nrega
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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENTNEW DELHI
THESIS REPORT ON
“CRITICAL EVALUATION OF NREGA”
SUBMITTED TO:
PROF. SUMANTA SHARMAPROF. VIJAY KR. BODDU
EXTERNAL GUIDE:
MR. RAVI RANJAN
SUBMITTED BY
EKTA SABHARWALBATCH: PGP/FW/2008-10
REGISTRATION ID NO.: DF/08/10-M-104
EKTA SABHARWAL
ABSTRACT
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA) guarantees
100 days of wage employment in a financial year to any rural household
whose adult members are willing to participate in unskilled manual work The
Act is an important step towards realization of the right to work and aims at
arresting out-migration of rural households in search of employment
simultaneously enhancing people’s livelihood on a sustained basis, by
developing the economic and social infrastructure in rural areas.
The present study on evaluation of the NREG Scheme is intended to assess
the impact of this scheme on the overall quality of life of people by gauging
different parameters associated with the improvement of overall quality of life
of people such as impact on income – earning levels of each household,
expenditure on food and non-food items, household and cultivable assets
creation by the beneficiaries. This study also captured the impact of the
scheme to arrest out-migration, views and feed-back of the beneficiaries on
various faucets of implementation of the scheme at grass root level right from
the stage of issue of job cards etc.
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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
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SIGNATORY PAGE
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THESIS TOPIC APPROVAL LETTER
From: THESIS <[email protected]>
Subject: Thesis Topic Approval (M) FW 08-10
Cc: [email protected], [email protected]
Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 5:25 PM
Dear Ekta Sabharwal,
This is to inform that your thesis proposal on “Critical Evaluation of NREGA”, to be conducted under the guidance of Mr. Ravi Ranjan is hereby approved and the topic registration id number is DF/08/10-M-104
Make it a comprehensive thesis by ensuring that all the objectives as stated by you in your synopsis are met using appropriate research design; a thesis should aim at adding value to the existing knowledge base.
You are required to correspond with your internal guide Prof. Vijay Kr. Boddu at [email protected] Ph.-0124-3350714 by sending at least four response sheets (attached along with this mail) at regular intervals before 30th June 2010 last date for thesis submission.
Regards,
Prof .Sumanta Sharma
Dean (Projects)
IIPM
Phone: +91 0124 3350701 (D)+91 0124 3350715 (Board)
PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104
NB: 1) A thesis would be rejected if there is any variation in the topic/title from the one approved and registered with us.
2) Students are required to prepare a handwritten 5- 7 pages summary of the thesis at the time of Viva.
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THESIS SYNOPSIS
DETAILS OF THE STUDENT:
NAME : EKTA SABHARWAL
BATCH : FW 2008-2010
SECTION : F-2
EMAIL : [email protected]
MOBILE : +91-9015159856
THESIS TOPIC : A Critical evaluation of NREGA
BATCH : FW-2008-2010
SPECIALIZATION : Finance & Marketing
INTRODUCTION TO THE AREA OF RESEARCH
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MGNREGA) is an Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on
August 25, 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for one hundred
days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural
household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the
statutory minimum wage of Rs. 100 per day. The Central government outlay
for scheme is Rs. 39,100 crores ($8 billion) in FY 2009-10.
This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the
rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living in rural India,
whether or not they are below the poverty line. Around one-third of the
stipulated work force is women. The government is planning to open a call
center, which upon becoming operational can be approached on the toll-free
number, 1800-345-22-44. It was initially called the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (NREGA) but was renamed on 2nd October, 2009.
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RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
To do an in-depth analysis of NREGA and its relevance in present context..
The study will aim to study:
To study the genesis and need for NREGA in India.
To enlist the distribution model adopted by NREGA
To evaluate the financial performance of NREGA for the last three years
across all major states.
To evaluate the effectiveness of NREGA in selected location in NCR
region (Suburbs).
To reveal using real time case studies on the usefulness on NREGA.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study may reveal some aspects of usefulness of NREGA in Indian
Context.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research work will be done from two sources: -
(1) Primary data
(2) Secondary data
Primary data will be collected by onsite interview of the Officials of NREGA.
The interview will be structured and open-ended questions based on literature
survey, will be asked.
Secondary data will be collected by reviewing different literatures, from
published books, management journals, articles published by the other
researchers. Other sources will include Ministry of Rural Development and
Website of NREGA.The information gathered would be tabulated and
presented in the final report.
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JUSTIFICATION FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been a subject
of lively debate during the last two years or so. Unfortunately, the factual
basis of this debate has been, so far, rather thin. This has made it possible
for extremist positions to flourish, without being put to the test of careful
evidence. Thus I have taken up this study on NREGA.
DETAILS OF THE EXTERNAL GUIDE
Name: Ravi Ranjan
Qualification: MBA
Designation: Relationship Manager
SUMMER TRAINING DETAILS
COMPANY : VARUN BEVERAGES
POSITION : Management Trainee
PERIOD OF WORK : 8 Weeks
PROJECT DETAILS : A comparative study on Slice versus Maaza
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXISTING CONTENTS IN THIS FILE
Preface
Contents
Background
The Study Area- Socio Economic Profiles
of Nuapada and Sidhi
Methodology
Survey Findings- Nuapada
Survey Findings- Sidhi
Comparative Analysis
Conclusion
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Chapter-1
Introduction
It has been over two years since the National Employment Guarantee Act
(NREGA) was implemented in 200 of the most backward districts of India and
over one year since it began in another 130 districts. Further, it has been
more than three years since the National Food for Work Programme
(NFFWP), the pilot scheme launched by the government as a precursor to the
NREGA, was implemented in 200 districts. The debate began then and
continues till date about the feasibility and utility of the NREGA. The topic
spurs an interest in everybody from all walks of life largely because of the
enormity of scale. The scheme is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world
and thus involves a proportionate amount of resources. However, what is truly
large about the scheme that more or less dwarfs the quantum of resources
being put into the scheme is the number of lives that it intends to touch and
the way in which it intends to touch them. .
The NREGA’s coverage has been expanded from 330 districts to all 604
districts of India beginning April, 2008. As the scheme is implemented
throughout the country and as works begin everywhere, the magnitude of
lives that will be touched by it will inevitably be massive. However, what is
uncertain is the actual impact of the Act on the lives and livelihoods of people.
Whether the Act actually makes a lasting impact on these millions of people it
proposes to touch will depend on the extent to which the nation is able to
extract the developmental potential of the Act. In this regard, as we move on
the path towards nationwide implementation of NREGA it becomes imperative
that we take stock of the experience so far in order to learn from the
successes as well as failures.
This paper attempts to do just that. There have been a number of studies that
look at the implementation of the act in terms of employment created as well
as issues of wages, processes of implementation, feedback mechanisms, etc.
However, with the NREGA just emerging out of its infancy, few studies have
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actually focused on an assessment of the impact of the NREGA in terms of
the realization of its development potential. With the overwhelming
considerations of ideology and corruption at the forefront, rarely any of the
studies have attempted to look into the actual assets being created and their
contribution towards long term development and sustained employment
generation in the villages. This paper tries to bridge this lacuna by attempting
to study the effectiveness of the assets created under the act.
At a time when the world is facing one of the worst food crises ever
witnessed, it becomes extremely pertinent to look at the effectiveness of the
NREGA in providing both short and long term food security through work on
improvement of agriculture and provision of water. Even the origins of the
NREGA lie in the drought relief programmes of the 19 th century which helped
provide purchasing power to agricultural workers in drought stricken areas.
Such a scheme would help curb starvation and hunger since the problem was
localized and a shortage in a drought stricken area simply needed to be met
by surpluses from elsewhere. A Food-for-Work scheme would then solve both
problems of selection and transfer of purchasing power to the needy. The
problem today is much different. The shortage is no longer localized and
therefore a mere transfer of purchasing power would not lead to a solution.
Moreover, with an ever increasing strain on our meager resources, we need
to take measures that will empower people to take care of their own needs
rather than depend on external agencies. NREGA has the potential to do just
that by providing people what they most need/desire at the village level. In
such a situation, it becomes extremely crucial to assess the impact of the
NREGA, both in providing short and long term relief.
There have been numerous success stories of economic and environmental
regeneration where year-round productive employment has been generated
as a result of community or NGO efforts. Such success has not been found in
the government employment guarantee schemes of the past. Yet, the
potential of NREGA in reaching the rural poor is unsurpassed as it is now
being implemented in all the districts of India. There is thus an urgent need to
study how such success stories can be made part of the employment
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guarantee schemes, what are the lacunae and drawbacks and how they can
be addressed.
Using primary data collected from two districts, Nuapada district in Orissa and
Sidhi district in Madhya Pradesh, we shall assess the potential of the NREGA
in providing food and livelihood security.
BACKGROUND
NREGA is going through a crucial phase. It is a bit early to quantify its impacts
definitively given that people are still grappling with implementation hitches.
The institutional mechanism required for implementation of such a massive
scheme have still not been completely set up. In order to make sure the
NREGA does not become redundant at the hands of the existing structure, a
new design has been evolved which demands a shift of power and
responsibility downwards to village level institutions. Thus, new roles assigned
to each instrument in this setup need to be clearly understood and
internalised by all. What is most difficult and which will take time, is, the
delegation of power by those higher up on the beauracratic ladder.
This transition of power and the friction generated as a result thereof, have
generated incessant negative media coverage on the performance of the
NREGA. This had triggered some uncertainty among the ranks of the
government as well as those skeptical about the programme regarding the
implementation of the Act. From the current financial year the Act covers the
entire country, giving the guarantee of 100 days employment to around 45
million rural households. As other public wage programmes like the SGRY
has been subsumed within NREGA, this will be the only operational wage
employment programme in the country. Being focused on regeneration of
village economy in the long term, the Act’s success or failure potentially
affects the entire rural development scenario in India. From the advocates of
the Act, the excessive focus on just employment creation has also narrowed
its larger objectives and potential. Without discounting the civil society’s
consistent monitoring of the implementation, programmes like NREGA cannot
be just examined on the basis of its short-term benefits.
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Performance according to official sources
Going by the national level government data, the NREGA has started to make
an impact, both in its short-term and long-term objectives. To recap, it has
performed far better than other employment programmes: a NREGA district
has created 45 lakh person days of employment a year in comparison to other
districts creating 14 lakhs a year using other programmes. That is the short-
term objective of NREGA: to create daily wage employment. On the long-term
objective of productive assets creation, each district under NREGA is creating
around 2000-4000 village assets a year. This is double of what has been
created under EAS and the SGRY earlier. Around a million assets have been
created in the last two years, a large number of them being water
conservation works.
