Length of the Last Mile: Delays and Hurdles in NREGA Wage Payments

Dhorajiwala, Sakina and Narayanan, Rajendran (2020) Length of the Last Mile: Delays and Hurdles in NREGA Wage Payments. Project Report. LibTech India.

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Abstract

Delaysinwage payments are one of the most pressing issuesfaced byworkers. Various governments have paid much attention in the last decade on the technological aspects of the digital payments architecture through the paradigm of Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT). Through DBT the government directly transfers money toworkers’ bank accounts. In comparison, systematic evaluations of the challengesfaced byworkers once theirwages are credited to their bank/postal accounts hasreceived scant attention. The hurdlesthat workersface in accessing theirwages after they have been credited iswhat isreferred to as‘last mile challenges.’ To assesssome last mile challenges, LibTech India conducted a survey of1947NREGAworkersin 3 states. The surveywas done in one block each of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Rajasthan (RJ) and 2 blocks of Jharkhand (JH). The number of respondentswere similar acrossthe three states; AP - 667, JH- 622 and RJ - 658. Thissurvey has been supported by the Research Centre at Azim Premji University, Bangalore.

Item Type:

Monograph (Project Report)

Authors:

Dhorajiwala, Sakina and Narayanan, Rajendran

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