The Report - North 24 Parganas

Prepared for:NREGA CELLNorth 24 ParganasBarasatIMPACT STORIESPrepared by:Gfk-Mode Pvt Ltd15, Mayfair Road,Kolkata-700 019Tele: 033-22902869, 22872637Email: kolkata.social @gfk-mode.com

1. BIMAL SARDARNREGA has the potential to generate increased savings and ensureenhanced well being of the people in the villagesBimal Sardar is 45 years old. He is from Bispur, Hingalganj. He is primarily a farmerand has wife and three children. Bimal has also been fortunate to become agrandfather very recently. With his meagre incomes he has only been able tomanage the expenses of his elder daughter’s marriage. Because the family istoo big for the piece of land he owns, Bimal has to spend time working on thefield of other land owners.Bimal has received primary education up-to class III only. But he hopes toprovide primary education to his children. “If I am able to educate my children,then they might be able to lead a better quality of life. I hope they can findproper skill based jobs for themselves with some amount of education.”Bimal says, “I think we are barely surviving. But situations have improved frombefore. In the past, I would not be able to afford the cost of wearing a vest.Before my children were even smaller and the entire responsibility of thehousehold was on me.”The family has about one bigha of land but none that is used only for cultivationpurposes. A pond has been excavated on three kathas of land and about Rs.15000 has been sanctioned for it’s excavation. Bimal and his family grow somevegetables around the pond. The monthly earnings total to about Rs. 200 and300. The daily expenses of the family amount to Rs. 75 to Rs. 80 making it quiteimpossible for the family to afford at times. “If there is food for one evening, thenthere is none for three,” Bimal says. Bimal also owns some cows. But the cowshave become old and therefore they do not provide a lot of milk. In addition, hehas also mortgaged a piece of his land for some extra funds which has to bereturned before the year ends so that the land is not lost for cultivation for a year(a general norm is that if loans related to mortgaged land are not returned withinthe season of cultivation of an year, the land becomes irretrievable for anotheryear).“I haven’t received loan for increasing opportunities of work. I haven’t receivedthe form for application of such loans and hence could never apply for one.”Bimal thinks that selling off his two old cows and replacing them with two newwould help him increase his earnings as the new ones would produce more milk.The village also needs some support for infrastructural development – there areno roads and electricity in the village. Lack of education among women is also atop priority issue that needs to be addressed he feels.

The people of the village were directly employed to excavate the pond onBimal’s house premises by means of the NREGA project. “I thought this would bea good option for some water, fishes and vegetables. “ But now of-course, thefamily does not have enough funds to invest in these businesses. Bimal alsowishes to plant some fruit bearing trees such as mango and banana. Thesecould also be additional sources of income for him he feels apart from thebenefits of having the luxury of a beautiful environment.Bimal has found employment through NREGA for about 10 to 15 days. TheNREGA card was however first made when work on road construction tookplace within the village and this has been extremely beneficial for the villagers.“The NREGA program has been very beneficial for villagers like us who need tostay closer to their homes for other kinds of work such as fish rearing andcultivation. The program also pays well and so money can be saved.” But workon NREGA is not continuously available and so Bimal’s wife has to make someadditional earnings by fishing. Bimal says there is still a lot to be done in thevillage. The river banks are being blocked with excessive sedimentation and soare some of the shallow lakes in the village.

2. NAGENDRA SARDAR BHOUMIKNREGA has provided a boost to household incomeNagen Sardar is a fifty five year old farmer and does not remember since whenhis ancestors have been in this place. He was born and brought up here. Sardarsays that he has been unable to buy any land in his lifetime and owns the oneand a half bighas that he inherited from his father. Vegetables are grownthroughout the year. There are six members in the family – one son and threedaughters. The son has studied till class six and the daughters have not studied atall. Nagen says that he could not give his children an education due to theacute shortage of funds“We have lived here so long that we have had to face many natural clamities,”recalls Bala Sardar and adds, “we have seen the river change its course andmany cyclones as this is a cyclone prone area. The marks of the havoc causedby all this can still be seen on our little piece of land.” “I cannot say that we arewell. My husband has had an operation and does not keep too well.” She saysthat somehow they survive. They have too small a land to think of anything big.Nagen Sardar says that he has never been able to lease a land due to the lackof funds and the monthly income is not fixed. Nagen’s son is a mason in Kolkataand he hesitates to answer when asked whether his son sends them any money.The pond dug in their land under the NREGA Project took about fifteen days tobe completed, says Bala Sardar. Twelve or thirteen people, including NagenSardar worked on the pond and the work was done in the Bengali month of‘jaishtha’ in 2009. He has not been able to sow any vegetable seeds around thepond because he does not have the money to buy them. Nagen got to knowabout the NREGA Project at a meeting called by the Panchayat memberswhere they were asked to send a collective application for the ponds to be dugin their lands. Sardar says that he gets ten sacks of rice from his fields which laststhe family the rice supply for around eight months of the year. He has to do oddjobs for the rest of the four months in order to be able to buy rice and vegetablesfor the family. The pond hardly has any water as it has a lot of sand at thebottom. The water is not enough to be used for irrigation and now the pond isbeing used for fish farming and household work like bathing and washingutensils. ‘Magh mash’ would see no water in it and this would happen everyyear. “I have a water source further on in the fields and I use that to water theplants. I get no supply from the pond.” says Sardar. He already had a tiny waterhole before and he had had it cut into a pond in order to be able to get morewater for his fields but as there was no water yet, in the pond, he is not beingable to use it at all. He has worked on his own pond for about eight or ten daysbut he does not know how much money had been allotted to be spent on his

pond. He also says that the people, who had worked on his pond, includinghimself, were not made to sign anything or write anything as to how many daysof work they had done or how much they were to be paid for it. The workers hadgone to the bank told by the Panchayat and had collected the money fromthere, after having shown them the job card. Sardar has no idea when the 100days would be covered. He has worked in other people’s ponds as well. All hehas been told is that there are other ponds to be dug and that he would beinformed in time for the work. He is not able to say how much he had withdrawnfrom the bank each of the three times he went there. Sardar says that he spentthe money to go to a private doctor and other household expenses. He says thathe had given the whole money to his wife but that nothing could be saved. Thesoil dug up from the pond was distributed over an area in the field which made ithigher ground for vegetable farming. He has planted cauliflower, French beans,and spinach and egg plants there.Nagen Sardar had got about three kilos of various types of fisher lings like shrimpsand ruhi which he would be selling once they grow and start breeding. Theshrimps that he has would sell for about five hundred rupees a kilo and wouldgive him a good income in the future, says Sardar.Sardar says, “Poor people like us do not dare to dream because we know that itis never practical. Moreover it is very difficult to say what I shall do if ever I get aloan from a bank or the Panchayat. There are just too many ends to be met.” Healso says that in case he is able to get a loan he would prefer to buy land wherehe would be able to cultivate rice than anything else as he thinks that even if hetakes up poultry farming, he would need to feed the fowls with the husk and rice.He does have some ducks and hens but the family consumes the eggs. There isno regular income that Nagen Sardar can fall back on. He says that he doeswhatever work is given to him and that might be just for two days and for the restof the week he might be sitting at home without any work.The Sardars are not at all aware of women self help groups as no one has evertold them or explained to them about it. They have no access to television orradio as they live in a remote area. Nagen Sardar does not mind his wife, BalaSardar joining such a group if given an opportunity. However they have not theleast idea about how it works or how one might go about it.Nagen Sardar wants to plant mahogany and eucalyptus plants in the future asthey sell well for very high price. He would have to think twice before taking sucha step because he would not want the rice cultivation to suffer due to the treesand he also adds that as he has only one and a half bighas to count on, hewould have to think of new land. From where he would get the money from for

the new land, he does not know yet. He has not been able to save any moneyas there was so little to go by.Nagen Sardar had recommended the program to a brother in law who workedin the NREGA Project.In conclusion it can be said that poor and illiterate people like Nagen Sardarshould get to know categorically how much he is earning from each job andshould have a count of how much he should get.Another point to be noted is that the depths of the ponds dug under the NREGAProject are eight feet each but this is not quite enough for many ponds likeNagen Sardar’s which has a sandy bed and water tends to take more time torefill.Women self help groups have been unheard of by the Sardars. Any extra helpfrom that quarter is therefore closed for the family.

3. LAXMAN SARDARNREGA has improved the wellbeing of village peopleThe youngest of three daughters and three sons of late Upen Sardar, LaxmanSardar is a thirty year old farmer. His father passed away in 1995 after which thebrother in the middle and Laxman got married and settled down. The threedaughters had already been married off by then and the older brother hadseparated from the family. Laxman lives with the brother just older to him and hissister in law and has a son and a daughter himself. Laxman’s daughter is twoyears old and has a growth under her tongue. The family has been to Kolkata atthe Calcutta Medical Hospital and the doctors there had said that it would costhim about six thousand rupees to get the operation done but they were not ableto give Laxman a proper date. “We are daily wagers and losing a day is a bigloss for us. That considered, how long could we wait there?” asks a sad fatherand adds, “So we came back and my daughter is under treatment since then. Ihave taken her to all the place that people asked me to go but no real help hascome my way.” The three brothers have one bigha of land to share and Laxmansays that he gets work for four or five days in a week and is somehow managingto pull through. Laxman’s son is around seven or eight years old now.The house that they live in now was built by the two brothers together and thefamily itself had settled down in this place since the time the place was a jungle.Laxman is a positivist. He says, “A day passed is passed well. We do not knowwhat is in store for us tomorrow. Our father brought us up somehow and wasunable to give us an education but we manage by working as daily labourersand we sometimes go out to earn more money. That way we are trying toimprove ourselves.” Laxman is able to sign his name though.Laxman’s wife is a member of the local Self Help Group. The group had started apoultry business. The fowls had been kept at the house of the secretary of thegroup but they all died, says Laxman.Apart from the land and the house Laxman has two cows, two of which hadbeen gifted to him by his eldest brother and he has a third one that he has gotfrom another person and must return it once the cow gives birth. At the momentnone of the cows give milk but one used to. The milk used to be consumed bythe whole family, especially the children. The shed for the cows is always readyand the food is no problem as Laxman gets the supply when he works on otherpeople’s rice fields. He does not own any fowl due to the pesticides that he hasto use in his fields and due to the lack of space. He has one female goat thatone of his relatives has forcibly given him till a kid is to be born.

Laxman Sardar is sending his son to a kindergarten school nearby and hopes toeducate him – something that he himself missed out on in his life. When askedwhat he would like his son to be when the child grew up, Sardar replies that it isnot for him to say. “I cannot say anything. I don’t expect him to do much but atleast he must not be a daily labourer like me. He must do something a little betterthan that.”Laxman had seen hard times once during his father’s time and the second timeafter his father’s death when his son was a baby. “There were days when I justhad to get work to be able to get something to eat or just had to borrow ricefrom other people,” says Laxman Sardar and recalls how his two older brothershad extended help as they used to work outside. The brother in the middle is inNew Delhi right now and works there as a guard while his sister in law works inpeople’s houses there. They have no children and sometimes sends some moneyto Laxman. The brothers help each other in times of need.The job card was issued to Laxman two years ago but no work had been givento him till Mr. M.V.Rao visited the village. After which Laxman got some work onthe card. He says that he has worked on ponds. Laxman says that he had got toknow of the job card two years ago from the Panchayat member of the areawho guided him to apply and get the card. Laxman explains that he hadworked for some days on people’s ponds and that apart from the daily wage ofeighty one rupees he earned a little more when he worked extra. The extra workwas paid in terms of how many feet he had been able to dig in a day.“I have spent the money to buy supplies for the house and for my daughter’streatment,” says Sardar. He also says that the problem with the Project was thatthough work and money were not lacking yet the money came in one and ahalf months later. That was a very big problem as daily labourers like him mustget their wages regularly. Consequently he was unable to save any money. In2009 Laxman had work for about a month and a half. He says that this problem isacute for not only his own family but also for other families like his. “We have tobring home money every day and if we don’t we don’t get to eat,” he explainsand adds, “So if we are sitting without work, we have to fall back on our ownsupplies which never lasts too long. We have to buy everything. I used to ownsome land but lost it in mortgage due to my daughter’s treatment. If I got the jobcard work for at least twenty or twenty five days then I could have done better,”he adds.Laxman had an existing pond on his land and under the NREGA Project, he hadit made bigger. He has already started the fish breeding process by releasingsome fisher lings in it. He has silver cup, ruhi and some other small fish in the pondnow. Silver cups survive well in these waters. Laxman hopes that soon he would

have enough fish to sell as well as consume. He has never got any help from theGovernment regarding fisher lings, he says.Sardar had never applied for any loans and had never thought of any loanseither. “Look,” Laxmans says, “My father never believed in all this loan businessand was always afraid to go for them. Similarly we too don’t go on that patheither.” When asked whether he has ever thought of anything a little bigger likestarting a business, Sardar replies after some thought that he has never thoughtabout it ever.Electricity has not yet reached this remote part of the Sunderbans and Sardar,like many of his contemporaries feel that it would be a dream come true ifelectricity was provided for the village. There is a school and college run by thegovernment there but at least one more is required, says Laxman. Drinking watersupply used to be a big problem before but now the Government is providingwith fresh drinking water to the villagers.In conclusion it can be said that the NREGA Project has brought a slight wave ofchange in the lives of people like Laxman Sardar. The point to be noted here isthe fact that the money takes a lot of time reaching the beneficiaries as long asa month and a half and the interim period becomes a problem for the dailywagers like Laxman. The money should reach the beneficiaries in a much shorterspan of time.It is also to be noted that the gap between one lot of job and another is againvery long, which consequently is not profitable for the beneficiaries as the interimperiod becomes difficult to fend for.The area also requires qualified doctors so that poor people like the STcommunity do not have to go all the way to Kolkata just to be rejected lifesaving treatment on the plea of lack of dates.

4. SANTOSH SARDARNREGA is yet to reach out to ST and other minority communities withspecial benefitsSantosh Sardar is a 61 years old farmer and lives with two sons, a daughter in law,a grand-daughter and his wife. His younger son started working as a factorylabourer in Tamil Nadu since the past four years at the young age of thirteen orfourteen. “I was finding it extremely difficult to run the family alone and I had tosend the younger son there with a person we know from the village. The olderson works at odd jobs,” says Santosh Sardar. His younger son had studied up toclass five only before he went to work in Tamil Nadu. Santosh had a daughterwho was married and she died while giving birth to her second child. Thattragedy took place five years ago. The daughter had studied till class six and theolder son up to class six. “I was unable to educate them further due to an acuteshortage of funds,” regrets Santosh. He used to work at making ‘biri’ as what wasgot from the one and a half bigha of land was never enough for the family. Now,due to old age he is unable to make biris any more and does some farminginstead. He has rice, pulses and sometimes jute. Santosh says that he is not toobadly off.However he does recall the time when he went into business with a partner andearned about sixty thousand rupees and kept the cash in the house as keepingmoney in the bank was not the trend in those times. Later it was discovered thatthe notes had all been destroyed by worms and as the numbers of the currencynotes had not been noted down, the entire sixty thousand rupees was lost.Santosh’s father was unable to cope with the shock and passed away after ashort illness and the two brothers were left with nothing more than the threebighas of land which they divided equally amongst themselves. Santosh recallsthe hard times and the plans the family had made to buy more land with thesixty thousand rupees and the disappointment and shock at the way the moneyand their father were lost.Santosh’s younger brother separated from the family as he married after thatand as the land they had left behind in Tongtola had been occupied by otherpeople by then, they were unable to go back there. Santosh says that hestruggled a lot to bring up his children. He also says that as his brother waseighteen years younger to him he had brought him up like his own son and hadto bear the pain of separation. Then Santosh suffered the loss of his onlydaughter at child birth which was another shock to him. His wife too was neardeath once and then his in laws helped him a little and as by then both his sonswere working a little, he managed to pull through somehow.

