Work or Labour: Examining Employment Experiences of PVTGs under MGNREGS in Palamu, India

Recent scholarship highlights the important role of social identities in the public policy process. However, much of this work has focused on policy actors and not necessarily the social identities of the targets of public policy. Based on interviews with the beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS), a large-scale employment initiative that debuted in the Indian subcontinent's rural areas in the year 2006, this paper explores the experiences of poverty within a social assistance programme for an indigenous population group in India. The group known as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) a rural and disadvantaged group is entitled to participate in the minimum 100 days of work programme under MGNREGS. Taking the disjuncture between work and labour, this paper will explore the meanings that PVTGs attach to their participation in MGNREGs as well as to what extent such participation furthers the inclusion of this otherwise isolated social group into Indian society.