What Determines the Success and Failure of ‘100 Days Work’ at the Panchayat Level? A Study of Birbhum District in West Bengal

West Bengal is not among the best performing states with regard to NREGA. The performance of all districts in the state is not equally discouraging. Some districts, in fact, have done well in generating good number of average person-days per household or in distributing the benefits of work in favour of the marginalised population (such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes). For the detailed case study we have considered the district of Birbhum. The case study finds high inter-block variations in terms of average person-days created and utilisation of NREGA funds. [IDSK OP 16].