MGNREGA payment woes: bad to worse?

MGNREGA payment woes: bad to worse?
To check corruption under the MGNREGA, the Centre is routing funds through banks and POs. But this has resulted in delayed payment and loss of faith in the system among people. Pradeep Baisakh argues the case for the earlier cash payment system.

17 July 2010 - “Apply for work, get work, and get paid on time”. This is how the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) took off in February 2006. Various instruments like muster rolls and job cards were designed to keep the payment process transparent. However, it was soon realised that a good chunk of money was being siphoned off by officials and implementers.

Consequently, in a circular dated 21 January 2008, Ministry of Rural Development instructed the state governments that “opening of bank and post office accounts of all the NREGA beneficiaries must be done before April 1, 2008”. The Government’s primary concern was to rule out the possibility of officials/implementers/middlemen ‘taking a cut’ while disbursing the wages. All the states have officially adopted in the new system barring probably Tamil Nadu.

Papatu Devi and Koshila Devi of Chhatrapur block of Palamu district in Jharkhand are still waiting for the wages for the work they did four months ago. Pic: Pradeep Baisakh.

However, subsequent surveys in Odisha (2007) and Jharkhand (2008), and observations from many other states like West Bengal highlight delay in delivery of wages as the most frustrating reason for people to lose faith in the scheme. By April 25, 2010, there was delay in delivering wages amounting to Rs 1,355 crores (www.nrega.nic.in), of which, about Rs 136 crores were paid after 90 days of delay, Rs 156 crores in between 60-90 days, Rs 466 crores between 30-60 days, and Rs 596 crores between 15-30 days of delay.

The total wage payment (unskilled) made during 2009-10 was about Rs 25,000 crores. Consequently, 54 percent of the wages did not reach the labour force on time, i.e., 15 days. That delayed wages is an issue too conspicuous to go amiss was further substantiated with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi admitting it just as much.

Loopholes in the new system

The system works differently across states. In Rajasthan and Jharkhand, though the system of institutional payment has been put in place at least at the policy level, delays have been reported nevertheless. “In Chhattisgarh, it takes between one-and-a-half to two months to process payments,” says Gangaram Paikrai, a social activist.

In case of banks, although the process moves a bit faster, distance between villages and banks poses bottlenecks and exposes the system to many kinds of manipulation. For instance, the Utkal Gramya Bank (UGB) branch office is 15 km away from the Badabanki GP headquarters. Unaware of the bank transactions and schedules, villagers seek help from middlemen, mostly contractors, and pay for it. Frauds of this nature have come to light in Odisha and Jharkhand. Even in cases where the role of middlemen is limited, lack of knowledge about banking and overworked bank staff force the villagers to visit the banks at least 2-3 times to get what is rightfully theirs. This has been observed in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Jharkhand.

During a social audit conducted by the G B Pant Institute in Karon block of Deogarh in Odisha in October-November 2007 and in Jharkhand in November 2008, it was found out that the implementers resorted to corrupt ways to fleece villagers: forged signatures of the beneficiaries to withdraw money; contractors/middlemen accompanied the villagers to the bank while withdrawing the money and took a cut out of it. Another way of swindling was by obtaining the account-holders’ signatures on withdrawal forms on one pretext or the other and then withdrawing money without the knowledge of the latter.

Discussion with authorities in Badbanki GP, Tureikala block of Balangir district of Odisha, revealed that payment through POs takes about 26-30 days; of which, postal processing itself takes about 15-20 days as the cheque has to pass through the district PO and the sub-divisional PO before it is disbursed to labourers by the local PO. People, however, claim that they received wages though POs more than two months after the completion of one phase of work spread over 14 days.

People cannot escape corruption in POs either. Jawahar Mehta, a Jharkhand-based social activist, says, “In Garhwa district, people complained that they had to give the postmaster 2% of their earnings while withdrawing wages from the local branch.”

Gangaram Paikrai from Chhattisgarh says, "Post offices are often run by only one official. Naturally, it becomes very difficult to cope up with the task of payment under the MGNREGA.”

Old system vs. the new

Some studies suggest that the level of corruption in wage payment has gone down ever since the government started routing the funds through POs and banks. In their article “NREGA Wage Payments: Can We Bank on the Banks?”, Anindita Adhikari, Kartika Bhatia write drawing facts from their survey in Karchana and Shankargarh blocks in Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh and Mander and Angara blocks of Ranchi district of Jharkhand that 76% of the sampled workers confirmed the accuracy of the bank records. This, by any standards, is a fair delivery of wages.

