Funds are made available to districts based on employment demand and the need for material. Figure 1 presents the trend of fund availability and the expenditure incurred under the scheme in Pune.

_{Figure 1: Fund Available and Expenditure (Rs Crore)}

• In 2019-20, the year before the pandemic, expenditure declined by 25% over 2018-19.
• In 2020-21, expenditure increased by 71% compared to 2019-20; however, in comparison to 2018-19, the increase was only 28%.
• In 2021-22, expenditure increased over 2020-21. This is unlike most districts, where expenditure fell in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21.

_{Figure 2: Cumulative Fund Available and Expenditure Between 2017-18 and 2021-22 (Rs Crore)}

• Between 2017-18 and 2021-22, the largest expenditure was in the block of Indapur, while the lowest was in Velhe.
• Pune city, being an urban area, is not covered under the scheme.
• In 10 out of 13 blocks where the scheme is implemented, cumulative expenditure exceeded the cumulative funds available.

Of the total funds available with a district, some amount can remain unspent at the end of a financial year for various reasons. Or, in other cases, expenditure can exceed funds available, which indicates a shortage of funds. The extent of funds spent out of the total funds available is called the ‘rate of utilisation’. 
Figure 3 shows out of the total funds available with the district, how much was unspent at the end of the financial year, and its annual rate of utilisation.

_{Figure 3: Unspent Balance and Rate of Utilisation}

• The district has faced a shortage of funds in all five years.
• The shortage of funds in absolute terms has been continuously increasing.
• As a proportion of fund availability too, the shortage of funds has increased from 4% in 2017-18 to 11% in 2021-22.

_{Figure 4: Unspent Balance/ Fund Shortage in Blocks (Rs lakh)}

• 8 out of 13 blocks reported a shortage of funds in all five years.
• One block (Mulshi) had unspent balance in all five years.
• In 2021-22, Indapur and Baramati blocks had the highest shortage of funds.

Total expenditure under MGNREGS occurs on four components: wages, material, taxes paid on buying materials, and lastly the administration. The last two are small components. Hence, only wages and material expenses have been analysed below.

_{Figure 5: Components of Expenditure}

• Expenditure in individual components shows a varying pattern over these five years.
• In 2020-21, total expenditure increased by Rs 11 crore. Of this, wage payments increased by Rs 6 crore, while expenses on material increased by Rs 3 crore.
• The share of wages and material in total expenditure also shows an inconsistent trend in these five years.
• In 2020-21, the share of expenses on admin was 10%, which is much higher than the 6% upper limit prescribed for the scheme.

Sometimes, either because of excess expenditure over funds available or because of procedural delays, payment for the work done can be due at the end of the period. This amount is called ‘payment due’. This amount is generally paid in the subsequent period. Figure 6 shows the trend of total payment due and its breakup across two major components, wages and material.

_{Figure 6: Total Payment Due (Rs Lakh)}

• The amount of payment due was declining in the pre-pandemic years. In the last two years, however, this amount has seen a steep increase.
• At the end of 2020-21, more than 90% of dues were on account of material. At the end of 2021-22, however, more than a third of payment due was towards wages.
• At the end of 2021-22, Indapur (Rs 1.1 crore) and Bhor (Rs 32 lakh) were the blocks with the highest payment due.

Under the scheme, all rural households whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work, and demand the same, are to be given such work. In this context, there are three datapoints: how many persons demanded (applied for) work; of those who demanded, how many were offered work; of those who were offered work, how many availed the work. These indicators are presented below.

_{Figure 7: Trends in Employment Demanded, Offered and Availed (No. of Persons in 1,000)}

• In the first three years, almost everyone who demanded employment under the scheme was offered employment. In the two pandemic years, the proportion was 98% and 97%.
• However, in all five years, the number of persons who availed employment was much lower than the number who were offered.
• The number of persons demanding employment, as well as those availing it, were declining in the pre-pandemic years.
• Similar to trends across country, in 2020-21, demand for employment increased by 60% and the number of persons availing work by 57%.
• Even with this large increase, the number of person-days generated in 2020-21 (7.5 lakh) was below that in 2017-18 (7.8 lakh).
• In 2021-22, contrary to trends across the country, where a decline was seen in both employment demanded and availed, the number of persons increased in both categories in Pune.
• In the last two years, when there has been an increase in the number of persons demanding and availing employment, the average number of days a person has worked in a year fell to 20 in 2020-21 and to 17 in 2021-22. In 2019-20, this was 23 days. 
• The average number of days a person has worked is much below the scheme’s target of 100 days. This needs further research to identify the underlying reasons.
• Of the households that were offered employment, the proportion that completed 100 days of work in a financial year ranged from 5.8% (in 2021-22) to 8.5% (in 2018-19).

