Facet of Food Security under NREGA in Sikkim

Abstract

NREGA became operational from February 2006 in Sikkim. An effort has been made in this paper to identify the factors determining the participation of people in NREGA scheme and to see whether NREGA has been successful in ensuring better food security to the beneficiaries. It has been found that there is considerable amount of variation across the households in the consumption of food and non-food items between beneficiary and non-beneficiary households under NREGA. The average household consumption expenditure is lower than household income both for beneficiary and non-beneficiary households. There are however variations in income and consumption across the households and the extent of variation being greater for non-beneficiary households. There is relatively greater inequality in the income earned in case of non-beneficiary households, which is indicative of the fact that non-beneficiaries have derived income from occupations diversified in nature. The level of education and sex are positively related to NREGA participation