However, the impact of some of these assets, such as check dams and ponds
can only be assessed after the rainy season. The monsoons should be the
period when these structures would be working to their potential, making an
impact on the rural economies. The survey, thus, would not be able to assess
the performance impact of these structures. However, as we shall see, there
are other structures which have an immediate visible impact, for instance,
wells and roads. These works in fact constitute the majority of the works being
undertaken in the study and their impact has been apparent during the
survey. We therefore, look mainly at the perceptions of the people about the
long term impacts of the act on their livelihood. This gives us a fair idea as to
the potential long term development impacts of the programme.
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Performance of the selected districts
Nuapada
The district in all has spent 21.77 crores on the implementation of the NREGA
in the last two years. It has provided 98% of the employment demanded so
far, generating a total of 18.62 person days. However, in the year 2007-08 the
district undertook water conservation works out of which only 4 were
completed and has rural connectivity works reported completion of 14 works.
Rural connectivity works clearly got a priority over water conservation works in
contrast to the year 2006-07 when the district undertook 44.68% work on
water conservation.
Sidhi
Sidhi spent 213.06 crores on the programme, providing almost 100%
employment against demand. It generated 264.2 lakh person days in the
process. Government data shows that in the year 2006-07, out of the total
works undertaken in the district, 59% were on water conservation. This figure
reduced slightly to 55.9% in the year 2007-08.
The Study Area: Socio Economic Profiles of Nuapada and Sidhi
We chose two districts from two states representing two distinct agro-ecological
zones.
District Agro-ecological Zone State
Nuapada Eastern Highlands Orissa
Siddhi Central Highlands Madhya Pradesh
The selection of the districts was based on the following overarching
parameters:
1. Must be implementing NREGA since March 2006. This is to allow at
least one year of NREGA implementation for an objective assessment.
2. Must have agriculture as the primary source of livelihood.
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3. Must have dominance of agricultural workers in the workforce.
4. Must have been a district featuring in the Planning Commission’s 100
poorest districts ranking.
Socio-Economic Profiles
Nuapada: Nuapada was part of the Kalahandi District till early March, 1993,
but for administrative convenience, Kalahandi was divided into two parts i.e.
Kalahandi and Nuapada. Nuapada district now comprises one sub-division
(Nuapada), two tehsils (Nuapada and Khariar) and five Community
Development Blocks (Khariar, Sinapalli, Boden, Nuapada and Komna).
Nuapada is a drought prone district with a large number of marginal farmers
and agricultural labourers. The district is one of the poorest in Orissa with a
large tribal population. According to the district statistical handbook, 83% of
families live below the Government of India poverty line of Rs.15,000
(US$300) per annum. Of the families living below the poverty line over 50%
are ‘very poor’ with an income of only Rs.6000 (US$120) per annum. It
experiences high distress migration due to failure in agriculture.
In a population of 5,00,652 persons, 72% of the households fall into the
category of small and marginal farmers. The male literacy rate in Nuapada is
58% and among women it is 24%. Among children, only 25% of Scheduled
Caste and 19% of Scheduled Tribes are enrolled in schools.
Statistical Profile of Nuapada: -
Geographical area (sq km) 3,852
Number of panchayats 109
Is it a DPAP1 district Y
Is it a DDP2 district .
Rural population 500,652
Rural population density per sq km 150
Average population per panchayat 4,593
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Average area per panchayat (sq km) 35
Total rural workers 234,000
Agricultural labourers vs total rural workers 48%
Fifth schedule district .
Sixth schedule district .
Rural ST3 population (%) 36%
Source: Second Administrative Reforms Commission- Unlocking Human
Capital: Entitlements and Governance- a case study, 2005
1. Drought Prone Areas Programme
2. Desert Development Programme
3. Schedule Tribe
Agriculture in the district is mainly rain-fed. Because of a host of factors,
including variable and unpredictable rainfall, agricultural productivity in
Nuapada can be best characterized as low and uncertain. As a result, an
average non-irrigated farm produces about seven month’s worth of food
grains for the food and nutritional needs of an entire family of average family
size. For the remaining months, male members of the family mainly seek work
on the fields of bigger land owners or migrate in search of employment. In
some instances, especially among the tribal communities, entire families
forage for food in the forests. This adds to their existing problems of not being
able to access minimum benefits in relation to education, nutrition, health
security. Instances of malnutrition, sometimes severe, are fairly common
among these groups. (source: Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project)
Despite the fact that average annual rainfall is as high as 1378 mm, Nuapada
is a highly drought prone area. It has suffered repeated droughts in the
eighties every alternate year and for 3 years consecutively from 1987 to 1989.
The nineties and the new millennium have fared better with reduced intensity
of droughts, only the year 2002 registering a severe drought. With an agrarian
economy and high incidence of poverty, poor rains disrupt the entire yearly
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cycle in agriculture. A majority of the population in the district is landless
earning their livelihood as agricultural labourers. Accumulatively, including the
tillers who are unable to till land, droughts spell a decline in the employment
opportunities for nearly 85% of the population.
Further, the district is highly dependant on natural resources. 48% of the total
land area in the district comes under forest area and the local economy
thrives on major and minor forest products as agriculture cannot provide
employment for the major part of the year. Reducing forest cover, absence of
pro-poor NTFP policies, and substitution of traditional craft items by cheaper
factory goods have resulted in a dramatic fall in non-agricultural employment
opportunities. All this has forced several families in Nuapada, especially in
rural areas, to migrate to urban areas in search of employment opportunities.
In such a situation, an act like the NREGA has the potential to transform the
face of the rural economy. The availability of such a large amount of
resources presents a massive opportunity for the creation of productive
assets such as water conservation structures. As the problem in Nuapada is
not one of less rainfall but irregular rainfall, creation of proper water
conservation structures through the NREGA would have immense potential to
boost agriculture and rural livelihoods.
Siddhi: The district of Sidhi forms the eastern border of Madhya Pradesh and
is known for six thermal power stations and has the second largest series of
eleven active coal mine groups in Asia (Zila Panchayat, Sidhi). It consists of 8
administrative blocks - Sidhi, Rampur, Majhauli, Kusmi, Sihawal, Devsor,
Chitrangi, Waidhan. Adjoining Chattisgarh, Sidhi hosts similar conditions of
scarcity as Nuapada. It is a drought prone district with its economy largely
based on agriculture. Sharing 3% of Madhya Pradesh’s population, the district
comprises 1831152 persons. Out of its total population 11.9% are Scheduled
Caste and 29.9% Scheduled Tribe.
Siddhi district is dominantly hilly and has a significant forest cover at about
40% of the total area of the district. Out of this, 24 percent of the total area or
about 2400 Sq. Km. has dense canopied forest and about 16 percent or about
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1600 Sq. Km. is open forest. Of the eight blocks of district, three: namely,
Kusmi, Devsar and Chitrangi have significant forest cover (mixed tropical
deciduous forests). The forests serve as a source for variety of N.T.F.Ps. like
mahua, chironji, tendu etc., which are an important source of livelihood for
people.A large number of villages are unreachable by road during the rains.
Additionally, a large number of villages in the hilly areas are sparsely
populated. Any project on ecological regeneration would thus have to take
these geographical features of the region into account in order to fully realize
its developmental potential.
The district with an average annual rainfall of 1248 mm is well endowed with
nature’s bounty. The local economy is agriculture based and heavily
dependant on natural resources. There is large scale fragmentation of land
with majority of farmers tilling land less than two hectares. Only 29% of the
total area under cultivation is irrigated within which 9.4% area is under
irrigation through perennial sources like streams, 2.7% is canal irrigated, 5.5%
through wells and 11.34% through other means. A large proportion of the land
area is under forest cover with the district hosting 38% of Madhya Pradesh’s
forests at 4013 sq. km.
Statistical Profile of Sidhi
Geographical area (sq km) 10526
Percentage of cultivable area 63.53
Development Blocks 8
Number of panchayats 717
Is it a DPAP district Y
Is it a DDP district .
Rural population 1,570,121
Rural population density per sq km 149
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Average population per panchayat 2,190
Average area per panchayat (sq km) 15
Total rural workers 681,769
Agricultutal labourers vs total rural
workers34%
Fifth schedule district Y
Sixth schedule district .
Rural ST population (%) 33%
Source: Second Administrative Reforms Commission- Unlocking Human
Capital: Entitlements and Governance- a case study, 2005
. = missing
The Female literacy rate at 13.6% stands very low in Sidhi and so does the
level of rural poverty, at 64.6%. The district, like Nuapada, is also covered by
the Drought Prone Area Programme. Sidhi has a total ST population of 33%.
In terms of occupation 34% of the rural population in the district consists of
agricultural labourers. Given the extent and scale of rural population and
dependence on agriculture and natural resources, the development potential
of the NREGA has a good scope for realization in the area.
It is a water scarce district that has done impressive works in water
conservation. It has large number of marginal farmers and going by
preliminary reports has taken up extensive water conservation works on
SC/ST lands as well as village common lands. A large part of this investment
has been in wells on private land. This is due to the fact that the status of
ground water is relatively comfortable as compared to other parts of the
country. The depth of ground water varies from 60 to 150 feet in Rampur and
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Sidhi blocks and about 30 to 50 feet in Kusmi, Devsar and Chitrangi blocks. It
is a problem of managing water resources properly that forms the basis of the
scarcity of water in the area. This is coupled with the lack of opportunity for
the poor to access under ground water sources. It is here that the NREGA
can and has really helped people.
There are three perennial rivers that flow through the district, the Son, the
Gopad and the Banas but irrigation facilities are poorly developed across the
district. There are very few ponds and tanks in the area but the NREGA is set
to change all that.
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Chapte-2
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The assessment has been carried out using primary data collected through a
survey instrument as well as collection of secondary data through various
sources like government records, panchayat records, life histories of people
and observation on field. The collection of data commenced in January 2008
with the finalization of the survey instruments. The survey instruments were
field tested in three districts and developed to look at specific target areas
such as –
1. Monitor the creation of productive assets such as water harvesting
structures, the process of work selection under NREGA and whether
the assets created reflect the local needs.
2. To gauge the development potential of the productive assets created.
3. Assess creation of employment potential for the rural poor and
marginalized, particularly for women, tribals, fisherfolk;
4. Assess the creation of institutional systems created that can ensure
long-term sustainability and people’s participation.
The collection of related secondary data has been an ongoing process
starting in January and lasting till the closure of the field survey.
The Survey Team
Secondary data was collected by CSE staff along with our partners in the
field. For the purpose of the same as well as to carry out the primary data
collection we formed two field research teams in the respective districts. The
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team in Orissa was headed by Prof. Simanchal Mishra, teaching at Kesinga
Mahavidhyala; and in Sidhi by Shri J.N. Pandey, head of a non-profit
organisation called Gurukul. Under the able leadership of both, 12 students
and young NGO professionals were recruited to conduct the survey in the
villages. The team at CSE trained the local survey teams in conducting the
survey and brushed up the nuances of the NREGA act. Local examples were
taken up in the survey and people already engaged with the NREGA were
called at the district training to impart a better understanding of the act and its
implementation. Possible scenarios in the field came up during the training
and a lot of confusion on wage rates, documentation aspects, kind of assets
created etc. were cleared in the process. The survey instrument itself was
translated in parts to suit the locales and to forge a better understanding
about what was being asked in the particular question. The survey instrument
for Sidhi was translated into Hindi to facilitate the process.
