SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI

8 SPECIAL REPORT NOVEMBER 14, 2010

SHORTCHANGED
The radical social vision of NREGA, the showpiece legislation
that won an election, is being subverted, says Manoj Mitta
RURAL REPORT CARDS
Some success stories, a few failures — implementation is a patchy picture

TONK, RAJASTHAN RE 1 PER DAY

or Sonia Gandhi, the change could not read down by courts or amended by Parliament to

F have been more dramatic. Just last year,

her contribution in pushing for the Ma-
hatma Gandhi National Rural Employ-
ment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was
hailed as the single largest reason for the
fresh mandate received by a government avowed-
ly dedicated to the aam aadmi. Yet, last week, Gand-
hi, as chairperson of the National Advisory Coun-
cil (NAC) was reduced to lodging a complaint with
ALL ABOUT THE ACT
When | It was passed in August 2005
What | The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act guarantees 100 days
of paid work a year to a rural household
preserve the sanctity of minimum wage.
● On November 11, 2009, the ministry issued a no-
tification shifting the MGNREGA’s focus from
labour intensive to material intensive projects.
Expanding the scope of work that could be un-
dertaken under the Act, the ministry ordered that
the MGNREGA funds be diverted to construct a
facilitation centre in each village named after Ra-
jiv Gandhi. This executive diktat, besides eroding
Tonk: It could go down in history as the lowest wage ever paid to anyone by any government.
Here, just 40 kms away from Jaipur, NREGA workers get just Re 1 per day. Activists say workers
are being cheated and the crime continues unpunished. “Compensation for the workers, who
have been cheated, seems a far cry. No senior administrative official has even visited the spot to
get an insight into the matter,” says Shankar Singh, an activist with Suchna Evenum Rozgar Ka
Adhikar Abhiyan, the NGO that first brought up the matter.
Between April 26 and May 11 this year, nearly 99 people from Gudaliya village in Tonk district
worked on digging a check dam. Each was paid just Rs 11 altogether, a rupee for each day. This has
happened four times between April and June, with villagers paid Re 1, Rs 7, Rs 12 and Rs 19 each,
Where | The scheme began on February 2, 2006
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against a major in 200 districts and covered all 593 districts in the powers granted to the panchayat under the amounting to Rs 1,215. Officials deny misappropriation of money. One official insisted on condition
dilution of the same showpiece legislation. India by April 1, 2008 Act, has allowed material contractors to get a foot of anonymity that “the workers collectively dug only an area of 11.97 cubic
The provocation for Sonia’s letter pertained to in the door. It has also opened up opportunities metre. That’s why they have been paid so less. There are always such
a growing sense of disquiet in civil society. This is Who | It’s meant to improve rural people’s for corruption. instances where villagers gather at an NREGA site but don’t work. So, how
essentially over the anomaly of labourers being purchasing power, primarily semi or unskilled ● The grievance redressal mechanism created in can we pay them for no work?” The government has enquired into the
paid less than “minimum wages” — the lowest pre- workers, irrespective of their positioning above or the form of an ombudsman, through a notification matter. But the official explains that “the report by the junior engineer
scribed rate for bare subsistence — in as many as below the poverty line issued on September 7, 2009, has turned out to be says that when he visited the spot on May 19, he found 150 people had
19 states. This anomaly arose out of the Centre’s toothless. The ombudsman can only make recom- been registered when in reality only 69 were working”.
notification two years ago fixing the “wage rate” How | The Centre pays the wages, three-fourths mendations. Unlike his RTI counterpart, he can’t Shankar Singh, the activist, says it’s lies, damn lies. “This means
at Rs 100 per day. The Centre, which bears almost of all the material used and part of the pass orders or impose penalties on errant author- that there were 44 people whose names were falsely recorded but
the entire burden of MGNREGA, is entrusted with administrative costs. Each state pays for ities. As a result, accountability provisions have they were paid. Why did the person not strike off the names of the
an unduly wide discretionary power for fixing the unemployment allowance, a fourth of the cost of largely remained on paper. These include an un- absentees? This clearly proves his involvement.”
wage rate. In her letter to the Prime Minister, So- material and remaining administrative costs employment allowance for those who are not pro- Meanwhile, the workers have refused to take the tiny payments,
nia conveyed the NAC’s view that the Centre can- vided work within 15 days of their application and choosing instead to donate them to the chief minister’s relief fund.
not encroach on the right of workers to be paid on December 31, 2008, overturned the basic prin- compensation for those “Someone who is poorer than us will need this money,” they say in a
minimum wages as determined from time to time ciple of audit. It empowers the panchayat to con- whose payment is de- derisive comment on how NREGA has failed them.
by their respective state governments. duct its own audit. As a result, the only credible layed for longer —Anindo Dey
Sonia’s intervention followed similar concerns model of social audit in the country, designed by than 15 days.
raised with the PM by chief ministers of two of the Andhra government, is no longer legal as it Given the in-
the affected states, K Rosaiah of Andhra Pradesh hinges on the participation of trained personnel sidious ways in
and Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan. Both are inci- from outside the panchayat. which the JHARKHAND WORKERS CELEBRATE BACK PAYMENTS
dentally Congress chief ministers. This political ● Within 24 hours of demolishing the social audit scheme is being
reaction came after a stay order by the Andhra safeguard, the ministry came up with its infamous run down by its Ranchi: NREGA has liberated Danu Mahato, 70. The labourer from Simbulkel village in Khunti
Pradesh high court on the Centre’s notification on notification violating the minimum wage law. That own administra- district never thought he’d be able to pay the moneylender what he owed him. He was heavily in
the wage rate, essentially on the grounds that it notification, issued on January 1, 2009 has brought tive ministry, it is debt. The irony was he too was owed money, having never been paid for work he had done under
violated the Minimum Wages Act 1948. When the out the unbridled discretionary power conferred just as well that NREGA a couple of years ago. But in August, a surprised Mahato learnt he would get the back
Centre persisted with its policy of freezing the on the Centre by Section 6(1) of the Act to fix wages Sonia Gandhi has payment as well as Rs 3000 to compensate for the delay.
wage rate at Rs 100 despite the stay order, the high lower than the minimum wage. Sonia suggested called for correc- Mahato is one of 78 labourers in Khunti district who have finally been paid and
court initiated contempt proceedings against the that a way out of the current mess might be if the tives on the mini- compensated in this way. When deputy labour commissioner, Mahendra Murmu,
Union and AP governments. Centre issued a fresh notification catching up with mum wage issue. In reimbursed the workers at a labour court in Khunti, it was the successful conclusion of a
Meanwhile, in a rare initiative, two former the minimum wages in various states. But the run-up to the fifth two-year struggle for justice by the NREGA Sahayata Kendra.
Chief Justices of India (M N Venkat- for a long-term solution, this am- anniversary of its en- The workers’ plight came to light in May 2009. The Sahayata Kendra was set up
achaliah and J S Verma), four former biguous provision on forcement, she needs to do in Khunti by university students and local volunteers under the guidance of Jean
Supreme Court judges (V R Krishna Iyer, wage rate needs more to rescue her show- Dreze, developmental economist and member of the Central Employment
P B Sawant, K Ramaswamy and Santosh to be piece legislation. Guarantee Commission. A little over 16 students from universities across the
Hegde) and one former high court country came together to survey implementation of the rural job scheme in
chief justice (A P Shah) signed a Khunti. They found that work done in 2007-08 at three sites in Tirla
statement calling for the imme- Piyal Bhattacharjee remained uncompensated. When the ministry of rural development
diate revocation of the “uncon- sought an Action Taken Report from then deputy commissioner Puja
stitutional” notification under Singhal, she said there were no outstanding payments. Another
the MGNREGA bypassing the team of student volunteers initiated a follow-up survey in Khunti
minimum wage law. Adding to the in May 2010, in collaboration with the Sahayata Kendra. They
government’s embarrassment, ad- found that nothing had changed in Tirla and the workers were
ditional solicitor general Indira Jais- still unpaid. On May 14, a public hearing in Khunti, attended
ing gave a written opinion that any by the deputy commissioner and other officials, agreed
payment below the minimum wage that in the absence of records, workers would be
“would amount to forced labour”, vi- compensated at a flat rate of Rs 3,000, as per
olating the fundamental right against Section 30 of NREGA.
exploitation. —Jaideep Deogharia
The two civil society forces behind
the MGNREGA, Aruna Roy and Jean
Dreze, took up the issue in their own differ-
ent ways. Dreze, as part of an advisory body,
was instrumental in obtaining Jaising’s legal
opinion. Roy has been on a dharna with oth-
er activists for more than a month in Ra-
jasthan. In all this churning within the insti-
tutions of governance and civil society, the
Ministry of Rural Development has come un-
der attack for giving precedence to financial
concerns over constitutional rights. There was
no way the ministry could have got away with
its subversion of the minimum wage princi-
ple as it directly and immediately affected the
earnings of the rural poor.
But this subversion is actually part of a se-
ries of systemic changes made by the ministry.
These changes have caused the scheme to de-
viate from its original avatar as a radical plan
to mitigate the rigors of “jobless growth”. The
changes are as follows:
● The first major indication of the ministry’s
cavalier attitude came in 2008. It was evident
in the way it responded to the CAG’s perform-
ance audit report on the MGNREGA. When the
CAG lamented the wide gap between precept
and practice of the programme, the ministry
sought to play down lapses by claiming that its
performance should not be judged on the basis
of its “operational guidelines” as they were
merely a recommendation. Thus, by the gov-
ernment’s own admission, this very complex
and ambitious programme, which in the last KARNATAKA THE NEW DAM THAT WASN’T
Budget was allocated Rs 40,100 crores, does not
have a proper administrative framework. Mysore: Here’s a claim so false it is absurd. A check dam was reportedly built near a mosque at
● The ministry amended the social audit pro- Male Mahadeshwara hills. But there are no mosques in that area.
vision in such a way that the executing agency, According to official estimates, more than Rs 300 crore has been misappropriated in Gulbarga
that is the panchayat, has become less ac- district alone. A high-level inquiry has been ordered.
