MGNREGA Final Report

IIM CALCUTTA

MGNREGA Course Project for Social Development and

Social Policy

Instructor Prof. Kalyan Sankar Mandal

Paribhasa Sharma (FP/18/2010) Arindam Biswas ( 050/47) Arpan Nagdeve (051/47)

8/22/2011

This report gives a brief description of NREGA and its present scenario in West Bengal. It also discusses NREGA’s success and inefficiencies. It talks about the insight the study team received while interacting with block and panchayat level NREGA officers.

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Contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 3

2. Workflow ................................................................................................................................... 7

3. Objective ................................................................................................................................... 9

4. Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 9

5. MGNREGA and West Bengal .................................................................................................... 10

5.1 District wise statistics for West Bengal ............................................................................. 10

5.2 Graphical Representation of employment in various states .............................................. 12

6. Field Visit Insights .................................................................................................................... 14

7. Observations ........................................................................................................................... 16

7.1 Type of work taken up by NREGA ..................................................................................... 16

7.2 Awareness ....................................................................................................................... 16

7.3 Training .......................................................................................................................... 177

7.5 Enrolment, Employment scenario, women participation .................................................. 17

7.5.1 Employment figures of Kulerdari Gram Panchayat .................................................... 17

7.5.2 Employment figures of Aamgachia Gram Panchayat ................................................. 18

7.6 Other ............................................................................................................................... 18

7.7 Issues Observed ............................................................................................................... 18

7.7.1 Perception issue ....................................................................................................... 18

7.7.2 Inadequate wage .................................................................................................... 188

7.7.3 Wage distribution rule .............................................................................................. 19

7.7.4 Wage delivery delay ................................................................................................. 19

7.7.5 Measurement problem ............................................................................................. 19

7.7.6 Quality of work ......................................................................................................... 19

8. Suggestions ............................................................................................................................. 20

8.1 Distribution of wages ......................................................................................................... 20

8.2 Cryptic and late measurement of work............................................................................... 20

8.3 Community asset creation.................................................................................................. 20

8.4 Wage Mismatch ................................................................................................................. 21

References ........................................................................................................................... 22

Appendices: Semi-Structured Interview Schedules ................................................................ 23

Interview Schedule for program officer ............................................................................ 23

Interview Schedule for program beneficiaries .................................................................. 23

Observation sheet ............................................................................................................ 24

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1. Introduction

POLICIES FOR POVERTY REDUCTION IN INDIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world but is also home to 22% of the world

poor. While economic reforms did India a prosperous country, it failed to reach many sections of

the society, especially the marginalized and the disadvantaged. The benefits of economic growth

are unevenly distributed and some are even deprived of the benefits. It is also important to

understand that some people are unable to be a part of the economic reform. The government

has to ensure that such people are not excluded from the development process. To ensure this,

government provides welfare measures in the form of poverty alleviation programs to ensure that

such people survive if not prosper in this era of economic reform.

Poverty alleviation has been one of the guiding principles of planning process in India. Measures

to address poverty alleviation are of two types – egalitarian and ameliorative (self-employment

and wage employment). Since independence, such welfare measures have reflected the

contemporary government ideology. After independence, India adopted Soviet model of planned

economic growth. The prevalent ideology of the time was socialist welfare focussing on equitable

growth to reduce inequality. In the 1950s, land reforms were adopted which aimed at providing

permanent asset to the poor. This was an egalitarian measure for redistribution of wealth. This

was followed till 1960s. Recognizing the difficulty of land reforms, the focus of poverty alleviation

shifted to growth with equity with group focussed programmes like Small Farmers’ Development

Agency (SFDA). Failure of SFDA led GoI to launch anti-poverty program like Integrated Rural

Development Program (IRDP) which was individual focussed. This was an ameliorative measure

where a poor individual was given subsidized credit, training and infrastructure for self-

employment. IRDP suffered from three major shortfall – mismatch of project and individual,

indifferent attitude of banks towards providing bank loan to the poor and misappropriation of

funds by the non-poor. In 1999, this programme was replaced by Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar

Yojna (SGSY). SGSY focussed on group to lend money and develop micro-enterprises by organizing

the poor into self-help groups, providing them with credit, technology, infrastructure and training.