The Sardar family used to live in a place in Tongtola. But due to floods their landand house was all washed away and then Sardar’s late father bought this smallland and since then they have been living here. Santosh’s father had boughtthree bighas which was equally divided amongst the two brothers after theirfather’s death. Santosh’s house stands over one bigha of land and he has onlyhalf a bigha for cultivation. There is an acute shortage of water for the fields andSantosh has only one ‘shelo’ to go by. He has had a pond dug in his field underthe NREGA Project and that is helping him water his fields a little better.Santosh does not hope that his younger son will return to the village to settledown. He in fact told his younger son to remain in Tamil Nadu and establishhimself a little before getting married. The older son too makes a living out of theodd jobs that he does and Santosh and his wife manage a living by farming.He also says that he had requested the Panchayat to arrange an old agepension for him but they had rejected his plea on the grounds that he did nothave a voter’s identity card. Santosh says that when the voter’s identity cardconcept came into being he was already old and he had never got one. Heasks, “Then how am I to get my name on the voter’s list if they are not willing toinclude me?” He also says that he had a BPL ration card but he has been told bythe Panchayat that it has been turned into an APL card and therefore he wouldnot get the facilities of a BPL card holder. He says that he has been told sobecause he has a cemented house. “But I had to work very hard to build thishouse,” Santosh argues.One Sukumar Babu who lives in Nadia district comes to Bispur and is heading amovement to protest against the fact that the tribals of Bispur are not gettingwhat the Government is providing for them. He is spear heading the movementto save the tribals and Santosh Sardar is a part of that movement as he getssome help from that quarter in terms of forms and old age pension. It is a welfaremovement and Santosh hopes that the future is better for his sons.The Panchayat member from that area had come to Santosh and asked him tosign a letter and had explained how the pond would be dug in his field and howit could be used in the future. Santosh has a job card to his name but he did notwork on his own pond. In fact he was unable to work for more than a few daysdue to his old age. No one else from his family worked in his stead. It was dug inthe Bengali month of ‘baishak’ and Santosh is unable to say how much moneyhad been allotted for his pond. The board standing by the Santosh’s ponddeclares that it took the Panchayat fourteen thousand rupees to be dug butSantosh himself says that it would not have cost more than half the sum. He saysthat the Panchayat would know what they did with the rest of the money. When

he had asked the Panchayat what they did with the money they told him that itwould be used to dig someone else’s pond.Santosh says that he has been able to get some pumpkins, ‘saak’, brinjals, bittergourd, radish and other vegetables apart from some fish from the pond, after itwas dug. It has helped him in a small way. The pond is over just two and a halfkathas, says Santosh Sardar and it is not enough to enable him to start a businessin fishery. He says that the pond is too shallow and does not hold water in the‘chaitra-jaistha’ months. It is only about six or seven feet deep and thereforedries up and therefore he cannot think of the business in fisheries. But it is enoughto provide the family with some fish and vegetables which otherwise would beexpensive to buy from the market.“We are poor people and cannot afford to buy good quality rice seeds whichcould yield in ten or twelve sacks of rice. That could have lasted the family ayear’s rice supply but with what we have we get six or seven sacks only,” saysSantosh Sardar.Santosh Sardar is old now and is not fit enough to do the hard labour required byjob card holders. His wife is diabetic and is alive on medicines and thereforeunable to do any heavy work. Santosh did work for three or four days on someother job assigned to him but not on his own pond. He however is positive that hissituation his improved ever so slightly in the way that he has enough food for thefamily now.Santosh had to give his land in mortgage for a few thousand rupees when hiswife fell ill. He hopes to be able to repay it soon. He has borrowed the money inthe hope that his sons would help him repay the loan. In fact the people, whohave lent him the amount, did so knowing that he has two young sons and thatthey would get their money back.Santosh Sardar’s wife has joined a local women’s Self Help Group and has beenable to get a loan of ten thousand rupees to build the cemented house. She hasreturned the amount with the help of her sons and has again borrowed fivethousand rupees to build the asbestos roof for the house. Once that loan isreturned, then maybe, if possible they would try and get doors and windows forthe house.Santosh Sardar is of the opinion that the NREGA Project has done a lot of goodfor the villagers of Bispur. “It would have been impossible for us to have theponds dug in our lands without the Project,” he says and adds, “now at least thepoor can eat fish and vegetables for at least six months of the year.”

“My younger son could have come home and worked at the Project if there hadbeen a hundred days work. But the villagers have worked for maximum up totwenty days on the Project and not more than that,” says Sardar. It is also a factthat once a person starts to earn more, his expenses also rise, especially if he isdoing heavy work because his body would ask for better and more nutritiousfood, explains Sardar. Then if there is a hundred days of work completely, thenpeople’s problems would be solved more or less. However, to make ends meet,one would have to take up other jobs.“Women are better off today,” says Santosh. “They used to husk rice with theirfeet in the olden days, on the wooden ‘dheki’ but now they just have to carry itto the mill where the husking is done by the machine. The women don’t have toput in that much of physical labour like the olden days.” In the presentgeneration women are getting educated and therefore living better lives.Sardar’s daughter in law is a member of the Panchayat. However, Santosh doesadd that though the government keeps harping on the fact that it is doing a lotfor the tribals of Sunderbans but in reality it is not so. Women education does notget a boost for the tribals nor are facilities reaching them as announced by thegovernment. But he does not deny the fact that some good has been done butnot to the extant as the tribals had expected. Women do not get very muchfacilities for the women.In conclusion it can be said that the STs of Sunderbans have been promised a lotof things by the Government but they have got little or no facilities yet. It isimportant that these promises are fulfilled and the people who are hamperingthis process in any form should be brought to book.Another important factor is that old people amongst the ST community shouldbe given some special facilities within the NREGA Project to be able to get anddo light work to enable them to earn some money.And last but not the least it is important to note that in spite of the fact that theNREGA Project is doing a lot of good to the ST community, it is still to be improvedand corrected in a lot of its aspects.

5. SUBOL SARDARNREGA has initiated formal use of the system of banking among poorvillagersSubal Sardar is 62 years old and had moved to Bailani, Hinganlaganj from Halda,Banshtala along with his parents. The family resorts to farming as their primaryoccupation and has about 7 bighas of land. As one of the elder children in thefamily, Subol had to often find work in areas of Hedua and Gopalpur. “With lot ofdifficulty and hard work, I am able to manage three square meals a day for allthe members in the family.” His family constitutes of his two sons, two daughtersand grandson. Subol’s elder son works in a chowmin shop where he earns Rs.2500. “I haven’t been able to educate my children in the way I wanted to,”Subol says. This is his greatest failure he believes.Subol works as a zonal officer in Bishnupur area and supervises the operations ofHingalganj project Tagore Society. “Whatever facilities I get being part of thisproject, for example with pond excavation and vegetation efforts, I wish to shareit with the people of my own village.”Subol has other kinds of work experiences as well. For many years he has beenworking in an electric power house named River Research in Kalyani, Nadia andhas also had the training on the haringhata milk farm. This is in addition to thetrainings he has received on animal husbandry matters vis a vis training programsarranged from the BDO office. Apart from these, the very enthusiastic Subol hasreceived training on the SSA program, farmer’s training program and has beencertified on it. His wife is a member of the Sonamoni SHG.Currently Subol has several different engagements---planting and groomingvegetation on his household premises, working as a laborer and being a NGOworker. He is also involved with selling homemade mats for some additionalincome. Subol’s daughter-in-law is in the biri business and Subol has also tried toget her involved on NREGA work with an ID card.Currently Subol has about 4 bighas of cultivable land and a total of 5 bighas ofland property. The pond has been excavated on his house premises and he hadreceived Rs. 15,400 for the work. The excavated mud from pond has helped invegetation and fruit plantations such as supari, mangoes and bananas andthere has been lot of fishes in the pond as well. Lately, Subol has been able tomake some investments in baby prawns and other fingerlings.Subol is also very supportive of using bio-fertilisers. “I think the NREGA programhas helped in many ways. The sanitation system in the village has developed

and that has helped improving the health status of the people. People also havealternative options for doing fish rearing and vegetable cultivation.”NREGA has offered about 30 to 4 days of work to Subol and his family members.But the issue is that the work is not available on need basis, he thinks. “If we couldwork in the rainy season, then our scope for work would also increase.” Subolhopes that everyone in the village gets the benefits of NREGA. “We all havebank accounts due to the NREGA program and this is really an advantage.” Atotal of 28 ponds have been excavated in the village, Subol confirms.After cultivating one bigha and six kathas of land, the yields on Subol’s landhave been substantial – he has been able to produce about 14 bags of rice. Butthe yield has not been the same on other pieces of land – for the others therehave been only 5 to 7 bags of produce per bigha.Last year, Subol had to purchase rice worth Rs.10000. But this year, due toadditional supplies of water from the excavated ponds he has not had to thesame. Besides, food for the two cows at home could also be arranged for thepond. Ducks and fishes were also reared on the household premises.Subol hopes to use his land for multiple cropping as he plans to use the returnsform one of his crop yields as investment expenditures for others. With the aid offarmer’s training, Subol thinks he can build on his crop yields as well apart fromfish rearing and mat selling business opportunities where he feels there areadequate chances of returns.He also wishes to use some of his wife’s SHG sanctioned loans for investment inpiggery. “Despite lot of efforts, I have not been able to start doing business onAustralian pigs. I had to be satisfied working with local pigs. However, if we areable to qualify for some loans, I would definitely start working on gettingAustralian breeds.”Subol says, “NREGA had helped in development of fish rearing and cultivation.Water supplies have also improved in the village. In all, the village people areexperiencing an improvement in well-being and much of the labor migrationthat was taking place in the past has stopped right now. Villagers have stoppedmoving out to Delhi, Bombay and Haryana because of the benefits renderedthrough NREGA. Although the wages are lower compared to remunerationsoutside the village in other bigger cities, comparatively this is far better as wecan stay closer to our families and lead a happy and healthy life. We have beenreimbursed for our work in no time and within 15 to 20 days. We hope to receivework not just for 100 days but for the entire year on this program.”

6. CHARU SARDARNREGA needs to work on providing assured employment to the poor,atleast for 100 daysCharu Sardar is a 72 year old farmer and has four brothers and three sisters livingin the same village. Sardar was a small child when his family left their originalhome in ...when the river broke its banks and flooded the surrounding areas. Hisfather bought some land and started farming but all that land was gradually lostto poverty over time and now the family is left with only four and a half bighasand the three daughters and four sons have equal shares in it. Charu Sardardoes not have any other land apart from the portion that belongs to him. Sardarhas five sons of whom two are married and have three children. So there areeleven members in the family now, including the husband and wife. All the sonslive outside. One is in Kerala, one in Mumbai and the others in different places.The two daughters in law with their three children live here with Charu and hiswife.As the family is large and there is little or no work in the village to suit all of them,the Charu’s sons had to leave. Charu Sardar is positive that some day they willreturn and settle down in their father’s house but when that will be, he is not sure.One of the sons had a leak in the intestine and had to be operated on inKolkata. The other brothers bore the cost and now the son is working outside.Charu says that if he had more money, at least his sons would be able to comehome. His wife says, “I have put a stone on my heart because I want all my sonsto be here but I know that I would not be able to provide them with any food ifthey come. So they rather stay outside and earn so that their children couldremain here and establish themselves.” They are all working as labourers.Sardar has not been able to save any money as they have a pending courtcase and has to spend three thousand rupees nearly every three months for thecourt expenses. The elderly farmer says frankly that he has to take the money outof his sons’ earnings and that they are not happy about the situation at all. Thesons are of the opinion that their father will never win the case and is wasting themoney but Charu is determined. “Everyone knows that a patta land is notsellable,” he says and adds that he is sure that justice would prevail some day orthe other.Charu Sardar does not have a BPL ration card but he does have the job card.Charu says that he does some rice cultivation on the tiny plot that he has andthat lasts him about three to four months of rice supplies for the family. After therice harvest, the elderly couple used to plant some vegetables that could be

sold in the local market but due to age, neither is able to work like before. Nowjust enough vegetables are grown to feed the family.He has a ‘shelo’ dug in his land but does not have the money to buy themachine to be able to use it. Water for irrigation has to be pumped from theshelo by using a hired pump which has to be paid for by the hour. The family hada small pond which had filled up due to years of accumulation of mud.The pond that Charu Sardar had has been cleaned and is now a clean pondstanding over eight kathas of land. The pond was dug in the Bengali month of‘jaishtha’ and now the Sardars have got some fisher lings in it. Earlier fishing wasnot possible in the then existing pond as there was hardly any water in it. Nowthough not too much but the family has managed to get a small amount of fishin the pond. “When the breeding starts we shall be selling fish but now wecannot afford to buy more fisher lings at present,” Charu explains.The soil dug up from the pond is to be used to plant vegetables once themonsoon rice has been harvested. However it has proved to be a double edgedsword so far. The monsoon has not filled the pond completely and the riceharvest required seven hours of irrigation water from it. The shelo that the Sardarshave does not always have water in it. Now if the water from the pond is to beused for the irrigation then the fish would be left with no water and would die. Onthe other hand the rice fields must be watered. Therefore the only way out is tobuy water for the fields, as of now. Charu’s wife says that as all her five sons donot live in the district, they are mostly not there when the job card work is allottedand are able to do the work if one of them happens to be at home at that time.Charu is unable to work himself at this age and therefore must rely on his sons forthe job card work to be done. The problem is that if thethey wait for the job cardwork to come up then the interim period which could last anything from onemonth to one year, becomes next to impossible to pull through.When asked how he had come to know of the job card first, Cahru Sardar’s wifereplies that Purnima Sardar, the daughter in law of Cahru’s eldest brother is aGram Panchayat member. In spite of the fact that the Sardar family has ninevotes, yet they get no special attention from the political parties. Charu has triedhard to get some sort of old age pension or some other help for every quarterpossible but everyone has turned him down, one of the main reasons being thathe does not have a BPL ration card. Charu’s wife says, “Look, it is all politics.People who have cemented houses get BPL cards and those who are able towork get the card but what about us? Those who have large amount of landsalso get BPL cards but we, who hardly have any land or money or even theability to work, are deprived of the basic necessities of survival.” She howeverdoes agree that after a change in the ruling party, some work has been done by

the new Government. She has been able to improve her pond though it has notbegun to yield results yet.The family gets about three months of food supply from the fields and the resthas to be bought from the market with the money that the sons send the elderlySardar couple.The village has no free medical service for the ST community, says Charu Sardar’swife. She even says that there are times they are unable to pay for the treatmentand has to tell the quack that they would pay later as soon as their sons send themoney. They are therefore unable to go to a proper doctor under anycircumstances.The Sardars say that if the NREGA Project gives women an opportunity to do lightweight work then there could be some respite for families like this one. Thedaughters and the daughters in law could do some work and earn some moneyto run the family.Charu Sardar is of the opinion that the situation of women in his community haschanged much since his father’s time. His mother as well as his wife, in heryounger days had to get drinking water for the family from a great distance andgo in to the jungle to collect firewood apart from doing all the housework.Nowadays, women have a lot more facilities to make their housework easier forthem, with the discovery of husking machines and water pumps.At the same time women have to earn but in those localities, work is scarce forwomen folk, especially labour jobs.In conclusion it can be said that the work being done under the NREGA Project issporadic in its intervals and that does not prove to be helpful for people as poorand with as large families as Charu Sardar’s.Another point here is that there is not enough work for everyone, especially thewomen folk. The Government should try and do something about including ablewomen for some lighter work than digging ponds. That way the generation ofincome could increase.

