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.

In the shadow of Maoism

MGNREGA status report

In the shadow of Maoism

With many analysts believing that social development and progress can wean tribals away from the Maoist fold, the govt’s flagship rural jobs guarantee programme’s success here could be critical to the country’s future

Liz Mathew

Dantewada, Chhattisgarh: Madvi Madka owns 4ha of land in Chingavaram in the Sukum block in central India. The district in which the block is located has become infamous after 6 April, killing of 76 policemen by the Maoists. This is the ground zero of the war between the Indian state and the Maoists, and Madka, who owns 4ha of land—often left fallow because there wasn’t enough water for irrigation—here used to make ends meet by travelling to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and picking chillies during the harvest season.

That changed with the introduction of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Field workers in charge of implementing the job guarantee programme in the Naxal-infested region expanded the scope of projects that fell under the scheme to ponds on private lands—a move targeted at generating goodwill. Madka was one of the beneficiaries and a small pond was constructed on his land.

The pond and a little more help from field workers have changed Madka’s life. He now has a vegetable garden, a fish pond, and owns some goats and chicken. Madka has become a role model for other tribals; “many people in the area have approached us for ponds”, says Dinesh Chandel, assistant project officer of MGNREGS in Dantewada district.

The success of such initiatives lends credence to the local administration’s belief that social development, more than mere counter-insurgency, can dent the Maoists hold over tribals. It would appear that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s flagship programme, MGNREGS is helping the administration regain the trust of tribals. This isn’t the intended objective of the scheme, but here in Dantewada, anything that can help ideologically counter the Maoists is welcome.

Empowering locals: (From top) Villagers of Kasoli working on a project under the rural employment guarantee programme; a recently constructed check dam in Badepaneda village in Geedam block; a boy in Dantewada district collecting mahua flowers which are used to produce an alcoholic drink.

A ray of hope

MGNREGS plays a very basic role in Dantewada, says Prasanna R., district collector, Bijapur. “It has helped the locals to develop confidence in the administration. It is easy us for to take other schemes to them,” he adds. Bijapur is one of the districts worst affected by Maoist insurgency.

Recognizing the benefits of the scheme, the state is working towards creating infrastructure that can help MGNREGS projects get off the ground.

Some tribals view the official measures favourably. Chetra Atami, a tribal in Kasoli, says: “We need more bridges and check dams so that we can do more farming in the land. We are happy that we get work when we want. The administration does not deny us funds at all.”

“We are happy that we can work under the scheme. It provides us a steady income and we do not have to go searching for work off season,” adds Bhimsen, a resident in the Kasoli camp, where around 200 families have been shifted from their villages in the forest after being forced to leave homes by the Naxals.

Yet, operating in a region where the Maoists call the shots in most areas comes with its own set of problems.

It is routine for government officials to be kidnapped and held hostage. Many districts do not have enough banks and post offices. For example, Dantewada (17,634 sq. km area and around 770,000 population) has 45 banks and 130 post offices in its 403 villages, out of which almost 50% are not functional.

“We do have problems in meeting the target, especially in the interiors. Payment is another area of trouble, with not many post offices or banks to transfer the money. We also face a human resource crunch,” says Alex Menon, chief executive officer, zilla panchayat (district council), Bijapur.

“With one village getting at least (a) Rs10 lakh project, many post offices do not have the staff to handle it nor are they comfortable in handling the money,” adds Chandel.

So far the district administration has opened 37,280 bank accounts and 84,052 post office accounts for the villagers, while 13,433 families have been distributed job cards. At least 2,248 projects have already been cleared; and of the Rs61.78 crore approved, Rs26.55 crore has been spent.

It isn’t always easy to interest tribals in the projects, says Chandel. Some of them prefer to harvest mahua flowers (which is distilled to make a liquor called Mahua) and tendu leaves (a major non-timber forest produce used for rolling beedis), instead. However, with the benefits of some MGNREGS projects becoming evident, the administration hopes there will be more interest.

Benefits for all

One such project is the check dam in Badepaneda village in Geedam block. Built at a cost of Rs47 lakh (it took three years and 5,350 man hours), this can store water for at least eight villages. “Earlier, we used to face water shortage in summer, right from the month of February. With this check dam, we will not have any water problem throughout the year. Our wells (in the nearby areas) are not dry; we can bathe lavishly and irrigate our farms too,” says Devashish, a villager.