GoI also initiated wage employment programmes besides many self-employment ameliorative

measures. Wage employment programmes were first started during the sixth and seventh plan in

the form of National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) and Rural Landless Employment

Guarantee Programme (RLEGP). In 1989, these two programmes were merged into one as

Jawahar Rozgar Yoyna (JRY). The objective of JRY was to produce employment for the

unemployed and to improve the village infrastructure and assets. JRY was relaunced as Jawhar

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Gram Samridhi Yojna (JGSY) in 1999. The latest wage employment scheme which came into effect

in 2005 is National Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

NATIONAL RURAL EMPOLYMENT GUARANTEE ACT - A RIGHTS BASED DEVELOPMENT APPROACH

According to Kaustav Banerjee (2010), “Set in the context of a historical process, a double movement

led ultimately to the enactment of the NREGA. The specific demand for the right to work was raised

by socialists in the 1960’s and was later picked up by the Jan Sangh in its program. The years of

drought in Maharasthra in the mid 70 led to the Employment Guarantee Scheme in 1979. However

the Maharashtra model was a scheme not a legal right and did not have any limit to the number of

days that employment could be provided. It was much later in 2004-05 that the right to work, as it

now is, came to be formulated and was the basis for a campaign which demanded it’s immediate

enactment once the UPA came to power in 2004. The NREGA in its present form came about mostly

as a result of electoral populism outlined in the Common Minimum Program of the first UPA

government, but its subsequent vitality would depend not on the pious pronouncements of those in

Government but on the strength of people‟s movements. Peoples movement identifies and corrects

faultlines, in design and implementation.”

At the level of theoretical design, the NREGA is a rights based approach where work is provided on

demand. This aspect relies on the principle of self-selection – people who want to do hard manual

labour at minimum wages will demand and be given work by the state. This route of the NREGA is

fundamentally different from the top-down approaches to rural development which has been there

in the past. This opens up a distinct possibility of democratization or decentralisation at the

grassroots especially among the rural poor who can now demand the right to do unskilled manual

labour at legally stipulated minimum wages. Further they can now have a say in the decision making

process of selection of works – a break from the past where the developmental administration or

the vote seeking politicians decided what kind of asset was to be built. This is aimed at achieving a

model of sustainable community development keeping in mind local needs for planning and at the

same time providing some succor to unemployed rural workers in lean seasons (Kaustav, 2010).

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NREGA IN INDIA

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(MGNREGA), is a rural development

initiative where government promises to provide 100 daysof wage employment in every financial

year to any adult rural household member willing to perform unskilled manual work. It is a step

towards achieving number one millennium development goal – “Eradicate extreme poverty and

hunger”. Unlike other rural schemes it enables poor villagers with the right to demand

employment or unemployment allowance. It also expects to improve rural livelihood

permanently by developing infrastructure, sustainable social and economical rural structure.

It began in 2005 with 200 districts and was later extended to cover every rural district. This is one

of the schemes which effectively utilize the concept of decentralized governance where grass root

level institutions like Gram Sabha, Self Help groups, Panchayat Samiti play an important role in

implementing as well monitoring its progress. It also brought in e-governance by implementing

online monitoring and reporting system NREGAsoft for better accountability and transparency.

The results of this act have been mixed so far and there is significant disparity among states. At

one side we have higher participation of women in Dungapur district of Rajasthan where women

participation is 90%; on the other hand in some other states women participation is way below

33%. Corruption reduced significantly in Gujarat and Rajasthan due to public vigilance but the

situation is completely opposite in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

SALIENT FEATAURES OF THE ACT (Source: www.nrega.nic.in)

i) Adult members of a rural household, willing to do unskilled manual work, may apply for

registration in writing or orally to the local Gram Panchayat

ii) The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job Card. The Job Card will bear the

photograph of all adult members of the household willing to work under NREGA and is

free of cost

iii) The Job Card should be issued within 15 days of application.