countable than before. The amendment, effected Not everything is as bad. A check dam built at Hanur village in Kollegal taluk has done wonders
for the area, raising the ground water level and recharging borewells.
R Dhruvanarayan, MP and a member of the national council for NREGA, says it should be
mandatory for gram sabhas to choose the work that they need done.
The biometric card system has helped minimize the prevalence of bogus job cards. The new
ANDHRA PRADESH MIXED RESULTS KERALA GOOD NEWS STORIES cards carry a photograph of the labourer’s entire family.
Dhruvanarayan says that Karnataka is not using as much initiative as Rajasthan when it comes
Hyderabad: Naralla Vankanna, 29, is very aware of his rights. At the July 2009 NREGA social Thiruvananthapuram: From tribal hamlets in Wayanad to canal criss- to utilizing the available money. “The state has used only Rs 2,110 crore till now as against Rs 4,000
audit in his Darmeshpuram village in Nalgonda district, he raised the issue of “duplicate’’ crossed Alappuzha, the NREGA — if beneficiaries are to be believed — crore that was sanctioned by the centre. And only 9 % of the total 45,668 work taken up under
beneficiaries. He never expected action on the complaint. But field assistants were is doing wonders in God’s own country. MNERGA has been completed,” he claims.
removed and senior officials were asked to explain themselves soon after. In Attappadi, Wayanad, the adivasis are redeeming arid land. P V Social auditing is urgently needed, he insists.
Unsurprisingly Vankanna believes the social audit is key. “They were misusing NREGA Radhakrishnan, block programme officer at Attappadi, says: “We are —M B Maramkal
funds. Not only were there duplicate people on their rolls, officials were also showing work well on our way to making 3,344 acres of arid land cultivable in the first
done on paper when in reality it was not. After the audit, the duplicate muster rolls have
decreased and there is better allotment of work,” he says.
phase. In the next, almost 5,350 acres will be ready for farming.”
This is real change with enormous implications because Kerala VIJAYPURA, RAJASTHAN ALL’S WELL
Some say it’s all because of Andhra Pradesh’s acclaimed model of social audit. The imports vegetables but could now grow more of its own. Murugan, a
state has set up the Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency. But some poor tribal in Koodanjala ward, says he’s used Rs 850 of the NREGA Jaipur: Much before the rural job scheme was launched, the nondescript village of Vijaypura was
who work at the grassroots say the social audit is overrated. “What is the point of removing money to grow vegetables, managing to sell them for twice that. successfully running its own version. It had issued job cards to famine relief workers. More
field assistants when the Mandal Parishad Development Officers, who are responsible for Three panchayats are currently working recently, it has given mazdoor cards that track work and wages every day. Vijaypura is one of the
sanctioning work and accounting the expenditure, are left untouched?” asks P Prasanthi, on 14,405 projects worth Rs 64 crore. The few villages in Rajasthan that are able to run NREGA in model fashion.
state programme director of the Andhra Pradesh Mahila Samatha Society. women of Idamalakkudi, the newly formed Sarpanch Kalu Ram, who won the panchayat election in February 2005, takes pride in
Activists point out that the state government appears adivasi panchayat in Idukki district, are Vijaypura’s transparency. “Ours is the only village where work under
to lack the will to act on the audit reports. Crores have building a new road, in a great social NREGA is done throughout the year. It is a demand-generated scheme
been misappropriated but no action has been change that will have great impact. and the moment the pink slips come in from villagers seeking work, we
taken, they say. The state programme officer Abey begin it,” he says.
Auditors admit they are under constant George explains that these are The village welcomes visitors with a wall-turned-infograph that
pressure from politicians and officials, but the “primitive tribals whose women never offers a breakdown of work done, workers’ names and the money they
monitoring process has helped recover at come out” but the Rs 4.5-crore road earned as part of the rural job scheme. It also lists the material used
least some of the money siphoned off has the women working shoulder to and the costs involved. Kalu Ram thought up the wall-infograph to
through NREGA. “It has led to improvements shoulder with their men. promote transparency. The panchayat office has a signboard that bears
in the implementation of the programme. It Alappuzha’s coir workers the legend “All records can be inspected free of cost”.
has also contributed to the grievance have benefited too. The sarpanch claims he has ensured that everyone in
redressal of the participants of the In order to unclog the town’s Vijaypura entitled to a BPL card, has one. He has also initiated a
programme,” notes Professor S Galab of the many, natural canals, urban group payment system, which allots work to groups of five
Centre for Economic and Social Studies, planners decided to clean and go workers each, paying them collectively “This ensures that no
who has evaluated the social audit. green at the same time, lining member of the group escapes work or gets paid for no work
But activists are not impressed. Nearly their walls with coir geo-textile. done,” explains Kalu Ram.
Rs 30 lakh was siphoned off, they insist; The coir workers earned Rs 1 Vijaypura’s workers get Rs 10,000 for 100 days of work,
just Rs 95,550 was recovered after the crore last year. villagers are happy and Kalu Ram remains sarpanch. All’s
social audit. well with the world in Vijaypura at least.
—Roli Srivastava —Ananthakrishnan G —Anindo Dey