“The government should pay people to dig holes in the ground and then fill them up… The point is, it doesn’t matter what they do as long as the government is creating jobs,” economist JM Keynes emphatically stressed when the Great Depression hit in the 1930s. “We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of federal highways in the 1950s,” US president Barack Obama remarked earlier last month acknowledging the fact that recession had claimed nearly two million jobs. Beyond figures and jargons, employment indeed remains the biggest challenge for any nation. And more so in India which has around 40 million unemployed people in its rural belt and another 80 million in its urban counterpart. Not that the government has made no attempts to solve the problem. A series of rural employment schemes like Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana and Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana are testimonial to it. As is National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) that was launched by the union government three years ago. For the first time in the history of independent India employment was made available on demand — entailing timebound employment guarantee and wage payment within 15 days of filling the application or else unemployment allowance! For Somnath Sethi, a landless labourer from Ganjam district in Orissa, the Act has meant a lot. A beneficiary of NREGA, he swears by it. For him, ‘Job card no. 05986, Savings a/c 11631830681’ is a whole new identity. An identity that promises 100 days of employment for his family.
The rationale: Just two years back, the mega development programme in which the government had invested around Rs 40,000 crore invited flak for being able to provide employment of just 90.5 crore persondays in 200 districts in 2006-07. But today the official data is an impressive array of figures — 934.7 crore workdays has been created across 615 rural districts in India since. In a country where 73% of India’s poor, according to World Bank estimates, live in rural areas, the achievement of the programme cannot indeed be underestimated by any standards. However, critics continue to question if the programme, which Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister of Rural Development claims will help ‘India wipe out poverty by 2015’, is the best alternative.
On the other hand some voice for it. “It has pushed up daily agricultural wage across states and seems to have curbed the incidence of farmers suicides,” Amir Ullah Khan, Economist, India Development Foundation, a Gurgaon based think tank says.
The rural development ministry’s data clearly states that the average daily minimum wage across rural India has risen from Rs 65 to Rs 85 in the last two years. “Majority of India’s population depends on agriculture for sustenance. But there can be a situation of agricultural growth minus employment growth. So we need to attack rural poverty directly while waiting for the trickledown affect to bring change,” explains Rita Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development.
Even in a period when fiscal expansion is seen as necessary for economic regeneration, the direction of public spending matters greatly. The Pay Commission revisions have injected money in the economy but a large portion of it is likely to get diverted into savings. “Fiscal policy that provides more wage income directly to unskilled workers and in rural areas is likely to have a better multiplier effect. The poor have a high propensity to consume and that’s precisely what we need right now — that money generated be spent,” says Jayati Ghosh, Chairperson, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
On the other hand some voice for it. “It has pushed up daily agricultural wage across states and seems to have curbed the incidence of farmers suicides,” Amir Ullah Khan, Economist, India Development Foundation, a Gurgaon based think tank says.
The rural development ministry’s data clearly states that the average daily minimum wage across rural India has risen from Rs 65 to Rs 85 in the last two years. “Majority of India’s population depends on agriculture for sustenance. But there can be a situation of agricultural growth minus employment growth. So we need to attack rural poverty directly while waiting for the trickledown affect to bring change,” explains Rita Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development.
Even in a period when fiscal expansion is seen as necessary for economic regeneration, the direction of public spending matters greatly. The Pay Commission revisions have injected money in the economy but a large portion of it is likely to get diverted into savings. “Fiscal policy that provides more wage income directly to unskilled workers and in rural areas is likely to have a better multiplier effect. The poor have a high propensity to consume and that’s precisely what we need right now — that money generated be spent,” says Jayati Ghosh, Chairperson, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Paradox of welfare : The self-immolation bid by Tapas Soren, the 34year-old contractor of Sarwaha village in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand in an attempt to raise voice against corruption in NREGA is still fresh in the nation’s memories. The seven-minute video on YouTube where he narrates his plight before setting himself ablaze will make it difficult for the dust to settle down completely. A few other independent studies are also trying to document the misses of the programme.
The NREGA Survey 2008 conducted by GB Pant Social Science Institute in association with Centre for Development Economics and the Institute of Human Development found that 81% of NREGA labourers live in kutcha houses and 61% of them are illiterate. The Survey also revealed that the NREGA workers had to put up with numerous infringements of their rights — lack of work, delays in wage payment, non-payment of minimum wages, absence of worksite facilities amongst others. It states that in Khendra Khurd village, Palamau district in Jharkhand, 100 out of 108 names listed in muster rolls turned out to be fake. Also, a whopping 65% never made an application and another 71% were not even aware of the need to apply.
The NREGA Survey 2008 conducted by GB Pant Social Science Institute in association with Centre for Development Economics and the Institute of Human Development found that 81% of NREGA labourers live in kutcha houses and 61% of them are illiterate. The Survey also revealed that the NREGA workers had to put up with numerous infringements of their rights — lack of work, delays in wage payment, non-payment of minimum wages, absence of worksite facilities amongst others. It states that in Khendra Khurd village, Palamau district in Jharkhand, 100 out of 108 names listed in muster rolls turned out to be fake. Also, a whopping 65% never made an application and another 71% were not even aware of the need to apply.