Goal: To foster conditions for inclusive growth ranging from basic wage security and recharging rural economy to a transformative empowerment process of democracy

Objective: To enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult member volunteers to do unskilled manual work

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iv) A Job Card holder may submit a written application for employment to the Gram

Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought. The minimum days of

employment have to be at least fourteen.

v) The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for employment,

against which the guarantee of providing employment within 15 days operates

vi) Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work, if it is not then daily

unemployment allowance as per the Act, has to be paid liability of payment of

unemployment allowance is of the States.

vii) Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village. In case work is

provided beyond 5 km, extra wages of 10% are payable to meet additional transportation

and living expenses

viii) Wages are to be paid according to the Minimum Wages Act 1948 for agricultural

labourers in the State, unless the Centre notifies a wage rate which will not be less than

Rs. 60/ per day. Equal wages will be provided to both men and women.

ix) Wages are to be paid according to piece rate or daily rate. Disbursement of wages has to

be done on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight in any case

x) At least one-third beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and requested work

under the scheme.

xi) Work site facilities such as crèche, drinking water, shade have to be provided

xii) The shelf of projects for a village will be recommended by the gram sabha and approved

by the zilla panchayat.

xiii) At least 50% of works will be allotted to Gram Panchayats for execution

xiv) Permissible works predominantly include water and soil conservation, afforestation and

land development works

xv) A 60:40 wage and material ratio has to be maintained. No contractors and machinery is

allowed

xvi) The Central Government bears the 100 percent wage cost of unskilled manual labour and

75 percent of the material cost including the wages of skilled and semi skilled workers

xvii) Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha

xviii) Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive

implementation process

xix) All accounts and records relating to the Scheme should be available for public scrutiny

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KEY STAKEHOLDERS IN NERGA

A number of stakeholders are involved in NREGA, from village level upto the centre. All these stakeholders have roles and responsibilities prescribed in the operational guidelines of the Act. The wage seekers are the primary stakeholders of the Act whose demand for work is the trigger for key processes. Rights of the wage seekers:

i. Application for registration

ii. Obtaining a job card

iii. Application for work

iv. Choice of time and duration of the work applied for

v. Provision of work within fifteen days of application

vi. Provision of crèche, drinking water, first aid facilities on work site

vii. The right to check their muster roels and to get information regarding their employment

entered in their job cards

viii. Payment of wages within fifteen days of work done

ix. The right to get unemployment allowance in case employment is not provided within

fifteen days of submitting the application or from the date whe work is sought.

•State Employment Guarantee CouncilSTATE LEVEL

•Central Employment Guarantee Council•Ministry of Rural Development

CENTRAL LEVEL

•Wage seekers•PRIs, especially Gram PanchayatsVILLAGE LEVEL

•Programme Officer•Panchayat Samity

BLOCK LEVEL

•District Programme Coordinator•Zilla Parishad (District Panchayat)

DISTRICT LEVEL

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2. Workflow

Source: MGNREGA Version 7.0

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3. Objective This study was conducted with an objective to understand MGNREGA and its implementation in

one of the blocks of South 24 Parganas district. The goal is to observe how much effective NREGA

is in West Bengal and also what are drawbacks of present implementation in this state.

1. To assess if directives are being followed in implementation.

2. To know about the process of implementation – information flow, processes from registration

to getting the job, wages, job card, , muster rolls, corruption if any and social audits.

3. To observe the availability of various facilities like crèche including display board at the work

site.

4. To evaluate effectiveness on reducing migration of rural workers to urban areas.

5. To identify weakness and strength of current implementation in improving economic

condition of rural household.

4. Methodology Both primary and secondary sources of data will be used for the study. Primary data will be

obtained through observation and interactions. There will be direct interactions with officials at

the block and panchayat level (depending upon their availability) and beneficiaries. Besides,

secondary data will also be used for the study. Secondary data sources include state government’s

MGNREGA website and many other studies and documents related to MGNREGA and its

implementation.

Sample: 3 Gram Panchayats in Bishnupur I block in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal

(Aamgachia, Kulerdari, Purbi Bishnupur).

