains respect in family and at the same time her way of thinking may be changed. Though women empowerment is not the sole objective of MGNREGA, but with its developmental goals, such as at least one third of the beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested for work, limited hours of work, equal wages both for men and women, availability of child care facility etc., it becomes automatically a women friendly programme. The present survey is carried out in Murarai-II of Birbhum disatrict in West Bengal. The present study wants to evaluate and assess how the women are getting empowered through MGNREGA both financially and socially and the present status of women workforce in general and women labourers of Birbhum district in particular. The study reveals if the program is really able to provide the opportunities of work to women, and create a social environment in which women can live with respect and dignity and can play a role in nation building. The paper also points out the deficiencies and lack of fulfilment in proper implementation of the Act in the district and offers some suggestive measures of what exactly being done to overcome these problems.

Women Empowerment, MGNREGA, Women Labourer, Birbhum

"Is MGNREGA Programme Really Meant for Women Empowerment? – A Study in Murarai-II Block of Birbhum District of West Bengal", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.535-550, June-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906223.pdf

"Is MGNREGA Programme Really Meant for Women Empowerment? – A Study in Murarai-II Block of Birbhum District of West Bengal", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp535-550, June-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906223.pdf