But somewhere down the line, the very intent of MGNREGA is getting defeated. Each new mode of payment comes with its own inherent drawbacks. For instance, in the previous cash payment system, muster rolls and job cards were necessary documents to monitor payments and they were easily accessed by the poor labourers. Similarly, the open system of payment by ‘roll call' of labourers was monitored by the community as was experimented in the Dungarpur (before the NREGA came into effect) and other areas of Rajasthan where Mazdoor Kishan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) was at work.

Conversely, in the new system, documents are not easily accessible even by activists, let alone villagers in remote areas. It therefore weakens the community monitoring of wage payment of the scheme. The new system has rendered job cards meaningless and social audits, tedious. For instance, in Jharkhand, labourers come to know about the amount paid for the work done only when they receive the money from POs. In such cases, any underestimation of their work by junior engineers results in underpayment and the workers cannot even complain about it. Moreover, accounts are opened in the name of family heads which happen to be men, thus robbing a vast majority of the women workforce of its right over hard-earned money.

Another unsolved issue is making these payment institutions accountable under the MGNREGA as they are guided by their own set of rules. Measures to ensure transparency may be a part of the government’s policy-making exercise; but when it comes to ground reality, it is hard to imagine that these institutions would deliver goods keeping the exigencies of the poor in mind.

Development economist Prof Jean Dreze attributes the delay to the apathy of the implementing officials who take less interest in the timely processing of payments since the new system does not allow for deducting cuts. Apart from this, delay is also caused by the internal processing of payment institutions. This inherent delay occurs as the system is not developed for quick delivery in many states. Overworked and often indifferent bank and PO staffers add to the woes.

Binay Sahu, a grassroots activist in Sundargarh district of Odisha, says, “It has become very difficult to monitor the system and to ascertain at what stage the matters are stuck.”

Local problems need local solutions

The wage payment monitoring system worked quite well in Andhra Pradesh as the state had designed its own mechanisms, not something imposed from New Delhi, to check corruption. Rajasthan, for example, was also performing fairly well in timely payment of wages and corruption was comparatively low.

In an interface with CSOs at a training programme a year ago, former NRGEA Commissioner Manju Rajpal had said: “we were not in favour of introduction of the bank and post office payment system in NREGA as the direct cash payment system was working well with us. But the Centre made the new system mandatory leaving us no option but adopt it.”

Currently, in states like Rajasthan where the system is performing well in overall implementation of the scheme, delayed payment is not uncommon. Richa of Janchetna Sansthan, Rajasthan, says, “Though the government has already developed the system for proper functioning of wage payment through banks and post offices, it is delayed by two or three months in several cases as the officials pass the buck from one institution to the other.”

The victims’ version

In their article in EPW, Anindita Adhikari and Kartika Bhatia write that about 77% people preferred banks to POs. On the contrary, Tulsa Dharua of Tara village, Belpara block of Balangir district of Odisha, has a different tale to narrate. She has witnessed a starvation death recently and her villagers’ migration to Hyderabad for work. “No matter how we get the payment, if we get our wages in seven days, why would so many people migrate?”

“No matter how we get the payment, if we get our wages in seven days, why would so many people migrate?”

Abhimanyu Dharua of Chhuinara village in Balangir district of Odisha says, “The bank payment system is good as the money is not siphoned off. But timely wage payment is very important. In our village, a pond renovation work under MGNREGA was discontinued because of delayed payments. The workers eventually migrated as they did not receive payment on time and the work was stopped. Now I am jobless. When there is no job, where is the scope for corruption?”

Papatu Devi and Koshila Devi from Chhatarpur block of Palamu district in Jharkhand, who have not received payment for their work for the last four months, expressed similar helplessness. Now, people in their village are jobless and the work has been stopped.

In Badbanki GP of Balangir district, 17 families have completed 100 days of employment in the last financial year despite delayed payment. Further inquiry revealed that these families own land and hence can live even without MGNREGA. The work under the scheme comes as an additional source of income for such families. But in the same GP, the poorest lot has migrated as they need immediate payment for their work.

