Four years ago, Kanika was forlornly trying to piece her life together in Malaton Ki Ber, a village in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. The 18-year-old had no job and no prospects. The village was too poor to afford more than the chance of odd jobs.
One day, she heard that a grassroots organisation was visiting the village. Perhaps it might help her find work? With nothing to lose, Kanika attended a meeting organised by the worker-led Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), and learnt about India’s flagship rural employment scheme.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), she found out, is supposed to guarantee 100 days of work to a household. The labour law also mandates that at least one-third of its beneficiaries should be women.
