Karnataka   

Rural job scheme has come as a boon to these families

Providing a source of livelihood: Watershed development works, taken up under the NREGS, are on at Dyamunasi village in Ron taluk of Gadag district.

SOODI (GADAG DISTRICT): Sixty-year-old Sharanappa Barkera’s hands tremble when he lifts a “charige” (a small steel pot) to drink water during a short break from work.

Digging a soak pit is a strenuous job for him. But Mr. Barkera is happy to do it in spite of his frail physique as it helps him to earn a livelihood at least for some days. So is his 55-year-old wife, Renukamma, who carries mud for construction of a bund.

In fact, it is Ms. Renukamma who does the digging most of the time while Mr. Barkera carries mud to the construction site at Soodi village in Ron taluk of Gadag district.

Mr. Barkera and Ms. Renukamma, who do not have any land holding, are happy that they have a source of livelihood especially at a time when the threat of drought looms over the region. They have a card which “enables them to get work”.

Although they do not know much about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), they are aware that there is a scheme under which they are being given work.

Their only son, who also had no formal education like them, has gone to Goa in search of work.

Mr. Barkera and Ms. Renukamma, who are eligible to work for up to 50 days under the scheme (the scheme guarantees 100 days of work for a family), have been working in the village for the last 15 days, and will be getting Rs. 74 a day as wages each.

They are happy now as they used to earn Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 a day when they were working as agricultural workers in the village.

Devendrappa Barkera and his elder sister, Mahantavva, who have been give work under the scheme, are happy for the same reason. Mr. Devendrappa Barkera, who has to support a family of six, including his parents, has no land holding. As a daily wage worker he used to earn less than what he is earning today.

For Sharanappa Goravara, who has a family of six and a land holding of one acre, the scheme has come as a boon. Three of his sons, who have no formal education, are working at the site of a watershed development project taken up under the NREGS. The four of them are eligible to work for 25 days each under the scheme. Mr. Goravara’s fourth son, Yallappa, however, is studying in a college.

These are among the 240 families that have benefited from the NREGS in Soodi, Dyamunasi and Bevinakatti villages, which come under the Soodi Gram Panchayat limits, where watershed development programmes are being implemented for the last 15 days.

Their only demand is that their wages be paid on a weekly basis instead of once a month. As many as 96,419 families have been registered under the scheme in the district.

With the implementation of watershed development programmes under the NREGS, Gadag has become the first district to implement the scheme among the 18 districts in the State to which the scheme was extended in the third phase.

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