The survey instrument
The survey instrument that we developed contains detailed village and
household level questionnaires called the Productive Asset Creation and
Assessment Survey Tool (PACAST) to collect information on various aspects
related to the implementation of NREGA. The survey has been fine tuned
further with help from peer group reviews. It gathers information along the
following set of broad parameters- An assessment of the impact of NREGA
1. On the increment of local natural resources like water, forests and land
improvements;
2. On the local rural economy;
3. On the creation of sustainable and diversified rural employment
opportunities;
4. On improvements in lifestyle such as changes in pattern of economy,
purchasing power, housing, gender roles and responsibilities, school
attendance;
5. On the nature of institutional structures created;
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6. On the manner of implementation including patterns of decision-
making;
7. On the impact on marginalized and the landless poor.
Sampling:
The sample frame was developed using random sampling. Two blocks were
chosen per district. Within these two blocks a random sample of four villages
was chosen per block. A random sample of 30 households per village was
chosen from these villages for the household survey.
District Block Villages
Nuapada Khariar Badamulla, Chanabeda, Khasbahal and Thakpali
Sinapalli Boto Pali, Hatibandha, Kokpadar and Mahagaon
Sidhi Sidhi Bagohar, Barhai, Barmani and Mata
Kusmi Dadri, Khaira, Kanchanpur and Umriha
Analysis of Data:
The data has been entered once at the district level by the students who
conducted the survey. It was reentered in Delhi to check for data entry errors
and check for inconsistencies.
Data analysis was carried out centrally at CSE. The software used for
analysis of data was STATA. Analysis involved establishment of causal
networks i.e. building a logical chain of events/evidence in order to chart out
the important indicators that explain the process of asset creation and
distribution of benefits. The general strategy has been to build descriptive
display formats designed to answer the research questions- charts and tables.
We have used statistical analysis along with qualitative data collected from
field visits and reports from the field to derive trends and cross check data.
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This has been repeated for both the district cases to draw cross-case
conclusions.
We strive to monitor and assess the potential impact of NREGA on the
creation of natural resource asset base and the resultant impact of rural
livelihood, food security, lifestyle changes, economic regeneration and impact
on rural-urban migration. Institutional aspects such as the process of decision-
making, capacity building, building long-term institutional structures have also
been assessed as also its impact on women and marginalized groups. The
final objective has been to draw comparisons between the performances of
NREGA in the two districts. This will help us learn what steps need to be
taken in order to move towards the final objective of ensuring short term and
long term food and livelihood security of the rural poor.
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Chapter-
LITERATURE / THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
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Chapter-4
SURVEY FINDINGS
This section lists the main findings of the survey, presently separately for the
two districts. We look at district wise results for Nuapada and Sidhi, followed
by a comparative analysis of the two districts in terms of performance of
NREGA to draw conclusions from this analysis.
Nuapada
Looking at the household level analysis, we queried the people on the general
level of awareness of the act and its provisions. Data from 240 respondent
households in Nuapada shows high awareness about the existence of the act
as 84.58% of the respondents knew about the act. This figure only depicts the
knowledge about the presence of NREGA and not about what it entails or its
provisions. The provisions of the act are not known to a large sample as also
the procedures to apply for work etc.
ROLE OF GRAM SABHAS- PLANNING AND EXECUTION OF TASKS
It is absolutely essential for the success of the NREGA that the local
community be involved in the planning and implementation of the works. The
local community must make it a part of the village long term development
plan. Further, it is only the local community which best knows its own needs
and which has to reap the benefits of the productive assets. They have the
maximum incentive to make it work. In this context, our survey reveals a poor
picture of the part played by Panchayat’s in these villages.
The table below gives the occurrence of gram sabhas in villages in Nuapada.
Village Name Number of times gram sabha met in previous year
1 Badamulla 2
2 Botopali 1
3 Chanabeda N.A
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4 Hatibandha 7
5 Khajbahal 1
6 Kokpadar 4
7 Mahagaon 2
8 Thakpali 2
As is evident none of the villages studied have a good track record of village
meetings. This has serious consequences for the planning process as well as
the execution of the NREGA. When asked about the percentages of the gram
sabha members who actually attend the meetings, the data revealed the
following-
Village Name % of gram sabha members who actually attend meetings.
1 Badamulla 1
2 Botopali 10
3 Chanabeda N.A
4 Hatibandha 26
5 Khajbahal 2
6 Kokpadar 15
7 Mahagaon 5
8 Thakpali 2
Again a dismal record, indicative of problems within the community. The data
on proportion of meetings dedicated to NREGA was highly inconsistent and
had to be dropped. Judging from the number of meetings itself, however, it is
clear that in hardly any of the surveyed villages were Gram Sabha meetings
ever dedicated to NREGA. The main reason behind the attendance,
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participation and frequency of gram sabha meetings standing low was cited
as a lack of information about the programme. Most of the villagers did not
know about the clauses of the scheme and thought it to be another
employment scheme where the government tells people what work is to be
done.
Planning
With an abysmal record of gram sabha meetings, involvement of the gram sabha in
the planning of works under the act seems a remote possibility. We could only obtain
a response in six villages out of which, respondents in 3 villages believe that the gram
sabha was involved in the creation of the annual plan. Further probing gave us a few
more insights into the level of involvement of the gram sabha in the actual planning
and implementation of NREGA works. The table below gives the details of the
responses obtained after discussions with several villagers about the involvement of
gram sabha’s in their villages.
Village Level Participation in NREGA works
Village Name
Is the panchayat
incharge of the NREGA funds?
Are account books
available on request
Does the village have a Gram Rozgar
Sevak?
How would you consider
communications between: Your Panchayat and
the BlockBadamulla Yes No Yes Good
Botopali Yes No No Poor
Chanabeda Yes No No Very GoodHatibandha Yes Yes Yes N.AKhajbahal No No No GoodKokpadar Yes No Yes PoorMahagaon N.A N.A Yes N.AThakpali Yes No No Poor
As is apparent from the table, not only is the level of participation of the gram
sabha in planning and execution of works low, only in one village did the
members check muster rolls to verify the authenticity of names enlisted there.
While three villages had submitted an annual plan, in only one of those
villages was the gram sabha involved in the preparation of the annual plan.
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Rarely were the gram sabha members even informed about the NREGA and
nowhere did the villagers feel the gram sabha members had good relations
with the panchayat. It is surprising to note that even the NREGA accounts
were not accessible to Gram Sabha members in any of the villages. While the
account maintained for NREGA at the panchayat level can be operated by
sarpanch and panchayat secretary, it is not accessible to the gram sabha
members. However, gram sabha members can access the related records at
GP office and through social audit. This information is missing among the
people creating a sense of mis-trust among them about the implementation of
the act by the panchayat. It is evident that in terms of transparency and
devolution of powers to the gram sabha, the district is not doing too well.
Further questions brought forth the actual administrative structure and
provisions in place to execute the act. The table shows that in most places,
the panchayat does handle NREGA accounts. The respondents were hesitant
in divulging who kept the records using the term “government employees, in
two case the villagers confirmed that accounts were maintained by the Junior
Engineer (JE) along with some help from the secretary (source: narratives of
respondents). Further, only in one village were account books available on
request. As is evident in our survey there is a huge problem of lack of
empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI). Observations of previous
researchers and surveyors confirm this belief. A Delhi based organization,
Centre for Environment and Food Security, conducted a survey on NREGA in
100 villages in different districts of Orissa in the year 2007 and found how the
scheme was ‘trapped within the clutches of the self serving beauracracy’
instead of being in the hands of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. Our survey
too points at a heavy presence of the administrative beauracracy in planning
and implementation of the works.
Demand for Work
Most of the respondents had not actually applied for work but had received
the work from the panchayat. Therefore, in order to assess the demand for
work under NREGA, we consider the number of days the respondents would
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be willing to work if offered the same wage per day. A majority expressed their
desire to work for more than 100 days. While 36% said they would work 100
days, more than 44% said they would work more than 100 days. Around 20%
mentioned they would work less than 100 days. On average, the respondents
said that at the going wage rate they would want to work for 108 days in a
year.
Against the demand for work the provision of employment (meeting the
short term objective of creation of livelihood opportunities) fell short of even
the stipulated 100 days per household. Households received an average of
23.3 days of NREGA work over the entire period. On the whole, our sample
households that worked under NREGA received a total of 5298 days of
employment.
Further, as already mentioned, Nuapada had a predominantly large number of
workers working on rural connectivity projects. Almost 65% of the
respondents said they had worked on rural connectivity works. The number of
water conservation and harvesting works came second with only 20%
respondents being employed on works related to renovation of traditional
water bodies and 14% on other water conservation and micro irrigation
projects. However, the actual proportion of people working on renovation of
traditional water bodies would be a little more than what is depicted here since
a number of respondents had worked on both road connectivity projects as
well as renovation works and in such case only their first response was taken
into account.
Distribution of Workers among different categories of works done under NREGA in Nuapada
Type of Work Done: FrequencyPercentage Average daily wage
Road Connectivity 240 65.93 57.3843
Flood Control and Protection 2 0.55 70
Water Conservation and Harvesting 44 12.09 63.17956
Micro Irrigation Projects 8 2.2 70.25
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Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies 70 19.23 64.35281
Total 364 100 65.033334
It is evident that employment provided under NREGA does not seem to have
contributed much towards ensuring livelihood security even in the short term.
The 23.3 days of work per household on average would not be sufficient in
achieving any of the desired objectives, either in reducing the need for
migration or their dependence or forest products. Further, data from our
survey is in sharp contrast with the data provided by the Government for
2007-08 according to which average days of employment provided to a family
in financial year 2007-08 is 50.6 days.
Further inspection of the situation helps explain this anomaly. The
government’s measure of demand is based on the number of people who
officially apply for a job at the panchayat or block office. However, this is
hardly ever the case. The panchayat or block office applies for work and when
the work begins the villagers are informed of it and told to come and work. In
a number of cases it has been observed that the applications for job in the
name of people who are already working are ‘manufactured’ later. This was
confirmed by many respondents during the interviews stating that they had
not ‘applied’ for work but were told to come to the work site by the panchayat.
