Lakshman 2006 EG Signs of Transformation.pdf

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Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Employment guarantee signs of transformation

Nirmala Lakshman

A substantial social audit reveals that in the harsh terrain of

Dungarpur, Rajasthan, where daily living poses a constant

challenge, employment on public works has risen to

unprecedented levels over the last two months.

A QUIET revolution appears to be taking place in manyimpoverished rural districts across the country. The NationalRural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which came intoforce on February 2, is having a perceptible impact on thesedistricts. In Dungarpur in Rajasthan, one of the six districts in

the State chosen for the first phase of the NREGAimplementation, a substantial social audit revealed that in thisharsh terrain, where daily living poses a constant challenge,employment on public works has risen to unprecedented levelsover the last two months. About half of all families in ruralDungarpur now have one household member employed underthe NREGA.

The social audit, which took place at the end of April, involvedaround 600 participants from 11 States. The Astha Sansthanand Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) helped in theimplementation of the social audit. The audit participantsorganised themselves into groups of padyatris, and in a ten-daymarch, these groups spread awareness about the NREGA andcompiled reports on implementation of the NREGA across thedistrict. They also verified the extent to which the entitlementspromised by the legislation had reached the people.

The NREGA is the first step towards realising the right to work,which is included in the Constitution as one of the DirectivePrinciples. It says, "The State shall in particular direct its policytowards securing ... that the citizens, men and women equallyhave the right to an adequate means of livelihood." The NREGAessentially addresses urgent and immediate issues of hungerand deprivation, since it is this lack of livelihood, lack of foodsecurity, and endemic poverty that sends rural households intothe downward spiral of destitution. In the context of acutedistress and deprivation in many parts of the country, the newlaw impels the state to take clear responsibility for providing asocial safety net for every poor rural household. However, as

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economist and social activist Jean Dreze says, legislation alonewill not guarantee employment, continuous mobilisation isrequired. The law is being implemented in 200 of the poorestdistricts in this initial phase and is expected to cover the entirecountry within five years. All rural households are eligible toregister for work and the gram panchayat must issue a `jobcard' that will be valid for five years. The card records thenumber of days worked, wages paid, unemployment benefitsreceived and other particulars and is a tool to preventcorruption. The job must be within a five-kilometre distance of the applicant's home. Beneficiaries are entitled to the statutory

minimum wage applicable in each State and an unemploymentallowance must be paid if employment is not provided within 15days of the receipt of the application for work. The employmentguarantee is limited to 100 days of work per household a year.

During the social audit exercise in Dungarpur district, thepadyatris found that in almost every village, people were awareof their entitlement to 100 days of work a year although manywere not aware of the specific details of the entitlement. Themarchers were given a village questionnaire, a worksitequestionnaire, and a panchayat questionnaire to collectinformation. At the end of the march, a panel discussion washeld with academics, senior bureaucrats from other States aswell as the Collector of Dungarpur, Manju Rajpal. Coordinatedby social activist Aruna Roy of the MKSS, the panel raised a

host of issues that reflected not only the challenges in makingsuch a far-reaching piece of legislation a reality, but also thepositive effects of having such a system in place.

While there will obviously be a great deal of variability inNREGA implementation across States and across regions, theDungarpur experience shows that despite some problems, thereis a significant leap forward in employment, and the localadministration is giving the issue highest priority, according toJean Dreze. The social audit found that all the work wasorganised by gram sabhas, and the sense of legal entitlementshored up by the significant impact of the Right to InformationAct in Rajasthan has led to a culture of transparency andaccountability in this district. For example, muster rolls werefound at almost every worksite without any evidence of havingbeen tampered with. Another positive outcome is that close to

80 per cent of the labourers in this area were women (as themen would typically migrate for work), and therefore theNREGA is making an impact on the earning capacities of womenas well, which will positively affect gender equations in thecommunity. Social activist Sowmya Sivakumar said thatwomen's work, which is undervalued, will now be assesseddifferently and lead to their empowerment. She also noted thatthere was a demand for some payment in grain rather thancash by many women in the district.