According to M. Mahapatra, block medical officer, Community Health Centre in Behramgarh, Bijapur, health awareness among the villagers has improved too. While there may be no correlation between this and the job guarantee scheme, MGNREGS does help the administration reach out to people and may help it familiarize them with other state-sponsored schemes and benefits. Mahapatra attends to at least 13-14 deliveries in a month and the laboratory attached to the centre conducts 400-500 blood tests in the same period. “Vaccinations have become more regular also,” he said.

The job guarantee scheme has also helped local officials reach out to areas where they did not have a presence. Like Bijapur zilla panchayat, where most of the 36 villages were inaccessible till recently.

An important benefit, according to Menon and Prasanna, is that through MGNREGS the administration could regain at least 10% of the land from the Naxals in a year. “Reddy village (20km from the district headquarters) is the perfect example for rehabilitation. It was unreachable, schools and health centres had been blasted by the Naxals. Now the villagers have gone back from the camps. They have two schools and health centres there,” Menon said.

Still, in this part of the country, MGNREGS is far from an unqualified success. In Matwara village, 357 job cards were distributed, but only 150 people have worked and earned wages. As a result, the ambit of the scheme has not yet expanded from creating small ponds and approach roads.

While it is in the interests of the local administration to implement the job guarantee scheme, the Maoists, villagers claim, themselves do not seem opposed to it—as long as a project doesn’t pose a threat to them.

“In some places, they ensure that the villagers get the ensured wage and in some other places, they themselves supervise the construction of roads. But they do oppose it when we try to construct roads to get access to their heartlands,” says an MGNREGS field worker in Bijapur district.

Political will, NGOs hold key to success

MGNREGA status report

Political will, NGOs hold key to success

Bundelkhand is one of the most backward regions in the country. Yet, even here, there are huge disparities between villages where MGNREGA has been implemented in its true spirit and those where it hasn’t

Liz Mathew

Jhansi (Bundelkhand), Uttar Pradesh: Nahrani, a 38-year-old in Lalitpur, a village 30km from Jhansi, has an all-too-familiar tale to tell: a recently deceased husband; the lack of a ration card which promises access to free or inexpensive food; and a village without water, power, schools or health centres.

Not one child from the 50-odd families in this village goes to school. The menfolk are perennially drifting, looking for jobs. And no one has heard of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Merely 15km from Lalitpur, another village in Bundelkhand, Ghisoli, presents a study in contrast.

All children from the 400-odd families in this village go to school, and some even nurse dreams of college. The village itself looks clean and prosperous. Behind this success are 26 self-help groups, each with 13 members, set up by local women with help from a non-governmental organization (NGO). And everyone at Ghisoli has heard of MGNREGA—in fact, jobs provided by the scheme help the women set aside money for the self-help groups, which have together set aside a little over Rs1 lakh in a local bank.

That’s a significant achievement for women, especially in Bundelkhand.

Patchy implementation

Spanning seven districts in Uttar Pradesh and six in Madhya Pradesh, this was once among the most prosperous regions in the country, but today it is one of the most backward. Prolonged drought, low industrial growth, rampant poverty and the apathy of the administration have forced people to migrate. Eight out of every 10 men in the region are out working or searching for work elsewhere. The women, despite running households in the absence of men, are not the dominant sex in this region where communities are still structured along feudal lines and caste, with lower-caste women at the bottom.

In many ways, this is just the kind of environment where MGNREGS was supposed to make a difference. It has, in the rare village such as Ghisoli, but across Bundelkhand the story of the populist job guarantee scheme is one of corruption and lack of awareness.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party may have rubbished Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s allegations that the state government isn’t properly utilizing MGNREGS funds, but most villagers in Jhansi district do admit that there has been rampant corruption in the implementation of the scheme.

“MGNREGA is a programme out of which the poor in every part of the country get benefits. But in this state, the system is made in such a way that nobody gets the advantages,” says Amit Tripathy, a local social activist.

Tripathy is convinced there is a larger motive behind this.

“The officials and the people who matter think that proper implementation of such programmes would make the people strong enough to weaken them,” he says.

Tripathy’s claim is supported by villagers and anecdotal evidence.

It is opposed by data.

In Jhansi district (population is 1.9 million), 133,497 job cards under the job guarantee scheme have been distributed and 86,178 people have already benefited, according to the latest data in the ministry of rural development. Of the total of Rs142.14 crore allotted to the scheme in the district, Rs105.92 has been spent, translating into a 75% utilization, better than the national average of 71% for the 619 districts where the scheme has been implemented.