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5. MGNREGA and West Bengal In 2009 Central government termed West Bengal’s progress to be dissatisfactory and even there

were reports that a significant portion of fund allocations was not used and returned after financial

year. Also participation of women was quite dismissal. From 2009 situation has improved till date.

West Bengal has provided employment to 34.79915 Lac households. Among that representation of

underprivileged categories and women is found as below.

Category Percentage SCs: 36.86% sSTs: 14.38% Women : 33.42% Others: 48.76%

5.1 District wise statistics for West Bengal

District

Cumulative No. of HH issued jobcards

Cumulative No. of HH demanded employment

employment demand vs job card issue (in % term)

Cumulative No. of HH provided employment

provided vs demanded ( in % term)

No. of HH working under NREGA

No. of HH working under NREGA ( % provided employment)

No. of HH completed 100 days

Phas

e I

24 PARGANAS(S) 771628 9352 1.21 9312 99.57 4710 50.58 1 BANKURA 551166 55511 10.07 54465 98.12 10470 19.22 12 BIRBHUM 645967 64977 10.06 64118 98.68 9452 14.74 6 DINAJPUR(S) 289832 514 0.18 513 99.81 56 10.92 0 DINAJPUR(N) 435546 837 0.19 797 95.22 253 31.74 0 JALPAIGURI 635354 6616 1.04 6586 99.55 1767 26.83 0 MALDAH 584552 4458 0.76 4451 99.84 1988 44.66 2 MURSHIDABAD 1003670 4761 0.47 4345 91.26 1200 27.62 0 MEDINIPUR(W) 834768 40416 4.84 40342 99.82 7119 17.65 4 PURULIA 437150 21918 5.01 21728 99.13 4706 21.66 20

Phas

e II

24 PARGANAS(N) 706945 56909 8.05 56890 99.97 34465 60.58 5 BURDWAN 957755 149482 15.61 149130 99.76 30546 20.48 65 COOCHBEHAR 591236 20072 3.39 19402 96.66 7380 38.04 0 HOOGHLY 591494 41537 7.02 41492 99.89 7327 17.66 2 NADIA 701328 3146 0.45 2626 83.47 1777 67.67 0 MEDINIPUR(E) 639808 11156 1.74 10694 95.86 3540 33.10 0 SILIGURI 82446 1806 2.19 1443 79.90 705 48.86 0

Phas

e III

DGHC 105381 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0

HOWRAH 220377 4210 1.91 4210 100.00 2434 57.81 0

10786403 497678 4.61 492544 98.97 1E+05 26.37 117

Source: Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India

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NREGA in West Bengal was implemented in three phases. In the above figure we can see only

average 4.61% of job card holders actually demand for employment. This figure is quite dismissal

and can be attributed to some core issues with NREGA implementation in this state.On an average in

98.97% cases under this scheme, employment has been provided to people who demanded it. This is

good news but in most cases this percentage is not a true indicator of success.

According to a 2008 survey by community based activists with datafrom 1514 villages in 55

blocks from 9 districts,on an average govt could generate job only for 12 working days which

is far cry from the 100 days of employment promise.

In year 2011 so far only 117 people out of 10786403 card holders have completed their 100

days of employment.

Representation of physically challenged people and women is still low with some panchayat

bodies unwilling to provide work for women. The percentage of disabled persons availing

NREGA benefit is mere 1.55%.

According to non government report there are thousands of cases where wages were not

paid for two and half years.

Deprived villagers have started to fall back to urban migration for manual work. Even though NREGA has implemented e-governance system for monitoring purpose, social

audit is still not corruption free.

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5.1 Graphical Representation of employment in various districts

From the above figure we can see there is significant disparity within districts as well. While

Burdwan is showing huge improvement, Dinajpur, Nadia, Murshidabad, Maldah,jalpaiguri,

Siliguriare not doing so good. Since we would be focusing on one block, surveying for the reasons

of disparity among districts is beyond the scope of this study. For that we would rely on existing

reports and studies.