7. SUBHADRA SARDARNREGA has offered employment to farmers who had no alternativesources of income other than cultivationSubhadra Sardar, wife of late Ganesh Sardar is a fifty nine year old housewifeand lives with her son and his family and her daughter who has two children.They are a six member family. Though Subhadra has a job card to her name, sheis unable to work at this age and her son works in her stead. Her husband passedaway twelve or thirteen years ago and her son has to go and work in Kolkata.She has another son but he does not live with his mother. The son who is inKolkata works as a mason and sends some money home but that is not enoughto run the family. “We sometimes have to go empty stomach,” says Subhadraand adds, “We work in other people’s houses to earn some money.” She alsocatches some ‘pin bagda’ which she sells to some businessmen who come tothe house to buy them. She gets maximum 50 paise per shrimp. Subhadra saysthat she is able to catch about twenty to fifty ‘pin’s per catch dependingwhether it is high or low tide. Maximum fish is caught during full moons ormoonless days and that too if she remains in the water for three to four hours. “Itis not enough to get two kilos of rice with that money,” says Subhadra. “We wereliving more or less comfortably when my husband was alive but since his death,we are doing very poorly,” Subhadra regrets. She gets twenty rupees if she isable to work for half a day in other people’s houses whereas if a male does thesame work he would get double the payment. Subhadra would be given fiftyrupees for a whole day while a male would get more.Subhadra Sardar has seven or eight cocks and feeds them with whatever shegets from the house. She owns two and a half bighas of land. The house standsover one bigha while some cultivation is done on the rest. When her husbandwas alive the family used to have about five bighas of land but since his demise,they have had to give four bighas of the land in mortgage and only two bighasare left with the family. Subhadra regrets that they might lose the ownership asshe is not being able to pay the amount back. She needs to return the thirtythousand that she had taken against the land. “I had to borrow the money tocomplete my husband’s last rites and get my sons married,” she says and adds,“it has been seven or eight years now. I don’t know how to manage – whether toget our daily food with the money or get the land back.”When Subhadra had the four bighas, she used to cultivate rice, bitter gourd,ladies fingers etc. She has two cows which she must return once they havecalves and then she might keep the calves. Now the cows are giving milk andSubhodra sells the milk at twelve rupees a kilo. She has to feed the cows with hay

from her own cultivated rice and when that finishes she has to go to otherpeople’s home to cut their grass and feed it to the cows.Now the fields are ripe with ‘Amon” rice and after the harvest Subhodra wouldbe sowing the seeds for the “Minicate” rice in the summer months. She alsocultivates “jaya” rice. “I have never got the seeds from the government but thisyear I have received five kilos. I had to buy them previously,” says SubhodraSardar.Subhodra says that if she had the opportunity she would open a shop at herhouse and that would have added to the daily income and things would havebeen slightly easier then. “At least I would not have to think about how to get theessential commodities for the family if I had a shop,” says Subhadra with a slighthope in her voice. “I am aging and am unable to work in the fields under the sonbut I have to and at times I feel that my body is just not putting up with thestrain,” she explains. “If I had the shop then I would have felt that after me atleast the family would not starve.” “I will distribute the property amongst my twosons once my daughter is married,” says Subhadra.To start a shop, Subhodra says that she would need to make a room first andthen materials to start business. Upon being asked how she would manage themoney for it, she says that if she is able then she would have to save from thehousehold expenses but that at present it looked difficult. She had never appliedfor a loan because people told her that the loan is never sanctioned and thatshe would never get it even if she applied.Subhadra says that she had a very small pond before which never had sufficientwater for watering all of her fields. She had to take water from other people’s‘shelo’ but now under the NREGA Project her small pond has been dug to alarger size over seven or eight kathas and she says that she is waiting to see whathappens to the water this year. She has not been able to buy much fisher lingsbut some and has released them in the pond. Due to the lack of funds she wasnot able to buy much. She says that the Panchayat had promised to give fisherlings and seeds but that has never been given though the villagers have been tothe Panchayat Office several times. Subhodra has applied for it and is awaitingresults.Subhodra’s sons got about six months of work under the NREGA Project and shesays that the money got from it has helped her a little in making ends meet.She has planted some banana trees and betel nut trees along the side of thepond where the dug up soil had been accumulated. She has not decided whatelse to plant on the rest of the place. According to her banana plantation is veryprofitable. She is not very happy with the way NREGA Project has slowed down.

She could have said that the six months was profitable for the family had therebeen more work. “My sons are not working now as it is nearly harvest time sowhere is the profit?” she asks. The job card holders have worked on ponds andthe river bed.The Panchayat member came and told Subhodra about the job card and thenshe applied. Now both her sons and she has a job card each.Subhodra is of the opinion that women have changed since her times. They donot want to remain with their in-laws and look after them in their old age like heryounger son and his wife who have separated from the family and do notcontribute anything towards household expenses.In conclusion it can be said that very poor people like Subhodra Sardar demandthat they get some seeds and fisher lings to carry them forward after the ponddigging is completed. It is very difficult for people like Subhodra to buy fisher lingsand seed when they cannot even make both ends meet.It is to be further noted that the Panchayat has not yet distributed the promisedseeds or fisher lings to the beneficiaries of the NREGA Project and that his needsto be done quickly so that these beneficiaries can enjoy the real fruit of theproject.Moreover, it is important to mention that widows like Subhodra Sardar could dowith some extra help like a small loan or any similar material assistance so thatthey can pull through the first phase of the Project before they start enjoying itsreal fruits.

8. DWIPCHAND SARDARNREGA should have a more transparent system for monitoring of ongoingsystem of projects and timely flow of funds“My name is Dwipchand Sardar,” the 65 year old farmer introduces himself. Hisfather’s name is Khendu Sardar. He owns 10 kathas of cultivable land attachedto his house on which the Panchayat has given him 240 banana seedlings for abanana plantation. “They promised to give me a loan as well but I am still toreceive it,” he adds. The house stands over one and a half bighas of land and isstill in his father’s name. It is to be distributed into four shares later on. The pondalso belongs to his father and is within the ten kathas that belongs toDwipchand. He has three sons. Two of them have separated from the family andthe youngest son is working at a goldsmith’s. Dwipchand wanted the Panchayatto spend fifteen thousand rupees on his pond but due to some labour problemsonly half the work was done and moreover he had to pay four or five hundredrupees from his own pocket for it to pay the labourers. He says that his sons haveto be given living space from within the house and once that is done, he and hiswife would have to live in a corner. He would have the ten kathas to live by. Hedoes not have any fowls. He also works on other people’s fields by which he isable to earn fifty rupees for half a day of labour. He has three sons and onemarried daughter. Dwipchand says that he does require a loan with which hewould take a land on a lease basis and give a certain percentage of the yield tothe owner. He would want a loan of about fifty thousand rupees to begin thecycle of comfortable living in his old age.Dwipchand claims that he was unable to buy any amount of land as he hadfour children to bring up and had to spend all his earnings in doing so. He had togo to far off places and take land on lease and earn a living. He has managedto give his children some education. His youngest son has studied till class eightand then dropped out as Dwipchand was unable to afford any money on thatfront further. “How can we afford such things without any help from thegovernment?” he asks.Dwipchand claims that he is mystified by the way women folk have changedover the years. In his father’s time, he had seen women doing a man’s biddingand never raising a voice but now things are different. “Every household herehas the same story,” he says, “the sons separate as soon as they marry.” Sardarsays that he believes that the daughters in law always want the separation firstas they now refuse to take the responsibilities of large families. The desire istowards having a nuclear family and living well than living in a joint one andgoing hungry. He himself has been separated by his sons and none of the three

give him and his wife food. They only help them during illnesses and give themnew clothes during the pujas.The pond that has been dug in the ten kathas of land belonging to DwipchandSardar was done under the NREGA Project. Though he has a job card in hisname, Sardar has never worked at digging as he has never done it before anddoes not have the ability to do it. When asked what he does with the card thenSardar answers that people borrow it to work but he does not get any money inreturn. The aim to get a job card in this case is purely to get some benefits like abank account with which he could apply for a loan in the future and also to geta pension/stipend for not being able to work.Dwipchand says that people who could not dig a hundred spades full of soil in aday are now digging three hundred to four hundred a day. “Just imagine what isgoing on here,” he says and adds, “They simply show that they have dug somuch without doing the actual job and all this to earn some money.” Hehowever does say that he could not have afforded to have his pond dug byhimself and that if not much he has had some benefits from it. People have beenbenefitted overall. “But some people say that they don’t get the money in timeso they don’t want to work under the Project,” claims Sardar.Sardar says that even in as recent times as when the CPI (M) party was in powerthe villagers had to take loans from money lenders against their land but nowthey go directly to the Panchayat or bank to apply for a loan. “One must haveover two bighas of land to get a loan sanctioned. One who does not have thatamount of land cannot even apply. They won’t accept the application,” heexplains. That is why he has never applied for a loan himself.Dwipchand Sardar says that the work generated by the job card has other workinvolved in it at the supervisory level. As he is unable to do any heavy job, hewould have applied for the supervisory post if given an opportunity but he saysthat the panchayat members have their own people and do not let the ordinaryvillagers do the job. Had that been possible, he would have got the chance towork under the Project.He claims that the Panchayat had announced that those unable to do heavywork would get some other opportunities but he does not know what and whenthe opportunity would come and he cannot see one coming any way.In conclusion it can be said that not every beneficiary is happy with the workingof the NREGA Project. Dwipchand Sardar is unable to do heavy work and hasbeen offered no alternatives for it under the NREGA scheme. He only has had hispond dug and some seedlings given. That is not enough for him. He needs toearn under the Project to make the Project’s aim successful.

It is also to be noted that discrepancies have been reported on the actualamount of work done by individuals and that shown on the cards. This isimportant because if that is true then many poor people like Dwipchand Sardarwould be cheated out of their share of the money allotted for his pond.

9. MAMATA SARDARNREGA has made villagers self sufficient with vegetable produces in thebackyard and with fish rearing, both of which also generate additionalearnings for householdsMamata Sardar is 40 years old. 11 years ago she had lost her husband to cancer.Not until recently, she had been the principal earning member of the family.Mamata has two children – one daughter and a son. She got her daughtermarried very recently and her son works in Tamil Nadu as a ‘thekadar’. Shehowever sustains her living by working as a house maid in several people’s home.Mamata’s life has always been full of struggle. Ever since she was married, herhusband was sick and she had to take care of the family. Without working as ahouse maid, it would have been hard for her to arrange for two square meals aday, she says. However, she feels that after her husband’s death she has hadmany losses. The house and the land were lost. “My husband’s death was thebiggest misfortune in my life. At that time, my son was in class V and my daughterin class one. But my satisfaction is that now both of them are doing well. I donottake their money however. I save the money they give me and try to maintainthat as their savings.”Mamata owns 15 kathas of cultivable land and 5 kathas of shallow land (bilen).The cultivable land is used for multiple crop production – mostly rice and dal.Setting aside for expenses that she earns from selling the produce, Mamata isable to keep about a ‘mon’ of dal and two bags of rice for herself after sellingthe rest for earnings. But that is not sufficient for her year long sustenance. Heronly source of drinking water is in the nearby supplies of vat. So economically,she has to always depend on her monthly earnings without any alternatives.“After the death of my husband I was supposed to get about 10,000 Rs. Until veryrecently, I had only received about Rs. 5000. Only a few days ago, I received therest of the money.”However, Mamata does have some advantages with the land as it is very fertileand variations in the climate do not have a gross negative affect on her yields.Mamata makes her living with her earnings as a housemaid. She has alsoproduced lot of vegetables in her backyard. Brinjals, cauliflowers and potatoesare some of the vegetable produces she has and selling them does generatesome additional earnings for her. She also has the responsibility of selling thevegetables of the people she works for. And for this she is generallycompensated in terms of her labour and time. Mamata says that she has littlecapacity to do other things and has never qualified for a government loan.

Mamata has received a job card for 100 days. But she has never tried for suchemployment because she feels that she would not be able to handle the stressor the pressure related to the job. “But I have been part of the developmentcommittee. I have noticed the kind of work that is being done through thisprogram. Once they had given me about Rs. 500 and that was the last paymentI had received from the committee.” Thereafter, Mamata has occasionallyreceived some offers for employment which she could not attend to because ofher health situation. “I think the employment offers are good. But if the paymentsare held for a long period of time, then it is hard for poor people to continuebearing the cost of living for long. Such employment should therefore beavailable round the year.”

10. SAHADEV SARDARVillagers depend on water for irrigation purposes from ponds excavatedthrough NREGAKuloboti Sardar is the wife of Sahadev Sardar and says that she has one son andtwo daughters who are all settled and married. Kuloboti is around seventy twoyears of age herself and is unable to count the number of years she has been inDurgapur Bailani. “It’s been so long,” she says and adds, “I have cleared thejungle here with the others. I remember how big and huge the trees were thatwe had to fell. At that time the males had to go elsewhere in search of work asthere was no cultivable land here.” She also remembers how slowly a few housesof tribals turned into a settlement and slowly farms appeared. There are ninemembers in the family. It was difficult then. There were no other means of incomethen.Now the family holds two bighas of land on which they live and twenty twokathas in another place. The family also has another twelve kathas from herfather in law. The total amount of land owned by the family is three bighas andtwo kathas. The land attached with the house is used to cultivate two types ofrice. In one year the land yields three harvests – twice rice and the third time anyother harvest like jute.Both Sahadev and Kuloboti are of the opinion that they are satisfied with whatthey have and do not think that they miss much. “It’s never good to be too welloff or too poor,” says Sahadev. However, Kuloboti says that they would havebeen happier if they had a little more money or land. She says this as she has alot of grandchildren and seems worried about their futures. The family sufferedsome monetary and material losses when twice their house came down in aflood and then in a storm. “We had to spend a lot of money then and times werevery bad,” Kuloboti recalls. The house she is talking about is however not the onethat they live in but another one that they have on one of their lands. It tookabout one or two months to reconstruct the house. The family works in the fieldsand does not lease out the land to anyone for cultivation. However the Sardarshave taken loans against the land.Apart from rice, the Sardars also have egg plants, tomato plants and some othervegetables. They would consume the vegetables themselves and sell theleftovers of there are any. The real amount of cultivable land belonging to theSardars is about a bigha and a half which yields about ten or fifteen sacks ofrice. This is hardly enough. The yield is not enough. If any year the yield is aroundfifteen or sixteen sacks then the family does not have to buy rice from themarket. Due to the Aila cyclone the harvest had not been good that year. Only

none sacks were got which was hardly enough. Apart from the land the Sardarsalso own four cows used to give milk for the children of the family.The Sardars have been through very hard times before the job card was issuedand Kuloboti remembers the times around fifty years ago, when they wereunable to see rice in the fields. Now at least they get some harvest and are ableto get some rice from their own fields. Now they are getting some more moneyas the government is giving her husband, Sahadev, an unemployment stipend ofthree thousand and five hundred rupees a month. “We pull through, somehow,”Kuloboti says.The pond dug under the NREGA Project was dug in the month of ‘baishak –jaishtha’ this current year. The Sardars have planted egg plants, tomatoes andbanana trees along the pond’s shores in the dug up soil. The bananas sell well aswell. They also have some mango trees that give good mangoes and that sellswell too. Kuloboti says that the family does not use the pond water for drinkingbut they do cook rice with it. The pond was very small before and under theNREGA Project, it has been dug to a larger size – to about five kathas. The waterfor irrigation comes from this pond and goes to the fields with the help of apump.Sahadev Sardar is a job card holder and has worked for twenty two days on hisown pond and as his wife says has also got to work on others’ ponds for fifteen orsixteen days each. The soil dug up from the pond has been distributed in theharvest fields and to prevent the soil from being washed back into the pondduring the rainy season, the Sardars have made an ‘aari’ around the pond. Thenew soil will help in smaller vegetable or fruit harvests. The Sardars have three jobcards but only the son and Sahadev have worked on the ponds. Kuloboti did notdo the work. The son and father have worked together. The son deals with themonetary matters of the family and the aged couple is unable to say how muchthe duo earned from the NREGA Project. The money that was earned has beenentirely taken by the son and his parents have no idea what he has done withthe money. It was not spent on anything. Kuloboti says that she has small ruhi fishin the pond which were bought from the market and released in the pond tobreed. “The fish are not ready yet to be eaten or sold. We must wait for somemore time before we can do so,” says Kuloboti.Kuloboti’s daughter in law says that her husband and father in law have earnedfour thousand and five hundred rupees from the NREGA Project but that all hadbeen spent on household expenses. Nothing could be saved. She says that it isgood that a lump sum could be got after the work. It is easier to run the familythat way. The previous year’s money was also given and that included, hasamounted to the four thousand and five hundred rupees. The daughter in law

also says that their own pond took about twenty days to be dug and elevenmen worked every day for fourteen and a half days after which there was a gapin the work and then was continued again later. She knows that each day acard holder gets eighty rupees for his work.The Sardars want to buy more land from the money that they get from the jobcard and say that they are trying hard to save but at present, are unable to withso many grandchildren to think of. More land would bring more money.In conclusion it can be said that NREGA Project has had a very positive impacton small land owners like Sahadev Sardar. The family is now able to think of afuture, however small and a secure future at that.It must be noted that the women of this particular family are not aware of thefact that they can replace their husbands or other male members of the familywho are job card holders if they are unable to go to work.Another important factor that has surfaced from this is that the individuals whohave worked can be easily cheated out of their money if there are other familymembers who have job cards, like Sahadev. He is aged and his son has notgiven him any amount of the money that he withdrew in his father’s name. Suchacts must be stopped by the authorities by some means within the NREGAsystem itself or by the bank.No mention of the government having distributed seeds or saplings was madehere which is significant as poor people like the Sardars are unable to buy theexpensive seeds from the market.