Figure 8 compares the district with the state on the percentage of people who availed employment out of those who were offered employment.

_{Figure 8: Out of All Who Were Offered Employment, What Proportion Availed It (%)}

• In all five years, the proportion is higher at the district level compared to the state level.
• The gap between the district and the state is in the range of 1 to 5 percentage points.

Figure 9 presents the employment data divided by gender.

_{Figure 9: Gender Disaggregated Data}

• Between 2017-18 and 2019-20, the person-days generated for both men and women declined.
• While 2020-21 saw a large increase in number of persons demanding and availing employment, the number of person-days generated for both men and women was below 2017-18 levels.
• The share of men and women in person-days shows an inconsistent, but mostly stable, trend. The share of women in overall work-days varies in the range of 43.5% to 46.5%.

Figure 10 represent the person-days availed, in absolute and relative terms, by the three social groups: Scheduled Tribes (STs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and others.

_{Figure 10: Employment for STs and SCs}

• All three population groups (SCs, STs and others) saw a decline in work-days between 2017-18 and 2019-20.
• In 2020-21 and 2021-22, when the pandemic-induced job market situation led to increased work under MGNREGS, the person-days for each of the three groups increased compared to 2019-20.
• The share of STs in work-days increased in the last two years, and was much higher than their share in the district population (3.7%).
• The share of SCs in work-days has declined in the last two years and is lower than their share in the district population (12.5%).

Given the importance of the scheme in generating livelihoods for a large number of people, different data points/information related to the scheme should be available and accessible by the common masses. Figure 11 compiles a list of essential data points/information regarding MGNREGS that would of interest to various stakeholders, and hence must be available and accessible for the district. 

The data points/information regarding MGNREGS is available on the MIS of the scheme: (http://mnregaweb4.nic.in/netnrega/MISreport4.aspx). The Data accessed on 20th June, 2022.

_{Transparency and Accountability Index for MGNREGS in Pune} 

Availability of Information and Comprehensiveness

• Information on funds available
  • Yes
• Information on funds utilized
  • Yes
• Information on funds for different components
  • Yes
• Delays in compensation and the reasons thereof'
  • Yes
• Status of beneficiaries’ accounts (frozen or unfrozen)
  • Details on number of frozen accounts is available, but beneficiaries may not be able to check their status.
• Information on ‘number of person-days’ of jobs generated
  • Yes
• Gender-wise disaggregation of beneficiaries’ data
  • Yes
• Disaggregation of beneficiaries’ data by social groups
  • Yes
• Availability of information on work/project undertaken
  • Yes
• Geographical granularity of the fiscal indicator
  • Houeshold

Accessibility

• Language of availability of information
  • English only (Addition of Hindi and Marathi may be more helpful to beneficiaries)
• Compatibility on devices
  • Phone, tablet, laptop friendly. But there’s no back button due to Captcha, which makes it a little cumbersome for users.

Timeliness

• Frequency of data updation
  • Real-Time

Relevance

• How relevant would users find it
  • It is largely useful and relevant for policymakers, civil society organizations (CSOs) and researchers. It can be made more relevant to beneficiaries. For instance, data on the number of projects, job-card holders, etc. is useful for researchers and CSOs; information on convergence of MGNREGS with other schemes and so on will be useful for policymakers and administrators, etc. However, beneficiaries cannot check their particular account status or delayed compensations, etc. 

Reliability

• Whether the data is reliable
  • While Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit reports for MGNREGS are available, authenticating with MIS as well as ground-truthing is essential.

Accountability and Citizen’s Participation

• Social Audit schedules
  • Social audit calendars are not available in the recent years.
• Availability of social audit reports
  • Gram Panchayat social audit reports are not available possibly because these Panchayats have not been selected for a social audit in the recent past.
• Participation of beneficiaries in Gram Sabhas
  • Not available for recent years.
• Availability of details on financial misappropriation and recovery
  • Yes
• Availability of information on Grievance Redressal Mechanism for beneficiaries
  • Ombudsperson’s status and complaint register are available, but may need to be updated. Beneficiaries can check the status of complaints at: http://mnregaweb4.nic.in/netnrega/citizen_html/compdetail.aspx?source=national&Digest=nck/Hyo9Jns5wL4J/4pLUg