0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 140000 160000

24 PARGANAS(S)

BANKURA

BIRBHUM

DINAJPUR(S)

DINAJPUR(N)

JALPAIGURI

MALDAH

MURSHIDABAD

MEDINIPUR(W)

PURULIA

24 PARGANAS(N)

BURDWAN

COOCHBEHAR

HOOGHLY

NADIA

MEDINIPUR(E)

SILIGURI

DGHC

HOWRAH

Cumulative No. of HH completed 100 days No. of HH working under NREGA

Cumulative No. of HH provided employment Cumulative No. of HH demanded employment

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MNERGA IN BISHNUPUR I BLOCK

Panchayat

No. of Registered Job

Card Issued

No. of Families

Completed 100 days

On Going works HHs Persons

AMGACHHIA 1995 4143 1995 0 5 ANDHAR MANIK 1378 3248 1378 0 1

BHANDARIA KASTEKUMARI 1772 2325 1772 0 2 DAKSHIN GAURIPUR CHAKDHIR 1774 3141 1774 0 12 JULPIA 1725 2960 1725 0 5 KEORADANGA 1556 3180 1556 0 5 KULERDARI 1329 2501 1329 0 23 PANAKUA 1883 3687 1883 0 19 PASCHIM BISHNUPUR 2066 3434 2066 0 4 PURBA BISHNUPUR 1782 3736 1782 0 9 RAKHALI 1378 2359 1378 0 2 Grand Total 18638 34714 18638 0 87

In Bishnupur I block, out of the 18638 nos of registered households, job cards have been issued to

all. There are only 87 works going on in the current financial year. Out of this, maximum numbers

of works are being carried out in Kulerdari panchayat.

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6. Field Visit Insights One visit has been made to the block office and one Gram Panchayat (GP) office, PurbiBishnupur

which was close to the block. No information could be gathered at the block office as the person

in charge of MGNREGA was unavailable. Some information could be gathered from the GP office

about the implementation of MGNREGA in the Panchayat. The findings based on the interaction

with the Secretary of the GP are

1. MGNREGA was implemented in the Panchayat in 2008.

2. Since its implementation in the Panchayat, only one work on rural connectivity in Saapkhali

village has been done till the last financial year. In this financial year, one job on plantation in

the same village has been approved which is yet to begin.

3. Rural connectivity program did not have the proposed 60-40% split between spending on

wages and spending on raw materials. Project cost was in tune of Rs 75,000 where as the

amount spent on labour was around Rs 7800 and on raw materials around Rs 48,000.

4. Initial number of the cards issues was 4300 in 2008 and 70% of the job cards that were issued

got cancelled by 2011. The major reasons for the sudden drop in the job cards issued were

wage difference and the change in perception of the people. Initially people thought that

without even working government will distribute the wages and in this way they could get an

extra source of income without working.

5. Wages for the work get transferred into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. Also the

payment gets delayed by at least a week because of the approval levels involved. This delay

had also acted against the job enrolment.

6. It’s difficult to maintain high quality of the work, thus development work which require high

quality standard is not chosen in MGNREGA.

7. If there is any construction work is done under MGNREGA raw materials are released in

phases to avoid the theft close monitoring is done in order to check that the work is going

according to schedule.

8. Every month in the block office MGNREGA meeting is held where the progress of the ongoing

projects are checked also whether any GP is not following norms it also acts as an open forum

where MGNREGA officers can put forward the issues faced by them.

9. There is no demand for work in the Panchayat. The reasons cited by the Secretary include

proximity to the city which provides more wages than the scheme and delay of payment.

These findings need further verification interacting with the beneficiaries. Currently the

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MGNREGA wage is 130 rupees where as for the unskilled labour a worker can get around 200

rupees and account is settled every day.

10. There is a village development committee in each village which looks after the

implementation of the scheme in the village.

11. Since there is no demand in many villages in the Panchayat, it is difficult for the Panchayat to

run this scheme. Panchayat officers also told that still they have to conduct some work under

MGNREGA just to follow the norms also this assessment is done on annual basis by the block

office.

12. Before scheme was rolled by the Panchayat a 1 day workshop was held by the Block office to train the officers responsible for monitoring and implementation.

13. Social audit is done in order to check the accounts and find any irregularities in the implementation. There was not instance of corruption reported at the GP that we visited.

