Download or read book MGNREGA, Paid Work and Women's Empowerment written by Fernanda Bárcia de Mattos and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the nexus between legislation, paid employment, women's empowerment and transformative gender equality in India. Using a sample of married women from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), we find that the government legislated rural employment guarantee, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), has been instrumental in ensuring paid employment for women - for many married women it is the first opportunity for paid work. We also find paid employment and MGNREGA had positive and significant effects on women's control over household decisions. However, we do not find enough evidence to suggest a transformative impact in terms of breaking the cycle of disadvantage, proxied by the timethe older girl child spends in school.