National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

NREGA
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 A job guarantee scheme any adult who is willing to do unskilled manual work at the minimum wage is entitled to being employed on local public works scheme within fifteen days of applying Focus is on employment generation Now known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

Features
Guaranteed employment of 100 days in a financial year Wage rate at the statutory minimum wage of agricultural labourers in state, unless the Central Government notifies the minimum amount Work should be within a radius of 5 km from the applicants residence Provision of Unemployment Allowance NREGA mandates a minimum of 33% participation of women Not confined only to BPL families

Basic objective is to enhance the livelihood security in rural areas along with other activities like generating productive assets, protection of environment, empowering rural women, reducing rural-urban migration and fostering social equity

Cost Sharing
Central Government to pay for:
- wage costs - 75% of material cost - some administrative costs

State Government to pay for:

- 25% of material costs - Other administrative costs - Unemployment allowance

Present Details
Allocations hiked by 144% to Rs. 39,100 crore in Union Budget for 2009-10 In 08-09, 4.47 crore households provided employment generating 215.63 person-days Women constitute 49% of the total participation Around 3 billion person-days generated so far in 2009-10 SCs and STs account for 52% of the total beneficiaries

Process
Interested households register with Gram Panchayat Adult members of registered households apply for work Single women living alone may apply independently Gram Panchayat issues a Job Card to each applicant Employment should be provided within 15 days of receipt of information and within 5 kilometers from their place of residence

Process_contd.
If place of work is more than 5 kilometers from the place of residence then an extra wage of 10% is provided to the applicant meet the transportation and living expenses If employment is not provided within 15 days from the date of application then he is entitled to a daily unemployment allowance NREGA follows a demand driven process in which works are initiated only after a specified number of applications by wage seekers are received

Planning Process
Planning is a decentralized and participatory process Gram Sabhas initiate Planning process and recommend works Gram Panchayat consolidate recommendations of Gram Sabha into Village Development Plans and forward to intermediate Panchayat level Intermediate Panchayat: Programme Officer will consolidate Gram Panchayat Plans into Block Plans with addition of works that cut across Gram Panchayats for approval of Intermediate Panchayat

Planning Process_contd.
District Panchayat: District Programme Coordinator will consolidate Block proposals and proposals received from other implementing agencies for inclusion in the shelf of projects to be approved by the District Panchayat

Implementation and Monitoring

Implementing Principles
Block is the main unit of implementation In each block, a Programme Officer is to coordinate the implementation Gram Panchayats are the main implementing agencies Accountability is to Gram Sabha

Implementing Agencies
Gram Panchayats Other Panchayati Raj institutions Line Departments like PWD and Forest Department NGOs
Private contractors are banned Gram Panchayats to implement half of work

Monitoring
Mechanisms of monitoring to be adopted (as per the guidelines of Ministry of Rural Development):
The Panchayat concerned will have the right to inspect and review the progress of any work under its area of jurisdiction For each work sanctioned, there will be a supervisory committee of local people to ensure that the work has been properly done.

Monitoring_contd.
The Committees report is to be kept with the completion report of the project District Level monitoring will do a complete verification of the works completed under the programme

Social Audit
A social audit is a process in which the people work with the government to monitor and evaluate the planning and implementation of a scheme or programme, or indeed of a policy or law. Social audit process is critically dependent on the demystification and dissemination of all relevant information

Social Audit in NREGA

Social Audit to be conducted once in six months Prior planning and announcement of audit Programme Officer responsible for audit (planning and availability of documents) Formation of Social Audit Committee (SAC) having members comprising workers (one-third must be women) Documents made available 15 days prior to SAC for verification

 Public representations and concerned officials to attend SAC to read out findings Minutes are recorded

Deficiencies
Lack of technical and professional support for implementing projects under NREGA Delays in payment to workers Issues of corruption and leakages Poor implementation in states like Bihar and U.P. Less coverage area Only 19% of the 8,50,000 differently abled people registered for this scheme have got work

Achievements
50 million families are likely to get work in 09-10 3 billion person-days of work generated in 09-10 against 86 million in 03-04 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes constitute 52% of the total beneficiaries in 09-10 Womens participation is up to 50% Increase in household income: Post NREGA, minimum daily wage has increased from Rs. 75 to Rs. 87 (upto July, 2009)

Strategies for Improvement

Setting up of a team of retired police officers to ensure that the needy get the job cards, the workers are fully paid and substantial assets are created In the long run, Panchayats should be empowered to train officials and build capacity to ensure proper implementation