14. Few job cards were seen at the Panchayat office which did not have the date of registrationon them.

15. There had been no instances when the job seeker had applied and he did not have the job within 2 weeks. So no unemployment allowance by disbursed by the GP.

16. Job card is issued by the Pradhan and Panchayat office helps put the rural unemployed labour in filling up the forms as literacy rate was very low among the applicants.

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7. Observations

Visuals of works done under NREGA in Aamgachia Gram Panchayat

7.1 Type of work taken up by NREGA 1. Road Repairing

2. Soling

3. Cannel

4. Land Development

5. Road Side Plantation

6. Land development

Work is not available round the year. During rainy season villagers look for alternative source of

income as it is not possible to do farming then. But unfortunately projects undertaken by NREGA

also happen mostly during summer not rainy season.

7.2 Awareness NREGA is quite well known among villagers. Both men and women were able to recognize this act.

The advertisement is generally done through sign board. Also since the number of people

demanding for job under NREGA is not huge it’s easier for Panchayat officials to pass the job

information to them. Also there is sign board regarding NREGA details outside Panchayat office.

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7.3 Training NREGA training is being done at both block level and Panchayat level. Training has not been found

to be a bottleneck in our studies.

7.4 Wage Wage is the major issue in NREGA. The labour rate is well below market rate. Till last year it was

Rs. 100/day. This was increased to Rs 130/day from 1st January. Still this rate is well below the

daily labour rate in nearby cities which is about Rs 200/day. This makes NREGA works less

attractive for the villagers.

Every Panchayat is supposed to create a yearly action plan regarding NREGA mentioning the

different projects they would undertake. This action plan is approved at District level through

Block development office. Once the action plan is approved funds are sanctioned for the

Panchayat. But in lot of cases works/projects are taken up ad-hoc basis. As a result the work starts

before all the approval formalities are completed. This creates a huge delay in clearing payments

for the farmers. According to the act all workers are supposed to get payment within 14 days of

completion of their work but that is not usual scenario. This is one of the reasons for villagers to

feel disinterested to this scheme.

7.5 Enrolment, Employment scenario, women participation

7.5.1 Employment figures of Kulerdari Gram Panchayat

District

Cumulative No. of HH issued jobcards

Cumulative No. of HH demanded employment

employment demand vs job card issue (in % term)

Cumulative No. of HH provided employment

provided vs demanded ( in % term)

Average person days

Commulative person days

Women workdays

% of women workdays

Kul/I 153 16 10.46 16 100 31 503 39 7.75

Kul/II 114 28 24.56 28 100 20 573 195 34.03

Kul/III 137 58 42.34 58 100 23 1339 316 23.6

Kul/IV 131 13 9.92 20 153.85 18 356 0 0

Kul/V 172 35 20.35 35 100 35 1224 4 0.33

Kul/VI 203 51 25.12 51 100 19 967 0 0

Kul/VII 100 6 6 6 100 5 27 0 0

Kul/VIII 70 12 17.14 12 100 18 212 0 0

Kul/IX 99 1 1.01 1 100 33 33 0 0

Kul/X 130 35 26.92 35 100 16 561 0 0

1309 18.38 262 22 5795 554 9.56

From the above figure we can see employment demand from Households registered for job card

is quite low with maximum being 42% with average of 18%. On the other hand whoever

demanded has been provided with job. This 100% job availability does not give the complete

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picture about job availability. On an average each interested household only had work for 22

working days.

In Kulerdari GramPanchayat total 1309 job cards were issued in its first phase. These job cards are

supposed to be renewed after 5 years. 2011 being the 5th year, renewal process has been started

this year. But so far only 100 job cards have been renewed. This is just 8% of initial registration.

This shows interest in NREGA has dropped significantly.

Also women participation is not very significant. But this would be mainly because the nature of

the work. The Panchayat officials didn’t display any prejudice against women workers. Display

boards were not seen at all the work sites.