Effects of delayed payment

Loss of trust in the Act is the first casualty. Jawahar Mehta of Vikash Sahayog Kendra, Jharkhand, recounts the situation before a year in Latehar and Khunti districts of Jharkhand, where things had almost come to a standstill due to delayed payment. Neither the administration nor the people took any interest in continuing work under the scheme. “It was only after the intervention by Prof Jean Dreze through his ‘Sahayata Kendras’ did things start moving,” says Mehta.

Abhimanyu Dharua of Balangir district of Odisha is now jobless as all the work under the MGNREGA has been stopped in his village due to delayed payment. Pic: Pradeep Baisakh.

People in the undivided Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput area (KBK region) of Odisha, one of the most backward regions of the country, have resorted to migration as the MGNREGA has almost failed to check distress migration in this region -- initially due to non-availability of work and now, delayed payment.

Contrary to official figures, the MGNREGA is a failed scheme for the needy in Odisha. About 1.5 lakh people from Balangir district alone have migrated this season in search of work. Distress migration figures in the KBK region is somewhere between 8 to 10 lakhs. Starvation deaths in Odisha are going unchecked. In remote areas of Jharkhand, death of women during pregnancy is a cause for concern mainly due to malnourishment and anaemia.

On the other hand, many feel that if loopholes are plugged and strict monitoring measures are followed, cash payment system can work well. Tamilnadu is a case in point. (See ‘Slow but steady success’ by Reetika Khera and Karuna Muthiah in The Hindu on 25 April 2010).

Checking corruption may be a priority for activists, media and the government. But for the poor labourers, ‘aajiki mazdoori, aazka bhoogdaan’ (today’s work and today’s payment) is what counts most. One cannot expect a poor person to fight corruption on an empty stomach. Therefore, the agenda of fighting corruption should follow assurance of regular work and timely payment.

An opportunity to fight feudalism missed?

The MGNREGA was expected to make inroads into the democratic control of design and execution of the government welfare programmes in rural India. By transparent mechanisms like muster roll maintenance and cash disbursement in full public view, designs of community control like choosing work and conducting social audits by gram sabhas had discouraged corruption and also exposed embezzlement by the local elite who controlled local matters. The poorest lot -- labourers, landless, and small and marginal farmers, the potential beneficiaries of MGNREGA -- had even started challenging feudal domination. Maybe, had this trend continued, it could have possibly led to greater social transformation through gradual decimation of feudal dominance.

So long as the cash payment of wages was in place, despite its limitations, it was within the grasp of the common lot and hence, under their control. In such a system, the victims might have not had the courage to question the local elite like sarpanchs, contractors, or the panchayat staff. But in the long run, they could not have tolerated their hard-earned money being bungled up by others.

Though less prone to corruption, the institutional wage payment system cannot be monitored by common people. Thus a noble objective of the MGNREGA lay nullified. It has to be mentioned that corruption in the MGNREGA exposed by social audits was perhaps as bad as it was in other schemes. The only difference was that the strong transparency mechanisms of the Act laid it bare. In all fairness, the government should have persisted with the cash payment of wages and waited for it to show its effectiveness. Unfortunately, it was aborted half way in favour of a system, which, though partially addressed one problem, has given rise to several others.

Poor on the periphery

At policy level, the scenario of delayed payment has improved in states like Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Odisha, etc. These measures have alleviated the problem to a certain extent, though way below expectations. When certain shortcomings of this mode of payment came to the fore, a new system of mobile bank payment through biometric smart card is being experimented in some districts. Though initial observations show good results, only time can tell its real impact.

The concern is: the more the system becomes complicated in vital components like wage payment, the more it drifts away from the common people's understanding. In such cases, the government, social activists, and the media occupy the centre-stage and debate and discuss to sort out the issues. Ironically, the poor stand on the periphery as they have little say on matters that affect them the most.

This is not what the original rozgaar guarantee law envisioned. Just like other welfare schemes which are mostly government-driven, the MGNREGA may end up becoming an activists- or media-driven programme. ⊕

Pradeep Baisakh
17 Jul 2010

MGNREGA status report

MGNREGA status report

Social safety net proves elusive

In Kalahandi, a region made infamous by its association with the worst images of drought, poverty and malnutrition, the rural jobs programme should have made a significant impact. That it hasn’t points to the pitfalls associated with social development schemes.

Ruhi Tewari

Kalahandi, Orissa: In October, the villagers of Miyangpadar, part of the Yougsai Patna gram panchayat, finished building a road linking their village to the main road 6km away; part of the assets created under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. They’re yet to get paid.

