India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has been hailed as one of the country’s most creative social initiatives. Since the program was begun only recently (in 2004–2005) there is a need to assess household access to this program and persistence of benefits to households...

In this paper, the relationship is assessed between possessing information on, gaining access to and the efficacy of delivery of India's national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGA) in three states. The results suggest that the link between information, access and the delivery of the...

Cet article s’intéresse à la précision du ciblage du NREG (Programme National de Garantie de l’Emploi Rural) dans deux États indiens, le Madhya Pradesh (MP) et le Tamil Nadu (TN), et s’appuie, pour le faire, sur des données de 2009–2010 sur les ménages. Pour surmonter les...

Using pooled household level data for the Indian states of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh we find that the size of landholdings is a negative predictor of participation in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (NREGP). In state level analysis this pattern survives in Rajasthan but...

Governments struggle with the reality that the beneficiaries of anti-poverty programs are powerless to influence policies and prevent the possibility of capture of benefits by the non-poor. Networks – social and political – are supposed to increase the ability of the less-powerful to access...

Using primary data collected during 2007-08 we examine nutritional status with respect to two macronutrients as well as various micronutrients of rural households in three Indian states: Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and find serious deficiencies in regard to these nutrients in all...

Despite its evident importance relatively little is known about links between Body Mass Index (BMI) and participation in workfare programs, particularly in India. Using a unique data set for the Indian state of Rajasthan for 2009–10, this paper attempts to fill this void and examines the...

The Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) – the largest food subsidy program in India – has been a dismal failure in targeting the poor. The present paper examines its performance in three Indian states – Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, based on primary data collected for...

The global population is forecasted to reach 9.4 billion by 2050, with much of this increase concentrated in developing regions and cities. Ensuring adequate food and nourishment to this large population is a pressing economic, moral and even security challenge and requires research (and action)...