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EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE
POVERTY
NREGA: A fine balance
The employment guarantee in rural areas is having multiple and layered effects.
With better wages, the bargaining power of the weakest has gone up a notch. P
Sainath reports.

13 July 2008 - "Why can't they keep the schools • Write the author
open during summer," asks P. Somamma in • P Sainath
Mosangi. A strange question, with the mercury • Employment
Employment blazing past 43 Celsius in the Nalgonda village and • Andhra Pradesh
all of us cowering in the little shade we can find. • Send to a friend
Food security
• Printer friendly version
Housing "Why would you want to send the kids to school in
Land this heat, Somamma?"
Microfinance
Urban poor "At least there," she says, "they got one decent meal a day. I can't afford to give them
one now, during the vacation."
Cheque
In Kondapur in Mahbubnagar district, Bharatamma echoes that demand. "When the Card
schools are closed, there is no mid-day meal. That means, instead of getting to eat, the Bank
children go to work. How else does the family manage?" Hit by rising food prices, poor
families can't afford one more meal. For those with two children in school, the costs really In India Outside India
RSS Feeds go up. When the schools are open, you can find some young ones saving a part of their India Together India Together
meal for a hungry grandparent at home. 1677, 17th Main PO Box 26254
JP Nagar II Phase San Diego CA 92196
Back in Mosangi, Somamma's son Bikshapati says he preferred the mid-day meal at Bangalore USA
school to food at home. "It was better," he says. "We got dal, rice, tomatoes, rasam, even 560078
eggs." Much of that is beyond his family's reach now. If he and his family are able to pull
on at all, it's because of the work the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act brings to Charge to your credit or
their village. In Mosangi, there is bitterness over how it has worked. In Kondapur, where debit card using the
it has done better, there are some complaints. Yet, in the eyes of all them, this is the secure e-payment
most important programme the countryside has seen in years. gateway of PayPal from
anywhere.
Contribute now
There are complaints of rip-offs. "We've been paid only Rs.30 a day," says an angry P.
Mallamma in Mosangi. The record says they got Rs.84 a day. K. Kalamma says she has
HDFC Bank
"worked for over a month, without being paid." Even a former deputy sarpanch, Saiddulu,
Account Number 01332000003849
has not been paid for a week's work. He is well over 60 - yet another older person
Account name: Civil Society Information
returning to work, driven by food costs. But he is clear that the work the NREGA brings is
Exchange
"very vital to us. It should run well, that's all."
Account type: Current A/C
J P Nagar Branch, Bangalore
Three issues
IFSC code: HDFC0000133
Three major issues confront a programme that is the lifeline of these communities at this
time. Two of these are built into it. "Why only 100 days of work," ask people. And they do Articles in related topics
SERVICES not get those 100 days fully. The second is the rule of only one member per family being FOOD SECURITY
able to use it. In Andhra Pradesh, very sensibly, field assistants at NREG sites are - Food sovereignty, not just security
breaking that rule. It is possible to see husband and wife together at the same site. - Global leadership, empty stomachs
That's as far as it goes, though. - Custodial malnutrition in M.P.
- Driven to bondage and starvation
Poor families see themselves as a collective. "One family member cannot go to Guntur to LABOUR
work and another to the site," says Lashkar in Lambapur village. Splitting up is bad - An independent voice for workers
economics. A day's wage at a brick kiln might be less than what it is for NREG work. But - Beyond the Clemenceau's recall
though brick kilns are brutal and exploitative, all members of a family can work there - - Wages: Too little, for too long
and for more than a hundred days. These two restrictions hobble a programme people - Court rules, Clemenceau recalled
say they badly need.
ANDHRA PRADESH
- The honest leftist
Third are the usual local problems. - AP coast: fishermen marooned
Payment delays for one. Though Andhra "Why only 100 days of work," ask
people. And they do not get those - The importance of Hyderabad
Advertise Pradesh seems to be ahead of several - The empire flows again
100 days fully.
other States, this remains a problem.
Contact Us
"People here have waited four months to
Newsletter get much less than what was owed to
Submit them," says Mallamma. "People are • They lock on to the NREGA
recorded as working when they did not • NREGA hits buses to Mumbai
RECENTLY IN INDIA TOGETHER
work. Others are not recorded as working
when they did," says B. Ramaiah in

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Vadlaparthi village of Nalgonda.

