The Hindu : Kerala News : NREGP attracts more women in Kasaragod

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Kerala

NREGP attracts more women in Kasaragod

A. Harikumar

Tribal people complain of denial of opportunity

Beneficiaries demand higher wages
State can recommend hike: Oscar Fernandes

KASARAGOD: It would be an exaggeration to say that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) has improved the standard of living in the district considerably in a short span of time but the fact that it has succeeded in providing a steady income to some sections of the rural poor, especially women, could not be denied.

Women outnumber men in registering for jobs under the NREGP, which was launched in the district in April last, says district panchayat president M.V. Balakrishnan.

Social harmony

T. Rajan, president of Madikkai panchayat, says that the main achievement of the NREGP was that it improved the social harmony as friendships developed at the workplaces were found extended to the day-to-day life in the village also. While official statistics show that nearly 60 per cent of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs/STs) families in the district registered for jobs under the NREGP, some tribal groups complain that they have been denied registration.

Numbers

As per the official records, a total of 87,644 families in the district have registered under the NREGP till March 22, 2008. Of this, 6,071 families belong to the SCs and 5,077 to the STs. According to officials, special efforts are being made to get all the SC/ST families in the district registered under the scheme. Nearly 96 per cent of the total below poverty line (BPL) families in the district have been registered. Job cards have been issued to 88 per cent of the registered people. Job cards would be issued to all registered by the end of April.

Flood control, water conservation, drought proofing, rural connectivity and minor irrigation works are the main projects undertaken in the panchayats.

Objective

While the aim of the NREGP is to provide at least 100 days of employment in a year for a person, the average is 14 days in the district. The authorities note that though the programme was formally launched on April 1, 2007, the implementation began only by November.

Kodom Belur panchayat president Thampan Nair and Kayyur Cheemeni panchayat president K.P. Jasmine say that a majority of workers registered under the scheme were women. According to them, the daily wage of Rs.125 given to workers irrespective of their sex under the NREGP is not enough to attract men as they get Rs.200 in almost all areas in the district. The wage factor also repels skilled workers.

Staff shortage

The panchayat presidents also complain that the number of office staff approved for executing projects under NREGP was not sufficient.

The Madikkai panchayat chief notes that the stipulation under NREGP that of the total projects under NREGP 50 per cent were to be executed by grama panchayats, 30 per cent by block panchayats and 20 per cent by district panchayats was unnecessary. As all the work under the project was being implemented in grama panchayats, they should be allotted the whole work, he said.

On the merits of the NREGP, he says that several people who did not have bank accounts earlier had opened accounts. Since more women participate in works it has given them financial power. Many sections of society which were reluctant to do manual work had come forward to do it after the launch of the NREGP, he said.

Meanwhile, there are some tribal groups in the district which feel that they were being denied job cards under NREGP. Madhav Purusha, a member of the Narasanna tribe in Paivaligae panchayat in the district, says that many members in his tribe including himself were denied job cards by panchayat though they approached them several times. Many social organisations working among tribal point out that it is doubtful whether the tribals who are of a wandering nature would benefit from the NREGP.

Union Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes said here on Saturday that the State government could recommend an increase in the NREGP wages. Haryana and Delhi were giving higher wages under the programmme, he pointed out.

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