Yet, nothing is visible on the ground.

Villagers complain that powerful and influential village headmen, in connivance with the officials, shoo them away when approach for work under the scheme. The jobs often go to cronies of the headmen, they say. And when the rare job is proffered to someone who really needs it, the headmen invariably cheat them out of the money that is their due, the villagers allege. Even the job cards aren’t registered in their names, they say. And the money, for those lucky ones who manage to land some work, always comes late.

“They (panchayat council members) chase us away with sticks when we go to them (asking) for work. They will keep our cards and provide jobs to their people. They do not give women jobs,” says Biniya, who runs a small paan stall in Bagora village in Babina block. She doesn’t see any point in complaining.

“If we have to complain against these people, we will have to go to Jhansi, and that too several times. We will have to spend Rs100 each every time. What’s the point,” adds a visibly frustrated Biniya.

Baghora, in many ways, is a mirror image of Lalitpur. The roads are bad. Most houses don’t have power and water connections. “At the school we have, teachers come once in a week. Our children do not get the mid-day meal because those who run the school share it among themselves,” complains Ramesh, another villager.

The state government official in charge of MGNREGS in the village, Mahesh Shukla refutes all charges regarding the scheme. It works perfectly, he says and adds, “In 2009-10, we gave Rs7.9 lakh for labour and Rs7 lakh for materials. Around 350 job cards were distributed in this village and 175 people have already worked under the scheme.”

The real problem facing the scheme, Shukla adds, is entirely different. “Actually, there is dearth of labourers,” he says.

But he does concede that payments are delayed.

The real problem in many parts of Bundelkhand would appear to be lack of awareness. In Mota, another village in the region, people have not heard about any government schemes for people below the poverty line; and no villager has a ration card or job card. The only card most people possess is a voter identity card; politicians want people to vote. So, what explains Ghisoli’s success?

An exception to the rule

At one level, the success of the scheme and its impact on Ghisoli point to the difference self-help groups can make to the job guarantee scheme.

At another, it points to the difference political intervention by a popular leader can make.

In Ghisoli’s case, that leader is Rahul Gandhi. The son of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary of the party, he visited Ghisoli in 2008. The village wasn’t very different from many others in the region then, and villagers complained to him about the non-implementation of MGNREGS.

Soon after, the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojna (RGMVP), an NGO that works to create self-help groups entered the region. RGMVP is headquartered in Rae Bareli, the pocket borough of the Gandhi family whose representative in the Lok Sabha is Sonia Gandhi.

RGMVP’s volunteers worked with the village women, even taking some to Andhra Pradesh, a state that has been transformed by the success of self-help groups. “We found women were running dhabas there,” says Jayanti, a villager, adding that this led to the natural question: Why can’t we?

The self-help groups also helped the women ask for and get work under MGNREGS. “We were used to be thrown out by the village council people whenever we approached them for work. We were shy and reluctant to push ourselves. But now we are aware of our rights and we will fight for it,” says Vimla, a villager.

The women started setting aside Rs50 a month as their contribution to their respective self-help group. Today, the self-help groups run a bank of foodgrain; the bank has a quintal or 100kg, and 20kg from this can be loaned to the needy when required. The self-help groups can also lend up to Rs10,000. The women have managed to convince the police to shut down wine shops in the village, and are now planning ahead. “We have been promised (by RGMVP) that our children will be given special education in English and computers next year,” says Vimla.

Other NGOs, working in other villages in the region, have made a similar difference—empowering women and improving lives.

In Chapra village, Magleshwar Yadav, a teacher in the Chapra girls primary school, says that not a single student had dropped out in the past two years—this, in a region where most girl students drop out of school.

And no one from the village has gone out seeking jobs, says Sumalata, another villager.

Yet, such villages are few. At least 30-40% of people in the region still migrate in search of jobs, says Manish Jain of Jagruti Nehru Yuva Mandal, an NGO.

That’s evident in Mota village, which seems populated by old men and women. And in Nayibanti, another village in Bundelkhand, 100 families migrated recently in search of jobs.

“This village is just 2km from the Babina block headquarters,” says Shahid, a social activist. “If officials can’t implement the job guarantee scheme there, one can imagine the plight of faraway villages.”