• The knowledge economy and the
Lambapur in the same district throws up this kind of paradox. This is a village where knowledge society
NREG work has dramatically curbed migrations. There is no one who will tell you things • Organic veggies in my Inbox
have not improved. Yet, most "passbooks" show zero days of work. This is an adivasi • Penury and peril from the
'tanda' with very low literacy and education. The records are a mess and a formal audit Narmada's waters
would conclude there has been a disaster. But Lambapur has done well out of the • Bhor: After a long, dark night
NREGA. To make it more complex, the reverse could be true in Mosangi. The records
• Narmada dams continue to roll over
would show Mosangi has done better, which it has not. Everywhere is the backlash from
the rules
the old contractor-local official-low bureaucracy that feels threatened by the NREGA.
• Reasons for the Bt Brinjal
Capturing the records and the process is part of the fightback. In at least two other
moratorium
States, activists promoting the NREGA have been killed.
• Educating India
A.P. fares better • A serpent in paradise
• Implement the UNCRPD, say
Yet Andhra Pradesh has fared better, thanks to the growing awareness of people of their activists
rights. Even at the start, 2.7 million people applied for job cards in the first month after • Blast bole and bloom together?
the programme was announced. From top officials in the State's NREGA team to unions • Child labour in Gujarat's cottonseed
of landless labourers, many have worked hard to promote the programme farms
• A new home, but in a nala!
In this process, a small but vital reordering of power relations is under way. The NREGA • Farm suicides: A 12 year saga
is having multiple and layered effects. With better wages, the bargaining power of the
• Climate sceptics get it wrong
weakest has gone up a notch. For some, their access to costly services like health has
risen slightly. NREG work has been a lifejacket in the flood waters of the price rise. And • The nation as a person
no other programme has had the positive impact on distress migrations that it has • A spate of witch-hunting assaults in
achieved. Assam
• How they pulled their farm back
Lakshmamma hopes the NREG work from the brink
will continue. But she's up against a • Meandering an important course
powerful combine of forces entrenched • Boxing their way forward
in the countryside and ensconced in
• Nearly 2 lakh farm suicides since
Delhi's power elite. (Picture by P
1997
Sainath)
• First in RWH, but not self-reliant yet
"It is not just low level officials," laughs • Gandhi: Man with a vision
a very senior official in Delhi. "There is • Watching prices rise, helplessly
hostility right here at top levels of • Male, but marginal
bureaucracy and politicians. There are
• Lokayukta slams mining in
efforts on to make it less attractive to Karnataka's forests
people needing work. Complaints that
• Surgical strikes: Missing the mark
the NREGA is raising wages and
hurting farmers are being used to push • CIC orders publication of PDS
for limiting that wage. And making even details
those 100 days of work harder to • Human rights amidst terror
access. This would be disastrous. But • A lifetime's harvest lost to the dam
it seems certain such efforts will soon • In Bihar, a new twist to social
follow." audits
• Bilal: The darkness within
"Of course, there is much scope for
• India's missteps at Copenhagen
improvement," he says. "You could get
people to participate more in choosing
the kind of works needed locally. We could provide better technical support and advice.
Restrictions on the number of days and family members could be sorted out by making it
more universal." And by aligning it to works that benefit the whole community, including
local farmers, some of those other problems could also be met.

In Tatikolu village, Lakshmamma hopes the programme will continue. She is up against a
powerful combine of forces entrenched in the countryside and ensconced in Delhi's
power elite. A widow with young children, she finds it hard to get work at the site to begin
with. Seated in her bleak home, she wonders when her food supply will run out. And
hopes the NREG work won't. "Without it, I don't know what we would do." ⊕

P Sainath
13 Jul 2008

P. Sainath is the 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award for Journalism,
Literature, and Creative Communication Arts. He is one of the two recipients of
the A.H. Boerma Award, 2001, granted for his contributions in changing the
nature of the development debate on food, hunger and rural development in the
Indian media.

• Write the author

• P Sainath
• Andhra Pradesh
• Employment
• Reprint permissions

Comments (20)

Posted by Sidhartha,

I understand the idea of job creation for the poor. However, I am not convinced

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that this kind of work is not feeding on the desperate conditions and poverty.

