NREGA: Opportunities and Challenges - Diksha

NREGA: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGESLove of labour lostIrrational wage formula makes creation of productive assets difficult, thus making theprogramme less relevant to local needsCSE’s analysis of the programme in nine states attributes the low demand for jobs under NREGA tothe government’s inability to articulate it as more of a development programme rather than just awage employment one.This state of affairs, of course, could have been rectified if governments would have made the effort tohardsell the larger benefits of the Act: productive assets creation at the village level. However, localofficials and ill-informed Panchayat members failed to do so. In fact, CSE’s analysis shows that thedemand for employment under NREGA went up in many districts where Panchayats were proactive in takingup productive assets creation (like tank digging and soil conservation). Looking at the number of worksunder NREGA in the current fiscal, it is clear that the demand for work has gone up since the governmentallowed soil and water conservation works on private lands of scheduled tribe and scheduled caste (SC/ST)households. According to the Union rural development ministry, the percentage of works done on privatelands of SC/ST communities has gone up from 10.68 per cent in 2006-07 to 12.24 per cent in 2007-08.The situation, therefore, has turned into avicious cycle. Lack of awareness, lessfocus on productive assets and a low andinsecure wage scheme leads to lowdemand for work under NREGA. This forcesPanchayats to give priority to road andother construction works, which in turnmakes the programme less lucrative in thelong term for local communities – andlowers the demand for work under it.Wage woesThere have been widespread reports ofbelow minimum and delayed wage paymentunder NREGA. The CSE analysis found thisto be the case in all the states that theCentre studied, except in Tamil Nadu.While government agencies admit theproblems with wage payment, what has notbeen clearly brought out is their impact onthe types of works undertaken. The CSEanalysis establishes that due to the erraticwage rates based on an archaic publicworks department formula, Panchayats areincreasingly demanding more road andother construction works — because roadconstruction gets them the minimum wageand sometimes even more than that. TheTHEY DON’T NEED NREGADespite the implementation of NREGA, why do people stillmigrate out of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district? A study of thedistrict’s five Panchayats shows that NREGA has not beenable to replace the job demands of local people, mostlycasual agricultural labourers.NREGA guarantees 100 days of works; that, too, isirregular. Under NREGA, the district has initiated severalsmall works such as road repair or building of waterharvesting structures in a staggered manner. On the otherhand, most of the casual workers get around 300 to 325days of regular work in urban areas. Under NREGA, aworker gets Rs 115, Rs 100 and Rs 75 a day for skilled, semiskilledand unskilled works, respectively. In privateconstruction work in urban areas, a skilled labourer gets Rs150 a day. So, the migration continues and demand forwork under NREGA has dipped.In fact, there is a serious shortage of skilled workersnow. Panchayats hardly get any skilled workers for workslike construction of roads and concrete dams. This, in turn,forces Panchayats to take up works that only requireunskilled workers.Source: Based on reports from Ajeet Kumar Dwivedi, CSEMedia Fellow, 200731