Stepping stones : To counter corruption at the ground level, the government has initiated a process of change in the Act itself which makes it mandatory for states to ensure that all the NREGA workers have savings accounts either in banks or post offices from July 2008 onwards. The special drive by rural development ministry saw a massive 58 million accounts being opened in rural India. However, a large chunk of workers, particularly in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, is bereft of the critical advantage owing to lack of political will.
There are also reports of funds being siphoned off directly from the savings accounts (Soren’s case much highlighted the same). Though some like James Manor point out at the silver lining even in this bleak scenario. They maintain that transparency mechanisms of the saving accounts makes it harder to steal money from NREGA than from other government programmes.
“The bank accounts may have caused some inconvenience to the workers because most of them are unfamiliar with how they work and the branches are often far. In course of time the inconvenience will diminish and poor will become aware of how to make use of this more secure means of handling money,” says Manor, Professor of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.
For regions without any banking facilities, the Rural Development Ministry is testing models like Business Correspondent or Smart Card to ensure workers under NREGA have access to banking services. The states are also trying to develop innovative methods to counter challenges. In Jalore, Rajasthan the district officials trained women to work as Mates — members who maintain muster rolls, job cards and also measure the work done by the NREGA workers.
Majority of the NREGA workers also, interestingly, are women. The payments are made on the basis of work completed and not on the time spent on the site. “Flexibility of time helped a lot. The productivity increased because the women wanted to finish the work early and go back home,” says Rohit Kumar, ex-DM, Jalore.
However, the sore point is the nonperformance of states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, where a large section of country’s below poverty line (BPL) families live. “Whether it is lack of political will or no will and power on the part of the bureaucracy, NREGA has not got its due attention in these states,” says a senior Rural Development Ministry official. Social assets Close to 21 lakhs works taken up under NREGA across the country mostly relating to water conservation activities like construction of tanks, renovation of traditional water bodies, drought proofing would definitely have impact in regenerating rural ecology. NREGA has huge potential for regenerating village economy in India, but only if its focus remains on the creation of productive assets, a study by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) conducted last year said. “Our study shows that people essentially want two things — productive assets and regular wages. Wherever the Act has failed to meet these needs, its implementation has collapsed,” says Sunita Narain, director, CSE.
Given the pitfalls in implementation of the Programme, be it on account of lack of political will, bureaucratic hurdles or corrupt practices, it is anyone’s guess that much remains to be achieved. However, the buzz remains that NREGA has created flutters amongst policy makers and critiques of development policy in the country.
There are also reports of funds being siphoned off directly from the savings accounts (Soren’s case much highlighted the same). Though some like James Manor point out at the silver lining even in this bleak scenario. They maintain that transparency mechanisms of the saving accounts makes it harder to steal money from NREGA than from other government programmes.
“The bank accounts may have caused some inconvenience to the workers because most of them are unfamiliar with how they work and the branches are often far. In course of time the inconvenience will diminish and poor will become aware of how to make use of this more secure means of handling money,” says Manor, Professor of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.
For regions without any banking facilities, the Rural Development Ministry is testing models like Business Correspondent or Smart Card to ensure workers under NREGA have access to banking services. The states are also trying to develop innovative methods to counter challenges. In Jalore, Rajasthan the district officials trained women to work as Mates — members who maintain muster rolls, job cards and also measure the work done by the NREGA workers.
Majority of the NREGA workers also, interestingly, are women. The payments are made on the basis of work completed and not on the time spent on the site. “Flexibility of time helped a lot. The productivity increased because the women wanted to finish the work early and go back home,” says Rohit Kumar, ex-DM, Jalore.
However, the sore point is the nonperformance of states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, where a large section of country’s below poverty line (BPL) families live. “Whether it is lack of political will or no will and power on the part of the bureaucracy, NREGA has not got its due attention in these states,” says a senior Rural Development Ministry official. Social assets Close to 21 lakhs works taken up under NREGA across the country mostly relating to water conservation activities like construction of tanks, renovation of traditional water bodies, drought proofing would definitely have impact in regenerating rural ecology. NREGA has huge potential for regenerating village economy in India, but only if its focus remains on the creation of productive assets, a study by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) conducted last year said. “Our study shows that people essentially want two things — productive assets and regular wages. Wherever the Act has failed to meet these needs, its implementation has collapsed,” says Sunita Narain, director, CSE.
Given the pitfalls in implementation of the Programme, be it on account of lack of political will, bureaucratic hurdles or corrupt practices, it is anyone’s guess that much remains to be achieved. However, the buzz remains that NREGA has created flutters amongst policy makers and critiques of development policy in the country.
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