11. AHIL SARDARNREGA has solved immediate needs for farmers who have land butinsufficient supply of waterAhil Sardar is between 70 to 72 years of age. At home, he lives with his wife, hiselder brother’s widowed wife and a 23 year old daughter who is physically ill. “Allthe household work is managed by my daughter in law however who althoughstays at a different place helps us out when my son is gone out for work.” WhenAhil left his native home and moved here, this was the only piece of land thatwas left empty and so with lot of hard work, he has been able to build his ownhome here.Ahil hopes to lead a comfortable life in his old age. He thinks being able to leadstress free life at the end of the day with two square meals a day is more thanenough for his well being. He also receives Rs. 600 from the government as hiscompensation for less work during old age. Ahil’s three sons are unable to helphim with his family expenses because of their own family oriented commitmentsand demands. They both live in Delhi and work in offices. His biggest shock in lifehas been their sons leaving home for work and establishing their own housesaway from his. He has only been able to educate his sons at the primary schoollevel due to lack of financial strength, he admits. Only at the tender age oftwelve and fifteen, Ahil’s sons had to leave home for work. “I don’t think my sonswould be able to have a better life than I do in the long run. Here we have fieldsfor cultivation and people can have a wholesome life by being a farmer andgrowing vegetables. My sons are not going to get the benefit of all this as I havenot been able to hold any property or land for them.” Even with the BPL card hehas not been able to make a decent living, he says.Ahil owns about one bigha of land. The pond on house premises has not beennewly excavated but has been cleaned. The pond has already been there forabout 10 to 12 years now. But with discussions with the panchayat, Ahil has beenable to expand the area of the pond. Thereafter he has been able to managethe needs of water during plantation and cultivation. He has planted a variety ofvegetables like potatoes, brinjals, beans and ladies-fingers.With some of the extra produce of vegetables and fishes on the pond, Ahil hasbeen able to sell some of them in the markets for extra bit of earnings.“My wife and daughters are not associated with SHGs. I have heard that beingpart of such groups is really helpful. But we need to deposit some money at thegroups and quite unfortunately, I have very little money to spare. I have hardly

any money for the basic food items at home such as rice, dal and oil. Thisfrustrates me so much that I don’t even have the urge to live anymore.”Before the Job Card was issued:Ahil is eligible for about 4 kgs of rice on the BPL card. This amount of rice is notsufficient for his family. He has nobody to blame however for his poverty. “Mysons and daughters have their own families to look after. In all, the total numberof members in my family, including my sons and their families are about 19. Andthey all have their own commitments.”The family members have regular problems of diarrhea and other diseases andso Ahil’s daughters-in law have not been able to work continuously on NREGA.His sons being away, none of the family members have been able to take realadvantage of the program.The government has been offering supportive programs for tribal people. Theyhave helped people like Ahil increase their access to education in terms ofbuying books for them and in other ways. The government has also been provingfood to school children and Ahil thinks these are all very helpful facilities.

the pond. “I generally don’t have to buy vegetables from the market after thepond was excavated. Besides I also hope to earn a lot of money from sellingfishes. It would generate enough income for 4 to 5 bags of rice. If I had little bit ofmore water in the pond, I could generate business worth Rs.8000 to Rs.10000.”Sadhan has been able to work for 6 months a year on this program and for therest of the days he has been doing his work on the fields. But the payments arealways delayed, he says. “It is very difficult for us to sustain our expenses if wedonot get paid every week or every 15 days. I have loans for about Rs. 4000.When I have the produces from the fields, I can return this money I think.”For the work on pond excavation, about Rs. 14,500 was collected and workershad approximately worked for 15 days. After the work, only a small amount ofmoney was left and therefore Sadhan has not been very enthusiastic about thefacilities received from the card. “I think besides the 100 days of work, theprogram has very little advantage.”“I have been working on pond excavation, road construction and other kinds oflabor oriented jobs on the job card. In total, I have been employed for about 40days. All this work is managed and organised by the panchayat developmentcommittee. But very few people find interest in doing this kind of work becauseof the delays in receiving the money which is often for about 2 to 3 months.Besides, when we did not have the job cards, the panchayat regularly arrangedwork for us. So the 100 day work card has not added any value to our lives.” Butthe fact that the government has promised compensation if work is not availableto workers is useful, Sadhan says. “However even when compensation exists,nobody informs us and we have little time to enquire about this. So there is noway to retrieve the money.” It is quite evident therefore that apart from fishrearing practises that Sadhan has newly begun and some vegetation that hehas been able to plant around his home, he has not been very satisfied with theaccomplishments of the program.

13. BISHNU SARDARNREGA has been effective in reducing labour migrationBishnu Sardar is 48 years old. He and his wife, Bidyarani Sardar has five children, 3boys and 2 daughters. His Elder son and daughter are not living with themanymore – they have found work for themselves outside home. Bishnu himselfworks as a shunter outside the village. There is very little work in the village andhence he has to find work outside. In his profession, he earns about one hundredten rupees per day. “I have been able to return home only after three months.After taking care of my own living expenses, I have been able to save about fourto five thousand rupees only for household expenses.”Bishnu’s fondest memories are about his childhood when his parents took care ofthe family and his father had ample earnings for proper food and livelihood forhis children. Now he thinks that times have changed and he has not been ableto provide the same quality of life to his own children as providing proper foodand education have been his major concerns he states. With some additionalincome, he hopes to provide the basic opportunities of education to his children(with books and schooling etc.).Even with the aid of the job card, he thinks that these facilities might be hard toafford. “With 100 days of work that is not certain, it is difficult to plan. We still haveto leave our place of stay and find work elsewhere. Even when I and my wifeboth work on the fields and earn money, it is hard to manage expenses.”Most of the household responsibilities are taken care of by Bidyarani Sardar whenBishnu is away. She takes care of the fish rearing and cultivation and even whenthere is a family health situation that needs to be resolved.The only piece of land that Bishnu has is the one on which his house stands. It isabout a bigha and about eight kathas of it have been utilised for pondexcavation. Fish rearing in the pond yields about Rs. 30 to 50 per day asearnings, Bishnu says. Initially the pond was completely unusable due toexcessive sedimentation. “The panchayat committee decided to re-excavatethe pond. Thereafter, only according to my meagre means I have been able tobuy small amounts of fingerlings that are worth Rs. 10 and Rs. 20 for fish rearing.”Some of the earnings from fish rearing have been utilised in household expensesand others in covering for the cost of investment in fingerlings. The pond has alsobeen useful for cultivation of vegetables in the adjacent land around his house.Bishnu thinks that he can use the fishes in the upcoming year for planning feastsduring his daughter’s marriage that would entail atleast Rs. 50000 in expenses.

The past year has been very unfortunate for the family in terms of cultivationefforts. The family had in-fact loaned a three bigha piece of land from the ownerfor cultivation. But the crop was lost due to excessive insect attacks. The owner’sloan had to be borrowed and returned. It was a huge amount for the family,amounting to Rs. 8000. Bidyarani moans that all her efforts had gone down thedrain. Besides the money invested for cultivation was also lost.Bidyarani is unaware of the presence of self help groups and the loan that isavailable from such groups. She hopes to have an extra amount of Rs. 8000 to10000 to have a self sustaining fish business. Her family’s income is about Rs. 160per day – about Rs. 90 from her husband’s contributions and Rs. 70 that are herearnings. Together they are only able to work for 5 to 6 days a week.Employment from NREGA has been provided for 30 days only. Bidyarani says, “Ifthe work is available constantly then we would like to work within the villagepremises only, or else we have to bear food and lodging expenses additionally.”Workers feel more comfortable working within the village in order to reducedistance factors and for being closer to family, apart from having otheradvantages of being able to spare time for work on the fields and for othermiscellaneous work.As per the NREGA plan, village people need to work for fewer months off-base.After pond excavation and fish rearing has begun, people can afford to havesome income in the village and they only need to leave home for 5 months asopposed to seven months for work in the absence of NREGA. So the programhas a definite potential on aiding people with generating self sustaining income.

14. RABIN GHOSHNREGA has generated benefits in cash and kindRabin Ghosh, 38 years old is principally a businessman in Kolkata. He has a smallcloth business in Kolkata and has been engaged for about 10 years. He hasancestral property in Bispur, Hingalganj. He lives with his wife, mother and onedaughter in Class IX. His elder brother however has a separate household. Thetotal household income is about Rs. 3000. “I think I am not extremely well off butit’s fine. If I had the choice of expanding my business, I could afford betterhousing or living conditions.”Rabin’s wife is associated with self help groups where she has been paying Rs. 20per month. “But I have little information on how much my wife has been able tosave through the SHG program and if she has taken out a loan, it has been veryminor and has been used for household expenses.”Rabin has spent long days at the hospital suffering from a pancreatic disease.For this he had incurred a lot of expenses that has been a burden on the family.Rabin doesnot have land for cultivation exclusively. The land adjacent to hishome is what the family owns and is about four bighas. He has some extraincome from this land that has been leased out and is being currently used forrice cultivation.The pond on his house premises existed for many years. But it was of no usebecause the water was dirty and had clogged. “The panchayat helped usclean up the water in the pond. Now every one of us can use the water forsanitation and cleaning purposes,” Rabin says. Water for drinking comes from thevat.Rabin has not been able to produce a lot of vegetation on his house premises.“We also have a small piece of land for vegetation. But this is exclusively forpersonal use. We donot have enough produce for sale.” Rabin says that therehas been improvement in the rice yields over years because of the use offertilisers. But because the produce is dependent on rainfall and climaticvariations, it is very unpredictable to have a steady agricultural income. As far asthe water from the pond is concerned and the feasibility of its use in cultivationhe says, “The pond has been useful in increasing supply of water. Yet it is notsufficient for everyone in the village. We need more ponds for overall bettermentof the villagers. ”“I have not been employed through NREGA. I don’t have a job card because Idon’t stay here. The pond has been excavated through the panchayat. But

many others have job card in the village who have worked on the excavation ofthe pond.” Rabin has been involved with the work of supervising the pondexcavation however. It took about a month to complete the excavation workwith some gaps in between. Labourers were employed for about 25 days andabout 15 to 16 workers were all engaged together. Women were also employedindirectly – about 12 of them who supplied water and arranged for food. Thereimbursements on local labour have been directly taken care of thepanchayat. The men and women were paid alike and workers received aboutRs. 84 per day.Rabin only hopes that he finds some alternative sources of funds to expand thebase of his business. “If I do get some aid from the government, I would like to dothe cloth business in my village, instead of in Kolkata.” He also hopes to start anew poultry business in the long run to generate additional income in the family.Panchayat usually arranges for similar kinds of work at alternative locations forworkers on the job card, Robin says. “This program has been very useful forpeople who donot have water and pond. Food and vegetation is also anadded benefit to us.”“The pond is a vital source for water. We can use the water for cultivation.People in the village face lesser constraints when supplies of water are reducedin tube wells and vats. NREGA has therefore benefited us in cash and kind,”Rabin says.

15.RAICHARAN SARDARNREGA has assured economic and social security for the unskilled workers ofBispurRaicharan Sardar has five family members – two daughters, a son and the husband -wife. One of them is in B.A. third year in a college in Taki. He has been married fortwenty five years now and before him his father used to be the family head.He says that the main problem with the area is that there is no water supply forirrigation, for which most of the farmers are unable to sow seeds and get a properand good harvest. It is very difficult for them and expensive too, to get water frommany kilometres away through a pipe. People, who have ponds in their land, don’thave a constant supply as they can’t afford to clean it and the water dries upduring the dry seasons and after having used the water for irrigation. As Raicharanhas been in the place since his birth, he tells us that for a long time the undergroundwater was so salty that it could not be used even for washing hands and face, leavealone irrigation. Now the salt in the water has decreased and the water can beused for the crops.When asked where he had first heard about the NREGA Project, Sardar says that hefirst heard about it from the various advertisements given by the Panchayat. “I hadheard that the government was to give the villagers something called job cards andthat each card holder would get a hundred days of work but that’s about it. I didnot know any other details like how or what work was to be given or what the jobcards were like. For quite some time no cards were issued and nothing else wasdone about the NREGA. I became attached with the Project about a year or so agosince I am a Panchayat member.”Raicharan Sardar’s son is a job card holder and has worked under the project. Hehas had the job card issued to him about six or seven months ago. Raicharanhowever denies the fact that the family has seen any financial changes or otherwisesince the son started working. Raicharan recalls that his son had worked on theirown pond which was dug over ten kathas in the cultivable three bighas thatRaicharan owns. The son has also worked on roads. The pond is eight feet deep. “I’llhave to increase the depth about two or three feet more or else the water will notstay,” Raicharan says. “Unless it is about a twelve or thirteen feet deep pond thewater will disappear if I clean it up or use it to water my crops.” He says that if thenewly dug ponds are a feet or two deeper then the underground water would fill innaturally even if was emptied of all water. The new pond is being use to cultivateland and give a regular supply of water to the plants, especially rice. “I had startedsome fish breeding in that pond but the fish was all stolen!” he laughs. “Now I haveother plans. I shall build a small room near that pond so that I can keep a watch onwhat goes on there.”

Asked what he did with all the soil that came up after the pond was dug on his land,Sardar says that he had distributed it equally over his fields as there was no placenear the pond for extra cultivation.“I have to take loans from time to time. Sometimes the amount is fifteen thousand;sometimes it is twenty five thousand and sometimes more. I get the amount withouthaving to pay anything extra. Of course I return the money as soon as harvest isdone and I get my profit.” When asked why anyone would give him money withouta profit, Sardar explains that he has helped many with money in emergencies andthat is why people do not charge him anything more than the principle. He has totake loans for household purposes as well but he returns them after harvest. He hascultivated and grown brinjal, cucumber, raddish, cauliflower in his ‘sech doba’ andthe returns are very lucrative. Raicharan says that his source of income is farmingand he gets all his supplies from it as well. NREGA has been very useful to him, to hisfamily and even to the local buyers.“I have never been able to save anything,” Sardar says regretfully. “I do get moneyfrom here and there now and then but I always spend it in helping others. Somereturn the money others don’t!” he laughs, “But I don’t have any savings as such.”He has not been able to spend any lump sum on anything – not even to buy a watermotor to help him with the irrigation.Raicharan Sardar is of the opinion that the NREGA Project has a lot of positives to itbut at the same time he agrees that those who are very poor, are not being able tocope with the situation anyway as the fish take time to breed and be ready for themarket and the poor people are not able to get good quality or quantity of seeds tostart any useful or profitable plantations from the dug up soil. The payments comeeither with gaps of a month or two months which makes it more difficult for villagerswho are daily wagers. The payment is made through banks and post offices. That isanother problem because the poor villagers are either illiterate or not used to thebanking system at all and make many mistakes when trying to withdraw theamount. That causes further delay. The daily benefit to each labourer is Rs.81/-.When asked whether he has learnt anything from the NREGA project as he had seenthe working of it at close quarters from a beneficiary point of view as well as from theadministrative point of view, Sardar says that he has learnt a lot and more likelyabout the ‘safety nets’ . He states ‘sech doba’ as ‘safety nets’ whereby less risk isassociated with the cultivation. Moreover, he says that thinking of the really poorvillagers, NREGA project is a failure as far as the payment is concerned. It wouldhave been an achievement in itself had the payments been made within a gap ofthree days maximum but the delay has proved futile for the daily wagers. He alsoadds that maybe the delay had been caused due to all the new accounts openedand all the consequent paper works involved. Maybe the gap between eachpayment would come down to ten or seven days later.Moreover, the yield from the pond or the dug up soil would take a long time to turninto money that these villagers can get. Thus the government should also think of

some temporary interim project that these people can fall back on while waiting forthe pond and soil to yield results.He has plans to plant ‘macca’ or ‘bhutta’ as well. Sardar calculates that he wouldbe able to get Rs. 72,000/ at least from the macca that he plants in two harvests.Each harvest takes about three months to be ready. He also adds that it gets difficultif one does not know the agents who buy the macca. Apart from this he also has aplan for watermelon plantation which sells well in the local market. According toSardar, bananas, guava and macca are harvests that give him a very goodincome. Sardar is of the opinion that due to over cultivation, some of the plants arebeing attacked by viruses, never seen before. He also says that farmers are usingmore chemical fertilizers than natural ones which could be another cause to theviruses.Another point to be looked into is the fact that the depths of the ponds are eightfeet deep as per the project’s norms and this was done keeping rain harvest in mind.However, it seems that the villagers prefer the natural underground water insteaddepending on the rains and would like the ponds to be few feet deeper in order toget the level of underground water.