7.5.2 Employment figures of Aamgachia Gram Panchayat

The figures are little better for Aamgachia village Panchayat. 22,000 job cards have been issued

there, out of which 300 villagers has demanded work and all have been provided with work. Six

households of them have already completed 100 days of work in last financial year. Average

workdays per household are around 30 days per year. NREGA implementation in Aamgachia is yet

to complete five year so job card renewal data is not relevant for this village.

7.6 Other The literacy rate in Aamgachia Gram Panchayat was found to be quite high. According the NREGA

officials in Aamgachia the literacy rate is around 80%. Considering only BPL households are eligible

for working under NREGA, 80% seems to be quite high percentage. This raises some question

regarding the validity of this data and possibility of data forging.

Work site facilities like crèche, shade, first aid were not seen in the project villages. Muster rolls

could not be seen at the work site.

7.7 Issues Observed

7.7.1 Perception issue

Villagers consider NREGA as a government grant rather than employment opportunity. As a result

there is no proper interest in producing quality work. There are complaints about workers leaving

the project site just after two or three hours of work.

7.7.2 Inadequate wage

The wage rate is well below the market rate which discourages villagers to take up work under

NREGA. This has been described as the main reason behind low turn up of villagers for NREGA

work.

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7.7.3 Wage distribution rule

Lot of villagers don’t have any bank account which makes it difficult to receive wages or being

eligible for work.

7.7.4 Wage delivery delay

Villagers usually get payment at the end of their working day while working as daily labourer in

cities whereas in case of NREGA the payments is supposed to be made within 14 working days

after finishing the project. In most cases due to payment sanction formalities villagers don’t get

their payment even after two months.

7.7.5 Measurement problem

Due to inadequate number of job supervisor it becomes difficult to update muster roll regularly.

There is a requirement for recruiting job supervisor only from Self Help Group (SHG) only. Also

stringent government rules for measuring work also reduces the billable work done by the

villagers, thereby reducing their effective pay.

7.7.6 Quality of work

Projects taken under NREGA is not quality sensitive which reduces the seriousness involved in

carrying out these projects. This also limits the type of projects that can be taken up under NREGA

umbrella.

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8. Suggestions

8.1 Distribution of wages

Under NREGA distribution of wages is via bank accounts, every job card that has been issued to a

family mentions the account number and wages are credited directly to the bank account. The big

problem remains the turnaround time for the distribution of wages which varies between 1-2

weeks. Looking at the financial conditions of the people employed daily disbursement of wages is

of utmost important factor for this Act to be successful. This delay acts as a major deterrent for

people to use benefits for this Act.

8.2 Cryptic and late measurement of work

Wages are distributed under this Act based on the amount of labour that is been done by an

individual. Most of the projects that run under this act involve works like digging one of the good

measurement of the same is the amount of soil moved by an individual this exposes a loophole

which could be used by the engineer on the site or the labourers employed in the work. For

example while digging up the pond labourers fill up the pond with water, or pour water on the soil

that had been dug up to get faulty measurements.

This cryptic measurement leads to delay in the measurement or late measurement which in turn

impacts the disbursement of wages forming a vicious cycle. A lot of project doesn’t directly have

the soil movement which further worsens the measurement of work for example plantation work.

Measurement of work should be done on the daily basis and should be updated on the daily basis

on the MIS.

8.3 Community asset creation

NREGA scheme budget is around Rs 40,000 crore ($ 8.92 billion) nearly 5% of the GDP of India’s

GDP and people were employed under this scheme with their major focus on the rural

development and rural employment. The assets like ponds, rain water harvesting and plantations

created under the Act can have vested interest of the wealthier sections of the panchayat and

thus the benefits that are been reaped out of the scheme can no longer be equitable among the

weaker sections of society.

So the rural development could be notional for many projects that are been completed under the

NREGA. But still projects like rural connectivity dams creation does benefits all the sections of

society.

More emphasis should be given on the projects whose benefits could be more equitable among

all the sections of the panchayat.

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8.4 Wage Mismatch

Daily wages disbursed under NREGA in different panchayats that we visited varies between 130-

Rs 150, whereas because of close proximity with the city the daily wages for non skilled labour is

around Rs 200 this wage mismatch is the major reason why the number of people who availed

employment under Act is very less. In Aamgachia in the financial year 2010-2011 out of 1997 job

cards allotted only 228 availed employments under the Act a turnaround of 11%.

