ABHINAV NATIONAL MONTHLY REFEREED JOURNAL OF REASEARCH IN COMMERCE & MANAGEMENT www.abhinavjournal.com VOLUME NO.2, ISSUE NO.2 ISSN 2277-1166 43 MGNREGA AND RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION IN INDIA Pallav Das Lecturer in Economics, Patuck-Gala College of Commerce and Management, Mumbai, India Email: Pallav_das@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The MGNREGA is the flagship welfare programme of the UPA Government and the largest of its Kind in India. MGNREGA will have significant positive impact on seasonal Rural – Urban Migration by providing rural workers with employment during the lean season MGNREGA income provides a significant value addition to meet the higher order needs critical for their survival or growth and development of their family. Thus public work offering relatively Predictable employment Opportunities are particularly effective in slowing Rural – Urban migration. INTRODUCTION Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) though notified on 7 September, 2005 was implemented in all the rural districts of India in April 2008. It is the biggest employment providing Programme ever started in a country for the development of its rural areas. It aims at providing 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake from the earlier employment Programmes launched by the Government of India. This scheme is on one hand demand driven and on the other treats employment as a right of the rural household. Thus the scheme provides incomes directly to the unskilled workers in the rural areas. The MGNREGAS has shown a significant improvement associated consistently the number days for which employment has been provided have also increased participation of women in it. It not only provide employment to them but by giving wage rate equal to that of a man, it has empowered the women economically as well as socially. Tamil Nadu is the first state to employ mentally ill women under the scheme which offers jobs for one member of every family in a village for 100 days a year at a minimum wage of Rs 100 a day Historically, information on migration has been collected since 1872. It was confined to seeking information only on place of birth till 1961. For the landless and marginal farmers who are in constant debt, migration is the only choice for livelihood. Though the migrants and their households might benefit individually, it is seen that this individual benefit occurs at the cost of net loss to both rural and urban areas and a decline in social welfare through overcrowding and increased population in urban destination areas and a greater regional concentration of wealth, income and human capital. Traditionally agriculture and related cottage industries were the only major profession in the rural areas. These professions could not absorb the ever increasing population in the rural areas.