Infact, many of the respondents did not know that they are supposed to apply
for work, as seen in the section above that looks at the information flow. On
the other hand, fresh job applications in villages where work is not already
available are never entertained. According to field observations, such
individuals were told that word of mouth was good enough so that there may
not be any proof of their application and in case the job is not provided, the
state does not have to bear the burden of paying the unemployment
allowance. Thus a large number of actual demands for work under NREGA
never really get recorded and what we see is a huge figure of 98.7% of
demands for work being met. In such a situation it becomes difficult to expect
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NREGA work to have any short term or even long term impact on livelihood
security through wage employment. In order to exploit the potential of the
NREGA the gap between reality on the field and what is fed on the accounts
books must reduce.
Work Undertaken
In the total sample, 366 people had worked under NREGA and shared their
work details.
These individuals were asked about the type of work that they were involved
in. Most of the respondents were involved in one of three kinds of work, road
connectivity works, water conservation and harvesting and renovation of
traditional water bodies. Surprisingly, despite the local communities’ extreme
need for water conservation, water harvesting and drought protection works,
such works apparently received only second preference. As mentioned earlier
planning process under NREGA is poor at best in these villages and this
explains the discrepancy in the selection of works. Respondents also stated
that due to the remuneration being easily calculable in road works the
implementing agencies preferred these over water conservation. Most of the
respondents interviewed were in fact employed in rural connectivity works
(approximately 65.5%). This was followed by works on renovation of
traditional water bodies where approximately 20% of respondents were
employed and water conservation and water harvesting works, employing
about 12 % people. It is important to note here that in most of the water
conservation works the respondents were working on were works taken up in
the year 2006-07 and carried forward in 2007-08. No new water conservation
works had been taken up in the year 2007-08.
Looking at the use and ownership patterns of different productive assets
created respondents revealed an increase in the availability of water for the
household, cattle as well as irrigation. Under water conservation renovation of
traditional water bodies was the main activity undertaken apart from works on
roads, which, helped improve communication between villages.
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In terms of abandoned works 36 families reported on abandoned works on
renovation of traditional water bodies. The exact number of these works is not
known and none could give any reason for why the works had been
abandoned. Most of the works took place on Panchayat land and hence the
onus of maintenance of the assets was on the Panchayats. However, the
respondents perceived that no funds are assigned for maintenance of the
assets created, hence they largely felt that the asset would become obsolete
in the coming years. For instance for ponds on Panchayat land, it was felt that
eventually, mud and other debris would fill up the pond and make it obsolete.
Similarly, the roads, since they were not metallic but kuccha would be washed
away by the rain. Again, here a lack of information on the maintenance of
assets coming under permissible works- namely de-silting and restoration of
traditional water bodies, is clearly highlighted.
Support Facilities
The performance of the district in terms of providing support facilities was
again poor. The most common support facility provided was drinking water
and that too was reported by just 25% of the respondents. 17% respondents
reported the presence of shade and 14% reported the presence of medical
aid at the worksite. What is glaring is the near total absence of crèches at the
worksite as only one out of the 240 respondents reported its presence. This is
a very significant result and as shown by other research (NREGA and
Women’s Work-EPW, March 1-7, 2008) it can severely hamper female
participation in NREGA works.
Wage Payment (Impact on earnings, income of respondents)Wages are the medium through which purchasing power is transferred to the
rural masses. It is through wages that the NREGA meets its short term
objective of ensuring food and livelihood security and providing relief against
hunger. Thus, wages easily form the focal point of debates on whether the Act
is able to meet its short term objective or not. Wages, when monitored, also
act to flag evidence of corruption. A study of wages received by individuals
belonging to the surveyed households is thus quintessential.
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The average daily wage received by respondents who worked under NREGA
in Nuapada is Rs. 59.8. This is less than the minimum wage assured by the
state of Orissa at Rs. 67. The total wage disbursement among our 366
respondents belonging to 227 (data from the remaining 23 households was
either missing or could not be crosschecked) survey households was Rs
2,70,578 (total wage was calculated by multiplying the number of days worked
by each worker in the households across the sample by the wage received-
as asked in the survey). This implies that the average amount of money
received by each household in wage payment was Rs. 1192. This again, is
much less than the estimated baseline of Rs. 6000 for a household that works
for the complete 100 days at the national minimum wage of Rs. 60. Such a
low figure could have several possible explanations. It could signify a lack of
demand for NREGA work by the households and hence lower participation
and lower total wage payments but judging by the willingness to work of the
people to work under NREGA, this seems a remote possibility. It could also
imply that the district administration was unable to meet the demands of work
and has only been able to provide very little in terms of employment or
underpayment of wages for the work done. These seem more plausible
explanations going by the data.
It was also noticed that the daily wages paid to workers working on different projects
were different. The table below shows the distribution of average daily wages earned
by respondents working on different projects under NREGA. The table depicts the
huge diversity in wages across works. This disparity needs to be addressed in order to
ensure that people are get their due wages regardless of the type of work done and
hence they are equally willing to perform each type of work. While it is clear that
average wage earned from different works cannot be the same, however, it is
important that average wage earned under any kind of permissible work undertaken
should enable the worker to earn the notified minimum wage in the state. Some works
are demand more hard labour than others and when wages are paid on a task rate
basis, it should be ensured that wages for the tougher works are raised substantially so
that equal amount of effort gets paid equally.
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Variation in wages received by workers working different categories of works
Type of Work Done: Average daily wage
Road Connectivity 57.38
Flood Control and Protection 70.00
Water Conservation and Harvesting 63.17
Micro Irrigation Projects 70.25
Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies 64.35
Total 65.03
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IMPACT OF THE NREGA
FOREST DEPENDENCY
Nuapada has 48% of the land under forests. The dependence on forests is
very high as depicted in the survey as 71.61% of the survey respondents
stated that their community depended on forest resources for their livelihood.
We queried whether the availability of fuelwood and/or fodder had increased,
remained unchanged or decreased in the past year. In response 43%
respondents felt the availability had increased somewhat due to the NREGA
works undertaken while 41.8% believed it had actually decreased regardless
of the works. This decline is more likely from factors such as over exploitation
or due to stricter enforcement of laws regarding use of forest products and
access to forest products for the tribal population. As regards the act, with the
little amount of work that has been available under NREGA it is highly unlikely
that it could have had any significant impact on positive changes in forest
resources. Aforestation works had not been undertaken in any of the villages.
In the future however, when work expands and covers such projects it would
be interesting to reassess the impact of the act on the interrelationships
between the community and the forest.
AGRICULTURE
A good measure of a programmes development impact on the sustainability
and livelihood opportunities of the rural population in an agriculture dominated
region would be to see if the programme has helped diversify the crop mix in
their production basket. The responses in this regard was slightly
encouraging. 15% of the respondents had changed their crop mix in the last
one year. While earlier they were mostly dependant on Paddy and Biri, over
the previous year they were able to diversify and produce crops such as
groundnut, millet and vegetables.
Though small but encouraging is the percentage of people who were able to
increase the area sown. 14.5% of the respondents reported such an increase
due to the increased water availability as a result of works undertaken through
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NREGA. Overall, for our sample, NREGA works had led to a total increase in
area sown by 18.25 acres.
WATER AVAILABILITY
15.38% of the respondents said that NREGA had actually led to increased
water availability. This figure seems reasonably high considering maximum
NREGA works in Nuapada were on road construction and repair. This is a
very significant finding as it says how much can be achieved if greater focus
and attention is given to addressing the water concerns of the local population
through NREGA.
A shift in focus from providing employment to creation of productive assets
could possibly help improve monitoring and evaluation of the programme in
the different districts. Physical assets are more easily perceptible then wages
paid to individuals. That may be one of the reasons why schemes such as
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) and the Watershed
Development Programmes perform so well in some states. A need to
complete the physical assets in time would also ensure timely payment of
wages to the workers and be a step towards livelihood security of the
individuals. It would also help ensure that productive assets which are started
are completed and not left abandoned in between which is quite often the
case.
MIGRATION
The rate of migration is quite high in the district. With the prevalence of large
number of marginal farmers and landless labourers coupled with poor
resource base and a impoverished agrarian economy, migration as an option
is exercised by a large part of our sample. Given the low percentage of work
provided in the district it is no surprise that the rates of migration have not
come down at all. At best, a small proportion of the population has deferred
their migration to work for a few days under NREGA. However, informal
interviews reveal that people perceive the potential of NREGA in reducing
migration to be substantial. Many respondents stated that if full 100 days of
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employment were available in the village they would prefer to stay in the
village.
IN SIDHI
In Sidhi the two blocks chosen for the study, Sidhi and Kusmi, varied greatly
in their socio economic characteristics. Kusmi block has a very large tribal
population and a large proportion of the land area is covered by forest area.
As a result people in Kusmi are highly dependent on forest resources.
Literacy in somewhat low in the block at 51% as opposed to Sidhi block which
has 58% literacy. Most of the Sarpanches belong to Scehduled Tribe category
and are illiterate. Hence the local power structure in Kusmi is very different
from Sidhi block which hosts more of general caste population. We thus
analyse the two blocks separately in a lot of places wherever such analysis
can bring forth any interesting results.
Awareness about the NREGA
Looking at the general level of awareness among the respondents in Sidhi we
find that while the over all awareness was very high, block level data suggests
that for Kusmi block it was lower. While 90% people overall were aware about
the existence of the act, in Sidhi block a whooping 96% knew about the act
while in Kusmi block only 86% respondents displayed any knowledge of the
act. Knowledge about the provisions of the act was a mixed response as
respondents knew about the minimum wage and the number of days of
employment that can be availed under the act but very few knew about the
application for work, grievance redress mechanism, etc. Here again Sidhi
block had a high incidence of people who knew about these aspects and
more as compared to Kusmi.
Role of Gram Sabhas- Planning and Execution
Planning
The table below shows the frequency with which gram sabhas met in the
different villages.
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Village NameNumber of times gram sabha met in previous
year
Bhagohar 3
Barhai 1
Varmani 3
Mata 4
Dadri 16
Kanchanpur 4
Khaira 1
Lurkuti 16
Thus, while in most villages the gram sabha did not meet very frequently, in
two of the villages in Kusmi block they met 1.3 times a month. Though the
meetings are few but the proportion of members who participated in the gram
sabhas is reportedly high in Sidhi block compared to Kusmi. The higher
proportion of tribals within Kusmi and the higher rates of illiteracy
accompanied by lack of awareness and high rates of migration may be the
reasons for the discrepancy.
Block Village Name
% of gram sabha members who actually attend meetings.
Sidhi Bhagohar 80
SIdhi Barhai 20
Sidhi Varmani 80
Sidhi Mata 80
Kusmi Dadri 50
Kusmi Kanchanpur 60
Kusmi Khaira 20
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Kusmi Lurkuti 50
In terms of the number of gram sabha meetings dedicated to NREGA Sidhi
scores again with two of its villages dedicating all the gram sabhas to the
programme and one dedicating 90% of its meetings. In Kusmi block on an
average 53% of the Gram sabhas were dedicated to NREGA. Data from 2
villages was inconsistent and had to be dropped out of the analysis on
community participation.
