Can Microcredit and Job Under NREGS Jointly Bring More Happiness to the Villagers?
The IUP Journal of Governance and Public Policy, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 7-23, March 2011
Posted: 18 Feb 2012
Date Written: February 16, 2012
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate whether access to microfinance loans and jobs under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has any significant impact on the life satisfaction as well as happiness, an important well-being indicator, of the villagers of West Bengal. Here we consider microfinance system under individual liability loan contract and joint liability loan contract separately. This paper shows that participation in microfinance programme, size of microcredit and more number of man-days of job under NREGS bring more happiness to the village people. It is also established that members of Self-Help Group (SHG) under Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) scheme are happier, compared to members of Vivekananda Sevakendra-O-Sishu Udyan (VSSU), a microfinance system, operating on the basis of individual liability loan contract. This is because, most of the members under SGSY scheme are women and that of VSSU are men, and the members of SHG under SGSY scheme feel much more empowered after joining the microfinance programme.
Keywords: microfinance, individual liability, joint liability, NREGS, impact study, happiness
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