“Nobody in the village has got any payment. Since we don’t get money, we won’t work for the scheme,” said 70-year-old Kahada Majhi, adding that the gram panchayat had taken away their job cards.

The story plays out across the villages of Kalahandi, a shameful symbol of India’s hunger and poverty. There are few bank branches here, local government bodies are ineffective and there is no mechanism to spread awareness about the programme. The figures tell a sorry tale.

Only 43% of the Rs50.76 crore allocated in the fiscal year that ended March has been utilized, against the national average of 71% for the 619 districts where the scheme has been implemented. Almost none (0.3%) of the tasks undertaken have been completed. Miyangpadar is lucky—at least it got a road out of the programme, which has failed to create assets in the rest of Kalahandi, let alone provide wages.

Of the 1.2 million rural population of Kalahandi, only 78,000 got jobs under the programme last fiscal. Although a little over 600,000 were registered, less than 300,000 were issued job cards and women constituted 38% of the workforce.

The programme seems to have failed in its role as an effective security net for the poor.

“There is no awareness about the scheme and people do not know the process for demanding jobs. The panchayats are non-responsive and do no planning,” said Sanjiv Joshi, secretary of Jan Kalyan, a not-for-profit group that works in the area, adding that the delay in wages is the greatest drawback. “The government allocates enough funds for spreading awareness about the scheme but most of it goes unutilized. MGNREGA has made no difference to the lives of the rural poor here.”

Inept administration

The villagers of Miyangpadar have begun to turn away from MGNREGA. “I didn’t get any money, so now, even though there is some road construction happening in the nearby village, I prefer to stick to mahua collection, even though that fetches me less money,” said Padmini Naik. The villagers earn Rs1,000-2,000 by collecting forest products such as mahua every month.

In Rakeshtunda village of Sagada panchayat in Bhawanipatna block, people have a familiar complaint. They worked on a road, and haven’t been paid. The sarpanch took away their post-office account passbooks and withdrawal slips with their thumb impressions.

“We all worked on the road but didn’t get any money... We are very poor... The sarpanch took away our passbooks and we do not know what is happening,” said 35-year-old Suka Dei.

The village head, meanwhile, is clueless about the scope of the scheme.

 Little to show: (clockwise from top) Inhabitants of Gadari village in Kalahandi district stock up on maize, which becomes their staple diet in the lean season. Despite extreme poverty, people here are yet to find work under MGNREGA; a group of 60-odd villagers dig a pond under the scheme in Pandakamal village, one of the few villages in the district where the Act is being implemented; and a villager in Rakeshtunda village, which still has no electricity—the people here complain of prolonged delays in wage payments for work done under MGNREGA. Indranil Bhoumik / Mint

“I don’t know what work we’re planning under the scheme... Don’t know what work has already happened,” said Anupama Naik, the sarpanch in Sagada panchayat, while refusing to comment on allegations that she took away the passbooks.

The district administration, meanwhile, blames lack of financial infrastructure for the delay in wages, the main difficulty in implementing the scheme.

“Earlier, workers were paid in cash but that was susceptible to corruption,” said R.S. Gopalan, Kalahandi district collector. “Now, payments are made through banks and post offices, and in Kalahandi their penetration is very poor. Hence, the main problem is the delay in wage payments, sometimes even up to nine months.”

The situation has worsened due to the indifference of the panchayats, the main implementation arm under the programme in most states.

In Gadari village, inhabited by 20 below poverty line (BPL) tribal families, most villagers never got any work under the programme. The gram panchayat has not planned a single project under the scheme since it was launched in Kalahandi in 2006. Even a couple of villagers who have done some MGNREGA work had to travel to other villages to do so.

“We were given job cards but the gram panchayat took it away and never gave it back,” said Kanga Majhi, a resident of the village.

Naturally, villagers prefer working in the fields for lower wages.

“Though we earn only Rs50 per day, we get our payments every day and can even take an advance. In MGNREGA, there is no guarantee of when we would get paid,” said Janabi Majhi, one of about 15 women from Ghantamal village working in a local field.

The district administration blames the low participation on the lack of initiative among villagers.

“There is adequate awareness about the scheme, but most of the time we really have to push the villagers. They do not show any interest, probably because it is hard manual labour,” said Gopalan.

Apart from the red tape, activists say the state government’s scheme of giving up to 25kg rice at Rs2 per kg to BPL card holders has also acted as a disincentive.