Also while talking to the officials of the gram panchayat official number of application for job card

renewals were less than 15% of the initial number of job cards allotted. In order to tackle this

issues wages under NREGA must be at par with the market rate a difference of 10-15% make

sense because of less travelling but difference of ~50% really drifting the weaker sections of

society away from the act. To make this Act effective wages should be revised keeping in mind the

daily wages of the private market.

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References

1. All India Report on Evaluation of NREGA – A Survey of 20 Districts, Institute of Applied

Manpower Research, New Delhi. 2008

2. Banerjee, Kaustav (2010) The Right to Work in theory and in practice: A Case study of the

NREGA. India Indian Social Development Report. Oxford University Press.

3. http://chittabehera.com/NREG/

4. Mukherjee, Subrata & Saswata Ghosh (2009) What Determines the Success and Failure of ‘100

Days Work’ at the Panchayat Level? A Study of Birbhum District in West Bengal. Institute of

Development Studies Kolkata. Occasional Paper 16

5. http://www.nrega.nic.in

6. http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/10th/volume2/v2_ch3_2.pdf

7. Yesudian, C.A.K. (2007). Poverty Alleviation Programmes in India – A Social Audit. Indian Journal

of Med Res 126. Pp-364-373

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Appendices

Semi-Structured Interview Schedules (SSIS) In order to collect the primary data we had designed two sets of semi-structured interview schedules, first for the MGNREGA program officer and second one is meant for the beneficiaries. These interview schedules provided guidelines for interactions and were not meant to be filled up in front of the interviewee.

SSIS for program officer This is again divided into two halves first one indicates overall perception and second one indicates the implementation details.

Perception about MGNREGA 1. Do you think MGNREGA is helpful in poverty alleviation? How? 2. Have you received any training on NREGA? Can you please give us some more details like the

content?

Role in MGNREGA implementation 1. What is your role in MGNREGA implementation in this block? 2. How do you implement this responsibility? 3. What measures have been taken in your block till now regarding the implementation of

MGNREGA Act? Is there a Gram Rozgar Sahayak at the panchayat level? 4. Are people in this block aware about MGNREGA and their entitlements? How do they know?

What effort has been made by the block for such information dissipation? (Can look for any IEC material)

5. What difficulties/constraints do you face while implementing MGNREGA in your area?(Are there existing organizational practices/attitude/procedures that make implementation difficult?)

6. Can you tell us about the monitoring aspect of NREGA? How is the quality of work ensured? Request to show Project Completion Reports.

7. Is there any social audit in these areas? Who does it? Do you have any role in social audit?

SSIS for program beneficiaries

# QUESTIONS 1 How many dependents do you have? 2 Does any other member of your family work? 3 What is your source of income? 4 How regular is your income? 5 Have you heard about MNREGA? 6 How did you come to know about it? 7 What do you know about it? 8 Do you know that it is your right to ask for employment if

you are unemployed?

9 Do you have a job card? How did you get it? How long did it

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take to get one? Did you get any receipt when you had applied for the job card? Ask to show the job card. (Probe: mercy of the Panchayat leader, bribe, etc)

10 Have you ever seen the muster roll? 11 Did you get the same amount as was mentioned in the

muster roll?

12 What is the wage rate? How much do you usually get? 13 How long did it take for your payment after you finished the

job?

14 When you requested for employment and did not get, did you get any unemployment allowance?

15 How are you paid? Cash/cheque/pay order 16 When you were working, did you have facilities like crèche,

water, shade at the work place?

Observation sheet Observation sheet is mainly used to cross check whether MGNREGA is following the norms that are mentioned by the government. Observations mainly include working conditions, it’s also to indicate that how much guidelines are followed while implementing the policy.

1 Did you see a display board at the work site? Yes/No 2 Could you see the muster roll? Yes/No 3 Where did you see the muster roll? Yes/No 4 Did you see the job card? If yes, where? Yes/No 5 Did you see any work site facility like crèche, water, shade? Yes/No