A well-intentioned scheme, MGNREGA, has been mired in red tape and corruption, and government needs to step in quickly to ensure that its potential is realised, says Bharat Dogra
India is among the very few developing countries that have a rural employment guarantee scheme. Apart from providing employment during the lean farm-work season, the scheme can make a big contribution to important needs such as water and soil conservation. Workers can get employment within or very near their village, and the work will improve the sustainable development prospects of the villages.
The scheme enables people from any village to seek employment using simple procedures described in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and the ‘guarantee’ component ensures that jobs must be provided within a fixed period. If employment is not provided within that time, a compensatory payment will have to be made to the concerned workers. However, this provision was watered down by the authorities by adding the corollary that compensation payment is subject to availability of funds. On the whole, the compensation component has been implemented only very rarely.
Seen in this light, the courage of the decision taken by women workers from poor households in the very remote village of Dhok (in the desert district of Barmer in Rajasthan) to stand up for their right for compensatory payment becomes clear. As they had demanded work using the proper legal procedure but did not get employment, they demanded compensation. When this was not provided, with the help of mahila sangathan (women’s rights organisation) activist Anita Soni, they formed a group and came to the block office to meet the concerned officials. The officials promised to consider their demand sympathetically but the women were firm that if compensation was not provided, they would go right up to the state capital, Jaipur, to ensure that their demand was met.
The Barmer situation is a reflection of much wider problems in the implementation of MGNREGA. The budgetary allocation for MGNREGA is much less than the real need to fulfil the guarantee part of the law. In many states, the MGNREGA wage is lower than the agricultural wage rate, and needs to be increased significantly. Further, its implementation is mired in widespread corruption. Systems of transparency and social audits which could have helped to reduce corruption have not been implemented properly. On the other hand, arbitrary actions brought the much needed law to a standstill in West Bengal for several months.
Activists who have been trying to improve the working of the scheme at the grassroots level assembled at a national convention and raised several demands. Government needs to take overdue steps at the national level to ensure that MGNREGA is able to live up to its rich potential and the expectations of people.
(The writer is a senior freelance journalist based in Delhi. He is honorary convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now.)
from Webdoux