16. BIMAL HAZRASanitation has improved in villages because of clean water from pondsexcavated through NREGAA 65 year old farmer, Bimal Hazra is a resident of Bispur, Hingalgunj. He cultivatesvegetables. Bimal Hazra had been born in this village and says that his ancestorscame to live here a long time ago. He has two sons of whom one is married andhas a small son. Bimal has three daughters who are all married. Both sons work insweet shops in Barrackpore and live there. So Bimal’s immediate family consistsof four members while both sons visit home once every one or one and a halfmonths.The Hazra family was in the village when cyclone Aila had struck the Sunderbansand Bimal says that a tree fell on his house and that it had come down.Bimal Hazra suffers from asthma and is unable to do any heavy work. He saysthat things are going somehow and disagrees that he is well. “If I had been givensome fisher lings then I could have started a fishing business,” he says. Though hewould not have been able to work, his sons would have looked after thebusiness. In other words he would have liked his sons to be in the village insteadof having to go away to Barrackpore to work.“I have had many unfortunate incidents in my life,” says Bimal. He had lost a lotof money when he took up ration dealership. The boat that carried the goods forthe ration shop sank resulting in a huge financial loss for Bimal Hazra. He wasunable to make up for the loss and consequently lost his liscence. This incidenttook place about eight or nine years ago when eldest son was about twelve orthirteen years old. He had to sell off the ten bighas of land that he owned andwith the money he paid the moneylender back. He then sold fish and worked asa labourer and also had to live at his in law’s place for eight to nine years inorder to be stable again. “Those were very bad times,” Bimal recalls.When asked whether his sons would be better off than he had been in his lifetime, Bimal says that if they are able to remain in the village and take up thefishing business then maybe they would be well off. He is not sure of what thefuture might hold for them. He does not think that he would get any help fromthe Panchayat financially or otherwise.Bimal was unable to educate his children much. His daughters had studied tillclass four while both his sons had studied till class six. “Had the tragedy not

occurred,” says the aged farmer, “I would have been able to educate thembetter.”Bimal Hazra has very little cultivable land attached to his house in which thepond under the NREGA scheme has been dug. He has planted jute plantsaround the pond in the newly dug soil. It takes about three or four months andfor the rest of the year he plants brinjals and other vegetables for the family’sconsumption. The residential house stands over one bigha and five kathas whilethe cultivable land measures up to one and a half bighas. The pond occupiesone bigha. He has started fishery in a small scale and he goes to the local ‘haat’to sell the fish himself. He also has some coconut plantations which gives himsome coconuts to sell in the market. The pond had been dug in the month of‘chaitra’. It had always occupied one bigha and under the NREGA Project it hasbeen dug deeper as the water used to dry up in the dry seasons. He uses thewater for irrigation and the family uses it to bathe and wash clothes and dishes.He lets the neighbours use the water as well for the same purpose. Bimal has notbeen able to sell or eat the fish that he has released in the pond as they are notready yet.The aged farmer says that his family runs with the earnings of the sons. Thevegetables that he grows in the small patch of land are for the family’sconsumption only. The bit of jute that he grows is sold in the market. He has noland to be able to cultivate rice. Considering the fact that the price ofeverything has increased and that Bimal’s sons are earning, he says that he isbetter off than before.Bimal Hazra is unable to do any heavy work and he has no job card in his name,he has not been able to work under the NREGA Project. He has not workedwhen his own pond was made deeper. The pond was dug for Bimal on thecondition that he would let the neighbours use the water.He says that the real benefits of the pond would come to light two years fromnow when the fish would be ready to be sold.Bimal says that the main problem that he has seen with the Project is that thepayment comes in very late. Otherwise people are getting work within thevillage. The women’s self help group of which his wife is a member go to thework sites and give drinking water to the men who work under the NREGAProject, says Bimal. As the women cannot do much heavy work, that is how theyhelp out.Bimal had to take a small loan from the money lender when his daughter in lawhad to deliver a baby in a nursing home in Basirhaat but that amount hasalready been repaid. When asked if he would take another loan from the money

lender to increase the fishing business that he has in mind, Bimal says that themoney lender’s rate was very high and that he would not be able to return theloan. He would definitely apply for one if the Panchayat gave a facility for thesame.Bimal’s wife is a member of the women’s self help group for the past four yearsbut till date she has not been able to get any loans from there.“There is no use attending the meetings that are held by the Panchayat here asno one takes heed of what we say, so I have stopped attending them. Mynephew goes,” says Bimal when asked why he does not attend the Panchayatmeetings where he could have voiced his needs. The nephew says that as thereare so many poor families in the village and as there is extremely little facilities toprovide for them, most get left out of the welfare schemes that the Panchayathas. So it is useless to attend the meetings at all.Bimal is of the opinion that if his sons get a loan then they would be able toincrease the fish business and then both brothers would be able to remain in thevillage and earn much more than they are earning now. And if they don’t get aloan, then they would have to continue working in the way that they are. He hasa pending loan with ‘somobaye’ long ago and that was cancelled whenCyclone Aila hit the area. He also has small amounts from the neighbours for hisdaughter in law’s delivery and that is still pending. Bimal had borrowed someamount long ago when he had his lands for rice cultivation and now with theinterest piling up, he has to return around fifty thousand rupees in all. “It will bereturned in another year or two,” says Bimal.He says that he would like to start farming lobsters which sells for eight hundredrupees every hundred grams and sells well. He needs a big loan to be able toreturn the money he has borrowed from the neighbours at an interest and also toinvest in lobster farming.Bimal Hazra is of the opinion that women are better off than they were in hismother’s times. The house work has become lighter and they are also going toother states to work as house maids and are earning some money. Those waysthey are not only helping their families but are also are able to fulfil their smallneeds and desires.In conclusion it can be said that though a beneficiary might not have a job carddue to his disability to work, yet he does get the benefit of the pond under theNREGA Project.It is to be noted that the late payment is a major cause for the villagers not tohave applied for job cards as has been seen in the case of Bimal Hazra. He has

two able sons who work in Barrackpore and could have come back to thevillage if the payments made by the NREGA scheme came at regular and muchshorter intervals. The profitability of the earnings gets marred due to the timetaken to give the labourers their dues. If this is rectified then more villagers wouldbe interested to work under the Project and they would actually be able to usethe money to improve themselves.

17. SUJAN SHAOWNREGA is an effective instrument for enhancing stability in the life ofvillagersSujan Shaow, 55 years has five members in the family consisting of his wife andfour children. His elder daughter has been recently married and now only fourthem live together in his house. Sujan has been a resident of Sech Doba for morethan 100 years. His grandfather and his father have all lived in the same house.Currently his father is about 75 years old. The property is therefore an ancestralproperty. “We are all very happy here. We donot have political differences in thevillage. Many tribes stay together in this village and yet we are all very friendlyand cooperative. Even outsiders who come and visit us, donot feel like leavingthis peaceful land.”Sujan’s son is now studying BA IInd year and one of his daughters is appearing forMadhyamik. Most of the family members are receiving proper education. Sujanhimself never had a lot of access to education owing to the fact that he hadquite unfortunately lost his mother at the age of one and half years. “But I haveheard a lot about my mother from my neighbors and so I donot regret her lossanymore at this age,” he says.Sujan had to mortgage his two bighas of land for his daughter’s marriage.“When my brother’s left, I was alone in my house. I used to work the whole yearround and have lot of excess money as a bachelor. It was then that I decided toa buy a piece of land – and it is this piece of land that I have mortgaged for mydaughter’s marriage.” The house that Sujon lives in belongs to his father howeverhe states and he has inherited it from him.Sujon feels the village has all other facilities that the people need. “We havesupplies of water from the tank and the water is pumped through pipes. Thiswater is used for drinking and other purposes. In the past we had to travel to anearby village for clean water. It used to take a lot of time but now we havebeen saved of this difficulty.”The pond on his house premises has helped him a lot. He says, “not only have webenefited from the pond but others also living nearby take water from the pondfor drinking and cultivation purposes.” The work has been done very recentlyand took about a month for completion. “It took some time because every nowand then we had to reduce the rising water level while cleaning the mud layers.This involved additional labor costs and expenses and machines had to be usedto pump the extra water while further excavation.” The labor costs for this project

has not yet been received, Sujan states. The costs of labor were Rs. 81 per personand the government has not reimbursed all the labors for their services.“We have grown a lot of vegetation around the pond. Even fruits have beengrown. Whatever we can grow, we try to plant. It is difficult to sell the vegetablesbecause everyone around us like to eat them. We cannot refuse anybody whorequest for them.” Vegetables include cauliflowers, spinach and other kinds ofgreen vegetables like beans and ladiesfingers.After having mortgaged his own land, Sujan is working only on his owner’s landdividing the returns from his produces on a 50-50 basis.Sujan does have a job card. “The panchayat approved my application for pondexcavation and provided me with a job card. The workers working on this projecthave received reimbursements on the job card through the bank. I haven’treceived any money directly as the owner of the land. But I had to bear extracosts for tea and biri requirements for the laborers.”Some of the village people actually work on planning on required projects likeroad building and pond excavation and forwarding the requests to thepanchayat. Sujan is also an integral part of this decision making committee asan old resident in the village. The committee is responsible for the general wellbeing of the people living in the village. “NREGA has been an effectiveinstrument in serving our purpose,” Sujan says.

18. RABINDRANATH GAYENBenefits generated by NREGA has in part helped in absorbing thenegative effects of Aila stormRabindranatha Gayen, 37 years old has only been educated till the Class X leveland has not been married. He lives with his parents and is therefore only a threemember family. He is the principal earning member in the family. The family isrunning on aid from relatives. “We donot have enough money for survival.”Rabindranath has been able to build a house on about one bigha of land that isclose to his current place of residence – “this is an old place owned by the familyfor ages from his grandfather’s time. It has been partly damaged by the Ailastorm”. In addition, Rabindranath shares the property with his elder brother whohas been married and has a family.The single crop land does not have enough produce for the family’s well being.“NREGA project has therefore helped me a lot. I have received about Rs. 14000for the work on pond excavation. But the size of the pond is not very big and notsufficient for rice cultivation. I can do vegetation but the pond needs to beexcavated a bit more for rice as rice is the most important produce we have.”In the past, Rabindranath had a sari shop from where he had adequateearnings. Due to natural catastrophes he had lost his shop, money and businessto floods. This has been one of the greatest shocks in his lifetime. Thereafter hehad applied for many loans which never got sanctioned. The final devastationon all his establishments was caused by the Aila storm. Thereafter, despite takingseveral trainings at Barasat on handicrafts, he couldnot revive his old work onbusiness. Finally, he has been forced to resort to cultivation. There areoutstanding loans of Rs.50000 to Rs.60000 that he has to take care of. These loanshave been the result of loss of property and investments.“I think even more than work, I need to have a huge loan which is going to helpme revive my old business. The manager from the Bank says I have to pay 20%interest and that is beyond my capacity.”The alternative piece of land has a pond and some area for vegetationcultivation. By means of the NREGA project, the pond has been excavated onthe alternative piece of land that the family owns from about a year ago.Rabindranath says that he has introduced fingerlings into the pond very recentlyfor fish rearing – “I have introduced tilapia fingerlings and only a few othervarieties because the pond is new and shallow. Although it has not beenaffected by the storm, the water inflow into the pond has not been regularisedand therefore I have chosen not to be too much ambitious.”

Rabindranath has approached the panchayat committee with the request forpond excavation work. “I thought it would be very beneficial as our land is asingle crop land and especially in the summer when water for cultivationpurposes is scarce. So I ended up applying for NREGA. This happened only afterthe panchayat committee approached us with the benefits of NREGA. We needto have clean documents on the property we own however.”Rabindranath has not been able to utilize his 100 days of work quota. “We haveonly worked for 20 to 25 days and only on pond excavation. That too we havereceived the money after 3 months. How can we work if we donot receive themoney then and there? The program has been more effective in other villages.In our village the program is not that popular.”The Panchayat committee has not been very active on the projects,Rabindranath says. “Every year we have plans to build a road and every yearwe have discussions on why we need it but the plans are never put into effect.So I there is a lot of scope for work. I would always prefer to work in the villagebecause working outside village has it’s own hassles as well.” The situation is notconducive for work however. Every year the river water banks keep drowningand so the situation in the village is always very unstable. People are forced tolook for work outside the village.Rabindranath is however grateful that the work on pond excavation has beencompleted. He feels he can do rice cultivation and some vegetation. “I only wishthat the pond was a little bit bigger.” There are plans for fish rearing as well. Butowing to the huge loans that Rabindranath has, he thinks that most of it can onlybe returned by reviving the old sari business he previously had.Rabindranath also points out that they have been asked to possess bankaccounts or accounts at the Post office for payment through NREGA work. Andsometimes this is a problem.“We aware of the rules and regulations of NREGA. But who cares aboutcompensation for work or even work? We don’t have proper roads, supply ofelectricity and other facilities. Supply of water is not regular although thegovernment has set up a tube-well and a vat. It is very difficult to talk aboutbenefits and receiving the benefits. Even after Aila, we have not received theration from the government. People had to leave the villages for work.”Rabindranath feels there is ample opportunity for work and projects in the villagethat is not being utilized. “We also need to receive payments more frequently;otherwise there is little incentive for work.”

19. PRASAD MANDALPolitical pressures are a major hindrance in effective implementation ofNREGAPrasad Mondol is 68 years old and has been working as a daily wage labourer inthe Hooghly, Bardhaman and Dakhshineshwar area as a mason. After takingcare of all personal expenses, he could save Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2000 on householdexpenses. Prasad heads a family of several members including his mother, wife,son and daughter-in-law.“My son also works in the Hooghly, Bardhaman area for additional income. Alltogether we had better affordability in the past. Now that we have investedsome money in land, our expenses have been constrained.”Prasad’s mother suffers from mental health issues and so there health expenses inthe family that has to be borne. Besides Prasad himself, suffers from diarrhoea.Prasad owns about three bighas of land. The pond excavated through theNREGA program is over 10 kathas of land. The family received about Rs. 13000 forpond excavation, besides the work on job card. But Prasad has not been able touse the money for pond excavation. “There have been regular disturbancesfrom the local parties and it has caused problems with ongoing work.”Of the 2.5 bighas of land that is left for cultivation, Prasad is only able to cultivaterice once a year on one bigha of land. This is primarily due to lack of water. Thewater from the pond is only sufficient for a bigha of rice cultivation.Prasad has found employment with NREGA on various projects. Besides work onpond excavation, he has been employed in road building projects, river bankrebuilding work etc. He has been employed for a total of 33 days for excavationof 3 ponds in total. The payments that have been made to him as worker’scompensation have actually been delayed for a long time. Prasad says, “I havebeen remunerated after 6 months and in three separate instalments.” Besides,Prasad has also been disappointed by the attitude of the local village head whokeeps count of the number of workers employed and where. “As daily wageworkers, the village head is supposed to keep track of our employment and oursignatures on the days of work per project. Quite unfortunately however, he doesnot value our signatures and in effect we have no proper count of the number ofdays we have actually worked for. If the system was more value based andtransparent, I think I could have left my work outside and worked for NREGA.”Some complications also stem from political orientations. Prasad says that hadhe belonged to the local majority party he would have had all his job cardssigned and that way his remunerations would have been guaranteed. Now that

he does not belong to the party in power, he has to take the consequences ofwork not being available to him directly.Prasad is quite dynamic and proactive in his plans for future development butthe regular sabotage from party members is a major constraint in his life both isterms of expanding his earning opportunities and maintaining a peaceful life. Hethinks he can groom the land around the pond for some eucalyptus plantations.Other kinds of vegetation would easily be eaten away by the cows, he says. Healso states that fish rearing is a problem because in many cases the fishes havebeen poisoned by other people in the village although he admits that thesefears are kind of baseless.Of the two hundred people living in the villages looking for employment on adaily basis and having no alternative sources of income, work is grossly deficient.In effect, workers only find work for 5 to 6 months a year in the village.Prasad believes that the village had adequate infrastructure for well being if ithad not been for the problems related political differences. “I haven’t been ableto receive any benefits on account of my BPL card. If I apply for loans, I donotget loans although right now I donot have plans for borrowing money.”The village therefore has a very disturbed environment for work. The majorpolitical party workers try to subdue each other’s benefits at the cost oflivelihood opportunities of poor farmers like Prasad. In effect therefore, thereseems to be little hope for such people who donot wish to yield to local partypressures.