“Also, they prefer taking up other jobs instead of wasting time first demanding work under the scheme, then waiting for payments and making several rounds to the panchayat and banks for wages,” said Joshi.

The programme’s success hinges on factors such as political will and effective delivery mechanisms, not just spending money.

“Even in states like Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the scheme has done well, it has been mainly because of political will, which ensures effective management and availability of infrastructure,” said Yamini Aiyar, senior research fellow and director of the accountability initiative, Centre for Policy Research. “There is no doubt that political will is the real anchor to ensure that the infrastructure required for the scheme is in place so that the money being pumped in actually reaches the poor. In Orissa, and particularly Kalahandi, the government has not done very much to address this and no effort has been made to build capacity at the panchayat level.”

MGNREGA status report

MGNREGA status report

New model for success in Andhra

The government’s flagship rural jobs guarantee programme, MGNREGA, has taken a different path in Andhra Pradesh

C.R. Sukumar

Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh: Anchekatti Rangaswamy, 19, is shifting large rocks from the acres of barren farm land on the outskirts of Yerraguntla, a village 65 km from Kurnool, the gateway to Andhra Pradesh’s drought-prone Rayalaseema region.

The work he does during his summer break from college will make the rocky land, belonging to marginal farmers in the area, slightly more cultivable.

M Gopinath Reddy, Professor at the centre for economic and social studies in Hyderabad talks about how implementation of the MGNREGS has taken a unique turn in Andhra Pradesh

And the wages the teenager will earn from the job under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will go towards realizing his dream of attaining a management degree and becoming a corporate executive.

“I need at least Rs8,000 for my college fees and books in B.Com last year and I hope to earn at least Rs4,000 during this summer vacation through MGNREGA wages,” says Rangaswamy.

Rangaswamy is employed with his mother and relatives in clearing the stretch of 250 acres where the MGNREGA work is being undertaken. Many poor households in the Rayalaseema region, prone to prolonged droughts and plagued by poverty, have benefited from MGNREGA, which offers 100 days of work a year to at least one member of every rural family in the country.

The region includes the three most drought-prone districts of Kurnool, Ananthapur and Kadapa.

Andhra Pradesh is considered among the top performers under MGNREGA, generating more than 320 million person- days of employment and receiving Rs3,781 crore of funds from the scheme in 2009-10.

What makes the Andhra Pradesh experiment interesting is not just the impressive performance metrics. Unlike in most other states, MGNREGA pursues a different delivery model in Andhra Pradesh and has yet proven to be successful.

The selection as well as execution of a project is undertaken by a village organization made up of members nominated by block-level bureaucrat, a departure from the normal practice of vesting such decision-making powers in the local panchayat, or village council.

Gaining an alternative

Kurnool had been ranked at the top once and second twice in the last three years of MGNREGA implementation, based on key parameters among 22 districts of Andhra Pradesh. The district has 1.567 million adults enrolled under the scheme and issued job cards.

Like Rangaswamy, other teenagers in the 1,522 villages of Kurnool nurse ambitions of higher education and white collar jobs.

Those who could not afford to continue their studies are now heading the groups of wage seekers assisting MGNREGA officials in planning and executing projects under the programme that has begun to reorder employment patterns in the region.

Ground realities: MGNREGA workers levelling agricultural land of marginal farmers at Yerraguntla village in Kurnool district. Bharat Sai / Mint

Men from Yerraguntla now have an alternative to taking up potentially hazardous work in the mine quarries located at Chinna Malkapuram, some 4km from their village.

Similarly, women, accompanied by children, no longer migrate to neighbouring districts seeking employment in the farms cultivating cotton and chillies. Their livelihood has improved so much so that several small farmers and landless labourers say they can now pay their debts, build permanent houses and and educate their children.

In Kurnool district, women outnumber men in wage employment and many of them, like in Rajasthan, are joining the workforce for the first time. As many as 334,000 women got wage employment last year, compared with 308,000 men.

“Now my family no more migrates and we are able to get jobs that fetch good earnings where we now live,” said Sheik Thahera, a 19- year-old woman. “More than anything, we women are for the first time seeing wages on a par with men.”

Political history

Interestingly, the success of MGNREGA in Andhra Pradesh has been brought about without the intervention of the panchayats. This is partly to do with the recent political history of the state wherein the panchayats have seen their power diminish at the expense of alternative local bodies.

On average, there are at least 10-15 such stakeholder bodies or active parallel bodies in each village including irrigation committees, parents committees and health committees.