The audit found that working women faced several problems.For instance, worksite facilities were almost non-existent.There was no medical or child care and in most cases mothershad to keep young infants in the open in the blistering heat, orleave them at home, often in the care of older children or other

family members. As Aruna Roy pointed out, the lack of crèchefacilities (required by the new law) meant that many motherscould not feed their children for up to eight hours in a day andthis in turn would adversely affect their children's nutrition.Siddharth of the National Law School, Jodhpur, who along withJean Dreze bicycled through several panchayats assessing theground situation, said that some mothers who were breastfeeding their children had to keep going back to their homes inthe middle of their work day to feed their children, causingthem great hardship.

The social audit revealed that there were problems with regardto the measurement of work as well as the wages paid. Manyworkers expressed the view that the quantum of work that wasrequired from an individual worker was excessive. There was

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no consideration of variations in the soil or the conditions of liftand lead that have a bearing on individual work output. Mostpeople ended up being paid only between Rs.40 and 60 a day(as opposed to the Rajasthan minimum daily wage of Rs.73).Social activist Nikhil Dey of the MKSS said most tasks were toodifficult to complete. In a recent article in The Hindu , MihirShah says that with regard to measuring labour, "there appearsto be a genuine difficulty, a deep contradiction at the heart of NREG implementation." The `Schedule of Rates' by which workdone is valued needs reform to "bring it in line with legalentitlements under the NREGA." Shah also rightly points out

that average rates do not give room for differences in soil,gender, age, and other factors that have a bearing onproductivity. In Dungarpur, this aspect was also stressed by K.Raju, Principal Secretary Government of Andhra Pradesh, whosaid there was a need to quantify actual productivity in everydistrict through work-time-motion studies, and for tasks to befixed according to soil conditions so that every worker can earnthe minimum wage in seven hours. Interestingly, it is reportedthat Andhra Pradesh has recently revised the schedule of rateson such task-related norms.

Apart from this, there were other problems that the Dungarpursocial audit revealed, such as the lack of adequateadministrative staff, which affected the NREGA implementation.An observer from Andhra Pradesh also reported that there was

no work available in some villages and the people had to travelto neighbouring villages to find it. However, Jean Dreze says,"With the activation of the administrative machinery,employment is being generated on an unprecedented scale.This has never happened before, outside periods of severedrought (and) further employment opportunities are likely tobe created through `multiplier effects', as NREGA wagesrepresent a big injection of purchasing power in this district,where non-agricultural economic activities are few and farbetween."

The NREGA also represents an opportunity for asset creation,according to academic and social activist Reetika Khera. Unlesswork was seen as being productive by the villagers themselves,it would not be useful. Creating water harvesting facilities andmaking roads and bunds would enhance the economic

productivity of the region. Reetika Khera points out, "theusefulness of works undertaken through the NREGA can beenhanced considerably if shelf of works are evolved withgreater public participation." Man Singh of the Wagad MazdoorKisan Sangathan stressed the primacy of water harvestingprojects and recommended that the work under NREGA shouldultimately enhance all land and not just public land.

Raja Kutty, Director of the National Institute of RuralDevelopment, said that while the social audit revealed manypositive trends, several administrative and policy issues remainthat have to be squarely dealt with. In the context of a fairlyresponsive and sensitive local government in Dungarpur, theseissues could be raised and corrective measures could beevolved because of continuous monitoring. As Nikhil Dey

emphasised, the gram sabhas should monitor work underNREGA every six months and take up the responsibility of examining records, checking muster rolls, looking atexpenditure, and assessing work site situations.

Whatever the problems, the experience of Dungarpur can bereplicated across the country if there is a strong commitmentfrom various stakeholders involved in rural governance. TheDungarpur social audit clearly demonstrates that with publicmonitoring, transparency of administrative functioning, and anempowered population, not only is corruption minimised, butdevelopment that transforms the lives of the poor is anattainable reality.

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