Posted by nawal srivastava,

The article is a moving account of truth prevailing in rural India. Despite all the
criticism of the scheme, which is not based on sound research, this article tells
the utility of the NREG for a poor man in a remote corner of the country. The
need today is to generate economic opportunities in rural India where vast
potentail remains untapped. NREG can resolve two dilemmas of employment
generation and development activities in rural areas.

Posted by Anand Gupta,

I'm pleasantly surprised that your team did not find anyone talking of corruption in
NREG local implementation. If indeed people get Rs.80-85 for a days work within
their village, and 30-40 days work, it is indeed laudable.

Posted by jitendraa,

I am complaining about NREGA in Rajasthan, Bundi panchayat samiti talera. No

facility is being provided by the controller to the NREGA technical staff like water
to drink, table and chair to sit, no stationery has been provided, no lockable
storage has been provided to keep safe the muster rolls and measurement books
and other important documents like estimate etc. there are 3 chair and 2 tables
for 7 peoples and one computer with no printer and no window. Nobody wants to
listen, and says 'just relax'.

Posted by Vispi Jokhi,

NREG is a success of UPA government albeit it leaves scope for improvement.

Empowering the Panchayats to distribute work is needed to make it better.

Posted by radhakrishna,

I visited anantpur disrict and some villages where NREGS was launched. people
rememebr you .

Posted by Kuku,

It's heartening to see some good effects of this scheme but the problem with such
schemes are that they are decided by people sitting in Delhi or even
Hyderabad(or any state capital) who are disconnected from reality.
I'm not trying to dismiss them - but a case study in one village or one area doesn't
imply its good for all villages and all areas. Any long term solution would have to
empower the villages and its inhabitants ie. Swaraj as proposed by Gandhiji.

Posted by known,

Socialism = Preventing Race to the Bottom

Capitalism = Promoting Race to the Top

We need both (either implicitly or indirectly) for a nation to succeed!

Posted by Surya Prakash Loonker,

Finally, i can see a positive article about some govt scheme from India Together.
NERGS is a wonderful scheme which is benefitting millions and I am glad finally
someone had the guts to say govt is doing good work. Every scheme or work has
problems, private or govt, does not mean you keep bombarding every govt
initiative as a bad thing. Thanks to P Sainath.

Posted by Ram Krishnan,

NREGA was started in the tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu in its 3rd phase in April
2008
See 2 pictures here.
http://akash-ganga-rwh.com/DSC01476.JPG
http://akash-ganga-rwh.com/DSC01477.JPG

I have personally see many such projects, creating water flow channels to collect
rainwater.

When any program in India has even a 10% success, I think of that as a 'roaring
success', since others are merely plans on a Spreadsheet in Delhi.

I also hear that in some cases the daily wages are deposited in the bank ccounts,
thereby eliminating the possibiliy of stealing by the intermediates.

Posted by RAJENDRA,

It reminds me of the work giving tactics of digging a hole uptil the noon and then
filling the hole by sunset just to give wages to the needy.
The programe can be sustainable economically, like what shivakashi did in the
fire works industry, or how surath imports dimonds polishes them and sends
back. So can we have some high earning works like embroidary,or readymade
garments or even making papads or hand made stuff snacks being produced by
these people in Anathapur and Mahaboobnagar.I think where ever human jobs

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are absolute necessary these folks can be trained and these products can be
marketed with zero duties then i think it will be much better. I learnt that inmates
of Tihar jail are bringing out very good products then why not these folks.

Posted by BHAVIL,

After going through its various pros and cons I must say that it has become a
necessary evil. Not only in AP but also in M.P. it has achieved substantial
success. Now its been more than 2 years that NREGS was implemented nad
later got converted to NREGA. However no one can deny that this fact that it has
brought some winds of change in rural India although this act has been cursed by
various factors.Having worked for an NGO in Jharkhand I experienced that it is
working in such a backward state although mauled by various factors, I also
encountered various caveats in a form of slogan like "NREGA KAREGA TO
MAREGA"

Although not a ardent supporter of UPA govt but this scheme is slowly and slowly
changing the face of rural India although in a limited domain.

Posted by satider,

nerga not yet start in our village(dalam) block dera baba nanak

Posted by vb dandapani,

I am interested in getting data about Athmakur Mandal, reg.(i)area of barren land

(ii) number of persons holding such lands (iii) average number of dependents of
such landholders and (iv) problems pertaining to irrigation of these lands.

