Peer-reviewed article

The impact of MGNREGS on child labour and child education: an empirical analysis

Saswati Das, Diganta Mukherjee · 20 Dec 2018

Summary

Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001

This study examines how India's MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) affects child labour and education. The research investigates whether the rural employment scheme reduces demand for child labour as a substitute for adult workers, how seasonal factors influence children's work intensity, and the scheme's impact on children's human capital formation through education.

Key points

The study addresses claims that MGNREGS reduces adult labour availability, potentially increasing demand for child labour as a cheaper substitute
Research examines three main issues: seasonal effects on child labour intensity, MGNREGS impact on child labour, and effects on human capital formation
Focus is on agricultural contexts during peak seasons when child labour demand typically increases

Limitations

The document provided is only the abstract and does not contain the empirical findings, methodology details, or conclusions. We cannot assess what evidence was actually found or the study's design and sample characteristics.

Abstract

This article addresses the persistent claim that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has a negative impact on the availability of labour for agricultural operations, which has significant implications for the induced demand for child labour as a cheaper substitute for unskilled adult labour on agricultural farms in peak seasons. The study contributes to this debate by examining three issues: (i) effects of seasonality on child intensity of labour; (ii) impact of MGNREGS on child intensity of labour; and (iii) impact of seasonality and MGNREGS on human capital formation.

Findings the Hub has extracted

Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.

ProtectionDevelopment

Problem

Child labour in agriculture, potentially increased by adult labour shortages due to MGNREGS participation, affecting children's education and human capital development

Intervention: MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) - a rural employment guarantee scheme
Population: Rural children in agricultural areas of India, particularly during peak agricultural seasons

Practitioner