20. JOGONNATH MONDOLPayments systems on NREGA have to be improved and regularised tomeet the needs of poor peopleJogonnath Mondal, a sixty year old farmer, resides in the Jogeshgunj area inHingalgunj. His wife’s name is Kanan Mondal and she is around fifty five. Mondalhas two sons and no daughters. The eldest son has just completed his Masters inHistory while the younger one is pursuing his graduation. The younger also hastwo certificates in computer education. The older son is trying for a job and hasappeared for a few written tests for government jobs and interviews but to noavail till date. He used to give private tuitions to children in the village but as thefamilies did not pay properly he has gone to join the “Shorbo Shiksha Abjijan” inPune from where he has been sent to Maharashtra. His father is unable to saywhat he is working at exactly.Mondal is a carpenter and he had wanted his sons to take the Madhyamikexamination and then join him but they both wanted to study further and as theyare now looking for jobs they are neither getting any nor are they being able tohelp their father with his work. Mondal says that he is facing much financialproblems because of that. He himself has had no education but his wife hadstudied till class eight.Jogonnath Mondal has inherited fifteen kathas of land from his father and hasbuilt a house on it. He has started living there since the past two months. Hesolely depends on his carpentry for his living. He says, “As both my sons are stilllooking for jobs I still have to work hard at the age of sixty. Unless I work, there willbe no food in the house.” He says that he would be able to retire only when hissons start to earn. He also says that others like his own older brother who is just sixmonths older to him, is getting an old age pension for the past two years butJogonnath has not got it.Mondal says that he has done his best to educate his children and that nowsince they have come to a certain stand in life, it is up to them how they wouldfare and the rest is up to their own fates. He himself pulls a van when there is nowood work to be done. Jogonnath says that he has no savings at all and if he orhis wife were to be taken ill now then they would have no money for thetreatment. All earnings went into educating his sons.Jogonnath recalls that when he was young his uncle approached the court tobe able to take over what legally belonged to Kalipada Mondal, Jogonnath’sfather. His uncle took the advantage of some sort of discrepancy in the papers.For seventeen long years the two brothers fought it out in court. Since then there

was continuous family feuds and Jogonnath was forced to go to Kolkata andresided there for sometime.The pond that has been dug on Mondal’s fifteen kathas of land was done in themonth of ‘jaistha’ and after that due to the monsoons he has not been able tosow any seeds anywhere on his small plot. Mondal has plans to plant the ‘boro’rice in a neighbour’s adjacent field and is awaiting his permission. If he is allowedthen he would be able to use the water from his own newly dug pond andwould also be able to sell the few ‘bhetki’ fish that are growing in it.He does not have a job card and as he had gone out of station at the time, hehad been unable to work under the Project. When he returned he heard that hehad been allotted thirteen thousand and five hundred rupees for his pond. Hecontacted the other villagers who had job cards and the pond was then dug.He himself helped the labourers a little but had got no money for it as he did notdig the soil himself. The supervisor had to be paid about four or five hundredrupees.Mondal regrets that he had spoken with the Panchayat Pradhan whether hewould be able to get any carpenter’s job but the Panchayat gave a carpenter’stool box to someone who according to Mondal, does not even know how tohold the tools. However he does agree that the hundred days work is proving tobe very helpful. He says that the payment for the work done under the NREGAProject comes in late and if people go to the Panchayat to ask more than oncewhen the payment would come, then they are spoken to roughly and senthome. That is another reason why people prefer going out of the village thanworking under the NREGA Project.Mondal’s sons send him some money from time to time out of which he is tryingto save some amount for his son’s marriages. “I must make them settle down andto do that I need money,” he says and adds, “I don’t have any savings at all so Itry to put by all I can from what my children send me.” He says that he has plansto buy a pump that would help him to husk rice as well as water his plants if hegets that opportunity.Jogonnath has never taken a loan from anywhere. He mentions that neither henor his wife had ever gotten to know how a woman’s self help group works andtherefore had never been able to get the opportunity of taking loans from thatfront.He does however has to borrow small amounts from friends and neighbourswhen either he or his wife requires a doctor’s treatment but then he is able toreturn them soon enough.

Mondal is scared to take a loan for his farming job. “If the harvest is not goodand the crops fail then I would be at a total loss and would have no way toreturn the loan. If I somehow manage with my wife then we would have nothingmore to lose than our own labour.”“Women are far better off than they were in my mother’s time,” says Jogonnath.“They have an opinion of their own now and they get people to hear them aswell.” He adds that as women are getting educated now, they are also earningmoney and sometimes more than males.In conclusion it can be said that due to the delay in payments many peopleprefer to stay away from the village like they used to and therefore are being leftout of the Project like Mondal’s sons in this case.Another point to be noted is that the payment made by the beneficiary to thesupervisors. If a supervisor is being paid five hundred rupees then where is thesuccess of the NREGA that is claiming to have the ponds dug without any cost tothe villagers?

21. RADHAKANTA GAYENNREGA has increased options in animal husbandry and cultivationRadhakanta Gayen is 62 years old and his wife’s name is Kanti Gayen who is inher late forties. Both of them have four children and all of them have beenmarried and received primary school education in their teens. The family’s majorsource of income is from farming. Radhakanta and his sons, all work together onthe fields. The family owns about 6 bighas of land – initially they had two andlater they earned four from distribution of pattas. However, all this propertydoesnot belong to Radhakanta alone. Radhakanto and his four other brothershave equal share on the land.“I think being able to arrange for two square meals a day and having a healthydiet is more than enough for a good life.” Radhakanto had sufficient earningsand work until very recently when he suffered a kidney attack and washospitalised for more than three months. Thereafter almost Rs.60000 to Rs.62000has been spent on treatment and medicinal costs. The entire money has beenloaned out for expenses and Radhakanto has only been able to return abouttwenty five to twenty six thousand to his lenders.Radhakanto moans having left a secure job that he had found in the irrigationdepartment in the ‘70s. The need for money in the family is at a very acute level.He says, “If I had continued with the job, I would have been able to providemore education to my children. My sons however were not willing to bear thecost of my expenses during my illness. So I had to mortgage my wife’s propertyand that way I barely managed. My daughters are doing well but they are alsoworking on job cards.”Radhakanto has not been included in the BPL category however. Despite lot ofprotests, he has been included as APL. This has hurt his financial conditions aswell.Radhakanto says that there is extreme scarcity of water and so his agriculturalyields have not been adequate this year. However with 100 days of work a pondhas been excavated. Now there are two ponds in the village. “Without theponds we could only produce rice in the fields but now we have lot ofvegetables – for example, tomatoes, bitter guard, ladies finger etc.” Additionally,lot of vegetables are produced near the land adjacent to the ponds.Radhakanto and his wife do the vegetable cultivation themselves. Besides theyhave also sometimes been working on the job card. In 2008, he could only workfor 16 days despite having 100 days of work.

One of the Panchayat members had informed Radhakanto that since he hasbeen sick and not able to work, he should be informing the BDO where he mighthave an opportunity to receive some compensation on days missed out onwork. “But I haven’t been able to receive any compensation,” says Radhakanto“because I could not pursue the matter at all.” The pond has also not beenutilised completely for fish rearing. The storm Aila has however helped in bringingalong some fishes in the pond and some fingerlings, especially the bhetki kind.Besides the bhetki fish, there are baby prawns in the pond as well.Radhakanto says, “If work is available for 100 days, then it is really a fruitfulprogram for poor people. However, usually work is not available for that manynumbers of days. Here we received work on NREGA for only about 12 to 14days.” But of course the program has its own advantages. “With vegetationplantations I have been able to make some good money. I think the programcan be very useful if water from the ponds can be used in the fields. Before wehad to buy vegetables from the market for eating purposes. But now it serves thedual purpose of increased earnings from sales in the market and as food athome.”For pond excavation, about Rs. 13,600 was gathered. But Radhakanto did nothave much to spend at the end. The workers had worked for more number ofdays than expected and so a lot of money was spent on labor charges. “Returnsfrom pond excavation in terms of additional earnings have not been asexpected. I could use the pond for fish and duck rearing and also expand it abit, but none of this can be done without the aid of the government.”In conclusion, Radhakanto says that landless labourers would be highlybenefited from 100 days of work. “There is no doubt that farmers who have landcould also have additional produces with the help of this program. My son anddaughters-in-law have received huge benefits from the program and I think 200days of employment would serve our purposes even better.”Radhakanto makes some additional comments on the possible weaknesses ofthe program. “Workers employed are sometimes given the workload of 2 to 3workers at the same time. From that perspective, I think per day’s remuneration isnot sufficient. Besides women are not employed for any work other than mudwork and that too only for women who are healthy and strong. I think thealternative is to provide work through self help groups. Women can start doinganimal husbandry at home. This requires less physical work at times and can bevery profitable at the end.”

22. ANUKUL MONDOLEmployment on NREGA is preferred by villagers for other associatedadvantagesAnukul Mondol, 95 years old, is a very old native of Jogeshganj, Hingalganj livingthere for about the last 90 years. His family constitutes of his wife and two sonswho currently live with them – both of whom find jobs away from home inHooghly to run the expenses of the family. Anukul is father of eight children (foursons and four daughters) however who donot reside in the same house rightnow.“All my life I have been a landless labourer. I have worked very hard to bring upmy children. Now they are doing well and this is my only satisfaction. I can affordvisits to the doctor at times of need and this is also an improvement in thefamily.”Anukul has never taken a loan. He has however received a job card from thegovernment. Anukul says, “Because the job card doesnot provide employmentconstantly, my sons have to find work outside the village and go to Hooghly.”Thus far, Anukul has not received any other benefits from the government heclaims, not even the compensation for old age. The family also has a huge loanof Rs.24000 that was spent for the treatment of one of Anukul’s son and that hasnot yet been returned.Anukul originally owned about 3 bighas of land. His elder son found his ownplace of residence and claimed about 10 kathas of land from Anukul.As far as animal husbandry and rearing is concerned, Anukul says that rearinghens are safer than ducks. Ducks can eat away the vegetation on otherpeople’s fields. “All my cows and goats have died. Only about eight hens are leftand all of them lay eggs. The family has no savings. During emergency, wealways have to borrow money.”The pond was excavated for purposes of fish rearing and vegetation. “I couldnot have done this work myself. The panchayat helped me a lot in this regard.After the pond was excavated, we have been able to do little bit of ricecultivation and fish rearing. I have plans to plant more trees around the pond. Ithink we can use the water from government built tube-wells for drinking.”Anukul states, “My sons always prefer working on the job card because theremuneration from the work is really good. If they are not in the village and gone

outside working, I always contact them on the phone so that they can comeback to the village and find employment through NREGA.”

23. PRABASH CHANDRA MONDOLNREGA approved labour charges are higher than daily allowances atalternative job opportunitiesPrabash Chandra Mondol is 38 years old. His regular source of income is fromrunning a tea stall where he sells cigarettes and biris. There are ten members inthe household. Due to Muslim domination in Bangladesh, the family hadmigrated and found their home in Bengal. “As a student, life was much easier,”Prabash says. Now of-course the family has many members and the householdexpenses are borne by Prabash and his elder brother.“We need about Rs. 100 to run our family expenses everyday. Whereas mypersonal earnings are only about Rs. 500 to Rs. 600 per month. Obviously, I andmy brother have a very hard time running the family.”Prabash owns about 2 bigha and 16 kathas of land as family property but hisown share is about 10 kathas. The original two bighas and sixteen kathas of landis not very fertile and Prabash says that it is only possible to cultivate only onecrop annually on that piece of land. So returns from the land are not very high.The pan and biri shop also needs a boost as per the family requirements. Prabashhopes to start grocery business in the same shop for higher income. His plans ofexpansion have not materialised simply because of lack of funds. “We know thatif we mortgage our land to the banks, we can have some extra funds. Butreturning those funds to the bank would be virtually impossible and then wewould loose all we have.”The family has very meagre sources of alternative income. Due to Aila, the familylost all the hens. Although the cows are alive, the calf died from over drinking ofsaline water.The NREGA program has sponsored projects like pond excavation, rebuilding ofthe river bank that has been destroyed by Aila and associated agricultural work.The job card was issued to Prabash in 2008. “With the help of the job card, I haveworked on land clearing and excavation efforts for about 15 days. I loved doingthe work but because new projects were not sanctioned, we did not receiveadditional work from NREGA.” The benefits of NREGA work is that it really payswell. “With a weeks work, I have been able to earn about Rs. 700 and this hasenabled me to buy all the food that is needed in the family.”A pond has been cleaned, Prabash says. “Due to the storm, we have many newfishes in the pond. So this has been really beneficial to the family. If we can really

find work for 100 days on the job card, it would be truly beneficial and we canuse some of the money for savings as well.”Prabash is still in pursuit of a stable family income. It is hard for him to bear theexpenses of his family at one hand and make investments for animal husbandryor fish rearing on the other for the future. Due to poor financial condition, thefamily can barely arrange for two square meals a day. Prabash heartilywelcomes the benefits of NREGA but feels that employment opportunities needto expand so that he can use his wage income to support some additionalinvestments in business.PRABASH CHANDRA MONDOLNREGA approved labour charges are higher than daily allowances atalternative job opportunitiesPrabash Chandra Mondol is 38 years old. His regular source of income is fromrunning a tea stall where he sells cigarettes and biris. There are ten members inthe household. Due to Muslim domination in Bangladesh, the family hadmigrated and found their home in Bengal. “As a student, life was much easier,”Prabash says. Now of-course the family has many members and the householdexpenses are borne by Prabash and his elder brother.“We need about Rs. 100 to run our family expenses everyday. Whereas mypersonal earnings are only about Rs. 500 to Rs. 600 per month. Obviously, I andmy brother have a very hard time running the family.”Prabash owns about 2 bigha and 16 kathas of land as family property but hisown share is about 10 kathas. The original two bighas and sixteen kathas of landis not very fertile and Prabash says that it is only possible to cultivate only onecrop annually on that piece of land. So returns from the land are not very high.The pan and biri shop also needs a boost as per the family requirements. Prabashhopes to start grocery business in the same shop for higher income. His plans ofexpansion have not materialised simply because of lack of funds. “We know thatif we mortgage our land to the banks, we can have some extra funds. Butreturning those funds to the bank would be virtually impossible and then wewould loose all we have.”The family has very meagre sources of alternative income. Due to Aila, the familylost all the hens. Although the cows are alive, the calf died from over drinking ofsaline water.

The NREGA program has sponsored projects like pond excavation, rebuilding ofthe river bank that has been destroyed by Aila and associated agricultural work.The job card was issued to Prabash in 2008. “With the help of the job card, I haveworked on land clearing and excavation efforts for about 15 days. I loved doingthe work but because new projects were not sanctioned, we did not receiveadditional work from NREGA.” The benefits of NREGA work is that it really payswell. “With a weeks work, I have been able to earn about Rs. 700 and this hasenabled me to buy all the food that is needed in the family.”A pond has been cleaned, Prabash says. “Due to the storm, we have many newfishes in the pond. So this has been really beneficial to the family. If we can reallyfind work for 100 days on the job card, it would be truly beneficial and we canuse some of the money for savings as well.”Prabash is still in pursuit of a stable family income. It is hard for him to bear theexpenses of his family at one hand and make investments for animal husbandryor fish rearing on the other for the future. Due to poor financial condition, thefamily can barely arrange for two square meals a day. Prabash heartilywelcomes the benefits of NREGA but feels that employment opportunities needto expand so that he can use his wage income to support some additionalinvestments in business.