Though Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) had constitutional backing, their powers were reduced over the years, and as a result the village organizations became more powerful with annual budgets that are healthier than those of the PRIs.

M. Gopinath Reddy, a professor at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, says that this trend has continued in the implementation of the job guarantee scheme as well.

Reddy observes that neither the PRIs nor the parallel institutions were allowed to play a role in the implementation of MGNREGA and the bureaucrats instead preferred to build another parallel machinery that decides the projects and gets them ratified at the gram sabha (village assembly). He adds that the planning, execution and supervision of MGNREGA in Andhra Pradesh has become more a departmental affair and PRIs have no statutory role to play.

“No gram sabha and no sarpanch would ever say no to the works proposed to be taken up in their jurisdiction...,” says Reddy.

However, the success of the model, an analyst points out, depends crucially on the government’s commitment to the programme.

“So far the state government has shown keen interest and hence the bureaucracy has delivered. This cannot be taken for granted,” said the person, who is closely associated with MGNREGA, but who declined to be identified.

MGNREGS: Adding aspiration in Andhra

MGNREGS: Adding aspiration in Andhra

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Just three years ago 19 year old Anchekatti Rangaswamy would have been satisfied if he was able to get three square meals a day. Rangaswamy who belongs to a backward community in Yerraguntla village, situated 285 km from Hyderabad, was working as a daily wage labourer to support his family.

But the introduction of the MGNREGS in his village has completely changed Rangaswamy’s outlook on life and what he can achieve. He now aspires to complete an MBA and work as an executive in a corporate office.

Rangaswamy is completing his third year of B.Com computers around 60 km from Kurnool. Having secured over 70% marks in his first year,, he hopes to obtain at least 75% in his second year of exams.

All this is possible for Rangaswamy after the financial condition of his family significantly improved under the MGNREGS. Thanks to development work implemented in their property under the scheme, the family hopes to harvest at least one dry crop in a year.

Rangaswamy, who used to earn around Rs 30 a day unloading tractors is now able to support his studies completely through his wage earnings of at least Rs 100 a day. He needs around Rs 8,000 for his final year of studies fees and plans to earn at least Rs 4,000 during these summer holidays thanks to work that comes about due to the MGNREGS.

There are thousands of such students spread across  1,522 villages of Kurnool who nurse similar dreams of higher education and white collar jobs, thanks to the financial emancipation that has resulted from the MGNREGS during its three years of implementation.

Talari Thimmaiah, a 24-year-old boy, now working for the MGNREGS as head of a 20-member team of job seekers in the same village, says he had discontinued his studies seven years back after completing his intermediate studies because his family could not afford it. “I was unlucky that a job guarantee scheme like MGNREGS was not available those days, which would have helped me continue my education to become a white collar employee,” he says.

MGNREGA status report

Working towards empowerment

Rajasthan isn’t just one of the states that have adopted and implemented MGNREGA, the Central government’s flagship rural jobs guarantee programme, wholeheartedly

Ruhi Tewari

Tilonia/Harmara Panchayats, Ajmer district, Rajasthan: Until two years ago, Vimla had never even considered stepping out of her house for work. Women in her part of the world didn’t work. Now, she doesn’t just work, but also operates a bank account, participates in household decisions, and is learning two of the Rs (reading and writing).

The difference is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) that was launched in Vimla’s village in 2008.

Vimla, who is in her 20s, is not unique. She is an example of what is happening in her village and across the state.

Ruhi Tewari notes how apart from social and economic impact, MGNREGS is also ushering in what might well be a subtle yet crucial political shift

Read why Mint decided to run a series on MGNREGS

In Rajasthan, MGNREGA has altered not just economic but also social dynamics. At least two out of every three workers employed under the scheme in most parts of the state are women, and the job guarantee programme is contributing to their gradual, but steady, economic and social empowerment.

Changing mindsets

“Across Rajasthan, 80-90% of the workforce under MGNREGA comprises women. This has brought about a massive change in the mindsets of people here and has instilled new-found confidence in women,” says Ram Karan, a social activist in Tilonia district associated with the Barefoot College—a non-governmental organization that provides basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities.

So much so that these women now open and manage their accounts in banks or post offices, and some of them are in the process of gaining a rudimentary education.

