Karnataka   

Survey exposes government figures on job scheme

— Photo: K.Gopinathan

Lending an ear:Director of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences S. Parasuraman and NIAS director V.S. Ramamurthy at a workshop in Bangalore on Friday .

BANGALORE: The Government's claims on the number of households registered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the State are at great variance with that found in a sample survey which evaluated the implementation of the scheme in Karnataka.

While the State figures indicate that 81.55 per cent households (computed using the total household numbers in the 2001 Census) have job cards, the survey pegs this number at 33.47 per cent. It also found that 29 per cent of job cards were issued with a different number but same household name. These were among the key findings of this assessment report, conducted by economist Narendar Pani and Chidambaran G. Iyer, for the Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics Department of the State Government.

The total sample size of the survey was 2,068 households in 22 villages across 10 districts. The State was divided into five regions: northeast, northwest, tribal, Malnad and South Karnataka. Interestingly, though the official records make huge claims about the number of job cards in the north east and north west regions, the NIAS survey finds these regions have the lowest number of job cards.

Region-wise awareness

Awareness levels too are among the lowest in these regions that are traditionally poorer and record high degrees of inequality. The more affluent regions, the South and the Malnad region, where landlessness and tenancy are among the lowest in the State, showed better awareness about the scheme. Figures reveal that only 19 and 25 per cent of households surveyed in northeast and northwest regions had even heard of the MGNREG scheme. These figures peak at 92.8 in the Malnad region and is around 75.29 per cent in the South region, comprising Bangalore Rural, Mandya and Mysore areas.

The report records several other shortcomings in implementation of the scheme including delay in offering work, corruption and an average delay of as long as three months in making payments to labourers.

Recommendations

The report's recommendations include earmarking a portion of the administrative costs be used to support advocacy NGOs to boost awareness, creating a separate registry at each gram panchayat for issuing job cards, more social audits, monitoring the scheme on the basis of outcomes and adopting a more rigorous method to choose projects. These findings were revealed and discussed at a workshop organised at the NIAS on Friday. Speaking at the inaugural function, Director of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences S. Parasuraman said that the MGNREGA has been poorly implemented. He said that in many places the scheme does not work, and not all labourers are getting paid the prescribed wages.

NIAS director V.S. Ramamurthy said that in today's world, where there is a steady devaluation of human labour, the MGNREGS protects employment and provides a safety net for the poor in the worst of times. He called for an enhanced synergy between various government welfare programmes.

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