24. BIMAL KRISHNA MONDOLNREGA has brought in job opportunities for womenBimal-krishna Mondol is 62 years old and farmer by occupation. Very recently hehas been practising animal husbandry with cows, hens and goats. After the Ailastorm, Bimal has stopped rearing hens as they are vulnerable at times of naturalcatastrophy. He admits that animal husbandry has helped him with substantialamount of earnings that he has utilised for buying land.Bimal has two sons. His elder son is studying in college and pursuing B.A. studiesand his younger son is in Class XI. My wife has been educated unto the Class Xstandard. The family is enthusiastic about studies because he has also been ableto educate some people around on animal husbandry having received sometraining on it himself.Of the 19 blocks in North and South 24 Parganas, about 10 of them have beenaffected due to the Aila storm. There has been considerable damage on Bimal’sproperty as well. Bimal says that only 10 kathas of cultivable land is left on whichBimal cultivates different varieties – ‘gobindobhog’, kaminishal’ etc. “Usually Ihave the opportunity to work on other fields in the other years. But this year,because of the saline water, I haven’t been able to do the same.” From thework of animal husbandry, usually I have returns of Rs. 150 to Rs. 200 per day asprofit.Bimal has several coconut trees on his property that were not growing well andyielding enough fruits for lack of sufficient water in the area. The work on pondexcavation has changed his way of life in many ways which he illustrates later.Bimal is very enthusiastic about the NREGA program. He has receivedemployment through NREGA for about 15 to 20 days and hopes to receive morecontracts in the future. He has been part of the Panchayat development boardcommittee and says that NREGA has administered several different kinds ofprojects in the villages such as pond excavation work, road building, bricklayering and river bank reconstruction, although there is more emphasis on pondexcavation work he says.The program has many advantages Bimal says. “Women never had theemployment opportunities that NREGA has brought along. They can work alongwith their husbands and with other men on mud cleaning and clearing andother kinds of jobs in their own village.” The women from the SHGs are generallyemployed. The concerned SHG in the area of operation is generally employedfor work. “Besides, “it is really beneficial to be paid all at the same time after thejob is completed in 15 to 20 days. That way we receive a lump sum amount. I

usually buy about 1 kg of oil but when I receive money from NREGA I buy one fulltin of oil that is still in use at home.”After the pond work was completed, the coconut trees have been growing wellon his household premises. The pond has been cleaned and so now Bimal hasbeen ale to do some fish rearing successfully. He has earned a lot of money,almost Rs. 150 per kg from bhetki and rahu fishes that had grown big in the pond.Bimal is thinking of rearing prawns in the pond as well as part of his future plans.He is also very enthusiastic and ambitious about starting programs that canreduce the salinity in the pond waters. Often and on he prefers to bring up thesetopics in the panchayat discussions. Bimal thinks “the biggest advantage ofNREGA is that we can all work together. We also get paid the same, irrespectiveof our physical strength and capacity for work. So there are many advantages inteam work.”On submission of an exchange certificate, Bimal has hoped to borrow Rs. 36000from the Hingalganj Allahabad Bank. But due to some zonal issues the loan wasrejected. Bimal sees future in piggeries and fisheries. “I want to make a piggery inanother piece of land that I own. It would really be profitable I think. Besides, ifthe pond drainage system can be cleared then there are huge possibilities ofrearing greater number of fishes.”Bimal finally hopes that the NREGA program has an opportunity to offer morebenefits to the poor people and expand more. “If we had these facilities beforethen I think many of our own people from the village who have left to variousother states such as Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for work would not havegone.”

25.ANITA BHOWMIKVillagers are comprehending multiple cropping options for NREGAAnita Bhowmik, 30 years old and Alok Bhowmik have two sons and onedaughter. Elder son, 17 years old is in Class IX, younger son is in class VIII and is 15years old. Her daughter is much younger and is nine. The family consists of herhusband, three children and her mother in law. Anita is now married for 18 to 19years. Her husband works at Anandamohan. Owing to lack of opportunities, shenever had access to education but she has made sure that her children receivethe education that she did not have access to in the past. All her children havebeen receiving private education and although the family’s monthly earningsare only about Rs. 2000, she makes sure that the earnings are spent for the rightcauses. Otherwise, “Rs. 2000 is too small an amount to run a huge family as this”,Anita says.The family has been facing acute financial issues in the last few years. Owing toseveral loans that exist, there are no savings in the family, earnings are limitedand huge loans still remain to be repaid. Alok Bhowmik had taken a loan of Rs.30000 to repair his boat and buy fishing net, in order to mobilise his fishingbusiness. Due to severe storms however, the boat was broken and the net eatenup by insects. All the money that was invested has therefore been washedaway. The land that the family owned was then mortgaged for funds to repay50% of the loan. Hence the remaining 50% has to be repaid still in instalmentsand Alok has been working at off site locations, away from home to earn extramoney to manage these loans. He has infact visited Andaman islands for theearnings as well.Anita is very active in social activities as well. She and her neighbours havemanaged to collect Rs. 200 among themselves and establish a tube well fromwhich the families draw drinking water. Water required for bathing and sanitationcomes from the pond. Anita is also not very happy with the pond water, “thewater has too much saline in it and we cannot use it for sanitation as well.”The family owns the piece of land that they have built their house on and use itfor plantation of vegetables. ‘Kachu’ plantation in the last one year has yieldedgood results and Anita hopes to be able to bear the expenses of riceconsumption in the family from selling the ‘kachu’ yields. She also plans to storesome of the plantation in order to have seeds in the long run. The pond providesall the water for these plantations.

“My husband sends me money on a monthly basis and that is how I run thefamily expenses. We could have some savings but because of the loanrepayment factor, we have little option. If there are any additional expenses onhealth and other things, we usually have to take loans,” Anita says. Anita is alsopart of a SHG where she deposits Rs. 20 every month and from where she hadtaken loans for rebuilding the boat. But due to a severe storm the investmenthad gone down the drain.The pond excavation work took about 100 days. It took more time becauseworkers were not willing to work for long periods of time without direct hand tohand remuneration in cash. It was getting more and more difficult to find workersfor the work towards the end. Anita says that she could work on this project foronly 3 days as women are not employed very often. Her husband was on theproject for only 16 days. Besides this work, there have been other smaller projectssuch as road construction and brick layering where Anita found employment.NREGA has only partly contributed to additional earnings in the family becauseAlok has only been able to work for 20 days on NREGA sponsored employment.However, there have been several benefits to the community. In total, threeponds have been excavated for which people have found employment. Therehas been source of water apart from cultivation opportunities and fish rearing.Infact “some people have also dared to think about cultivating rice in thesummer with water from the ponds”, Anita says. Previously, there were nopossibilities of such earning. She says it was virtually impossible to have sustainedincome from the piece of land that she owns for the kind of family size she has.So pond excavation has helped immensely.There has been definite improvement in the village surroundings in terms ofsanitation facilities, cleanliness and better roads. Even women have been ableto earn better means of living. They have options of alternative employment –such as jari work and other things. Anita herself has been able to get someThe NREGA program had not gained much popularity in the beginning becausethe daily wages were not directly distributed. “If there is so much delay inreceiving the money, then what shall we eat?” Anita complains. Obviously,people left their work and joined other forms of employment. After earning someamount of money, they would return to pond excavation as this work providedby the government pays well.

26. ABHILASH SARDARNREGA has huge potential to increase opportunities of additionalemployment and yielding higher income to workers if organised properlyAbhilash Sardar is a rickshaw puller and 45 years old. He is married and has twowives – Sandhya Sardar, 32 years and Renuka Sardar, 35 years. As of now, he hasno children but has raised one of his cousin’s son as his own who is now 25 yearsold. His cousin’s son is however married and has one child who is very young andhas still not started school. His family stays with him and besides their family andhis two wives, Abhilash’s old mother also stays in the same household. Altogetherthere are seven members staying in the same house.“The biggest pain in my life is that I don’t have any children of my own. I haveonly been able to raise my nephew. He is self employed in Delhi. He offers allthat he earns to me, of which some I save for my grandson and the rest is usedup as family expenses. My wife runs a small shop that is owned by the family aswell. Whatever I earn as a van puller is used in family expenses.”Abhilash Sardar has no separate piece of land for cultivation. He says he ownsonly the piece of land on which his house now stands that is about 19 kathasand not even a bigha. It is the same piece of land that he partly uses tocultivate rice however and there are yields once a year. Due to scarcity ofwater, no other crops can be harvested in the same field and therefore itremains as a single crop land.With the help of the NREGA scheme, the government had excavated a pondwherein there were plans of harvesting fish in the long run. Abhilash had alsostarted off with some small tilapia fishes. Unfortunately however, all of thebenefits from excavation were lost during the Aila disaster. So in this calendaryear, there have been very meagre earnings for Abhilash from vegetableharvests that he occasionally has during times he can spare and from additionalwork outside that is mostly very demanding.“My nephew works as a mason in Delhi. He visited us about 6 months ago foronly a week. We don’t see him very often.”Abhilash has not been able to take advantage of the job card very effectivelydue to heart pain and associated health issues. In the recent past, he has alsodeclined working as a labourer in offsite locations. Due to regular chest pains, hehas only been working at home in excavating the pond for a few days and onlyfor rebuilding the premises after Aila’s destructions. Payments for work have beenmade to his bank accounts in some cases and in others it has been direct handto hand cash reimbursements.

Abhilash has been working as a labourer since early childhood. Most of the timeshe has been working in and around the Barasat area as a daily wage laboureron PWD projects. Naturally, he and his wives have not had an opportunity toattend school and have proper education. However in the last four years he hasnot been able to continue working as a labourer for health issues. “My nephewhas suggested that I should only be working within the village as a van puller andnot leaving the village for work at all. He himself has tried to manage thehousehold expenses with work outside. With the money he has sent, we havebeen able to buy a van as well.”It has been very difficult for Abhilash to find work within the village. ‘Employmentopportunities only exist outside the village’, he says. “There are very few peopleliving in the village right now. So who would even choose to use the van fortransportation?” He also states that there are some opportunities for work in thevillage when there is road construction, repair, pond excavation and other kindsof labour oriented work. But these opportunities are so rare and uncertain that itis pointless for villagers like him to wait for the same.In cultivation, rice crops are the primary yield. Besides, Abhilash uses his field alsofor producing vegetables in small quantities like okra, bitter guard and spinach.“I was told by the panchayat members that the government is providing work tothe poor people and if one is interested in joining then one should join. I don’thave much understanding about work. The committee members gave me thekinds of documents I needed for appropriate work. They are the ones who mademy job card. Thereafter they took the initiative to excavate the pond.” It took 9days to excavate the pond and 28 men. Whatever money we had earned fromworking these days were deposited in a bank. None was given to us directly.About Rs. 13000 was spent in excavating the pond.The SHGs in the village constituting women are able to save some amount ofmoney. Abhilash’s wives have also been able to take some loans by beingmember of the lotus group and the money has been returned. However theseloans provide temporary relief as they have to be returned eventually, he says.Without proper work, loans are useless. “I don’t want to take loans for rearing fish.It will be difficult to return money.” But the pond has been useful for earnings tosome extent.Our daily earnings amount to Rs. 100 per day of which I can earn about Rs. 30 aday. The rest of expenses are taken care of by my wife and nephew.The 100 day’s work is very beneficial for workers. But the timing of the work isuncertain. It has its pros and cons as well. Government sponsored schemes paywell. There is no risk of workers being cheated.

NREGA yields good earnings. Abhilash says that “Through this program, workersearn about Rs. 2000 from 24 days of work. This is compared to 30 Rs. per day thatI can earn from van pulling and Rs. 900 a month, if I can work on all days. So theprogram is extremely helpful for the poor and needy people like us.”

27. ANIL MONDOLNREGA has provided hope to workers looking for work in the village. But inthe rainy season, there are long periods of unemployment and workers failto take full advantage of the program.Anil Mondol lives in Bailani village along with wife and four children – threedaughters and one son. “My son is at home right now but he works for the ironindustry in Shalimar. He earns well – about Rs. 3500 to Rs. 4000 in 15 days.”Anil says he has not been able to educate his son due to financial constraints.But all his daughters are receiving education. Anil’s family members are allengaged with working on the fields. “I cannot work because of my hand. It isalmost of no use and so my children work instead along with my wife. They do allkinds of work –starting from plantation to harvesting of rice.” Anil himself tries tosupport the family by engaging himself in fishing. Often there are good harvestsof prawn from the river. The catch is then sold to buyers. “Usually we earn aboutRs. 50 per day from the catch and it is available round the year.”Anil works as a labourer on pond excavation work. “Previously I have worked atcoal fields almost everywhere. My parents passed away when I was very young.My father had two marriages. From his first marriage, I have five sisters and onebrother. From the latter marriage, I and my sister are the only two siblings.”Anil has about 5 bighas of land but most of the property is disputed. He hasaccess to only 10 kathas of land, he says. A pond has been excavated on hisresidential land. The land used for cultivation is right next to his residential land.Anil has very minimal expectations from life. “The storm has devastated ourvillage. Many of us donot have land anymore. There is no source of income.After the whole day’s work, if we can come home with some earnings and havea peaceful sleep, then to me it is a good life.” The storm has ripped throughhouses, trees and property of the villagers.Anil says, the pond has been useful for cleaning, washing and cooking purposes.“Rice cooks well in pond water. Water from the taps is not good for rice cookingbecause the rice becomes sticky.” Drinking water is obtained from tube wellshowever. “We donot screen the pond water although we know it might beuseful to do so.”The water from the pond is also useful for growing vegetation. “If our neighbourswant water for growing their vegetables or for other needs, we always let themdo so if the water is in good condition. We try to be very cooperative.” However,

the pond needs to be excavated even further, Anil feels. “There is only 5 to 6 feetof water in the pond.”In terms of betterment in earnings, Anil states that the yields of rice haveimproved on the fields. “In the past we had about 10 bags of lesser quality ofrice. Now we have better qualities of produce and about 6 to 7 bags of rice intotal.” Anil also has leased land for rice cultivation. Whatever the produce is, hehas to share about 2 bags of rice with the land owners.When asked about the facilities of the job card, he says that he really hopes thatwork is available for atleast 50 days. “During the rainy season, it is hard to work.So we don’t think we can work for one hundred days.” Anil also says that “workmight not be available as well for all the days promised on the job card. Work isgenerally available on river bank building and road construction within thevillage or nearby villages.”Anil has had the job card for 11 months. He believes that NREGA would definitelyreimburse the labourers. “Some villagers cannot wait for delayed payments. Thatis understandable. But the money would never be forfeited.” So the program hasreally been useful for landless labourers who are constantly looking for work.

28. DHIRENDRANATH SARDARNREGA is more beneficial to farmers who own land as opposed to landlesslabourersDhirendranath Sardar is 75 years old as per the age specified on the card. Hehas three daughters and three sons. The family lives in the same household alongwith him except his elder son’s family who are in Kolkata. One of his sons runs aboat for earnings and the younger son is employed by a company.Dhirendranath lives in his ancestral house and the property is next to a bheri.Owing to lesser earnings from the fish business from the bheri during down tides,Dhirendranath often has to find employment elsewhere as a daily wagelabourer. Recently he hurt himself while doing brick work and had to returnhome. The family could not bear the costs of his treatment.Dhirendranath’s father, during his years, was actively involved in politics.Although Dhirendranath himself has also been a member of a political party,different from his father, he has never had much inclination and hence therewere father-son clashes in the family which never got resolved. His father haddistributed land among some villagers on the patta basis that he could neverretrieve.All his life he has tried to provide education to his own children who are now allliterate.Dhirendranath barely owns about 10 kathas for himself. Work on pondexcavation has been done on the land by the panchayat. He has been able todo some fish rearing in the pond water but unfortunately, there is no one in thefamily who could take responsibility to sustain the business. “The water from thepond is used by my neighbours for bathing and washing purposes.”Part of the land has been used for plantation of vegetables and Dhirendranth’sson and daughter in laws have been able to grow spinach and tomatoes inorder to cater to within family needs for food and sustenance.It is hard for Dhirendranath to find employment. “For my old age, the thekadardoes-not give me a job.” For health related issues I could not work on the fishbusiness as well. “I have been to the panchayat but even there I had no luck ingetting the job card.” So it is hard for him to make any kind of savings. Besides,there is also a debt of about Rs. 2000. And this has to be quickly repaid withlabour work only, Dhirendranath feels.

Due to the lack of the job card, Dhirendranath has not been able to retrieve anybenefits of the program. The 100 day work is not available to his sons becausethey do-not stay at home. The tribal society that Dhirendranath belongs to hasalso not provided any benefits to their own people. None of the family membersalso possess a ration card that provides money at times.The work on pond excavation had however taken about 3 days and about 10people worked on it.Dhirendranath says that NREGA is beneficial to villagers who have their own landand where in pond excavation can be done. Then of-course, there is reason forthe government to lend loans for cultivation purposes. But without a loan, it ishard to make a decent living off 100 days of work only. “There is no way a loancan be received on the basis of daily wages. A house and a piece of land aretherefore absolutely essential for being able to take full advantage of NREGA.”