“The women, oppressed so far, have now become economically independent—earning their own living and also deciding how to spend it, unlike earlier, when the men would take all decisions. In fact, even their children’s health is improving given that they can now choose to spend their money where it’s needed,” adds Karan, who is also the coordinator for MGNREGA in Tilonia and Harmara panchayats.

MGNREGA, launched in February 2005, is the flagship social development programme of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government (UPA) and has been widely credited with helping the alliance return to power at the Centre in the 2009 general election. It provides for 100 days of work for one member of each rural household at a minimum wage per day.

MGNREGA’s design promises much for women’s empowerment. Ignoring the reality of gender inequalities, it views men and women equally with respect to opportunities for gainful employment as well as wage rates. The Act stipulates the same wages for men and women and is committed to ensuring that at least 33% of the workers are women.

Fair share: (from top) In Phaloda village, of the 71 workers constructing a step-dam under MGNREGA, 63 are women; it’s a similar story in Naya Gaon, where the majority of the wokers digging a water pond are women; in Harmara, a record of all workers under the scheme is maintained on the wall of the panchayat building. Priyanka Parashar / Mint

Rajasthan, has been one of the most obvious beneficiaries on this count, a significant achievement for a state where most women once didn’t have a voice.

“Earlier, my family members would never let me step out to work but now, I earn my own living. I have also opened by own bank account and can also sign my name. And of course, unlike earlier when my husband controlled all household finances, now even I can decide how to spend the money. Why shouldn’t I, now that I am also earning?” says Vimla, who uses only one name. She and 60 other workers are digging a water pond under the scheme in Naya Gaon village. And 52 of the 60 are women.

Most women—whose work hours are from 9am to 5pm every day—spend their incomes on crucial household items, their children’s education and health. Sometimes, they also pamper themselves with some trinkets of jewellery.

Social change

The women have also learnt to challenge certain social norms.

Manphool, in her early 40s, is a widow with no children. She is one of the beneficiaries of the scheme and has thus far earned Rs9,500. “At least now, I have become economically independent. Earlier, I couldn’t even go out to work and had very little money. Now I do not have to depend on anybody,” she says.

Economic empowerment doesn’t just lead to social empowerment; it also leads to political aspirations.

Norti Bai, who is in her 50s, is the first Dalit woman sarpanch of Harmara panchayat. She was elected last month with overwhelming support of women in her area; she attributes her win to growing awareness among women because of the employment guarantee programme.

Of the 1,300 MGNREGA job cards issued in her panchayat, Norti Bai’s was among the first.

The numbers bear out the popularity of the scheme with wo- men in the state. Women constitute 67% of the total 482.9 million people who have benefited from MGNREGA across the state. In Ajmer district, women constitute 73% of the MGNREGA workforce.

“Participation of women in MGNREGA across the state is almost two-thirds and this is making them financially empowered,” says Tanmay Kumar, commissioner, MGNREGA in Rajasthan. “The fact that they are coming out of their homes to work and are making financial decisions shows they are breaking several social barriers. With work also comes an awareness of one’s rights.”

Officials also say women’s participation in the scheme has had a direct impact on education with more families now spending on their children’s education.

In Phaloda village under the Tilonia panchayat, 71 workers are constructing a step-dam under the scheme; 63 of these workers are women and they have similar stories to relate.

Most of them agree that the scheme has made them financially independent, more self-assured and aware, putting them on a social platform that had seemed unachievable earlier.

“Earlier, even for little things like bangles, bindis, I was at the mercy of my husband, but now I can buy whatever I want to. I even have a post office account now and I manage to save money,” says Hira of Phaloda village, adding that she can now afford to send her children to school.

Hira’s husband Kishorichand, who is visiting the site to pick up their child, insists that he is happy about his wife’s new-found economic independence.

“It helps in many ways. Our family income has increased so we can give our children better education. My wife has not asked me for money to buy things for herself and the children since she started getting this income... It seems like she has become more confident of her own abilities and position,” he says.

Still, the situation is far from perfect.

Women workers face several problems such as having to travel long distances and work all day long, either leaving their children at home or keeping them with them in the heat. Delayed payments are another irritant. They also complain of the minimum wages being too low to cover their household expenses given inflation and of work for 100 days a year being inadequate. Some are also not happy about having to maintain a minimum balance in MGNREGA bank accounts. Then, there are instances where husbands of women workers simply take away their money.

