Poverty and Sustainable Development under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with reference to Present Scenario of India: A Case Study of Karbi Anglong District

Poverty is a world-wide and multi-dimensional phenomenon and it exists both in developed and underdeveloped economy. In RioDeclaration, the commission has given prominence on bio-diversity, climate change, forest management and conservation along with a priority to the poorest sections of the community. The central government of India, under UPA Government, enacted a National Employment Guarantee Act. This would provide a legal guarantee for at least 100 days of employment to begin with an asset-creating public works programmes every year at minimum wages to at least one able bodied person in a family. The act was notified on 7 September, 2005. The significance of the programmes makes the government legally acceptable for providing employment to those who ask for it. It was considered as growth engine for sustainable development of an agricultural economy through the process of providing employment on works that address causes of chronic poverty such as drought, deforestation and soil erosion. The Act seeks to strengthen the natural resource base of rural livelihood and create durable asset in rural areas. The present study has been conducted on the rural population under MGNREGA, who are able to cross their subsistence level of surviving. The incidence of poverty is very high in the different rural areas than estimated by Planning Commission of India (based on Suresh Tendulkar Committee).

without impairing the capacity to meet the future needs. In Rio-Declaration, it has given prominence to bio diversity, climate change, forest management and conservation, along with a priority to the poorest sections of the community. It stressed the view that quality of life that can not be measured in monetary terms, but should be taken into account. Reduction in adverse externalities such as chemical pollution, noise levels, air and water-quality should be maintained in such measurement.
The commission has emphasized on consideration of intergenerational equity in resource use and on such use of natural resources that would enable the future generations to experience at least the present generation's level of well-being. This refers to the implications in respect of terminal stocks of any time horizon. The terminal stocks of natural resources are determined by the rate of its use relative to the rate of regeneration during the relevant time horizon. Again, sustainability condition has emphasized conservation of resources which needs that stock of all individuals should not decline over time. "For exhaustible resources, the sustainability condition is to be interpreted as the discovery of alternative resources. Thus, the objective of development with intergenerational equity requires no end up of resources and declining of the human well being. Natural resources are only the means to the end with strong possibilities of substitution existing between one natural capital resources and another.
Resources substitution would correspond to the technological substitution and would impact on the imbalance of ecosystem" (Sengupta 2002). Thus, the main issue of the contention of Rio-declaration is the well being index and the stocks of natural resources which should not be declined over time.
"Sustainable development goes much beyond the concern for physical environment; it is based on a concept of intergenerational equity, however, with billion of people still steeped in poverty", M.P Bezbaruah (2014). Local agenda-21 was the core of the earth Summit, which says that sustainability is a global issue and should be fought together; there is no one solution for everyone. In a sense, "it is the philosophy of democratic decentralization and Indian Panchayati Raj. In Panchayati Raj, there is so much of promise and also so much of frustration that the promise is not met". M.P Bezbaruah (2014).
But "All the central sponsored schemes are stop gap arrangements rather than a permanent one, due to poor implementation of the programme. Still a larger number of Indian population remains in the grip of poverty for decades with frustrating hope of melioration in near future." ( Shankar and Shah 2009).
"Widespread poverty, environmental conditions, the use of natural resources, and economic, social development is closely linked to population growth, distribution." (ICPD, Danniel C Maquire). From the above cited opinion, it is to be said that the growth of population is directly related to the environment.
Problem to be addressed: Karbi Anglong District is still dominated by widespread poverty, presence of marginal labourers, absence of good transport system, existence of lopsided industrial pattern, low electricity consumption etc. There are large numbers of people who work from dawn to dusk to earn a living but are not able to procure two square meals for a day, not to speak of having adequate clothing, shelter, education, recreation etc. The majority of the people have been living in the hilly places of Karbi Anglong, is known for its poverty and backwardness. Mostly the people are illiterate. The tertiary and industrial sectors have not developed till now. It is important to note down that the primary occupation is not sufficient to meet their subsistence needs. Under such a situation, they seek part time employment in a meagre income. Disguised unemployment is a major issue of the villagers. A new approach to poverty reduction is necessary and utmost essential in the present situation of the country.
The parameter is poverty, to reduce poverty in Karbi Anglong through providing regular works, which will reduce disease, hunger, ill-health, malnutrition and general degradation of human life. Another parameter which can be able to create durable assets through local economy within 5km of the works which are locally based on resources like water conservation, water harvesting, drought proofing including a forestation and tree plantation, constructing irrigation canals, including micro and minor irrigation works, horticulture and rural connectivity are the basic infrastructures of any economy to be developed.      The above table indicates the existing Below Poverty Level of population of India. The poor are now ready to thrive, for betterment of their lives but they face the serious problem of sustainability, it becomes the biggest challenge for India how to attain sustainability with improvement of the lives of the poor. Though Central Government has given fund and power to the Panchayat, yet they are mostly without functionaries. the boarder line of poverty and all have to be crossed. Hence, incidence of poverty is very high in the tribal community in the district which is a tribal dominated area.

