ILO – UNDP – IHD study on Decent Work and India’s 

National Rural Employment Guarantee

ADB Board of Governors Meeting
Tashkent, May 2010
Duncan Campbell
Director for Policy Planning 
Employment Sector 
International Labour Organization

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper/presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views
or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not
guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use.
Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms.

SRO‐New Delhi, January 2009 1
Decent Work for All ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015
 ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015
Decent Work for All

Social protection as fiscal stimulus

ILO report to the Pittsburgh G 20 2
 • ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015
• Decent Work for All

NREG Program as an important automatic stabilizer and 
component of India’s crisis‐related stimulus (e.g. 5 % of 
GDP in stimulus of which NREGP was 1 %

Important to consider NREG as a « conditional social 
transfer » program, rather than as an « employment 
creation » program

SRO‐New Delhi, January 2009 3
 ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015
Decent Work for All
• Immediate objective NREGA: Enhance livelihood security in rural areas
• NREGA vision in consonance with ILO’s Decent Work vision

• A “right to work” 100 days per
household
• Universal nature minimizes
targeting errors
• a conditional social transfer
payment scheme
•Generates “durable”productive
assets
•Legally binding
•Work guaranteed within 15 days
•UI payable after 15 days without
work
•MW payable with non-discrimination
•Work within 5-km radius, beyond which
wage premium payable
•1/3 must be women
•Mandatory facilities: drinking water,
shade, medical services, crèche (if 5
children below age 6)
•Favorizes unskilled labour (labour-
intensive) over skilled labour and
machinery
• Accountability assured through social
audit
•Reduces rural/urban migration
•Wage payment w/in 15 days

SRO‐New Delhi, January 2009 4
 ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015
Decent Work for All

Nature of the Work on Offer …

• Water conservation and water harvesting
• Drought proofing, e.g. afforestation
• Micro and minor irrigation canals
• Land development for land owned by « scheduled castes and tribes »
• Water renewal, e.g. de‐silting
• Flood control
• Rural connectivity
• Any other work notified by Center in consultation with State

5
 • ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015

Take‐up of the Program in 2009

SRO‐New Delhi, January 2009 7
Favorable in distributive terms
Demand outstrips supply for both sexes, and there 
remain constraints on women’s participation
Two final points:  wages and participants 
own perceptions
 • ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015

A Summing Up

• A success on the whole …
‐ Some evidence of obviating the need to migrate
‐ NREG wages are higher than rural alternatives (and account for 
between 10‐20 % of household income).  No evidence on 
displacement effects
‐ self‐targeting appears to be working for women and disadvantaged 
castes, whose labour force participation is higher than it would be.  
There are likely to be important « empowerment » spillovers here
‐ Status and stigma:  women participants in particular are 
overwhelming attracted to « working for the government », rather 
than the stigma attached to other occupations
‐ A developing country « automatic stabilizer »

SRO‐New Delhi, January 2009 11
 • ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015

But Problems Remain ….

‐ Variance in administrative preparedness and motivation
‐ No evidence of child or forced labour, but evidence of 
« work and capability » based discrimination
‐ Demand outstrips supply due in part to lack of technical 
and managerial capabilities
‐ NREGA wages have raised reservation wages, but surveys 
show that the minimum is not paid in 50% of the sample, 
(the piece‐rate calculation of the wage is to blame)
‐ Wages are to be paid within 15 days of work, but evidence 
shows substantial payments in arrears

SRO‐New Delhi, January 2009 12
 • ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015

Continued …

‐ Workplace provisions, e.g. drinking water, shade, childcare, 
safety at work, are often not provided, according to field 
surveys
‐ The payment of an unemployment allowance after 15 days 
without work is virtually unrecorded.  Two factors here:  
incentives for project managers to avoid payment through 
non‐notification of absence of work, or minimal work 
within a 15‐day period;  the unemployment payment is not 
a Western, insurance‐based notion, but more a motivating 
tool for project managers’ motivations to secure work
‐ And more traditional concerns:  « productive » assets?  
« durable assets »?  Spillovers into local economic 
dynamism? ….
SRO‐New Delhi, January 2009 13
 • ASIAN DECENT WORK DECADE 2006-2015

THANK YOU

SRO‐New Delhi, January 2009 14