Paper Title
AN Evaluation Of Rural Poverty Alleviation Programmes With Special Reference To Mgnrega In Karnataka State Of India

Abstract
Unemployment breeds poverty, poverty is one of the most critical issues in the country. It is conventionally measured by the income and expenditure level that can sustain a bare minimum standard of living. But measuring standard of living is a tricky issue. Income or consumption levels and access to minimum level of social amenities are the important aspects of living standards. The factors giving supplementary information of poverty are life expectantly, infant mortality rate, nutrition literacy, access to primary schools, health clinic and drinking water etc., Absolute poverty views the poverty line as the expenditure required to purchase subsistence bundle of items by the individuals . Rural Development in India is one of the most important factors for the growth of Indian economy. India is regarded as the land of villages. Out of 1,210,276,932 (121 crore) Indians 833,087,662 (68.84 crore ) live in rural areas while 377,105,760 (31.16 crore) live in urban areas. Poverty, unemployment, farmers deaths, drought, low level of communications, illiteracy have increased during the last few decades. In order to overcome all these problems especially rural unemployment, Government of India enacted NREGA came in to force on September 7, 2005 and its implementation was notified in a phased manner. During I st phase, it introduced in 200 most backward Districts of the country on February 2, 2006. 130 Districts were further included under NREGA during phase II with effect from April 1, 2007. This Act guarantees 100 days of employment in each financial year to rural adult members of the family who are willing to do unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wages. MGNREAGA is the largest employment guarantee programme in the world providing work to 5 crore rural household or 10 crore workers. Ex-Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh released an anthology�s of research studies on the MGNREGA called "MGNREGA Sameeksha" in New Delhi on 14 July 2012, about a year before the CAG report. Arun Roy and Nikhil said that "the MGNREGA Sameeksha is a significant innovation to evaluate policy and deliver. The anthology draws on independent assessments of MGNREGA conducted by Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Indian Institutes of Technology and others in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published from 2008 to 2011.This paper studies about An Evaluation of Rural Poverty Alleviation Programmes with Special Reference to MGNREGA in Karnataka State of India. Keywords - Rural Development, Poverty, MGNREGA, Employment, Wages .