The data throws up some really positive results for the participation of the
people in preparation of the annual plan. A majority of the villages studied
prepared the annual plans out of which all involved the gram sabha in the
preparation. These plans gave preference to water conservation works along
with road construction as is evident from the data discussed in the sections
below. This is a very important step towards ensuring that the assets created
under NREGA are suited to local needs and everyone in the village
understands about the nature and reason for the works being taken up. At the
end of the day it also renders the work a sense of ownership as the villagers
are now working on activities that they want. Here, it must be noted that the
villages received ample assistance in preparation of the annual plan. A
number of them were supported by the consultants as well technical
assistants in their efforts.
Village Name
Were external consultants, including civil society organisations involved in the preparation of the annual planYes- 1, No- 2
Did the state Government provide technical assistants to help prepare the annual plan?Yes- 1, No- 2
Is the panchayat incharge of the NREGA funds? Yes- 1, No- 2
Does the village have a Gram Rozgar Sevak? Yes- 1, No- 2
How would you consider communications between: Your panchayat and the Gram Sabha- Rate on a scale 1=poor, 2=average, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent
How would you consider communications between: Your Panchayat and the Block- Rate on a scale 1=poor, 2=average, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent
Bhagohar 2 1 1 2 Excellent Average
Barhai 1 1 1 2 Excellent
Varmani 1 1 1 2 Very Good Very Good
Mata 2 Very Good Poor
Dadri 1 1 1 1 Average Average
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Kanchanpur 1 1 1 Very Good Good
Khaira 1 1 1 Very Good Good
Lurkuti 1 2 1 Very Good Good
After the formation of the annual plan, the implementation of NREGA in the
villages has been more or less transparent. The mustor rolls and account
books are reported to be readily available in 80% of our sample. In two
villages the gram sabha has even checked the two on account of a few
complaints.
Demand for work
In terms of demand for work again the data is not very clear as many
respondents in 6 of our villages were confused about the application
procedure. Two villages in Sidhi block displayed a better result with
respondents reporting applying for work. In the other villages some of the
respondents complained about the non-acceptance of their application and
still others thought the Panchayat provides work so did not apply.
When asked about the how many days would the respondents like to work
under NREGA, the average demand for work was 177 days.
Provision of employment
Sidhi is known to be the district that has provided the maximum number of
jobs within Madhya Pradesh. In fact, it has generated the maximum number of
person days among all districts in MP (source: Govt. of India). A look at the
data from our survey reveals that the 314 respondents who were employed
under NREGA worked, on average 40 days.
Further, these 314 individuals from the 214 of the surveyed households, who
worked under the NREGA, received a total of 11,808 days of employment.
Thus, on average, each household received around 55.17 days of
employment since the beginning of the scheme. The figure from Siddhi is still
much lower than the stipulated 100 days per household but more than twice
that of Nuapada.
The district reports a high number of water conservation works as per government
data but in our sample, road connectivity tops the list of works undertaken. The
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proportion of respondents who worked under road connectivity projects was
significantly high at 56.5% . Water conservation came second with 41.16% works
followed by other activities.
Distribution of number of people employed in the NREGA under each different category of work
Type Of Work Frequency Percentage
Road Connectivity 176 56.59
Flood Control and Protection 7 2.25
Water Conservation and Harvesting 56 18.01
Drought Proofing 32 10.29
Micro Irrigation Works 20 6.43
Provision of Irrigation to land owned by SC, ST, OBC etc 11 3.54
Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies 2 0.64
Land Development 2 0.64
Other Activities 5 1.61
Total 311 100
Looking at these figures it is clear that the NREGA’s implementation has not
contributed to livelihood security as much as its potential.
Works Undertaken
The data on asset creation is highly skewed with no clear trends as many of
the respondents reportedly were uneasy answering the questions related to
assets. According to primary observations and informal discussions in the
field by CSE staff as well as the survey team, however, a large number of the
assets created comprise wells. Most of the work pertained to repair and
maintenance of old structures and some work was done on private land
belonging to SC’s and ST’s.
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The use and ownership questions on the assets created revealed that some
0parts of Kusmi block that are forested have actually become water surplus
with the water harvesting structures repaired and construction of new ones.
Three out of 4 villages agreed that rights of use of all types of water
conservation and harvesting structures as well as of roads constructed under
NREGA has lies with the community and that management of use is a
transparent process. Most of the sample did not talk about the number of
abandoned works nor about number of incomplete/ongoing works. The power
structures in the district are such that a few people hold sway over all
important matters in the village and the panchayat is often perceived by the
people as a body sold out to the rich and the powerful in the area. The fear of
reprimand might have been a cause for this silence as much as a lack of
knowledge about the completion of the structure in many cases.
Relevance of the NREGA works to the village requirements: -
Given the poor water situation in the village and the dismal condition of
irrigation facilities, agriculture has suffered a lot. Water harvesting structures
are of greatest need. Thus, according to local residents, wells are the most
needed structures locally, followed by roads and then ponds. The amount of
construction is distributed in line with this need. Further, Kusmi block is even
higher in altitude than Siddhi block therefore at some of the higher villages,
water availability is very poor. It was mentioned by locals, that ‘construction of
water harvesting structures under NREGA to collect water which runs off from
these hills would be very useful. Such works should definitely be taken up in
the future’
Support Facilities
Sidhi, the whole, reports provision of medium level of provision of support
facilities at the worksite with drinking water reported by about 60% of the
respondents. Shade and presence of medical aid was reported by around
50% of the respondents and crèches at the work site were reported by 20%
respondents.
Wages
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Overall, the average daily wage was Rs. 57.7 in the district. The total wage
disbursement among the 314 individuals from 314 survey households in
Siddhi district was Rs. 6,74,123. Thus on average, the wage payment
received by each household was Rs 2146.
This is an improvement over Nuapada but still way below the minimum wage
guaranteed by the act. The table below depicts the average daily wage by type of work
done.
Variation in the average daily wage earned by people working on different works
Type Of Work
Average Daily Wage earned by workers working under different categories of
work
Road Connectivity 59.79
Flood Control and Protection 59.28
Water Conservation and Harvesting 52.9
Drought Proofing 64.46
Micro Irrigation Works 46.11
Provision of Irrigation to land owned by SC, ST, OBC etc 49.73
Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies 53.23
Land Development 60
Other Activities 61.42
Total 56.33
Looking at the table we can see clearly that the average daily wage ranges
between Rs. 46 for micro irrigation works, to Rs. 64 for drought proofing
works. This may substantiate the hypothesis that the wage paid for
construction of wells etc. would be lower than that for other works. The
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average daily wage for road construction is around Rs. 60 which is why most
people prefer to work on road construction rather on construction of wells or
other water conservation works for which wages are much lower.
We see a clear linkage between less focus on water conservation activities
and the wage structure under the Act. Irrational wage calculation formula has
made productive assets creation less lucrative to local communities in term of
accessing minimum wage on time. Under NREGA wage is paid on the basis
of task rate i.e. minimum wage based on completion of a specified amount of
work. As reports pour in on irregular and less than the basic minimum daily
wage payment under the Act, Panchayats are asking for more road
construction works where average wages are higher than wages given under
water related works. This means in future more and more road construction
works will be covered bypassing water conservation works. This Is clear in our
data as disparity in wages between people working on different projects has
skewed the number of works undertaken in favour of road construction in
Sidhi.
People working on well construction and repair generally get a lower wage. As
construction of a well requires the workers to dig deeper into hard rock and
wet mud which is more difficult to remove, the work progresses slowly as
compared to pond and road construction. Since wages are paid on a task
basis, such workers get a lower wage. This problem is there in the entire
district and there is a huge demand to increase wages for people working on
wells. Survey data shows the average daily wage earned by workers working
on rural connectivity projects to be higher at Rs. 59.8 compared to workers
working on water conservation works who are paid Rs. 52.9 on an average.
However, the highest average wage, at Rs. 64, is earned by those working on
drought proofing projects.
Sidhi took up digging of wells extensively using NREGA. But the wage
earning from well digging was much less than wage from road construction.
This resulted in Panchayats asking for more road construction works.
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However, a recent revise in wage rate has made earning from both the
activities at par.
Field observations and respondent interviews as well as a closer look at data
suggests that there is bad planning for the water conservation structures and
a lack of maintenance are already putting a large number of the assets
created into disuse. Water harvesting structures have been created without
any provision for catchment protection. For example, Kanchanpur village in
Kusmi block has built three huge tanks under NREGA; their catchments are in
forest areas. “Most of the catchments are degraded and the forest department
doesn’t allow us to treat them. So I am sure that in two years, the tanks would
be silted up,” says Kunwar Singh, a social worker based in Sidhi. Earlier, the
village had constructed three check dams; all of them have silted up beyond
repair.
Sidhi also has been a good example of water and soil conservation under the
state’s Rajiv Gandhi Watershed Development Mission. The programme has
covered the entire natural drainage system. The district now faces a problem
of plenty: many villages don’t want new water harvesting structures being built
under NREGA. Rather, they want NREGA money to be spent on maintaining
the existing structures.
IMPACT OF NREGA ON
Forest Dependency
Kusmi block in general is well endowed with forests compared to Sidhi and
consequently displays a high dependence on forest resources. People gather
fuelwood, Kandh, Mool, Mahua, roots, fruits and leaves for making plates etc.
Collection of Tendu leaves is an important economic activity as well. In Sidhi
block, only Mata village has a high amount of forest dependency due to its
proximity to the forests. Almost 72% respondents report high dependence on
forests in Kusmi while in Sidhi block only 45% feel so.
Field observations on the impact of the NREGA on forest dependence
confirmed that due to the alternate livelihood option provided by the NREGA,
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the dependence of the local communities on forest products had reduced to
some extent. Data on this could not be obtained, however, local organizations
working in the area mentioned how NREGA gave people the wages near their
houses reducing their need to sell forest produce to earn a few rupees and
spending a lot of time in the collection of resources in the process. It is
unlikely that NREGA would have a direct impact on the collection of forest by-
products like fuelwood, fodder collection etc. within a couple of years of its
existence. And it is too early to access if NREGA has led to an increase in
availability of alternative sources that reduce forest dependency. The findings
are therefore inconclusive.
Agriculture
NREGA has had a positive impact on agriculture in the district through
improved access to irrigation. Prior to the NREGA, sources for irrigation were
very few only one crop was sown in Rabi. Post NREGA, with the construction
of ponds and tanks as well as wells on SC, ST land irrigation facilities have
shown a marked improvement. A number of SC, ST households in our sample
reported a second crop in Kharif along with a crop in Rabi season. A number
of households have even diversified into vegetables. With the last year
witnessing a near-dry spell, the benefits of the village ponds could not be
measured but the people were upbeat about the possibility of storing more
water than before when the rains arrive this year.