Posted by Arun Kumar.B,

NREGA is proved itself as a good programe for the rural through its launch in
other districts also. The prime factor, that is transperancy is maintained in the Job
card and wage payment, NREGA will be a mile stone

Posted by Rajesh,

In my Openion for Nrega:- Kya baat hai sarkar ki Job bhi diya to aisa ki hum T.A.
na gar ke hai na hi ghat ke.Sarkar ki Planing to jabardast hai but kamiya
hajar.phayda to sab Pradhan Uthata hai or hum Technical Hand ko Kiray per liye
ghar ane jane ka kharch bhi nahi milta hai, to bhi aash laga bhaithe hai.
amayar Tumko batadu 3Months ho gaye honge join kiye.7000/- se Upper to aise
hi kharch ho gaye
or abhi tak aas ka ek tinka bhi nahi mila.
aise me yadi koi pariwar wala ho to kya kare ga khud khushi wo bhi hoga.

Posted by Usman,

@ BHAVIL
Having worked in Jharkhand myself i must add this to what you've quoted. This
was said by a worker of an NREGA work "narega karega to marega, nahi karega
to bhi marega".

I wouldnt agree that its become a necessary evil. i think its better to look at it as a
programme with immense potential but severely hampered due to the dilapidated
implementation and administrative structures which continue to prevail. Means
and methods need to be deviced to better its working.
There is also another very important aspect of the NREGA which i find wasnt
quite mentioned by Sainath (and this is not a criticism, but an addition to what
he's said). The NREGA has also had profound impact in empowering the people
by way of giving them the power to decide what works are to be undertaken and
where in the village. Though this doesnt hold in all places(that i have seen), in
places it does it has had some amazing effects. See for instance the case of Pati
block in Badwani district of MP. This feature of the people deciding through their
gram sabhas has really added very significantly to the process of democratization
where it matters, in the local community.
There is a pressing need to educate people about the misguiding remarks that
surface in the corporate media declaring the NREGA a waste and a failure.

Posted by Gaurav Singhal,

Searching on internet, found this news about NREGS:

Times of India, 26 March 2009

CAG review had found major gaps in NREGA functioning

Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had found that there was no data on the
number of people who demanded jobs and who actually benefitted.

The CAG review said in as many as 70% of the villages checked, there were no
proper records available on number of households who demanded jobs and the
actual number of people who benefited from the job guarantee scheme.

The survey was initiated in 2006 and completed late last year.

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In 26 states, 558 village panchayats were identified for the survey spread over 68
districts and 141 blocks.

Surprisingly, the report said in many cases, it found that jobs were allocated on
"verbal basis" and no documentation was available with the village body.

However, the fact-finding revealed that in 340 villages in 24 states, no such

meetings were conducted, neither was there any documentary evidence
available in this regard. No door-to-door survey was conducted in these villages
to identify persons.

To prevent any leakages, the government had launched a drive to allocate

unique identity numbers to job applicants. However, out of 558 gram panchayats
checked, it was found that in 331 of them, unique identity numbers were not
allotted.

A similar survey conducted by CAG in 2007 on the effectiveness of the Centre's

Public Distribution System, through which it gives subsidised foodgrains to poor,
revealed that 40% of beneficiaries were kept away from the scheme by denying
them ration cards and 99% of those who availed the benefits reported they had
not received foodgrains regularly.

Posted by debasis behera,

Dear friends,
NREGA is a bonanza for all. It helps the poor people to get some money (may be
less then they deserve)who were not getting anything earlier. It also helps the
babus and netas to collect huge sum through this scheme. It also helps us –the
so called civil society people to argue in favor or against the scheme or do
research on it for money. So never oppose the scheme and just carry on the
great tamasa.

Posted by shailender thakur,

The success of NREGA completely depends on honesty of pradhan and

concerned administrative agencies. In our village Lech block mehla distt chamba
H.P the scheme became a good source of collecting and amassing money. There
is about RS/200000 of financial irregularity only through job-cards, proved by
enquiry done by BDO MEHLA on complaint of villagers on dated 14/5/2008 to
D.C chamba. Till date no action has been taken by concerned authorities up to
Director, panchyati raj shimla. The well known reluctance and illegal favouritism
of administrative agencies really helps pradhans to increase their bank balances
nevertheless. [logon ki garivi mite na mite pradhano ki garivi pucca mit jaegy]

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