From Global Standards to Local Fields: Redefining Labour Through MGNREGS in Kerala’s Tribal Heartlands – An Interrogation of ILO Norms

This study explores the transformative intersection between global labour norms and local governance innovations by interrogating the application of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Decent Work framework within India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Focusing on the tribal districts of Wayanad, Idukki, and Palakkad in Kerala—regions marked by both ecological distinctiveness and socio-economic vulnerability—the research critically examines how labour is redefined as a right, a resource, and a site of empowerment. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach that integrates decade-long secondary data (2014–2025), policy documents, visual analytics, and field-based narratives, the paper analyzes the systemic underrepresentation of Scheduled Tribes (STs) in MGNREGS despite constitutional entitlements. In response, Kerala’s “Tribal Plus” strategy is foregrounded as a model of localised governance—featuring tribal resource facilitation, culturally contextual asset creation, and decentralized grievance redressal—which reanimates the ILO’s abstract norms into meaningful rural realities. By bridging theoretical constructs with empirical insight, the study not only critiques the performative inadequacies of labour-centric policies but also offers a replicable blueprint for rights-based rural employment. It advances the discourse on labour justice, especially in postcolonial and pluralistic societies, and contributes a timely intervention in the global conversation on inclusive development, indigenous agency, and institutional accountability.