Despite the dry conditions the water table did not fall dramatically in 2007-08
due to the benefits of water conservation done in the previous year. Here, the
role of the watersheds constructed under the Rajiv Gandhi Watershed
Development Programme is highly significant in raising and maintaining the
ground water levels. This work was furthered under NREGA with most ponds
having been constructed on panchayat land; the wells have been constructed
on private land. Also, maintenance of old structures has been carried out
under NREGA. The owner of these well often lends water to others in the
village for a small fee of Rs. 10-20 per hour depending on the size of the
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pump used for irrigation. This has increased the income for these households
and the problems of drinking water scarcity have become a thing of the past.
Respondents also report an increase in area after the work done under
NREGA over the last 2 years. Around 55% of the respondents together report
an increase of 371.6 acres area under crops. This land was previously left
fallow. There has been a change in the cropping pattern as well with a
number of respondents reporting a switch over to wheat and even rice in a
few cases from traditional millets. Around 55.5% of the respondents reported
diversification of crops over previous years. Crops like Jawar, Bajra, Kodo,
Makka and Arhar have been replaced by wheat, gram and vegetables due to
increased irrigation water availability.
These are the kind of impacts that the NREGA has the potential to spread
across the country and such examples though few , can surely increase if the
focus of the act remains firmly entrenched in water conservation. Also, this is
the kind of livelihood security and generation of sustainable employment that
the act sought to provide in the first place.
Availability of Water
The data on impact of NREGA on availability of water brings forth very
significant results. Compared to Nuapada, where very few works have been
undertaken under NREGA, and only 15.38% of the respondents attributed
NREGA works increased water availability; in Sidhi district, where a large
number of works have been undertaken in each village, 78.6% of the
respondents agreed that NREGA had led to increased water availability. The
changes discussed in agriculture are in themselves a testament for the good
work carried out in the district as well as the development potential of act.
Migration
Sidhi witnesses large scale migration during the winter months of December
till February or early March. The labourers come back during March-April for
the harvest season of rabi crop and to prepare for the monsoons. With
NREGA works concentrated in January and February as well as summer
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months, these people now have the option to stay within the village instead of
migrating outside looking for work. In our sample, migration has reduced by
around 60% due to availability of work under NREGA. However, a lot of
people feel the 100 days per family is not enough. If each member in a family
of 5 works under NREGA, then they can only work for 20 days in a year which
is not sufficient to pass through the entire lean season. So they have to
migrate the rest of the year. Even the women accompany them in the
migration when the work is suitable. Around 20-25% women accompany their
husbands in migration.
According to the survey, 73 respondents said they had migrated at least once
in the past two years. The average duration of migration for those over the
past two years was 140 days. This implies that they migrate out of the village
for over 20% of the year (around 2 ½ months per year). However, we do not
have data for the migration before the launch of the NREGA and hence
cannot compare the reduction brought about because of it. This is a massive
reduction though the figures might not be representative as the rates of
migration in other parts of the district might vary. This is a huge success for
the NREGA and a significant step in the direction of attaining the short term
objective of food and livelihood security within the village throughout the year.
However, despite the large availability of work in Sidhi migration has not
ceased completely. We could observe two probable explanations for this. One
is the fact that educated individuals do not want to work under NREGA and
would rather migrate in search for better opportunities. This is verified by the
data as the proportion of literate individuals among those who migrate was
much higher than the illiterate. While the proportion of literate individuals was
51% overall, the proportion of literate persons among the migrants was a
much higher 62%. Further, the stipulated 100 days per household is hardly
enough for a family of reasonable size to pass through the entire lean season
when there is no work for months. Even these 100 days are rarely provided.
Within Siddhi district, the provision of work at an average of 48 days per
person is significantly higher in Kusmi block than in Siddhi block where the
average provision is around 32.3 days. This could be a reflection of the much
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higher demand for work in Kusmi than in Siddhi block due to the absence of
alternative means of livelihood.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF NREGA IN THE TWO DISTRICTS -SIDHI AND NUAPADA
The cumulative general level of awareness about NREGA for the entire study is quite
high at 87.24%. A comparison of the two districts in terms of level of awareness does
not depict a huge amount of disparity. Awareness in Sidhi at 90% is slightly higher
than in Nuapada at 84.5%. However, a more disaggregated analysis shows that there
is a large amount of disparity within different sections of society. A caste-wise
distribution of awareness indicators shows that the level of awareness is much lower
among ST’s and OBC’s as compared to people belonging to the general category.
Castewise distribution of level of Awareness about the NREGA
Caste
People Aware about
NREGA
People
Unaware
Tota
l
ST Number 204 33 237
Percentag
e 86.08 13.92 100
SC Number 71 8 79
Percentag
e 89.87 10.13 100
OBC Number 112 19 131
Percentag
e 85.5 14.5 100
GENERA
L Number 26 1 27
Percentag
e 96.3 3.7 100
TOTAL Total 413 61 474
87.13 12.87 100
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While awareness about the existence of the act is high among the entire sample, there
is very little awareness about the various provisions of the act. This was described by
most investigators as the basic problem behind the implementation of the Act.
Provision of the NREGAPercentage of respondents who
know about it
100 days per household 95%
Minimum wage 94.30%
Knowledge about correct minimum wage 82%
Provision of creche/shade/water etc 19%
Work within 5 km 25%
Universal Act and Scheme 7.86%
Role of Gram Sabha 8.30%
While almost all respondents were aware of the provision of 100 days of work
per household and the minimum wage, very few knew about the other
provisions such as provision of crèche/shade/water etc(19%), work within five
kilometers (25%), universal character of the Act and Scheme (7.86%), and
role of gram Sabha. (8.3%). There is thus a ever present need to adopt new
techniques to spread awareness about the provisions of the Act. Also, socially
disadvantaged groups need to be specially targeted with more focused
awareness campaigns about relevant provisions of the Act. This is especially
required to spread awareness about the entitlements of the people according
to the act in order that they may demand their entitlement.
Our survey has also looked at the most effective medium of disseminating
information about the NREGA. Two major sources that come to the fore are
panchayats and NGO representatives. 53.5% of the respondents came to
hear about the NREGA through panchayats making them the most effective
transmitter of information. NGOs come next in terms of generation of
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awareness as 25% of the respondents source their knowledge to NGOs. The
NGO’s in Sidhi have played a particularly significant role where they seem to
have made a huge impact in terms of making people aware of their rights. The
government sadly finds itself in a spot in terms of devising ways to reach out
to the masses.
Medium of Creation of Awareness among the respondents
Number of
PeoplePercentage of respondents aware of
NREGA through this medium
Newspaper 51 11.92
Radio 32 7.48
Television 6 1.4
NGO Representative 109 25.47
Pachayat 229 53.5
Govt. Officials 1 0.23
Total 428 100
Demand for the work
Even with the current levels of awareness the demand for work under NREGA
is huge. A mere 9% of the respondents wished less than 100 days of
employment, about 34 % stated that they would want to work for 100 days
while the remaining 57% said they want work for more than 100 days. The
average number of days demanded from the entire sample of 480 households
is 141 at the going wage rate. However, a district wise study of demand
presents some interesting finding. The demand in Sidhi is much higher at 177
days on average, then in Nuapada, where the average demand is 108 days.
This is surprising as the level of unemployment and poverty, if anything, is
higher in Nuapada than in Sidhi. However, this might have an explanation in
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the level of awareness in the two districts with Nuapada lagging behind in
terms of knowledge of the act and its provisions.
As the findings suggest there is a high potential demand for work under
NREGA as many of the respondents showed a willingness to work for more
than 100 days under the act. The actual person days of employment availed
by the households in the sample are much below even the stipulated 100
days. This might be because of the lack of involvement of the people in the
planning process as that might have resulted in less number of projects
coming to villages.
IMPACT OF NREGA
Water Availability
Water availability has increased significantly due to NREGA in Sidhi district but in
Nuapada there is hardly any impact to report. Further, a look at the caste wise
distribution of responses gives more insight into the situation.
Castewise distribution of Responses about the impact of NREGA on the Availability of WaterHas the water availability increased due to NREGA work
Caste YES NO
ST 133 70 203
% 65.52 34.48 100
SC 11 62 73
% 15.07 84.93 100
OBC 46 74 120
% 38.33 61.67 100
General 9 14 23
% 39.13 60.87 100
Total 199 220 419
47.49 52.51 100
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The table above presents the caste wise distribution of responses regarding
impact of NREGA on water availability. We can see from the table that the
highest proportion of people who feel that water availability has increased due
to NREGA is among the ST’s. This could possibly be attributed to the fact that
the major works undertaken are those of well repair on private land in Sidhi
and the major beneficiaries of this have been the tribals. While over 91% of
the respondents in Siddhi block said that water availability had increased due
to NREGA, only 65% said so in Kusmi block. This could again be explained
by the fact the number of works undertaken in Sidhi block are larger than the
number of works in Kusmi block. The powerful and dominant sarpanch’s in
Siddhi block are able to draw in a large amount of works while the tribal
sarpanch’s in Kusmi are often suppressed and unable to use their power to
demand NREGA works for the villages.
This is however, a very significant finding since it stresses on the huge
development impact of NREGA works in places where they have been carried
out properly and in large numbers.
Another important benefit is from the rural connectivity work being carried out
under the act. Construction of roads has definitely helped in improving the
access of these villages to the main road as well as within the village. In Sidhi
for instance these roads constructed have led to better mobility from village to
the main road as well as within the village specially during monsoon. With
movement becoming easier access to market has improved and women too
find it easier to walk while fetching water, firewood, fodder etc. Construction of
these roads has also meant construction of bridges over seasonal streams
and these have aided in improving vehicular traffic including bullock carts.
With regards to the effect of these connectivity works as well as the water
harvesting works being carried out women and other marginalized groups
have fared a lot better. Tough the survey findings on the effects on women
are not very well spelt out but it is for anyone to see what improved water
harvesting has done for the women in terms of the time spent in collecting
water. In households that have invested in wells o their land in Sidhi district for
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instance women have stated during informal discussions that they have more
time on their hands due to the availability of water within the house. This time
is spent on market related activities like buying things, in a few cases in
looking after the small shop/enterprise that the household ran, selling
vegetables etc. In the long run, specially with tribals and poor households in
mind, this time freed from collecting water may translate into better income
opportunities.
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Chapter-
CONCLUSION
The paper attempts to gauge the prospective impacts of the act in providing
sustained relief to communities by looking at the kind of works being
undertaken at the village level under the act along with its associated realms
like wages. Just to reassert our strategy and the lens through which we look
at NREGA, we strive to answer the question “Why monitor the impacts of
NREGA on rural assets?”
