The Report - North 24 Parganas

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