GeoMGNREGA:Geospatial Applications for Monitoring and Evaluation of Citizen Benefit Scheme

Photo courtesy:  @CC0

Abstract: Rural employment creation is the vital process in mitigating economic weakness of rural poor using best of the technological paradigm available. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a citizen benefit scheme with legal binding that ensures guaranteed demand driven wage employment to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, within 15 days of making such a requisition. Under this scheme around 30 lakh (three million) assets are created annually across the country, which involves construction of water harvesting, drought relief and flood control structures as preferred activities, besides others. GeoMGNREGA is the geospatial component used under MGNREGA, for space technology based innovation in locating the assets created on a satellite image database, followed by quality control of information, with subsequent enabling of citizen feedback on the assets created towards transparency in implementation of the scheme.