Published Paper Details:

This study evaluates the causal outcomes of independent wage acquisition through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on the economic independence and intra-household agency of rural women. Drawing on primary data from 100 female participants in the Belabar and Dukli Gram Panchayats of West Tripura, the paper examines how transitioning from unrecognized, unpaid domestic labor to formal, institutionalized public wage work alters women's financial status and household bargaining power. The findings show that MGNREGA significantly enhances economic autonomy, with 87% of surveyed women reporting direct economic independence. This income supports essential household expenditures (58%), improves consumption standards (67%), and fosters integration into financial networks via Self-Help Groups (50%). Crucially, an inverse relationship was observed between labor volume and household decision-making power: women in Dukli recorded fewer workdays under the scheme but demonstrated higher household decision-making authority (81.6%) compared to Belabar (65%). This divergence highlights that while MGNREGA provides essential survival capital in resource-constrained border areas, its transformation into structural household agency is optimized when supported by broader local economic opportunities.