Canadian Parvasi Issue 22 November 2019

The International News Weekly November 22, 2019 | Toronto 12
Making MGNREGS More Useful
The programme has been overhauled in the last five years to deliver better results
Amarjeet Sinha
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGN-
REGS) has been in the news recently.
While the MGNREGA was passed in 2005,
independent studies by Niehaus and Sukthankar
in 2013 and Imbert Clement and
John Papp (2014) had found the scheme
plagued by corruption. Nobel laureate Abhijit
Banerjee recently acknowledged the
plugging of leakages in MGNREGS over
the last five years. Clearly the efforts to
clean up MGNREGS through use of technology
have been effective.
The Institute of Economic Growth,
Delhi study on MGNREGS, headed by
Manoj Panda in 2018, found only 0.5%
Natural Resource Management (NRM) assets
to be unsatisfactory. This is a proxy
indicating sharp reduction in leakages.
This has been possible on account of a
range of reforms in MGNREGS, some of
which were acknowledged in Chapter X of
the Economic Survey 2019. What are these
reforms that have made a difference?
First, in the true spirit of the MGN-
REGA, it was seen as an opportunity to
enhance the livelihood security of rural
households. There was a thrust on durable
assets like farm ponds and dug wells
that increase incomes. Animal sheds for
marginal and small farmers were taken
up along with 90/95 day wage labour support
to landless manual casual labour who
were provided housing under Pradhan
Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
Water conservation was given a focus by
notifying Mission Water Conservation
guidelines for MGNREGS in 2016 and following
up with adequate capacity building.
It was made clear that MGNREGS is
not a pension scheme but a programme
for livelihood security.
Second, Individual Beneficiary
Schemes which accounted for 21.4% of
the total works in 2014-15 now account for
67.29%. Over 18.17 lakh individual farm
ponds, 10.56 lakh Vermi/Nadep pits, 4.85
lakh soak pits, 5.16 lakh wells, support for
1.54 crore rural housing beneficiaries, 1.3
lakh goat sheds, 5.56 lakh cattle sheds have
been constructed over the last five years
on account of the thrust on livelihood security.
From 36.18 lakh works completed
in 2015-16, the total completed works rose
to 89.86 lakh in 2018-19 on account of better
monitoring of outcomes. Over 15 million
hectares benefited from the water conservation
thrust and 40–50,000 villages could
improve their water security.
Third, complete transparency was
given the highest priority with Aadhaar
linking of accounts, near 100% electronic
Fund Management System (eFMS), 100%
IT/DBT and geo-tagging of assets, improved
public record system, and most importantly
a strengthened system of Social
Audit to hold local government leaders
accountable to the community. Over 97%
wage payments are now generated within
15 days and over 75% actually credited in
the workers’ account within 15 days.
Fourth, changes were brought in the
programme by making 60:40 wages to
material ratio applicable at the district
level instead of at gram panchayat level.
This ensured evidence-based selection of
works. 60% works were earmarked for
agriculture and allied sectors and states
were encouraged to come up with state
specific water conservation and afforestation
efforts. By making 60:40 work at
district level, it was possible to take up
priority public infrastructure like anganwadi
buildings under MGNREGS and
42,716 have been completed in the last five
years. Each and every asset, right from
the inception of the programme, can be
seen on the public website.
Fifth, the labour budget of states was
drawn on the basis of manual casual labour
and deprivation counts, to ensure
that states with more manual casual
labour and deprivation got more of the
MGNREGS resources. The Socio Economic
and Caste Census (SECC) finalised
in July 2015 provided an opportunity to
ensure that MGNREGS funds went to the
poorest regions of the country. Linking
90/95 days of work with the rural housing
programme which also used SECC
based deprivation, it was possible to substantially
raise labour budgets in poorer
regions.
Sixth, seeing climate change impact
showing up in one-fifth of the districts every
year in the form of low or late rains,
aprovision was made to notify 150 days of
work in such regions that had a natural
calamity or drought. This too focussed on
work provision where it was required.