From an environmental standpoint, rural employment programmes can play a
key role in improving the rural natural resource base and increasing overall
rural production. Environmental regeneration demands heavy labour inputs --
whether it is reforestation, construction of water harvesting structures or soil
conservation. But since the economic returns are not immediately apparent,
impoverished people are likely to neglect these tasks. Rural employment
programmes can help villagers solve this problem, because they have the
capacity to mobilise impoverished labour in order to regenerate the
environment.
In this scenario, employment schemes such as the NREGA can play a key
role since the bulk of unemployment (nearly 80%) is in rural India. In
economic terms, this would be an investment in building up rural natural
capital, which will result in creation of water harvesting structures to irrigate
farmlands and increase crop production and well-stocked forests and
grasslands to support dairy development and a variety of artisanal crafts.
Rural environment's sustainable, employment-supporting capacity can thus go
up substantially.
Looking within the environmental systems in rural India, we see an increasing
problem of land degradation and depletion of natural resources like
grasslands and forests, etc. Though the entire system in itself is important
when it come to focusing on re-generation, time and again it has been shown
that wasteland development begins with water and not trees. Once a water-
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harvesting system is built and equitable sharing of the water evolved, the local
community becomes involved in protecting and re-greening the catchment of
its water system. But this is possible only if the villagers are empowered to
plan and decide their future.
We began from talking about the development potential of act in terms of
employment generation through the creation of productive assets. This has
been proved to a large extent through the findings of the survey specially in
Sidhi district. If the structures created under the act work to their full potential
they will create additional employment for people in the village and benefit the
people on a sustained basis. Nuapada has treated the NREGA more like any
other employment scheme. Sidhi, on the other hand realized the potential of
the NREGA and used it as an opportunity to reinvigorate its traditional
ecological balance through the creation of productive assets. Thus, while the
programme has had a nominal impact on the lives and livelihoods of people in
Nuapada, it has had a huge impact on the rural economic structure of Sidhi. In
Sidhi, the NREGA can actually be seen moving towards its short term and
long term objective of food and livelihood security and long term sustainable
development through ecological regeneration.
Keeping in mind the immense potential of the act and the findings from our
study, below are mentioned some suggestions that could help improve the
functioning of the NREGP
Need to reframe evaluation parameters: NREGA must aim at creation of
productive employment. To make this happen it has to focus more on the
creation of productive assets at the village level.
From the point of view of gauging the development effectiveness of the act
the first area that comes to the fore is the evaluation and monitoring of the act.
Instead of the simple calculations on jobs demanded and provided, the
NREGA needs to be evaluated and monitored on its impact on livelihood
security. Currently, the act is monitored by the majority on the number of jobs
created and number of assets created under preferred works category. The
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real effectiveness of the scheme though may be measured using three
parameters:
1. Increase in average annual income of households
2. Increase in the productivity of small and marginal land holdings
3. Quality and contribution of productive assets like water tanks
By changing the evaluation parameters, the scheme will assume the
character of a rural development scheme in the true sense, instead of a run-
of-the-mill wage-earning programme. This will also help the government to
ensure that most of the works taken up remain within the preferred works
category, that is, productive assets.
Works taken up should improve total village ecology
Under the NREGA, as our experience shows, water conservation works are
being taken up as stand-alone activities. Village ecology is a fragile
combination of soil, water and forests. A water harvesting structure, for
instance, is rendered useless if its catchments areas are left unprotected.
Works under the scheme need to be planned in totality — to succeed, water
conservation needs to take into account plantation works and drought
proofing. Even the Second Administrative Reforms Commission has
recommended that all works under the Act must be undertaken keeping in
mind the overall improvement in total ecology. This needs to be implemented
thoroughly.
Use of a perspective plan prepared by village panchayats
Village-level resource planning and designing ought to be strengthened
further. As our data shows, there is a strong co-relation between people
planning their works and the success of these works. With two years behind
the act planning is yet to reach a large number of villages and gram sabhas.
Without a village plan, developed by the villagers themselves the
development impact of the NREGA will be poor.
To make local planning integrated, NREGA works must be allowed in all lands
i.e. private, forest and revenue based on Gram Sabha approval. This requires
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administrative order from the forest department. This is crucial as catchments
of water structures are invariably in forest areas.
Setting up institutional mechanism for maintenance of assets
Setting up of strong institutional mechanisms to manage and distribute the
resources generated must follow the creation of assets. Poor maintenance
and weak institutions are already rendering productive assets useless. Under
the current implementation regime, maintenance is not covered. While assets
are created in large number, the Panchayats are being told o maintain it. The
problem is that Panchayats don’t have the money to undertake such large-
scale maintenance works. Our studies pointed out that due to this most of the
assets are going to be put into disuse.
Also, there should be a binding work completion plan for each asset created.
This must also include the maintenance plan. Further, given the unequal
priority given to productive assets amongst states, NREGA should make
provision to fix percentage of works in sector like water conservation. This
should be done changing the NREGA.
Capacity Building of the elected Panchayat Members
Right capacity building of the elected Panchayat members must follow
devolution. Training of government officials on the NREGA should be
accorded priority. At the same time, Panchayat members must be included in
the process so that they know the scheme well and can exercise rights
effectively. Local experiences point at government officials dictating
Panchayat members on the nature of works, citing vague government orders.
This takes away the Panchayats’ powers under the Act, and has to be
rectified immediately.
Devolution of functions, funds and functionaries to Panchayats must be a
condition for states to implement the NREGA. Though it is difficult given that
the programme is demand driven, but Union government can offer fiscal
incentive to states with such devolutions. As in other rural development
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programmes like BRGF preparation of district plan has been made
compulsory, the NREGA must also be made conditional.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005 is landmark
legislation in Indian history of social security legislation after independence.
Enacted after a successful struggle for an employment guarantee legislation,
this legislation is a partial victory towards a full‐fledged right to employment in
any developing country context. The essential feature of this legislation which
separates it from any other public service provisioning scheme is its
enactment through the parliament of India. Read with the Right to Information
Act, this legislation has been bringing about a silent revolution in rural areas of
the country.
In brief, this Act provides for 100 days of employment for all households in
rural areas in manual work, if demanded. Read with various transparency and
accountability measures and provisions for social audits, this Act for the first
time brings the role of the state as provider of livelihood within the reach of the
participants/beneficiaries themselves. By design it is different from any
employment generation scheme that has been previously implemented. It
requires a different approach towards employment generation schemes and
towards overall involvement of the State in providing the right to employment
to its masses (even though it is still far from being a full right).
The real challenge as well as the strength of the Act comes from it being
given the legitimacy as well as authority from the Indian Parliament, which
puts the onus of its implementation in the hand of the recipient as well as that
of the implementing authorities. The recipients have a greater role, at least by
design, not only in demanding the employment but also in deciding on how
the Act will be implemented. Such a situation is unique in terms of posing
challenges of implementation where the existing system has one of being a
dole to be handed to the recipients at the mercy of the ‘babus’ of the state. It
also drastically alters the power equations which the agents of the state and
the powerful groups within the local society have become used to enjoying.
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Moreover, for the first time, it provides for mechanisms for penalising the
government if it fails to provide employment on time.
Precisely because of these, despite the well‐intentioned nature of the Act, it
poses necessarily new challenges and enables new ways of exploitation as
well as new ways of fighting such exploitation.
Needless to mention, a legislation of this nature is bound to have
repercussions at different levels, right from altering the socio‐economic
conditions of the affected districts, more particularly for the disadvantaged and
the poor, to altering the social dynamics which are currently very heavily
weighted against the disadvantaged and the poor in these backward districts.
To a certain extent, the extent and nature of impact of NREGA on overall
economic and social conditions is influenced by the overall political economy
and nature of change in the social and political structures of power in these
districts. Although well intentioned in spirit, this Act has found limited support
from the states as well as central government in implementation of the Act.
Arguments and excuses have been manufactured to make it as toothless as
possible. However, despite these, the Act has become a rallying point for
smaller struggles on field as well as in larger public policy arenas to highlight
the success of a democratic state in ensuring right to well being for its
members. These experiences vary from state to state with relatively large
successes in states like Rajasthan to almost negligible success in states like
Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
At the same time, a programme of such a large scale has drawn both
criticisms and accolades. The critics, mainly from the ‘minimalist state’
perspective have argued against the efficacy of such a programme in
providing either income support or employment support to rural poor. This has
also taken the form of questioning the logistics of transferring such large sums
of money to poor in a state where the track record of public service delivery
has been acknowledged to be dismal. On the other hand, the success of the
programme has emboldened the government to introduce the Act to all the
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districts of the states in 2008 itself. Nevertheless, the debate is far from
settled on this controversial issue.
It is in this context that an urgent need is felt to do a stock‐taking of the
implementation of the NREGA in the last three years. Although a programme
of this magnitude will take time to settle down and be of any relevance in
changing the landscape of rural India in such a short span of time, initial
reports of the evaluation studies of NREGA by various institutions and
individuals has documented the processes of revival and resurgence largely
driven by the NREGA as an axis of struggle by the rural poor. It has neither
been claimed nor was envisaged that NREGA is the key to successful
rejuvenation of rural areas of the country that have remained marginalised in
the growth process of the country. This requires many such efforts particularly
towards ensuring the broken linkages of the growth process to include the
rural areas as engines of growth. Nonetheless, it does offer an opportunity for
the rural poor to stake claim to the fruits of the growth. Moreover, success
stories of NREGA provide opportunities for mainstreaming and legitimising the
struggle for other social security legislations. Above all, they re‐enforce the
faith in the state in being able to do something for the poor and marginalised
of the country in being included in the growth process.
Therefore, the success of NREGA is as much a hope for those civil society
activists fighting for the rights for the poor as it is a critique of the
developmentalist state in case it fails to deliver.
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CASE STUDY - IMPLEMENTATION OF NREGA - EXPERIENCE OF KERALA
Kerala has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. But most of
the unemployed are educated. Thus NREGA has only limited application in
tackling the problem of unemployment among the poor of Kerala. Yet it has a
niche ideal for about 4 to 5 lakh people who are willing to do physical labour
and for whom an addtitional annual income of Rs.12,500/- obtained from the
Employment Guarantee Scheme would be a substantial boost in income and
purchasing power. Therefore right at the beginning a political decision was
taken to target the eligible families, visualising NREGS as the nucleus of a
concerted and convergent anti-poverty initiative.
Innovative features.
The following are the innovative features in the organization of the
Employment Guarantee Programme.
1) The agriculture workers of Kerala are fairly well organized into trade
unions. Therefore primacy is given for the organization of meetings of
registered workers. This enables proper assessment of demand and in
inculcating the workers perspective in the design of the programme - in
choice of the works in preference of locations and in deciding the
schedule.