Yet, the change is palpable. At Tilonia, a woman named Ganeshi walks into the local post office to withdraw money from her MGNREGA account. This is the first time she has stepped out her house to conduct a financial transaction. “We have around 3,500 accounts of MGNREGA workers in this post office and a majority of them belong to women. They mostly come alone to collect their payments and have learnt to manage their accounts on their own,” says Birdi Chand who is in charge of the post office.

Politically correct

women workers in Rajasthan

Norti Bai, in her late fifties, is the first Dalit woman sarpanch of Harmara village in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district. She says she’s the only woman elected to the post not from an influential political family. Norti Bai says she won the Panchayat elections held earlier this year because of overwhelming support from the women in her village. A support that according to her, is a direct result of growing awareness and exposure among the women in her village.

This augmented exposure has been brought about by an unlikely agent – the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government’s flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or MGNREGA.

Interestingly, apart from the impact on social and economic dynamics, this scheme is also ushering in, what might well be a subtle yet crucial political shift.

Apart from providing a safety net to the rural poor, MGNREGA is showing signs of helping the Congress party strengthen its position in a key electoral base – women. The way in which the mechanics of the MGNREGA have panned out has seen more women participate in development programmes. Till now, a total of 5.06 crore households have been provided employment under MGNREGA and 262.9 crore persondays of employment have been generated. Of

this, women constitute 48% or nearly half the workforce. In some states like Rajasthan, women account for nearly 70% of the workforce.

This fact, along with the financial emancipation that comes with it, has also seen women becoming more aware of their rights. The development could prove to be beneficial for the Congress. Associating the party with their new emancipated status could see the support base being strengthened among rural women, which has always been one of its core constituencies.

Norti Bai’s election as sarpanch could indeed be a consequence of women finally finding their voice, particularly in states like Rajasthan, where they have historically been oppressed and largely influenced by men. It, of course, might be too early to gauge the political impact of significant female participation in MGNREGA and draw conclusions from

that, given that the scheme was introduced across all 619 districts in the country just about two years back. Further, this theory may also not hold true in states where either:

a) women have always been politically aware or

b) where female participation in the scheme is still too low

However, in Rajasthan, the winds of change are perceptible and if the assembly election results of December 2008 and the Lok sabha elections of 2009 are anything to go by, the marquee scheme is definitely working in favour of its creator.

Mahua trees: A major hurdle for effective implementation of MGNREGA

Mahua trees: A major hurdle for effective implementation of MGNREGA

May 4, 2010

Summer in Dantewada is synonymous with the blooming of the mahua tree. As a result, the indigenous population in the area will talk, eat, drink and dream mahua and not concentrate on anything else! A popular saying among the people of the region goes like this:

” Heaven is a forest of miles and miles of mahua trees. And hell is a forest of miles and miles of mahua trees with a forest guard.”

As you enter Dantewada on National Highway 43 in March-April, you are welcomed by mahua trees in full bloom. Look a little closer and you can see a flurry of activity around the trees. Entire families, from the oldest person to the youngest child, will be gathering the light yellow blossoms. After the flowers are collected, they are dried for two or three days before being distilled into liquor. Each family will be given trees in a 2-3 hectare area on contract. Self-proclaimed leaders of the community claim possession of the trees alongside the highways.

Soar, who lives in Dantewada’s Geedam block, says that each family can earn Rs300-400 daily by collecting the flowers. He said 1kg of mahua flowers produces up to 350 ml of liquor.

But while the locals love the season, which will be followed by the trees fruiting in June (the fruits can also be distilled into liquor), MGNREGS fieldworkers find it a difficult time.  ”It is very difficult to get people for work in this season. In the morning, they will go off to collect flowers and in the afternoon, the elders, including women, will drink mahua and sleep”,  said Vijay Aryan Tiwari, Dantewada’s block development officer. “We keep telling them that while two of the family members can go for flower picking, others should come for work. But they will not listen”.

While government officials and activists fret over the indigenous people’s lack of interest in MGNREGS work, the locals say they do not bother much about tomorrow. When asked what work she did during the day, a woman named Manji in Jangla relief camp replied: “I had mahua, I enjoyed it.”

Fieldworkers say the scheme has only served to fuel alcohol consumption.  They use the money (Rs100 per day) to buy liquor”, said one fieldworker.

Aside: Maharashtra tribal development minister Babanrao Pachpute seems to have fully understood the love for mahua. He came up with the idea of helping them manufacture “herbal liquor” from the mahua flower as a source of livelihood.