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Despite hiccups, NREGA a boon for rural poor

JAIPUR: A new survey of implementation of the much talked about National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Manohar Thana tehsil of Jhalawar district in Rajasthan has testified to the effectiveness of the programme in the rural areas. Despite the existence of areas of concern such as delays in payment of wages and even non-payment of minimum wages, the track record, particularly in employment generation, has been impressive, it says.

“In Manohar Thana, NREGA is a new lifeline for the rural poor. This applies especially to women who have few other income-earning opportunities,” observed noted economist Jean Dreze, who led a team from the G. B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, from February 2 to 7 for the survey which covered ten randomly selected gram panchayats.

“The findings consolidate earlier evidence of Rajasthan’s pioneering efforts and major achievements as far as NREGA is concerned. The scale of employment generation is particularly impressive with about one-third of the job card holders getting 100 days’ employment in 2007-08,” Prof. Dreze said.

However, there are many areas of concern such as delays in wage payments and non-payment of minimum wages. In this also the survey revealed positive changes as it found evidence of rapid progress towards effective implementation of the Act. “For instance, delays in wage payments are getting shorter and wages are getting closer to the statutory minimum of Rs.73 per day,” Prof. Dreze observed.

The survey found the trend of positive change also in the implementation of transparency safeguards, such as in the maintenance of job cards and the muster rolls.

“Corruption persists in the area, especially in the material component of the programme, as the social audit conducted by Rozgar Evan Suchna Adhikar Abhiyan from January 27 to February 7 illustrates. Nevertheless, the system is becoming harder to manipulate as the transparency safeguards are put in place,” he said.

The group’s verification of the “last paid muster roll” suggested that leakages in the labour component of NREGA were relatively small -- less than five per cent for these worksites.

“However, these achievements are threatened by growing official hostility to social audits initiated by citizens’ organization -- and even to their involvement in the mandatory social audits to be conducted by gram sabhas. This dispute has raised important questions about the process of social audit, the agency of different institutions, the modalities of release of information, and related matters,” said Prof. Dreze.

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