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Paper short abstract

The paper examines women’s participation in a recent urban public works program in India. Women, especially those outside the labour force, show significantly higher interest, enabled by the program’s locally available, flexible design that eases entry or return to the labour market.

Paper long abstract

In September 2022, Rajasthan Government launched the Indira Gandhi Rozgar Guarantee Yojana- Urban (IRGY) in Rajasthan. Based on the lines of India's long running rural public works program, MGNREGA, IRGY was launched to guarantee 125 days of wage employment in a year to every urban household in the state in local public works. While extensive literature discusses the impact of MGNREGA on rural workers, especially women, and its role as a safety net (see, for example, Khera & Nayak, 2009), there is little evidence on what role could an employment guarantee play in the urban informal economy. Based on two rounds of surveys of 400 households in 20 urban slums in two cities of Rajasthan- Jaipur and Udaipur, this paper is one of the early attempts to empirically assess the impacts of the program. Using a mixed methods approach, the paper identifies the determinants of participation in the program. It finds that women are significantly more likely than men to participate in it. Among them, a subsection of women who are out-of-the-labour-force (currently engaged in housework) are most likely to participate. The findings indicate that IRGY facilitates women’s entry or re-entry into the urban labor force by offering flexible employment close to home and provides a fallback option for those already engaged in informal labor.