Seventh, efforts were made to continuously
improve the community connect and
partnership of panchayat leaders, women
self-help groups under the Livelihood Mission
and the frontline workers through a
People’s Plan Campaign. Each and every
gram panchayat of the country has been
ranked in 2018. The same process is happening
now for 2019 and all rankings are
in the public domain on www.gpdp.nic.in.
The Gram Swaraj Abhiyan for ensuring
seven benefits to every deprived/ eligible
household in 65,000 purposively selected
villages in mission mode in 2018-19, is an
excellent example of community connect.
While there is always room for improvement,
a lot has been achieved
through these reforms under MGNREGS.
Even during a period when prices of agriculture
commodities have not risen and
wage increase has been modest, it has
been possible to expand the asset base of
the poor and diversify and develop livelihoods
on a much larger scale.
It is true that assetisation and emerging
education, gas, electricity bills, and
health spend of households have altered
the basket of goods and services that poor
households consume and perhaps this
needs to reflect better in the Consumer
Price Index for agricultural labourers.
The Labour Bureau is working on it. MGN-
REGS durable assets, livelihood and water
conservation thrust and 90/95 days under
PMAY-G for the poor, have improved the
lives and livelihoods of the poor.
Source Credit: This article was first published
in The Times of India. The writer is Union Minister
for Law & Justice, Communications and
Electronics & IT
The Bhagwad Gita And Management Science
Swami Swaroopananda
Whether you are seeking enlightenment,
facing a moral dilemma
or you are the managing
director of a multinational corporation
working for success,
the Bhagwad Gita can guide you
effectively in achieving your
objectives. This article outlines
the role of the Gita in Management
Science.
Krishna gives many useful
suggestions on how an executive
could manage his company
successfully. The executive
must have the following qualifications:
Jnanam: This means
a complete vision of the entire
organisation, its aims and objectives,
its place in the country
and also in relation to other
countries. There may be many
functional divisions in the organisation,
but the head must
see unity in all of them. The
relationship between the parts
and the whole must be understood
well.
Buddhi: Discrimination and
discretion. The chief should
be capable of imparting his vision
to all his workers at their
own level of understanding and
field of work. This ability is
buddhi. While translating this
vision into reality, there will
arise many problems, difficulties
and obstacles that may be
objective or manmade as well.
At such moments what is required
is buddhi – the ability
to understand the very cause of
such problems and to remove it
effectively. Buddhi is required
to manage two kinds of people:
those who have difficulties and
those who are difficult people!
In order to do all this the executive
must have good knowledge
of the human mind.
Dhriti: This means patience
and fortitude. The ability to consistently
hold on to your goal is
called dhriti. No goal is achieved
easily and quickly. We meet
with many obstacles that try
our patience. Similar is the case
when all workers are not able to
see the vision and they frustrate
even an effective leader. On all
such occasions the leader must
have extreme patience to win
them over and achieve the goal.
The success of a project depends
on the appointment of
right persons for various jobs.
There will be diversity in jobs
and functions but there should
be unity in purpose and total
dedication to it. The greater the
goal and higher the inspiration,
the more spectacular the success
will be. The way Krishna
managed the crisis at Kurukshetra
on the battlefield, teaching
Arjuna and then leading the
Pandavas to victory, is proof of
this fact.
Worship and meditation:
The mind operates at two levels
– conscious and the subconscious.
The subconscious mind
is very powerful. By cleaning
up the mind and empowering it,
we can garner full energy of the
subconscious mind.
Worship helps us to meditate;
the mind takes the form
of the object of meditation.
Thus, while meditating on the
form, the mind develops and
manifests the qualities of the
deity. Krishna presents elaborate
details on the ‘why’, ‘how’
and ‘obstacles’ in the process of
meditation. Reflect and meditate
when you face obstacles and
challenges, when you are losing
your enthusiasm and when you
are unable to lead.
Leadership does not mean
that all have to become presidents
or CEOs. If you can be an
inspiration to any person, you
are a leader.
If you can help, motivate and
guide just one person, you are
a leader. (The writer is global
head, Chinmaya Mission)