29. KARTIK MUNDANREGA : Boon for underemploymentKartick Munda, -Bispur, Hingalgunj the son of Biswanath Munda is around fortytwo years of age and is a farmer by occupation. He works on his own field aswell as on others’. He was born here in Bispur, Hingalgunj and does not knowwhen his father came settled in the place. The son who is the eldest amongstthree children is fourteen and has never been to school while the two youngersisters are receiving some form of education. When asked why he had not senthis son to school, Munda replies that he could not afford it. “We are very poorpeople. Before the job card system came to this village there were many dayswhen we had only one meal a day. Thinking about my children going toschool...”To feed this family of five he requires minimum one hundred rupees a day whichmakes it three thousand a month. “I own one and a half bighas of land,” he says.“I even have to buy the rice we eat because I am unable to cultivate it on mylands. There is no water for the irrigation. I can get water by pulling a water pipe.It is two kilometres away and I have to pay seventy rupees a day for the dieseland mobile expenses. It is very expensive for people like me.” But as the job cardhas given Munda some rays of hope, he says that he would be consideringplanting rice the next season if things go well. Apart from that Munda’s familyowns a few hens and two goats. There is a cow there but it does not belong tohim. He can keep it only till the time that she gives birth and starts to give milk.Then it must be returned to the owner.Talking about work, Munda gets about six months of work in the village, while forthe rest of the six months he used to work in Kolkata though nothing is fixed. Hehad been to Mumbai once and had returned six months later without havingbeen paid a paisa for his labours. He says that many of the males of the villagehave chosen to go out to work in other states like Bihar, Orissa and even AndhraPradesh. “One of the men here was in Andhra for more than six months. Hecame back without any money. They cheated him out of it. This is often the storyhere. Since my experience in Mumbai, I have stuck to the village and try to findmeans of income when the harvest season is over.” It is difficult, Munda says butthen it is better than going to other places and being cheated. Munda says thathe had worked as a mason when he used to go to Kolkata as he knows that lineof work as well and he got eighty rupees a month. Out of the eighty he wouldspend thirty on lodging and food and save fifty to bring back home. He has avery small amount put by for emergencies and old age. “I do feel that I shouldplan something for our old age but to do that we need money,” he says andadds, “I have a son to think of as well. He must be established. Let’s see what Ican do. But I do have plans.”The one and a half bighas of land that Munda owns has been partially used todig a pond to help him in fish farming. The digging involved a hundred and tenpeople including Munda. All of them had job cards. Two kathas were dug for the

pond. His wife Maya had applied for the digging to get permission from thepanchayat. He wanted to start the fish farming in the pond and also sow somevegetables on all the soil dug up. He has planted some vegetables there. He hasto wait for two years before the fish are ready to be sold or eaten. He has toallow them to breed and grow. The vegetables also must be worked on andwater got for the irrigation. The pond water cannot serve the purpose as there isfish in it now. When asked what he would do during the harvest season this year,he says that as the fish or the vegetables would not be ready yet, he would haveto lease land or do share cropping. Leasing land would incur a cost of fivehundred rupees for half a bigha of land or a thousand for one. The leasing orshare cropping decision is taken depending on the situation. Whichever costsless and pays more is taken up.Munda wants to give his children an education if and when he is in possession ofa lump sum of money. Next he wants to start a whole seller’s business. “I wouldlike to start a vegetable and fruits business. I would buy vegetables and fruitshere and sell them outside. I am well versed in that line as I am working as alabourer at a wholesaler’s and I weigh the vegetables and fruits for the retailerswho come to get the stuff from him. I get money from both parties. It is aprofitable business. Say you take some vegetables to the market you have towait there till a buyer comes to you. Then you bargain with him and sell the stuff.He will buy it and sell it in the market. That’s how it works.” “I have decided that ifI get some money I shall start that business and with the profit I make I shall savea part of it and invest in the business further, with the rest.”This family has never applied for any loans because they know that they wouldnot get it. If the respondent got any money then it would be used to start abusiness. The job card system had been started but it has been stopped atpresent as the villagers are not getting enough work. “The system would do a lotof good to the village if they work on it properly,” Munda says with somedisappointment. He has been given work for a month and has made fairly goodprofits. Many families would be benefitted and the males would not have toleave their homes and families to go and work outside and be cheated. But atthe moment people have to think of alternatives. When asked if he had everapplied for a loan, his wife Maya replies that they did not they as they know thatwon’t get it.“I have worked with the job card and have been given money for the work thatI have done,” he says. He has felt that working in one’s own village is far betterthan going outside. He has enjoyed it. As the work is not regular now, problemshave not been solved entirely but if they get work at least 365 days then thingswould be far better. During the monsoon it is not possible to do the pond worksand then they have to either go out or think of other alternatives if they haveoptions. Other options include harvest of jute and rice or other crops. MayaMunda has also got worked on the job card. She used to carry the dug up soilfrom the pond. Many people went for the work. She says that where there is workto be got everyone flocks there. It was the same when the job card was issued.The Panchayat people and the Gram Community went to all the people who

are able to work and the Panchayat issued job cards to them. Like mostfamilies, the Mundas are dependent on the Panchayat’s decision to give themwork. They have no comments or have never thought about how this work couldbe increased or bettered. There is nothing that they don’t like about this jobexcept perhaps for the regularity. The STs of the village got to know of the jobcard after the last elections when the Gram Committee workers started enrollingvillagers for the job.Apart from the other benefits of NREGA it has helped to reduce the migration togreat extent. NREGA works on a regular basis, then the Scheduled Tribes of thearea would get an opportunity to better their lives. Once the program getsrolling and fish are ready to be sold and vegetables grow in quantity, then thevillagers would find alternative livelihoods during seasons when the digging jobcannot be done namely the monsoon season.

30. MAHENDRA SARDAR HALDERNREGA has stabilised the life of poor villagers fulfilling some of their basicneeds of food and waterMahendra Sardar Halder os 40 years old and his wife Purnima sardar have a jointmonthly income of Rs. 900. They are residents of the village Bailani Ghoratobla.The son of Ajit Halder, this forty year old biri maker was born here. He says thatwhen he was around four or five years old, Bailani used to be a jungle. Therewere four or five tribal families who lived there. Later other families came to settlethere and together they cleared the jungle and made a village out of it. Halder’sgrandfather told him that their ancestors used to live in a place called Koraghat.They sold the land there and came here to settle. Mahendra was born here. TheDasha River changed its course a long time ago, before Mahendra was bornand the previous course has now turned into a canal (khaal). That is why onementions this place as Bispur, Chorpar. It is said, a long time ago a lot of horsesused to be found in this region and that is why the region where MahendraSardar lives is called ‘Ghoratobla’.Mahendra’s monthly income is around nine hundred rupees. He gets thirtyrupees for every thousand biris made. Mahendra Sardar had a card issued tohim for biri making around 1988-89 by the Hingalgunj Sadar. But due to anunfortunate fire in the house, he lost it and though he had been to theHingalgunj many times after that, the card was not issued to him again on thepretext that the Sadar does not have the jurisdiction to issue it anymore. “I havebeen to Barasat on the first of this month with my wife and asked at the DMoffice,” he says, “but they could not tell me and asked me to speak to someonecalled Bhaskar. We met him and he too said that he would not be able to sayanything about the card but that he does pass the loans that are given forstarting a biri making business.” The card had a medical facility attached to it.The biri maker would get some money from the government if he suffers fromTuberculosis or any other ailment. It had been promised that biri card holderswould get quarters from the government. But as Sardar has lost the card, he isunable to get these facilties.The Sardars are a family of four – husband, wife and two sons. He got married atthe age of twenty eight or twenty nine and the eldest son is around eleven yearsold. Sardar claims that nine hundred rupees a month is certainly not enough torun four stomachs properly. He had been given a form from the Block Office toopen a grocer’s store. He had filled the form and had appeared for an interviewin Barasat. But till date nothing has been done about it. It is a hand to mouthsituation for them. He has started the grocery store and gets materials from the

nine hundred that he earns from biri making and the profit from the store. But hewants to increase it if the profits are to be of any real use. “I sit in the shop andmake biris and sell my wares at the same time,” he says. When he was around hiselder son’s age and studying in class two, he remembers that he was not able tosee rice during meal times for days. The family survived on flour mixed with Milo.His father used to work as a labourer at a brick factory in Millgunj in Barasat. Hisolder brother used to already work as a shepherd in Kanmari, for a small wage.He used to get twenty five rupees a month. Mahendra had another youngerbrother and two sisters at home. He was asked to work like his older brother andhe was assigned a job in the village itself. “I was there for three days only. Icannot take anyone’s rude talk from childhood,” says Mahendra. After hereturned, he decided to take up the biri making business. He went to a birimaking factory in the village belonging to a person who runs a tea stall in themain market presently. Sardar considers this gentleman to be his tutor and guidein the business he has taken up. I worked at the factory for seven months withoutany wages as he gave me food. I learnt how to tie about seven or eight hundredbiris a day. “I went to my maternal uncle’s in Habra for a month with theintention of leaving the factory as I was not being paid anything and I had learntthe trade well by then,” says Mahendra Sardar. One of the villagers, Kanai Boroffered to pay Mahendra the then going rate of two rupees and fifty paisa forevery thousand biris made. “That is the beginning of my biri making career,” saysMahendra.“I have seen it for a fact through all my experiences that though everyone talksabout the STs should get the first of all opportunities, in practice we are neverpaid any heed,” says a disappointed Mahendra Sardar. He says that he had thejob card issued to him some time ago but he, like the others, did not get any jobfrom the panchayat. However when Mr. M.V. Rao visited the place alongwiththe then SDO, Ms. Opola Seth and they went to visit the ST area immediately andthe villagers told him about their woes including Mahendra Sardar. Most villagerswanted some work on the job card and many, including the respondentexpressed the wish to have ponds dug in their plots. Mr. Rao agreed and withinthe next few days the work order was issued and work was started. At firstMahendra could not believe this because the panchayat had made manypromises to the ST community before but had done nothing to execute theirwords. However this time, Mr. Rao’s visit did make a difference. “My pond wasworth fifteen thousand four hundred and fifty rupees as it is a four katha pond,”says Sardar. He is not satisfied at all with the way the current political parties inpower, make false promises about STs and shout slogans on the community’sbehalf whereas in reality nothing is done for them. “My wife and I sometimes didnot have enough to eat before NREGA began here,” he says, remembering old

times and agrees to the fact that the project has improved his situation. “Wecould not allow the children to go hungry,” he adds.Mahendra’s pond was worked on first. If a person is able to dig a ten by ten holeof one foot depth each in the ground ten times then he would be doing a‘hundred soil’ work for which he gets paid eighty eight rupees. In other words forevery ‘hundred soil’ (eksho mati) a labourer working with a job card would geteighty eight rupees. So if a person is able to do twice the amount of digging thenhe would get one hundred and sixty rupees at the end of the day. Mahendraworked this amount each day like the others on his pond as well as on others’.“I’ve earned more in a day on the card than I get from biri making and I havegot a good amount of work as well. I have worked on others’ ponds as well as onthe river after Cyclone Aila hit this area,” he says. He is not able to say the exactamount he has earned on the card but says that it was a good amount. Thework continued a little over three months and he has all the money he workedfor. The NREGA Project did a lot of good for the village and the villagers he adds.As he got a lump sum of money from the digging, he used the amount to lease aten katha of land for himself. The local term for this lease is called ‘ekraal’. Aperson in need of money would lease out his land for the amount required toanother villager through a legal and written agreement and if the amount isreturned within the Bengali month of ‘chaitra’ then the land has to be returnedto him. “The timing is set according to the rice harvest and one works in theleased land and enjoys the profits,” Mahendra explains. It has not been a yearsince he has taken the lease and he and his family are working hard for the riceharvest. It had cost him ten thousand rupees for the ten kathas. The moneycame from the NREGA Project. The pond has proved to be very useful. It makes iteasier to eat fish from one’s own pond and over more one does not have to buythe expensive fish from the market. Then the water problem has also beensolved. The family gets enough water to bathe and do the household utensil andclothes washing there. The dug up soil is being used to plant vegetables whichagain would suffice the previously scanty meals that the Sardars had beenhaving. Mr. Rao had promised that the owners of these newly dug up pondswould get fisher lings (macheer chara) as well as some plant seeds to start thecircle of success but the villagers have received nothing from the governmenton that front yet, says Mahendra. “I am waiting for the promised seeds as I haveinvested all my money in the rice harvest this year but if I don’t get any then Ishall have to think of buying them myself which again is a costly affair. If I am notable to enjoy the fruits in my lifetime then at least my sons would be able to doso.” He has already planted ladies fingers, cucumbers and such othervegetables and apart from his immediate family he has distributed thevegetables to his mother and other brothers. He has also planted somemahogany trees which are now a little more than a closed fist right now he says.

“I have a neighbour who had three mahogany trees about one and a half footin diameter and he sold the three for twenty five thousand rupees. That inspiredme to plant the same trees. It would pay off later.” “I have planted about twelveor thirteen trees here,” he adds.Mahendra Sardar wants his sons to get a proper education and he hopes to beable to do something for them after the mahogany trees grow and he sells themfor a lump sum of money. “It is not necessary that they do a job. Even if they takeup some sort of business, they need the education to be able to establish themproperly,” he says. “I have no knowledge of English,” he adds. “I want my sons tolearn it and they will be at a greater advantage over many others in this area.”Mahendra claims that he has had a big hand in getting his younger siblingsestablished in life. “My younger brother is a school teacher now and anothersister whom we had married off after she passed the Madhyamik exams, is nowappearing for the primary school teacher’s post,” he boasts. He sacrificed hisown education for the family but he would not let the same happen to any of hissons. His younger brother had to go outside to get a higher education and inspite of the scanty earnings Mahendra managed to let his younger brother takethe B.Ed examination after which he himself appeared for the teacher’s exam,passed it and is now a well established school master. His wife is also a teacher.Both of them respect and love Mahendra for all that he had done for them.Mahendra is very proud of his younger brother.Mahendra is very proud of his younger brother. He recalls how his wife Purnimasuffered from appendicitis and needed to be operated on immediately whichinvolved expenses over three thousand rupees not long ago. He called hisyounger brother who came with the money the very next day and helped him.“He was a great help,” Mahendra recalls and adds that he could not have doneanything that day without the help.Sardar says that NREGA has brought a lot of changes in his life. He has not onlybeen able to lease ten kathas of land for rice harvest but also has been able toopen a savings account in a bank with two thousand and five hundred rupeesfor emergencies. “I had lost faith in the government’s false promises. After Mr.Rao visited the place, things changed and now I think that NREGA Project is verygood.” Sardar adds, “There is one thing that I must say. As I had spoken in thepresence of Mr. Rao about my problems and as he had personally assured me ofeverything, the panchayat always makes sure that I get the first priority. Howeverthe panchayat officers like the BDO sahib did tell me that why I had opened mywoes to Mr. Rao when all this would have been done by the Panchayat. I havecalled Ms. Seth on occasions when I have faced problems and that are theirproblem. They don’t want me to call her. But unless I let her know what problems

I am facing, who will take care of them? I am not answerable to BDO Sahib.”Mahendra is angry that such things should have been said. “There is one moreproblem that we are facing and that is of electricity. We’ve been told that thepermission has been granted but I see no trace of the poles being set up or anysuch thing,” Mahendra adds. The roads also need to be made properly, he says.Presently the roads are laid with bricks and that is a relief but they are properroads. Mahendra wants proper roads for the village. When asked about whatother things would the STs of Sardar’s village want the NREGA to do for them,Mahendra says that there are a few ponds in the village that need to becleaned from time to time to keep them useable. “It would be a great help if theNREGA does this,” he says.Mahendra wants NREGA to work on the roads and the ponds. He also says thatthe ponds being dug by NREGA is about eight feet deep which is not enough tokeep water in it for long. He says that if the ponds were at least ten or twelve feetdeep then they would survive during the dry seasons. He adds that as the waterwould be used for irrigation, water in the pond would finish soon.In conclusion it can be said that at higher executive levels of the Gram Pnchayator the BDO office the NREGA Project for the STs has and is perhaps still is beingneglected. Job cards are being issued to show to the people that something isbeing done but in reality no concrete steps are being taken or even if so, theyare taking far too long to execute them, long enough for the ST community tolose faith in the government’s promises. If, as has happened with this particularrespondent, the NREGA Project is undertaken swiftly and efficiently instead of thepersonal interventions of Mr. Raos and Ms. Seths then perhaps the hand to mouthsituation of the ST community would see some relief.Another point to be noted is the fact that the depths of the ponds are only eightfeet, which according to the villagers would not be enough to hold water duringthe dry seasons. It remains a question therefore that why the officials who aredeciding these factors at the government level or at the NREGA level, are notmaking a proper survey of the actual situation before issuing work orders? If theponds dry up during certain seasons of the year then what is the use of havingdug them at all?It has been mentioned by Mahendra Sardar that some of the existing pondsneed to be cut and cleaned on a regular basis so that people could use them.The NREGA should look into the possibility of having this done to further help thevillagers.

The roads project should also be undertaken by NREGA to provide furtheremployment for the villagers as well as giving the village proper and lasting roadsmaking communication and accessibility easier.Another point to be noted is that the promised seeds should be given to thevillagers without further delay so that they can count on a proper harvest andimprove their lives.