2) Kerala uses trained facilitators in the workers meetings as well as in
subsequent Grama Sabhas. This ensures that these fora are used
effectively to convey the principles and features of NREGA to the lay
citizen. These facilitators help in the conduct of these meetings in a
semi-structured and orderly manner.
3) Panchayati Raj Institutions are in the central place in the planning and
implementation of NREGA. They are the sole agencies responsible for
this. Since Kerala has a very strong decentralization experience,
Panchayati Raj Institutions have considerable capacity in the planning
and implementation of local development works. They have used this
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capacity to full advantage in the implementation of NREGA. It is
significant to note that as of now the entire implementation is in the
hands of Village Panchayats.
4) A strong engineering support system has been put in place. In addition
to one diploma/degree holder working on contract at the level of the
Village Panchayat, there is a system of accredited engineers. Such
engineers are drawn from amongst retired engineers, staff working in
Engineering Colleges, Polytechnics/ ITIs, engineers working in NGOs
etc. These engineers are paid for their work, at rates fixed by
Government. Further, if any engineer from a government department
or agency is willing to help the Village Panchayat over and above his
normal work, he is also allowed to do so and is paid at 50% of the rate
applicable to others.
5) Technical Sanction is given not by individual engineers, but by a
Technical Committee of engineers. The Committee normally includes
a government engineer, a retired engineer and an engineer working in
an academic institution. This has introduced transparency in the issue
of Technical Sanction.
6) Since disputes are common regarding measurements, an appellate
system has been put in place at the district level. This has facilitated
speedy sorting out of disputes.
7) In order to mobilize the workers and the public and to assist the
panchayat in carrying out its duties, Village Panchayats have been
given the freedom to identify one public servant of their choice having
the time and inclination to do social work from any government
department and such persons are posted on working arrangement as
NREGA co-ordinators.
8) The most radical feature of implementation of NREGA in Kerala is the
central place given to Kudumbasree in the implementation of the
programme. Under Kudumbasree every family below poverty line is
organzied into a Neighbourhood Group (NHG) at the local level
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consisting of 15 to 40 families with each family being represented only
by a woman. The NHGs are federated into an Area Development
Society (ADS) at the level of the Ward of the Village Panchayat (a
Village Panchayat Ward in Kerala has a population of around 1500 to
2000). The ADSs in a Village Panchayat are federated into a
registered body called the Community Development Society (CDS).
Each NHG, ADS and CDS has five volunteers carrying out different
functional roles.
The ADS has been entrusted with the task of organizing public works
under NREGS. Muster Rolls and other records are maintained by the
ADS, implements are provided to labourers by them and the
transparency and monitoring requirements are also carried out by
them. Welfare amenities to the workers are also provided by the ADS.
Since ADS is an organization of the poor and is basically a woman's
group, there has been greater sensitivity and community participation
in the implementation process.
9) In order to promote transparency, it is mandatory that the estimates are
summarized in the local idiom as understood by ordinary people. At
the beginning of every work, the nature of work, expected out turn and
the likely wages are explained to the workers' groups.
10)Since Kerala has limited public land, it has been decided to take up
eco-restoration works in degraded forest lands. It is significant to note
that Village Panchayats would implement the programme in forest
areas with the technical supervision being done by field level officials of
the Forest Department representing a new kind of relationship between
a Panchayat Raj Institution and a government department.
11)A conscious decision has been taken by Government in keeping with
the spirit of NREG Act to limit road works to 10% of the total
expenditure and to give special priority to integrated watershed
development works.
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12)Another unique feature of implementation of NREGS in Kerala is that
there is total financial inclusion of each and every worker; that is, the
wages are paid only into the individual bank accounts of workers, and
no exception has been made till date.
Achievements
Compared to the earlier wage employment programmes there have been
significant achievements under NREGS. They are:
1. So far through a combination of transparent processes and procedures,
local action and constant vigilance it can be proudly be claimed that
implementation of NREGA has been totally corruption free. The factors
contributing to this situation include: -
a) A clear political decision was conveyed to the Panchayats that the
scheme has to be implemented strictly according to the letter and spirit
of the Act. There were several pragmatists arguing for an asset
focused programme ignoring the processes and conforming to the
procedures on paper, and it was argued that Kerala would lose out as
the demand for unskilled labour is very limited and as the wages are
much higher than the statutory minimum wages in more than 90% of
the State, it would be better to go for public works. But this opinion was
firmly rejected.
b) The work is organized through the Kudumbashree system and the poor
have a stake in the work right at the beginning.
c) The technocratic power to accord Technical Sanction, measure works
and recommend payments has been made more spread out and
accountable through the Committee system and in case of difference of
opinion the appellate system.
d) A lot of social activists have been motivated to keep constant vigil as a
kind of continuous concurrent social audit.
e) Special emphasis have been given to the rights of workers and they
have been made fully aware of their entitlements. In a state where
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workers are fairly well organized this has resulted in their jealous
guarding of their privileges.
f) All the payments are made only through the individual bank accounts
of workers. This is the ultimate preventer of corruption.
Yet there are apprehensions that once material purchase starts, corruption
would come in, in some form or the other. The state is earnestly trying to
put in a system which deters corruption and the details are being worked
out. Till then the focus would be on labour-intensive works.
2. Implementation of NREGA has contributed to very high levels of women
empowerment, particularly in the following aspects.
i) As the work is organized by women’s groups, the gender
perspective gets built in automatically.
ii) As women are comfortable working along with their neighbors,
nearly 80% of the workers have been women.
iii) For the first time equal wages are really paid and this has boosted
the earnings of women.
iv) As the wages are paid into Bank accounts the habit of thrift which
was already inculcated through the Kudumbashree experiment has
further been strengthened.
v) As the Bank deposits are increasing, the intra-household status of
the woman has also been improving commensurately as she
controls substantial cash resources and withdrawal can be only on
her decision.
3. NREGS has given rise to a new work culture. Hitherto workers were
controlled by contractors and their middlemen who knew how to extract
work. When NREGS began the out-turn was very poor as the workers
could not be supervised properly. But soon the workers themselves
realized that they would be losing collectively and a new internal dynamics
evolved with peer pressure forcing workers to put in their maximum effort.
At the same time a kind of social responsibility also became evident as
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more capable workers became more than willing to put in extra effort to
make up for those who genuinely could not do hard work beyond a point,
like the women and the elderly.
4. Public works have gained respectability. Hitherto they were seen as
highjacked either by a contractor or a local leader. Now the workers see it
as their right. They tend to distinguish between wages provided by a
contractor and wages directly given by the Panchayat. The latter is almost
equated with a salary. This has motivated a large section of people who
were hitherto unwilling to work into join the work force. There was an
interesting instance of a penurious descendant of the erstwhile Kollengode
royal family in Palakkad taking an active part in NREGS and even
motivating her relatives to join on the logic that self-help and access to
legally entitled emoluments from a public source is better than charity from
relatives.
5. NREGS has suddenly increased purchasing power of the poor and there is
visible local economic development. This is particularly true of Wayanad
which was ridden with farmer suicides. The peasants have managed to get
substantial relief from NREGS by getting over their inhibition in working as
labourers in richer farmer’s lands by moving on to the now-respectable
public works.
New Initiatives
Now that a working model for operationalization of NREGA has stabilized
certain new initiatives have been started. They are:
(1) A National Rural Employment Guarantee Mission has been approved
and a Mission Director posted.
(2) A convergent Anti-Poverty Sub-Plan is to be prepared using the
Kudumbashree network. The components of the Anti-Poverty Sub-
Plan would include:
NREGS - for wage employment
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SGSY and Kudumbashree programmes – for skill development
and self employment
SSA
NRHM for Human Development
ICDS
o Including nutrition for children in the age group 0 – 3 and
adolescent girls
Annapoorna and Anthyodaya Anna Yojana for food security
IGNOAPS
Asraya of Kudumbashree Social Security
Health Insurance
IAY Minimum needs infrastructure
People’s Plan
The detailed methodology has been developed and firmed up in
about 100 Village Panchayats whereby at the local level
Neighbourhood Groups of the poor prepare micro plans focusing on
individual and family needs and at the level of the ADS these are
consolidated and components relating to community assets added
and thereafter the plans are integrated by the CDS at the level of the
Village Panchayat by bringing in elements related to human
development and economic development. The plan prepared by the
poor is negotiated with the Panchayat and approved.
(3) A strong natural resource management focus has been given to
NREGS. One of the topmost environmentalists in the country has
been recruited as a consultant and agricultural graduates are being
taken as young professionals. It has also been decided to take up a
mega scheme for Bharathapuzha River rejuvenation with action plans
emanating from the Village Panchayat as building blocks.
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(4) A methodology is being developed to integrate NREGS and People’s
Plan. Village Panchayats get more than Rs.1 crore on an average
under People’s Plan. If intelligently dovetailed it is expected that
substantial improvement in quality of assets can be attained.
(5) In order to meet the problems due to shortage of technical staff it has
been decided to rope in voluntary services of reputed non-
government organizations. Already in one district a firm offer has
been received and in principle clearance given. The details are being
worked out.
(6) Using the excellent network of Kudumbashree it has been decided in
the State Employment Guarantee Council to develop a cadre of bare-
foot technical volunteers from among the poor women.
(7) In order to develop the skills of the workers it has been decided to set
up Labour Banks. A pilot has been launched in one Village
Panchayat. The Labour Banks would be supported under People’s
Plan to take up other public works and even private works.
(8) It is well-nigh impossible to identify works in the plantation areas as
well as in the coastal areas. It has been decided to seek the expert
support from Government of India to come out with a shelf of projects
which can be taken up in such geographical areas.
(9) An innovative form of training has been developed by KILA where
there is a shift from the cascading model to a “ripple” model,
according to which outstanding Panchayats become the master
trainers and the neighbouring Panchayats formally learn from the
experience of the best performers.
(10) Monitoring has been strengthened with the decision of the State
Employment Guarantee Council to put in a system of State level and
District level quality Monitors by identifying persons with reputation for
integrity and competence. The State level Monitors would be of two
categories – outstanding individuals whose views are widely
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respected by society and senior Technical Experts capable of giving
authoritative feed back on the quality of implementation. Further the
State Employment Guarantee Council has decided to request a team
consisting of eminent experts like Smt. Aruna Roy, Prof. Jean Dreze,
Shri P. Sainath and Shri Nikil De to conduct an independent
assessment of Kerala’s performance and offer suggestions for
improvement.
CONCLUSION
Though there were several teething problems it is clear that the policy focus
on natural resource management and corruption-free implementation and the
administrative measures introduced to operationalise the policy especially the
involvement of the Kudumbasree network have resulted in a strong foundation
being laid and opened up space for pro-poor innovations.
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