Due to the non-availability of a standardized scale to measure knowledge of village councillors about MGNREGA, it was thought necessary to construct a test for the purpose and an attempt has been made to develop a knowledge test. Relevant items covering all aspects of MGNREGA were collected from various sources based on the concept generated by the Meghalaya State Rural Employment Society. After getting a jury opinion on the items, 48 items were selected and administer to thirty non-sample respondents. Finally, 20 knowledge items were included in the final format of the knowledge test based on the difficulty index ranges from 30 to 70, discrimination index from 0.30 to 0.80 and point- biserial correlation coefficient. The reliability of the knowledge test was measured with the help of the split-half method and reliability coefficients were found to be r=0.56, which indicates that this knowledge test is quite reliable. A total of 120 VEC members covering 30 villages implementing MGNREGA were selected purposively for the final study covering two blocks each from three districts of the state. Results revealed that only 17.50 per cent of respondents knew that MGNREGA followed a 4 tier-system in Meghalaya, while more than 65.00 per cent of the respondents had knowledge on the programme officer. A high percentage of 91.66 per cent knew that machinery are not permitted under this programme. Results also show that about 46.66 per cent of the village councillors belonged to the medium category of knowledge level, followed by high level (30.83%) and low level (22.50%) respectively.

Keyword: Knowledge test; MGNREGA; Village councillors; Village employment council (VEC); Job card.