MGNREGA (Paired 't'test):
Taking the income earned before MGNREGA as ' ' and the income earned after MGNREGA as ' ' and then taking the null hypothesis that mean of difference is zero, we can write : = , which is equivalent to test , = 0 : < , as we want to conclude that MGNERGA increased income after participating at MGNERGA.
As we are having matched pairs, we use paired't' test and work out the test statistic as Degree of freedom = n-1 = 5-1 = 4 As is one sided, we shall apply a one tailed test (left tail because is of less than type) for determining the rejection region at 5% level of significance, using table of t distribution for 4 degrees of freedom.
The observed value of t is 1.8069, thus we accept at 5% level and conclude that MGNREGA has failed to increase income to the beneficiaries after participating at MGNREGA. . 60% of the beneficiaries are illiterate.

Socio-Economic
. 32.50% of the beneficiaries are primary passed.
. 32.50% of the beneficiaries are middle school studied.
. Nobody studied up to H.S.L.C level of education.
Holding of Land Size: (%) . . Nobody has a single account in local Gramain Bikas Bank.
. None has knowledge about information technology or any other communicative system of the present.
. Not a single NGO is found for the voice in support of them.
. During the election period, they see the political agent without the candidate, after the election, it is very far to meet and claim their demand. This is the view of the beneficiaries.
. When it is asked about the environmental degradation-if they continuously collect the resources from the forest, their view is that it is their right to survive, no body can die in hunger. 100% populations of surveyed areas are ignorant of degradation of the forest. The Common Property Resources play important role in livelihood opportunity receiving from nature.
. 12.5% of the beneficiaries are depending on agriculture, but they prefer to jhum cultivation.
. Remaining 87.5% of the population landless but alternatively they have animal husbandry farm which are not continued, hence they directly depended on Non Timber forest product. The Scio-economic conditions obliged the people to depend on Non-Timber Forest Product (NTFP) like fuel wood, house building materials such as canes and bamboos, medical plants as well as green leafy vegetables and roots are important stuff gathered by the forest dwellers not only for self consumption but also to generate income.
Conclusions: "Combating Poverty" is the topic of Rio declaration (chapter 3 of Agenda 21); it is also in commitment to of the Copenhagen Declaration on the social development. Agenda 21 emphasized that poverty is a complex multi dimensional problem with origins in both National and International domains. No uniform solution can be found for global application. Rather, Country should have specific programmers' to solve the problem with the international efforts, as well as the parallel process of creating as supportive international environment.
In the years, following the 1992 Rio Conference has witnessed the enormously increasing absolute poverty in developing countries and complexity of the poverty issue could end the social fabric.
The General Assembly, in its 1997 Poverty for the Future Implementation of agenda 21 decided that the poverty eradication should over ride them of sustainable development for the coming years.
Poverty eradication is address in chapter 11 of the Johannesburg plan of implementation (2002), stressed the following points of requirement for sustainable development with poverty reduction, includes: