INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT NEW DELHI

THESIS REPORT ON

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF NREGA

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. SUMANTA SHARMA PROF. VIJAY KR. BODDU EXTERNAL GUIDE: MR. RAVI RANJAN SUBMITTED BY EKTA SABHARWAL BATCH: PGP/FW/2008-10 REGISTRATION ID NO.: DF/08/10-M-104

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ABSTRACT
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA) guarantees 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to any rural household whose adult members are willing to participate in unskilled manual work The Act is an important step towards realization of the right to work and aims at arresting out-migration of rural households in search of employment simultaneously enhancing peoples livelihood on a sustained basis, by developing the economic and social infrastructure in rural areas. The present study on evaluation of the NREG Scheme is intended to assess the impact of this scheme on the overall quality of life of people by gauging different parameters associated with the improvement of overall quality of life of people such as impact on income earning levels of each household, expenditure on food and non-food items, household and cultivable assets creation by the beneficiaries. This study also captured the impact of the scheme to arrest out-migration, views and feed-back of the beneficiaries on various faucets of implementation of the scheme at grass root level right from the stage of issue of job cards etc.

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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SIGNATORY PAGE

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THESIS TOPIC APPROVAL LETTER

From: THESIS <thesis@iipm.edu> Subject: Thesis Topic Approval (M) FW 08-10 To: bebo_sabharwal@yahoo.com Cc: admissionsggn@iipm.edu, boddu.vijay@iipm.edu Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 5:25 PM Dear Ekta Sabharwal, This is to inform that your thesis proposal on Critical Evaluation of NREGA, to be conducted under the guidance of Mr. Ravi Ranjan is hereby approved and the topic registration id number is DF/08/10-M-104 Make it a comprehensive thesis by ensuring that all the objectives as stated by you in your synopsis are met using appropriate research design; a thesis should aim at adding value to the existing knowledge base. You are required to correspond with your internal guide Prof. Vijay Kr. Boddu at boddu.vijay@iipm.edu Ph.-0124-3350714 by sending at least four response sheets (attached along with this mail) at regular intervals before 30th June 2010 last date for thesis submission. NB: 1) A thesis would be rejected if there is any variation in the topic/title from the one approved and registered with us. 2) Students are required to prepare a handwritten 5- 7 pages summary of the thesis at the time of Viva. Regards, Prof .Sumanta Sharma Dean (Projects) IIPM Sumanta.sharma@iipm.edu Phone: +91 0124 3350701 (D) +91 0124 3350715 (Board)

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THESIS SYNOPSIS
DETAILS OF THE STUDENT: NAME BATCH SECTION EMAIL MOBILE THESIS TOPIC BATCH SPECIALIZATION : : : : : : : : EKTA SABHARWAL FW 2008-2010 F-2 bebo_sabharwal@yahoo.com +91-9015159856 A Critical evaluation of NREGA FW-2008-2010 Finance & Marketing

INTRODUCTION TO THE AREA OF RESEARCH The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(MGNREGA) is an Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on August 25, 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage of Rs. 100 per day. The Central government outlay for scheme is Rs. 39,100 crores ($8 billion) in FY 2009-10. This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living in rural India, whether or not they are below the poverty line. Around one-third of the stipulated work force is women. The government is planning to open a call center, which upon becoming operational can be approached on the toll-free number, 1800-345-22-44. It was initially called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) but was renamed on 2nd October, 2009.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVE To do an in-depth analysis of NREGA and its relevance in present context.. The study will aim to study: To study the genesis and need for NREGA in India. To enlist the distribution model adopted by NREGA To evaluate the financial performance of NREGA for the last three years across all major states. To evaluate the region (Suburbs). To reveal using real time case studies on the usefulness on NREGA. effectiveness of NREGA in selected location in NCR

SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study may reveal some aspects of usefulness of NREGA in Indian Context. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research work will be done from two sources: (1) (2) Primary data Secondary data

Primary data will be collected by onsite interview of the Officials of NREGA. The interview will be structured and open-ended questions based on literature survey, will be asked. Secondary data will be collected by reviewing different literatures, from published books, management journals, articles published by the other researchers. Other sources will include Ministry of Rural Development and Website of NREGA.The information gathered would be tabulated and presented in the final report.

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JUSTIFICATION FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been a subject of lively debate during the last two years or so. Unfortunately, the factual basis of this debate has been, so far, rather thin. This has made it possible for extremist positions to flourish, without being put to the test of careful evidence. Thus I have taken up this study on NREGA. DETAILS OF THE EXTERNAL GUIDE Name: Ravi Ranjan Qualification: MBA Designation: Relationship Manager SUMMER TRAINING DETAILS COMPANY POSITION PERIOD OF WORK PROJECT : VARUN BEVERAGES : Management Trainee : 8 Weeks

DETAILS : A comparative study on Slice versus Maaza

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXISTING CONTENTS IN THIS FILE
Preface Contents Background The Study Area- Socio Economic Profiles of Nuapada and Sidhi Methodology Survey Findings- Nuapada Survey Findings- Sidhi Comparative Analysis Conclusion

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Chapter-1 Introduction
It has been over two years since the National Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was implemented in 200 of the most backward districts of India and over one year since it began in another 130 districts. Further, it has been more than three years since the National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP), the pilot scheme launched by the government as a precursor to the NREGA, was implemented in 200 districts. The debate began then and continues till date about the feasibility and utility of the NREGA. The topic spurs an interest in everybody from all walks of life largely because of the enormity of scale. The scheme is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world and thus involves a proportionate amount of resources. However, what is truly large about the scheme that more or less dwarfs the quantum of resources being put into the scheme is the number of lives that it intends to touch and the way in which it intends to touch them. . The NREGAs coverage has been expanded from 330 districts to all 604 districts of India beginning April, 2008. As the scheme is implemented throughout the country and as works begin everywhere, the magnitude of lives that will be touched by it will inevitably be massive. However, what is uncertain is the actual impact of the Act on the lives and livelihoods of people. Whether the Act actually makes a lasting impact on these millions of people it proposes to touch will depend on the extent to which the nation is able to extract the developmental potential of the Act. In this regard, as we move on the path towards nationwide implementation of NREGA it becomes imperative that we take stock of the experience so far in order to learn from the successes as well as failures. This paper attempts to do just that. There have been a number of studies that look at the implementation of the act in terms of employment created as well as issues of wages, processes of implementation, feedback mechanisms, etc. However, with the NREGA just emerging out of its infancy, few studies have

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actually focused on an assessment of the impact of the NREGA in terms of the realization of its development potential. With the overwhelming considerations of ideology and corruption at the forefront, rarely any of the studies have attempted to look into the actual assets being created and their contribution towards long term development and sustained employment generation in the villages. This paper tries to bridge this lacuna by attempting to study the effectiveness of the assets created under the act. At a time when the world is facing one of the worst food crises ever witnessed, it becomes extremely pertinent to look at the effectiveness of the NREGA in providing both short and long term food security through work on improvement of agriculture and provision of water. Even the origins of the NREGA lie in the drought relief programmes of the 19th century which helped provide purchasing power to agricultural workers in drought stricken areas. Such a scheme would help curb starvation and hunger since the problem was localized and a shortage in a drought stricken area simply needed to be met by surpluses from elsewhere. A Food-for-Work scheme would then solve both problems of selection and transfer of purchasing power to the needy. The problem today is much different. The shortage is no longer localized and therefore a mere transfer of purchasing power would not lead to a solution. Moreover, with an ever increasing strain on our meager resources, we need to take measures that will empower people to take care of their own needs rather than depend on external agencies. NREGA has the potential to do just that by providing people what they most need/desire at the village level. In such a situation, it becomes extremely crucial to assess the impact of the NREGA, both in providing short and long term relief. There have been numerous success stories of economic and environmental regeneration where year-round productive employment has been generated as a result of community or NGO efforts. Such success has not been found in the government employment guarantee schemes of the past. Yet, the potential of NREGA in reaching the rural poor is unsurpassed as it is now being implemented in all the districts of India. There is thus an urgent need to study how such success stories can be made part of the employment PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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guarantee schemes, what are the lacunae and drawbacks and how they can be addressed. Using primary data collected from two districts, Nuapada district in Orissa and Sidhi district in Madhya Pradesh, we shall assess the potential of the NREGA in providing food and livelihood security.

BACKGROUND
NREGA is going through a crucial phase. It is a bit early to quantify its impacts definitively given that people are still grappling with implementation hitches. The institutional mechanism required for implementation of such a massive scheme have still not been completely set up. In order to make sure the NREGA does not become redundant at the hands of the existing structure, a new design has been evolved which demands a shift of power and responsibility downwards to village level institutions. Thus, new roles assigned to each instrument in this setup need to be clearly understood and internalised by all. What is most difficult and which will take time, is, the delegation of power by those higher up on the beauracratic ladder. This transition of power and the friction generated as a result thereof, have generated incessant negative media coverage on the performance of the NREGA. This had triggered some uncertainty among the ranks of the government as well as those skeptical about the programme regarding the implementation of the Act. From the current financial year the Act covers the entire country, giving the guarantee of 100 days employment to around 45 million rural households. As other public wage programmes like the SGRY has been subsumed within NREGA, this will be the only operational wage employment programme in the country. Being focused on regeneration of village economy in the long term, the Acts success or failure potentially affects the entire rural development scenario in India. From the advocates of the Act, the excessive focus on just employment creation has also narrowed its larger objectives and potential. Without discounting the civil societys consistent monitoring of the implementation, programmes like NREGA cannot be just examined on the basis of its short-term benefits. PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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Performance according to official sources Going by the national level government data, the NREGA has started to make an impact, both in its short-term and long-term objectives. To recap, it has performed far better than other employment programmes: a NREGA district has created 45 lakh person days of employment a year in comparison to other districts creating 14 lakhs a year using other programmes. That is the shortterm objective of NREGA: to create daily wage employment. On the long-term objective of productive assets creation, each district under NREGA is creating around 2000-4000 village assets a year. This is double of what has been created under EAS and the SGRY earlier. Around a million assets have been created in the last two years, a large number of them being water conservation works. However, the impact of some of these assets, such as check dams and ponds can only be assessed after the rainy season. The monsoons should be the period when these structures would be working to their potential, making an impact on the rural economies. The survey, thus, would not be able to assess the performance impact of these structures. However, as we shall see, there are other structures which have an immediate visible impact, for instance, wells and roads. These works in fact constitute the majority of the works being undertaken in the study and their impact has been apparent during the survey. We therefore, look mainly at the perceptions of the people about the long term impacts of the act on their livelihood. This gives us a fair idea as to the potential long term development impacts of the programme.

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Performance of the selected districts Nuapada The district in all has spent 21.77 crores on the implementation of the NREGA in the last two years. It has provided 98% of the employment demanded so far, generating a total of 18.62 person days. However, in the year 2007-08 the district undertook water conservation works out of which only 4 were completed and has rural connectivity works reported completion of 14 works. Rural connectivity works clearly got a priority over water conservation works in contrast to the year 2006-07 when the district undertook 44.68% work on water conservation. Sidhi Sidhi spent 213.06 crores on the programme, providing almost 100% employment against demand. It generated 264.2 lakh person days in the process. Government data shows that in the year 2006-07, out of the total works undertaken in the district, 59% were on water conservation. This figure reduced slightly to 55.9% in the year 2007-08. The Study Area: Socio Economic Profiles of Nuapada and Sidhi We chose two districts from two states representing two distinct agroecological zones. District Nuapada Siddhi Agro-ecological Zone Eastern Highlands Central Highlands State Orissa Madhya Pradesh

The selection of the districts was based on the following overarching parameters: 1. Must be implementing NREGA since March 2006. This is to allow at least one year of NREGA implementation for an objective assessment. 2. Must have agriculture as the primary source of livelihood. 3. Must have dominance of agricultural workers in the workforce. PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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4. Must have been a district featuring in the Planning Commissions 100 poorest districts ranking. Socio-Economic Profiles Nuapada: Nuapada was part of the Kalahandi District till early March, 1993, but for administrative convenience, Kalahandi was divided into two parts i.e. Kalahandi and Nuapada. Nuapada district now comprises one sub-division (Nuapada), two tehsils (Nuapada and Khariar) and five Community Development Blocks (Khariar, Sinapalli, Boden, Nuapada and Komna). Nuapada is a drought prone district with a large number of marginal farmers and agricultural labourers. The district is one of the poorest in Orissa with a large tribal population. According to the district statistical handbook, 83% of families live below the Government of India poverty line of Rs.15,000 (US$300) per annum. Of the families living below the poverty line over 50% are very poor with an income of only Rs.6000 (US$120) per annum. It experiences high distress migration due to failure in agriculture. In a population of 5,00,652 persons, 72% of the households fall into the category of small and marginal farmers. The male literacy rate in Nuapada is 58% and among women it is 24%. Among children, only 25% of Scheduled Caste and 19% of Scheduled Tribes are enrolled in schools. Statistical Profile of Nuapada: Geographical area (sq km) Number of panchayats Is it a DPAP1 district Is it a DDP2 district Rural population Rural population density per sq km Average population per panchayat Average area per panchayat (sq km) 3,852 109 Y . 500,652 150 4,593 35

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Total rural workers Agricultural labourers vs total rural workers Fifth schedule district Sixth schedule district Rural ST3 population (%)

234,000 48% . . 36%

Source: Second Administrative Reforms Commission- Unlocking Human Capital: Entitlements and Governance- a case study, 2005
1. Drought Prone Areas Programme 2. Desert Development Programme

3. Schedule Tribe Agriculture in the district is mainly rain-fed. Because of a host of factors, including variable and unpredictable rainfall, agricultural productivity in Nuapada can be best characterized as low and uncertain. As a result, an average non-irrigated farm produces about seven months worth of food grains for the food and nutritional needs of an entire family of average family size. For the remaining months, male members of the family mainly seek work on the fields of bigger land owners or migrate in search of employment. In some instances, especially among the tribal communities, entire families forage for food in the forests. This adds to their existing problems of not being able to access minimum benefits in relation to education, nutrition, health security. Instances of malnutrition, sometimes severe, are fairly common among these groups. (source: Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project) Despite the fact that average annual rainfall is as high as 1378 mm, Nuapada is a highly drought prone area. It has suffered repeated droughts in the eighties every alternate year and for 3 years consecutively from 1987 to 1989. The nineties and the new millennium have fared better with reduced intensity of droughts, only the year 2002 registering a severe drought. With an agrarian economy and high incidence of poverty, poor rains disrupt the entire yearly cycle in agriculture. A majority of the population in the district is landless

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earning their livelihood as agricultural labourers. Accumulatively, including the tillers who are unable to till land, droughts spell a decline in the employment opportunities for nearly 85% of the population. Further, the district is highly dependant on natural resources. 48% of the total land area in the district comes under forest area and the local economy thrives on major and minor forest products as agriculture cannot provide employment for the major part of the year. Reducing forest cover, absence of pro-poor NTFP policies, and substitution of traditional craft items by cheaper factory goods have resulted in a dramatic fall in non-agricultural employment opportunities. All this has forced several families in Nuapada, especially in rural areas, to migrate to urban areas in search of employment opportunities. In such a situation, an act like the NREGA has the potential to transform the face of the rural economy. The availability of such a large amount of resources presents a massive opportunity for the creation of productive assets such as water conservation structures. As the problem in Nuapada is not one of less rainfall but irregular rainfall, creation of proper water conservation structures through the NREGA would have immense potential to boost agriculture and rural livelihoods. Siddhi: The district of Sidhi forms the eastern border of Madhya Pradesh and is known for six thermal power stations and has the second largest series of eleven active coal mine groups in Asia (Zila Panchayat, Sidhi). It consists of 8 administrative blocks - Sidhi, Rampur, Majhauli, Kusmi, Sihawal, Devsor, Chitrangi, Waidhan. Adjoining Chattisgarh, Sidhi hosts similar conditions of scarcity as Nuapada. It is a drought prone district with its economy largely based on agriculture. Sharing 3% of Madhya Pradeshs population, the district comprises 1831152 persons. Out of its total population 11.9% are Scheduled Caste and 29.9% Scheduled Tribe. Siddhi district is dominantly hilly and has a significant forest cover at about 40% of the total area of the district. Out of this, 24 percent of the total area or about 2400 Sq. Km. has dense canopied forest and about 16 percent or about 1600 Sq. Km. is open forest. Of the eight blocks of district, three: namely,

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Kusmi, Devsar and Chitrangi have significant forest cover (mixed tropical deciduous forests). The forests serve as a source for variety of N.T.F.Ps. like mahua, chironji, tendu etc., which are an important source of livelihood for people.A large number of villages are unreachable by road during the rains. Additionally, a large number of villages in the hilly areas are sparsely populated. Any project on ecological regeneration would thus have to take these geographical features of the region into account in order to fully realize its developmental potential. The district with an average annual rainfall of 1248 mm is well endowed with natures bounty. The local economy is agriculture based and heavily dependant on natural resources. There is large scale fragmentation of land with majority of farmers tilling land less than two hectares. Only 29% of the total area under cultivation is irrigated within which 9.4% area is under irrigation through perennial sources like streams, 2.7% is canal irrigated, 5.5% through wells and 11.34% through other means. A large proportion of the land area is under forest cover with the district hosting 38% of Madhya Pradeshs forests at 4013 sq. km. Statistical Profile of Sidhi Geographical area (sq km) Percentage of cultivable area Development Blocks Number of panchayats Is it a DPAP district Is it a DDP district Rural population Rural population density per sq km Average population per panchayat Average area per panchayat (sq km) 10526 63.53 8 717 Y . 1,570,121 149 2,190 15

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Total rural workers Agricultutal labourers vs total rural workers Fifth schedule district Sixth schedule district Rural ST population (%)

681,769 34% Y . 33%

Source: Second Administrative Reforms Commission- Unlocking Human Capital: Entitlements and Governance- a case study, 2005 . = missing The Female literacy rate at 13.6% stands very low in Sidhi and so does the level of rural poverty, at 64.6%. The district, like Nuapada, is also covered by the Drought Prone Area Programme. Sidhi has a total ST population of 33%. In terms of occupation 34% of the rural population in the district consists of agricultural labourers. Given the extent and scale of rural population and dependence on agriculture and natural resources, the development potential of the NREGA has a good scope for realization in the area. It is a water scarce district that has done impressive works in water conservation. It has large number of marginal farmers and going by preliminary reports has taken up extensive water conservation works on SC/ST lands as well as village common lands. A large part of this investment has been in wells on private land. This is due to the fact that the status of ground water is relatively comfortable as compared to other parts of the country. The depth of ground water varies from 60 to 150 feet in Rampur and Sidhi blocks and about 30 to 50 feet in Kusmi, Devsar and Chitrangi blocks. It is a problem of managing water resources properly that forms the basis of the scarcity of water in the area. This is coupled with the lack of opportunity for the poor to access under ground water sources. It is here that the NREGA can and has really helped people.

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There are three perennial rivers that flow through the district, the Son, the Gopad and the Banas but irrigation facilities are poorly developed across the district. There are very few ponds and tanks in the area but the NREGA is set to change all that.

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Chapte-2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The assessment has been carried out using primary data collected through a survey instrument as well as collection of secondary data through various sources like government records, panchayat records, life histories of people and observation on field. The collection of data commenced in January 2008 with the finalization of the survey instruments. The survey instruments were field tested in three districts and developed to look at specific target areas such as 1. Monitor the creation of productive assets such as water harvesting structures, the process of work selection under NREGA and whether the assets created reflect the local needs. 2. To gauge the development potential of the productive assets created. 3. Assess creation of employment potential for the rural poor and marginalized, particularly for women, tribals, fisherfolk; 4. Assess the creation of institutional systems created that can ensure long-term sustainability and peoples participation. The collection of related secondary data has been an ongoing process starting in January and lasting till the closure of the field survey. The Survey Team Secondary data was collected by CSE staff along with our partners in the field. For the purpose of the same as well as to carry out the primary data collection we formed two field research teams in the respective districts. The

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team in Orissa was headed by Prof. Simanchal Mishra, teaching at Kesinga Mahavidhyala; and in Sidhi by Shri J.N. Pandey, head of a non-profit organisation called Gurukul. Under the able leadership of both, 12 students and young NGO professionals were recruited to conduct the survey in the villages. The team at CSE trained the local survey teams in conducting the survey and brushed up the nuances of the NREGA act. Local examples were taken up in the survey and people already engaged with the NREGA were called at the district training to impart a better understanding of the act and its implementation. Possible scenarios in the field came up during the training and a lot of confusion on wage rates, documentation aspects, kind of assets created etc. were cleared in the process. The survey instrument itself was translated in parts to suit the locales and to forge a better understanding about what was being asked in the particular question. The survey instrument for Sidhi was translated into Hindi to facilitate the process. The survey instrument The survey instrument that we developed contains detailed village and household level questionnaires called the Productive Asset Creation and Assessment Survey Tool (PACAST) to collect information on various aspects related to the implementation of NREGA. The survey has been fine tuned further with help from peer group reviews. It gathers information along the following set of broad parameters- An assessment of the impact of NREGA 1. On the increment of local natural resources like water, forests and land improvements; 2. On the local rural economy; 3. On the creation of sustainable and diversified rural employment opportunities; 4. On improvements in lifestyle such as changes in pattern of economy, purchasing power, housing, gender roles and responsibilities, school attendance; 5. On the nature of institutional structures created;

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6. On the manner of implementation including patterns of decisionmaking; 7. On the impact on marginalized and the landless poor. Sampling: The sample frame was developed using random sampling. Two blocks were chosen per district. Within these two blocks a random sample of four villages was chosen per block. A random sample of 30 households per village was chosen from these villages for the household survey. District Nuapada Block Khariar Sinapalli Sidhi Sidhi Kusmi Villages Badamulla, Chanabeda, Khasbahal and Thakpali Boto Pali, Hatibandha, Kokpadar and Mahagaon Bagohar, Barhai, Barmani and Mata Dadri, Khaira, Kanchanpur and Umriha

Analysis of Data: The data has been entered once at the district level by the students who conducted the survey. It was reentered in Delhi to check for data entry errors and check for inconsistencies. Data analysis was carried out centrally at CSE. The software used for analysis of data was STATA. Analysis involved establishment of causal networks i.e. building a logical chain of events/evidence in order to chart out the important indicators that explain the process of asset creation and distribution of benefits. The general strategy has been to build descriptive display formats designed to answer the research questions- charts and tables. We have used statistical analysis along with qualitative data collected from field visits and reports from the field to derive trends and cross check data. This has been repeated for both the district cases to draw cross-case conclusions. PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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We strive to monitor and assess the potential impact of NREGA on the creation of natural resource asset base and the resultant impact of rural livelihood, food security, lifestyle changes, economic regeneration and impact on rural-urban migration. Institutional aspects such as the process of decisionmaking, capacity building, building long-term institutional structures have also been assessed as also its impact on women and marginalized groups. The final objective has been to draw comparisons between the performances of NREGA in the two districts. This will help us learn what steps need to be taken in order to move towards the final objective of ensuring short term and long term food and livelihood security of the rural poor.

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ChapterLITERATURE / THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

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Chapter-4 SURVEY FINDINGS

This section lists the main findings of the survey, presently separately for the two districts. We look at district wise results for Nuapada and Sidhi, followed by a comparative analysis of the two districts in terms of performance of NREGA to draw conclusions from this analysis.

Nuapada
Looking at the household level analysis, we queried the people on the general level of awareness of the act and its provisions. Data from 240 respondent households in Nuapada shows high awareness about the existence of the act as 84.58% of the respondents knew about the act. This figure only depicts the knowledge about the presence of NREGA and not about what it entails or its provisions. The provisions of the act are not known to a large sample as also the procedures to apply for work etc. ROLE OF GRAM SABHAS- PLANNING AND EXECUTION OF TASKS It is absolutely essential for the success of the NREGA that the local community be involved in the planning and implementation of the works. The local community must make it a part of the village long term development plan. Further, it is only the local community which best knows its own needs and which has to reap the benefits of the productive assets. They have the maximum incentive to make it work. In this context, our survey reveals a poor picture of the part played by Panchayats in these villages. The table below gives the occurrence of gram sabhas in villages in Nuapada. Village Name 1 2 3 Badamulla Botopali Chanabeda Number of times gram sabha met in previous year 2 1 N.A

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4 5 6 7 8

Hatibandha Khajbahal Kokpadar Mahagaon Thakpali

7 1 4 2 2

As is evident none of the villages studied have a good track record of village meetings. This has serious consequences for the planning process as well as the execution of the NREGA. When asked about the percentages of the gram sabha members who actually attend the meetings, the data revealed the followingVillage Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Badamulla Botopali Chanabeda Hatibandha Khajbahal Kokpadar Mahagaon Thakpali % of gram sabha members who actually attend meetings. 1 10 N.A 26 2 15 5 2

Again a dismal record, indicative of problems within the community. The data on proportion of meetings dedicated to NREGA was highly inconsistent and had to be dropped. Judging from the number of meetings itself, however, it is clear that in hardly any of the surveyed villages were Gram Sabha meetings ever dedicated to NREGA. The main reason behind the attendance, participation and frequency of gram sabha meetings standing low was cited as a lack of information about the programme. Most of the villagers did not know about the clauses of the scheme and thought it to be another

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employment scheme where the government tells people what work is to be done. Planning With an abysmal record of gram sabha meetings, involvement of the gram sabha in the planning of works under the act seems a remote possibility. We could only obtain a response in six villages out of which, respondents in 3 villages believe that the gram sabha was involved in the creation of the annual plan. Further probing gave us a few more insights into the level of involvement of the gram sabha in the actual planning and implementation of NREGA works. The table below gives the details of the responses obtained after discussions with several villagers about the involvement of gram sabhas in their villages. Village Level Participation in NREGA works How would you consider communications between: Your Panchayat and the Block Good Poor Very Good N.A Good Poor N.A Poor

Village Name Badamulla Botopali Chanabeda Hatibandha Khajbahal Kokpadar Mahagaon Thakpali

Is the panchayat incharge of the NREGA funds? Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes N.A Yes

Are account books available on request No No No Yes No No N.A No

Does the village have a Gram Rozgar Sevak? Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes No

As is apparent from the table, not only is the level of participation of the gram sabha in planning and execution of works low, only in one village did the members check muster rolls to verify the authenticity of names enlisted there. While three villages had submitted an annual plan, in only one of those villages was the gram sabha involved in the preparation of the annual plan. Rarely were the gram sabha members even informed about the NREGA and nowhere did the villagers feel the gram sabha members had good relations PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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with the panchayat. It is surprising to note that even the NREGA accounts were not accessible to Gram Sabha members in any of the villages. While the account maintained for NREGA at the panchayat level can be operated by sarpanch and panchayat secretary, it is not accessible to the gram sabha members. However, gram sabha members can access the related records at GP office and through social audit. This information is missing among the people creating a sense of mis-trust among them about the implementation of the act by the panchayat. It is evident that in terms of transparency and devolution of powers to the gram sabha, the district is not doing too well. Further questions brought forth the actual administrative structure and provisions in place to execute the act. The table shows that in most places, the panchayat does handle NREGA accounts. The respondents were hesitant in divulging who kept the records using the term government employees, in two case the villagers confirmed that accounts were maintained by the Junior Engineer (JE) along with some help from the secretary (source: narratives of respondents). Further, only in one village were account books available on request. As is evident in our survey there is a huge problem of lack of empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI). Observations of previous researchers and surveyors confirm this belief. A Delhi based organization, Centre for Environment and Food Security, conducted a survey on NREGA in 100 villages in different districts of Orissa in the year 2007 and found how the scheme was trapped within the clutches of the self serving beauracracy instead of being in the hands of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. Our survey too points at a heavy presence of the administrative beauracracy in planning and implementation of the works. Demand for Work Most of the respondents had not actually applied for work but had received the work from the panchayat. Therefore, in order to assess the demand for work under NREGA, we consider the number of days the respondents would be willing to work if offered the same wage per day. A majority expressed their desire to work for more than 100 days. While 36% said they would work 100

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days, more than 44% said they would work more than 100 days. Around 20% mentioned they would work less than 100 days. On average, the respondents said that at the going wage rate they would want to work for 108 days in a year. Against the demand for work the provision of employment (meeting the short term objective of creation of livelihood opportunities) fell short of even the stipulated 100 days per household. Households received an average of 23.3 days of NREGA work over the entire period. On the whole, our sample households that worked under NREGA received a total of 5298 days of employment. Further, as already mentioned, Nuapada had a predominantly large number of workers working on rural connectivity projects. Almost 65% of the respondents said they had worked on rural connectivity works. The number of water conservation and harvesting works came second with only 20% respondents being employed on works related to renovation of traditional water bodies and 14% on other water conservation and micro irrigation projects. However, the actual proportion of people working on renovation of traditional water bodies would be a little more than what is depicted here since a number of respondents had worked on both road connectivity projects as well as renovation works and in such case only their first response was taken into account. Distribution of Workers among different categories of works done under NREGA in Nuapada
Type of Work Done: Road Connectivity Flood Control and Protection Water Conservation and Harvesting Micro Irrigation Projects Renovation Bodies of Traditional Water 70 19.23 64.35281 Frequency 240 2 44 8 Percentag e 65.93 0.55 12.09 2.2 Average daily wage 57.3843 70 63.17956 70.25

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Total

364

100

65.033334

It is evident that employment provided under NREGA does not seem to have contributed much towards ensuring livelihood security even in the short term. The 23.3 days of work per household on average would not be sufficient in achieving any of the desired objectives, either in reducing the need for migration or their dependence or forest products. Further, data from our survey is in sharp contrast with the data provided by the Government for 2007-08 according to which average days of employment provided to a family in financial year 2007-08 is 50.6 days. Further inspection of the situation helps explain this anomaly. The governments measure of demand is based on the number of people who officially apply for a job at the panchayat or block office. However, this is hardly ever the case. The panchayat or block office applies for work and when the work begins the villagers are informed of it and told to come and work. In a number of cases it has been observed that the applications for job in the name of people who are already working are manufactured later. This was confirmed by many respondents during the interviews stating that they had not applied for work but were told to come to the work site by the panchayat. Infact, many of the respondents did not know that they are supposed to apply for work, as seen in the section above that looks at the information flow. On the other hand, fresh job applications in villages where work is not already available are never entertained. According to field observations, such individuals were told that word of mouth was good enough so that there may not be any proof of their application and in case the job is not provided, the state does not have to bear the burden of paying the unemployment allowance. Thus a large number of actual demands for work under NREGA never really get recorded and what we see is a huge figure of 98.7% of demands for work being met. In such a situation it becomes difficult to expect NREGA work to have any short term or even long term impact on livelihood security through wage employment. In order to exploit the potential of the

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NREGA the gap between reality on the field and what is fed on the accounts books must reduce. Work Undertaken In the total sample, 366 people had worked under NREGA and shared their work details. These individuals were asked about the type of work that they were involved in. Most of the respondents were involved in one of three kinds of work, road connectivity works, water conservation and harvesting and renovation of traditional water bodies. Surprisingly, despite the local communities extreme need for water conservation, water harvesting and drought protection works, such works apparently received only second preference. As mentioned earlier planning process under NREGA is poor at best in these villages and this explains the discrepancy in the selection of works. Respondents also stated that due to the remuneration being easily calculable in road works the implementing agencies preferred these over water conservation. Most of the respondents interviewed were in fact employed in rural connectivity works (approximately 65.5%). This was followed by works on renovation of traditional water bodies where approximately 20% of respondents were employed and water conservation and water harvesting works, employing about 12 % people. It is important to note here that in most of the water conservation works the respondents were working on were works taken up in the year 2006-07 and carried forward in 2007-08. No new water conservation works had been taken up in the year 2007-08. Looking at the use and ownership patterns of different productive assets created respondents revealed an increase in the availability of water for the household, cattle as well as irrigation. Under water conservation renovation of traditional water bodies was the main activity undertaken apart from works on roads, which, helped improve communication between villages. In terms of abandoned works 36 families reported on abandoned works on renovation of traditional water bodies. The exact number of these works is not known and none could give any reason for why the works had been PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

EKTA SABHARWAL 24

abandoned. Most of the works took place on Panchayat land and hence the onus of maintenance of the assets was on the Panchayats. However, the respondents perceived that no funds are assigned for maintenance of the assets created, hence they largely felt that the asset would become obsolete in the coming years. For instance for ponds on Panchayat land, it was felt that eventually, mud and other debris would fill up the pond and make it obsolete. Similarly, the roads, since they were not metallic but kuccha would be washed away by the rain. Again, here a lack of information on the maintenance of assets coming under permissible works- namely de-silting and restoration of traditional water bodies, is clearly highlighted. Support Facilities The performance of the district in terms of providing support facilities was again poor. The most common support facility provided was drinking water and that too was reported by just 25% of the respondents. 17% respondents reported the presence of shade and 14% reported the presence of medical aid at the worksite. What is glaring is the near total absence of crches at the worksite as only one out of the 240 respondents reported its presence. This is a very significant result and as shown by other research (NREGA and Womens Work-EPW, March 1-7, 2008) it can severely hamper female participation in NREGA works. Wage Payment (Impact on earnings, income of respondents) Wages are the medium through which purchasing power is transferred to the rural masses. It is through wages that the NREGA meets its short term objective of ensuring food and livelihood security and providing relief against hunger. Thus, wages easily form the focal point of debates on whether the Act is able to meet its short term objective or not. Wages, when monitored, also act to flag evidence of corruption. A study of wages received by individuals belonging to the surveyed households is thus quintessential. The average daily wage received by respondents who worked under NREGA in Nuapada is Rs. 59.8. This is less than the minimum wage assured by the state of Orissa at Rs. 67. The total wage disbursement among our 366 PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

EKTA SABHARWAL 25

respondents belonging to 227 (data from the remaining 23 households was either missing or could not be crosschecked) survey households was Rs 2,70,578 (total wage was calculated by multiplying the number of days worked by each worker in the households across the sample by the wage receivedas asked in the survey). This implies that the average amount of money received by each household in wage payment was Rs. 1192. This again, is much less than the estimated baseline of Rs. 6000 for a household that works for the complete 100 days at the national minimum wage of Rs. 60. Such a low figure could have several possible explanations. It could signify a lack of demand for NREGA work by the households and hence lower participation and lower total wage payments but judging by the willingness to work of the people to work under NREGA, this seems a remote possibility. It could also imply that the district administration was unable to meet the demands of work and has only been able to provide very little in terms of employment or underpayment of wages for the work done. These seem more plausible explanations going by the data. It was also noticed that the daily wages paid to workers working on different projects were different. The table below shows the distribution of average daily wages earned by respondents working on different projects under NREGA. The table depicts the huge diversity in wages across works. This disparity needs to be addressed in order to ensure that people are get their due wages regardless of the type of work done and hence they are equally willing to perform each type of work. While it is clear that average wage earned from different works cannot be the same, however, it is important that average wage earned under any kind of permissible work undertaken should enable the worker to earn the notified minimum wage in the state. Some works are demand more hard labour than others and when wages are paid on a task rate basis, it should be ensured that wages for the tougher works are raised substantially so that equal amount of effort gets paid equally. Variation in wages received by workers working different categories of works Type of Work Done: Average daily wage

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Road Connectivity Flood Control and Protection Water Conservation and Harvesting Micro Irrigation Projects Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies Total

57.38 70.00 63.17 70.25 64.35 65.03

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IMPACT OF THE NREGA

FOREST DEPENDENCY Nuapada has 48% of the land under forests. The dependence on forests is very high as depicted in the survey as 71.61% of the survey respondents stated that their community depended on forest resources for their livelihood. We queried whether the availability of fuelwood and/or fodder had increased, remained unchanged or decreased in the past year. In response 43% respondents felt the availability had increased somewhat due to the NREGA works undertaken while 41.8% believed it had actually decreased regardless of the works. This decline is more likely from factors such as over exploitation or due to stricter enforcement of laws regarding use of forest products and access to forest products for the tribal population. As regards the act, with the little amount of work that has been available under NREGA it is highly unlikely that it could have had any significant impact on positive changes in forest resources. Aforestation works had not been undertaken in any of the villages. In the future however, when work expands and covers such projects it would be interesting to reassess the impact of the act on the interrelationships between the community and the forest. AGRICULTURE A good measure of a programmes development impact on the sustainability and livelihood opportunities of the rural population in an agriculture dominated region would be to see if the programme has helped diversify the crop mix in their production basket. The responses in this regard was slightly encouraging. 15% of the respondents had changed their crop mix in the last one year. While earlier they were mostly dependant on Paddy and Biri, over the previous year they were able to diversify and produce crops such as groundnut, millet and vegetables. Though small but encouraging is the percentage of people who were able to increase the area sown. 14.5% of the respondents reported such an increase due to the increased water availability as a result of works undertaken through

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NREGA. Overall, for our sample, NREGA works had led to a total increase in area sown by 18.25 acres. WATER AVAILABILITY 15.38% of the respondents said that NREGA had actually led to increased water availability. This figure seems reasonably high considering maximum NREGA works in Nuapada were on road construction and repair. This is a very significant finding as it says how much can be achieved if greater focus and attention is given to addressing the water concerns of the local population through NREGA. A shift in focus from providing employment to creation of productive assets could possibly help improve monitoring and evaluation of the programme in the different districts. Physical assets are more easily perceptible then wages paid to individuals. That may be one of the reasons why schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) and the Watershed Development Programmes perform so well in some states. A need to complete the physical assets in time would also ensure timely payment of wages to the workers and be a step towards livelihood security of the individuals. It would also help ensure that productive assets which are started are completed and not left abandoned in between which is quite often the case. MIGRATION The rate of migration is quite high in the district. With the prevalence of large number of marginal farmers and landless labourers coupled with poor resource base and a impoverished agrarian economy, migration as an option is exercised by a large part of our sample. Given the low percentage of work provided in the district it is no surprise that the rates of migration have not come down at all. At best, a small proportion of the population has deferred their migration to work for a few days under NREGA. However, informal interviews reveal that people perceive the potential of NREGA in reducing migration to be substantial. Many respondents stated that if full 100 days of

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employment were available in the village they would prefer to stay in the village.

IN SIDHI
In Sidhi the two blocks chosen for the study, Sidhi and Kusmi, varied greatly in their socio economic characteristics. Kusmi block has a very large tribal population and a large proportion of the land area is covered by forest area. As a result people in Kusmi are highly dependent on forest resources. Literacy in somewhat low in the block at 51% as opposed to Sidhi block which has 58% literacy. Most of the Sarpanches belong to Scehduled Tribe category and are illiterate. Hence the local power structure in Kusmi is very different from Sidhi block which hosts more of general caste population. We thus analyse the two blocks separately in a lot of places wherever such analysis can bring forth any interesting results. Awareness about the NREGA Looking at the general level of awareness among the respondents in Sidhi we find that while the over all awareness was very high, block level data suggests that for Kusmi block it was lower. While 90% people overall were aware about the existence of the act, in Sidhi block a whooping 96% knew about the act while in Kusmi block only 86% respondents displayed any knowledge of the act. Knowledge about the provisions of the act was a mixed response as respondents knew about the minimum wage and the number of days of employment that can be availed under the act but very few knew about the application for work, grievance redress mechanism, etc. Here again Sidhi block had a high incidence of people who knew about these aspects and more as compared to Kusmi. Role of Gram Sabhas- Planning and Execution Planning The table below shows the frequency with which gram sabhas met in the different villages.

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Village Name Bhagohar Barhai Varmani Mata Dadri Kanchanpur Khaira Lurkuti

Number of times gram sabha met in previous year 3 1 3 4 16 4 1 16

Thus, while in most villages the gram sabha did not meet very frequently, in two of the villages in Kusmi block they met 1.3 times a month. Though the meetings are few but the proportion of members who participated in the gram sabhas is reportedly high in Sidhi block compared to Kusmi. The higher proportion of tribals within Kusmi and the higher rates of illiteracy accompanied by lack of awareness and high rates of migration may be the reasons for the discrepancy. Block Sidhi SIdhi Sidhi Sidhi Village Name % of gram sabha members who actually attend meetings. Bhagohar Barhai Varmani Mata 80 20 80 80 50 60 20 50

Kusmi Dadri Kusmi Kanchanpur Kusmi Khaira Kusmi Lurkuti

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In terms of the number of gram sabha meetings dedicated to NREGA Sidhi scores again with two of its villages dedicating all the gram sabhas to the programme and one dedicating 90% of its meetings. In Kusmi block on an average 53% of the Gram sabhas were dedicated to NREGA. Data from 2 villages was inconsistent and had to be dropped out of the analysis on community participation. The data throws up some really positive results for the participation of the people in preparation of the annual plan. A majority of the villages studied prepared the annual plans out of which all involved the gram sabha in the preparation. These plans gave preference to water conservation works along with road construction as is evident from the data discussed in the sections below. This is a very important step towards ensuring that the assets created under NREGA are suited to local needs and everyone in the village understands about the nature and reason for the works being taken up. At the end of the day it also renders the work a sense of ownership as the villagers are now working on activities that they want. Here, it must be noted that the villages received ample assistance in preparation of the annual plan. assistants in their efforts.
Were external consultants, including civil society organisations involved in the preparation of the annual plan Yes- 1, No- 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 How would you consider communications between: Your panchayat and the Gram Sabha- Rate on a scale 1=poor, 2=average, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent Excellent Excellent Very Good Very Good Average Very Good 1 Very Good Very Good Very Good Poor Average Good Good Good How would you consider communications between: Your Panchayat and the Block- Rate on a scale 1=poor, 2=average, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent Average

number of them were supported by the consultants as well technical

Village Name Bhagohar Barhai Varmani Mata Dadri Kanchanpur Khaira Lurkuti

Did the state Government provide technical assistants to help prepare the annual plan? Yes- 1, No- 2 1 1 1 1 1

Is the panchayat incharge of the NREGA funds? Yes- 1, No2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Does the village have a Gram Rozgar Sevak? Yes- 1, No- 2 2 2 2 2 1

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After the formation of the annual plan, the implementation of NREGA in the villages has been more or less transparent. The mustor rolls and account books are reported to be readily available in 80% of our sample. In two villages the gram sabha has even checked the two on account of a few complaints. Demand for work In terms of demand for work again the data is not very clear as many respondents in 6 of our villages were confused about the application procedure. Two villages in Sidhi block displayed a better result with respondents reporting applying for work. In the other villages some of the respondents complained about the non-acceptance of their application and still others thought the Panchayat provides work so did not apply. When asked about the how many days would the respondents like to work under NREGA, the average demand for work was 177 days. Provision of employment Sidhi is known to be the district that has provided the maximum number of jobs within Madhya Pradesh. In fact, it has generated the maximum number of person days among all districts in MP (source: Govt. of India). A look at the data from our survey reveals that the 314 respondents who were employed under NREGA worked, on average 40 days. Further, these 314 individuals from the 214 of the surveyed households, who worked under the NREGA, received a total of 11,808 days of employment. Thus, on average, each household received around 55.17 days of employment since the beginning of the scheme. The figure from Siddhi is still much lower than the stipulated 100 days per household but more than twice that of Nuapada. The district reports a high number of water conservation works as per government data but in our sample, road connectivity tops the list of works undertaken. The proportion of respondents who worked under road

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connectivity projects was significantly high at 56.5% . Water conservation came second with 41.16% works followed by other activities. Distribution of number of people employed in the NREGA under each different category of work Type Of Work Road Connectivity Flood Control and Protection Water Conservation and Harvesting Drought Proofing Micro Irrigation Works Frequency 176 7 56 32 20 Percentage 56.59 2.25 18.01 10.29 6.43 3.54 0.64 0.64 1.61 100

Provision of Irrigation to land owned by SC, ST, OBC etc 11 Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies Land Development Other Activities Total 2 2 5 311

Looking at these figures it is clear that the NREGAs implementation has not contributed to livelihood security as much as its potential. Works Undertaken The data on asset creation is highly skewed with no clear trends as many of the respondents reportedly were uneasy answering the questions related to assets. According to primary observations and informal discussions in the field by CSE staff as well as the survey team, however, a large number of the assets created comprise wells. Most of the work pertained to repair and maintenance of old structures and some work was done on private land belonging to SCs and STs. The use and ownership questions on the assets created revealed that some 0parts of Kusmi block that are forested have actually become water surplus

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with the water harvesting structures repaired and construction of new ones. Three out of 4 villages agreed that rights of use of all types of water conservation and harvesting structures as well as of roads constructed under NREGA has lies with the community and that management of use is a transparent process. Most of the sample did not talk about the number of abandoned works nor about number of incomplete/ongoing works. The power structures in the district are such that a few people hold sway over all important matters in the village and the panchayat is often perceived by the people as a body sold out to the rich and the powerful in the area. The fear of reprimand might have been a cause for this silence as much as a lack of knowledge about the completion of the structure in many cases. Relevance of the NREGA works to the village requirements: Given the poor water situation in the village and the dismal condition of irrigation facilities, agriculture has suffered a lot. Water harvesting structures are of greatest need. Thus, according to local residents, wells are the most needed structures locally, followed by roads and then ponds. The amount of construction is distributed in line with this need. Further, Kusmi block is even higher in altitude than Siddhi block therefore at some of the higher villages, water availability is very poor. It was mentioned by locals, that construction of water harvesting structures under NREGA to collect water which runs off from these hills would be very useful. Such works should definitely be taken up in the future Support Facilities Sidhi, the whole, reports provision of medium level of provision of support facilities at the worksite with drinking water reported by about 60% of the respondents. Shade and presence of medical aid was reported by around 50% of the respondents and crches at the work site were reported by 20% respondents. Wages

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Overall, the average daily wage was Rs. 57.7 in the district. The total wage disbursement among the 314 individuals from 314 survey households in Siddhi district was Rs. 6,74,123. Thus on average, the wage payment received by each household was Rs 2146. This is an improvement over Nuapada but still way below the minimum wage guaranteed by the act. The table below depicts the average daily wage by type of work done. Variation in the average daily wage earned by people working on different works Average Daily Wage earned by workers working under different categories of work 59.79 59.28 52.9 64.46 46.11 49.73 53.23 60 61.42 56.33

Type Of Work Road Connectivity Flood Control and Protection Water Conservation and Harvesting Drought Proofing Micro Irrigation Works Provision of Irrigation to land owned by SC, ST, OBC etc Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies Land Development Other Activities Total

Looking at the table we can see clearly that the average daily wage ranges between Rs. 46 for micro irrigation works, to Rs. 64 for drought proofing works. This may substantiate the hypothesis that the wage paid for construction of wells etc. would be lower than that for other works. The

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average daily wage for road construction is around Rs. 60 which is why most people prefer to work on road construction rather on construction of wells or other water conservation works for which wages are much lower. We see a clear linkage between less focus on water conservation activities and the wage structure under the Act. Irrational wage calculation formula has made productive assets creation less lucrative to local communities in term of accessing minimum wage on time. Under NREGA wage is paid on the basis of task rate i.e. minimum wage based on completion of a specified amount of work. As reports pour in on irregular and less than the basic minimum daily wage payment under the Act, Panchayats are asking for more road construction works where average wages are higher than wages given under water related works. This means in future more and more road construction works will be covered bypassing water conservation works. This Is clear in our data as disparity in wages between people working on different projects has skewed the number of works undertaken in favour of road construction in Sidhi. People working on well construction and repair generally get a lower wage. As construction of a well requires the workers to dig deeper into hard rock and wet mud which is more difficult to remove, the work progresses slowly as compared to pond and road construction. Since wages are paid on a task basis, such workers get a lower wage. This problem is there in the entire district and there is a huge demand to increase wages for people working on wells. Survey data shows the average daily wage earned by workers working on rural connectivity projects to be higher at Rs. 59.8 compared to workers working on water conservation works who are paid Rs. 52.9 on an average. However, the highest average wage, at Rs. 64, is earned by those working on drought proofing projects. Sidhi took up digging of wells extensively using NREGA. But the wage earning from well digging was much less than wage from road construction. This resulted in Panchayats asking for more road construction works.

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However, a recent revise in wage rate has made earning from both the activities at par. Field observations and respondent interviews as well as a closer look at data suggests that there is bad planning for the water conservation structures and a lack of maintenance are already putting a large number of the assets created into disuse. Water harvesting structures have been created without any provision for catchment protection. For example, Kanchanpur village in Kusmi block has built three huge tanks under NREGA; their catchments are in forest areas. Most of the catchments are degraded and the forest department doesnt allow us to treat them. So I am sure that in two years, the tanks would be silted up, says Kunwar Singh, a social worker based in Sidhi. Earlier, the village had constructed three check dams; all of them have silted up beyond repair. Sidhi also has been a good example of water and soil conservation under the states Rajiv Gandhi Watershed Development Mission. The programme has covered the entire natural drainage system. The district now faces a problem of plenty: many villages dont want new water harvesting structures being built under NREGA. Rather, they want NREGA money to be spent on maintaining the existing structures.

IMPACT OF NREGA ON
Forest Dependency Kusmi block in general is well endowed with forests compared to Sidhi and consequently displays a high dependence on forest resources. People gather fuelwood, Kandh, Mool, Mahua, roots, fruits and leaves for making plates etc. Collection of Tendu leaves is an important economic activity as well. In Sidhi block, only Mata village has a high amount of forest dependency due to its proximity to the forests. Almost 72% respondents report high dependence on forests in Kusmi while in Sidhi block only 45% feel so. Field observations on the impact of the NREGA on forest dependence confirmed that due to the alternate livelihood option provided by the NREGA,

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the dependence of the local communities on forest products had reduced to some extent. Data on this could not be obtained, however, local organizations working in the area mentioned how NREGA gave people the wages near their houses reducing their need to sell forest produce to earn a few rupees and spending a lot of time in the collection of resources in the process. It is unlikely that NREGA would have a direct impact on the collection of forest byproducts like fuelwood, fodder collection etc. within a couple of years of its existence. And it is too early to access if NREGA has led to an increase in availability of alternative sources that reduce forest dependency. The findings are therefore inconclusive. Agriculture NREGA has had a positive impact on agriculture in the district through improved access to irrigation. Prior to the NREGA, sources for irrigation were very few only one crop was sown in Rabi. Post NREGA, with the construction of ponds and tanks as well as wells on SC, ST land irrigation facilities have shown a marked improvement. A number of SC, ST households in our sample reported a second crop in Kharif along with a crop in Rabi season. A number of households have even diversified into vegetables. With the last year witnessing a near-dry spell, the benefits of the village ponds could not be measured but the people were upbeat about the possibility of storing more water than before when the rains arrive this year. Despite the dry conditions the water table did not fall dramatically in 2007-08 due to the benefits of water conservation done in the previous year. Here, the role of the watersheds constructed under the Rajiv Gandhi Watershed Development Programme is highly significant in raising and maintaining the ground water levels. This work was furthered under NREGA with most ponds having been constructed on panchayat land; the wells have been constructed on private land. Also, maintenance of old structures has been carried out under NREGA. The owner of these well often lends water to others in the village for a small fee of Rs. 10-20 per hour depending on the size of the

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pump used for irrigation. This has increased the income for these households and the problems of drinking water scarcity have become a thing of the past. Respondents also report an increase in area after the work done under NREGA over the last 2 years. Around 55% of the respondents together report an increase of 371.6 acres area under crops. This land was previously left fallow. There has been a change in the cropping pattern as well with a number of respondents reporting a switch over to wheat and even rice in a few cases from traditional millets. Around 55.5% of the respondents reported diversification of crops over previous years. Crops like Jawar, Bajra, Kodo, Makka and Arhar have been replaced by wheat, gram and vegetables due to increased irrigation water availability. These are the kind of impacts that the NREGA has the potential to spread across the country and such examples though few , can surely increase if the focus of the act remains firmly entrenched in water conservation. Also, this is the kind of livelihood security and generation of sustainable employment that the act sought to provide in the first place. Availability of Water The data on impact of NREGA on availability of water brings forth very significant results. Compared to Nuapada, where very few works have been undertaken under NREGA, and only 15.38% of the respondents attributed NREGA works increased water availability; in Sidhi district, where a large number of works have been undertaken in each village, 78.6% of the respondents agreed that NREGA had led to increased water availability. The changes discussed in agriculture are in themselves a testament for the good work carried out in the district as well as the development potential of act. Migration Sidhi witnesses large scale migration during the winter months of December till February or early March. The labourers come back during March-April for the harvest season of rabi crop and to prepare for the monsoons. With NREGA works concentrated in January and February as well as summer

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months, these people now have the option to stay within the village instead of migrating outside looking for work. In our sample, migration has reduced by around 60% due to availability of work under NREGA. However, a lot of people feel the 100 days per family is not enough. If each member in a family of 5 works under NREGA, then they can only work for 20 days in a year which is not sufficient to pass through the entire lean season. So they have to migrate the rest of the year. Even the women accompany them in the migration when the work is suitable. Around 20-25% women accompany their husbands in migration. According to the survey, 73 respondents said they had migrated at least once in the past two years. The average duration of migration for those over the past two years was 140 days. This implies that they migrate out of the village for over 20% of the year (around 2 months per year). However, we do not have data for the migration before the launch of the NREGA and hence cannot compare the reduction brought about because of it. This is a massive reduction though the figures might not be representative as the rates of migration in other parts of the district might vary. This is a huge success for the NREGA and a significant step in the direction of attaining the short term objective of food and livelihood security within the village throughout the year. However, despite the large availability of work in Sidhi migration has not ceased completely. We could observe two probable explanations for this. One is the fact that educated individuals do not want to work under NREGA and would rather migrate in search for better opportunities. This is verified by the data as the proportion of literate individuals among those who migrate was much higher than the illiterate. While the proportion of literate individuals was 51% overall, the proportion of literate persons among the migrants was a much higher 62%. Further, the stipulated 100 days per household is hardly enough for a family of reasonable size to pass through the entire lean season when there is no work for months. Even these 100 days are rarely provided. Within Siddhi district, the provision of work at an average of 48 days per person is significantly higher in Kusmi block than in Siddhi block where the average provision is around 32.3 days. This could be a reflection of the much PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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higher demand for work in Kusmi than in Siddhi block due to the absence of alternative means of livelihood.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF NREGA IN THE TWO DISTRICTS -SIDHI AND NUAPADA
The cumulative general level of awareness about NREGA for the entire study is quite high at 87.24%. A comparison of the two districts in terms of level of awareness does not depict a huge amount of disparity. Awareness in Sidhi at 90% is slightly higher than in Nuapada at 84.5%. However, a more disaggregated analysis shows that there is a large amount of disparity within different sections of society. A caste-wise distribution of awareness indicators shows that the level of awareness is much lower among STs and OBCs as compared to people belonging to the general category. Castewise distribution of level of Awareness about the NREGA Caste People Aware about NREGA People Unaware ST Number 204 33 Percentage 86.08 13.92 SC Number 71 8 Percentage 89.87 10.13 OBC Number 112 19 Percentage 85.5 14.5 GENERAL Number 26 1 Percentage 96.3 3.7 TOTAL Total 413 61 87.13 12.87 Total 237 100 79 100 131 100 27 100 474 100

While awareness about the existence of the act is high among the entire sample, there is very little awareness about the various provisions of the act. This was described by most investigators as the basic problem behind the implementation of the Act. Percentage of respondents who know about it 95% 94.30%

Provision of the NREGA 100 days per household Minimum wage

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Knowledge about correct minimum wage Provision of creche/shade/water etc Work within 5 km Universal Act and Scheme Role of Gram Sabha

82% 19% 25% 7.86% 8.30%

While almost all respondents were aware of the provision of 100 days of work per household and the minimum wage, very few knew about the other provisions such as provision of crche/shade/water etc(19%), work within five kilometers (25%), universal character of the Act and Scheme (7.86%), and role of gram Sabha. (8.3%). There is thus a ever present need to adopt new techniques to spread awareness about the provisions of the Act. Also, socially disadvantaged groups need to be specially targeted with more focused awareness campaigns about relevant provisions of the Act. This is especially required to spread awareness about the entitlements of the people according to the act in order that they may demand their entitlement. Our survey has also looked at the most effective medium of disseminating information about the NREGA. Two major sources that come to the fore are panchayats and NGO representatives. 53.5% of the respondents came to hear about the NREGA through panchayats making them the most effective transmitter of information. NGOs come next in terms of generation of awareness as 25% of the respondents source their knowledge to NGOs. The NGOs in Sidhi have played a particularly significant role where they seem to have made a huge impact in terms of making people aware of their rights. The government sadly finds itself in a spot in terms of devising ways to reach out to the masses.

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Medium of Creation of Awareness among the respondents Number of People Newspaper Radio Television NGO Representative Pachayat Govt. Officials Total Demand for the work Even with the current levels of awareness the demand for work under NREGA is huge. A mere 9% of the respondents wished less than 100 days of employment, about 34 % stated that they would want to work for 100 days while the remaining 57% said they want work for more than 100 days. The average number of days demanded from the entire sample of 480 households is 141 at the going wage rate. However, a district wise study of demand presents some interesting finding. The demand in Sidhi is much higher at 177 days on average, then in Nuapada, where the average demand is 108 days. This is surprising as the level of unemployment and poverty, if anything, is higher in Nuapada than in Sidhi. However, this might have an explanation in the level of awareness in the two districts with Nuapada lagging behind in terms of knowledge of the act and its provisions. As the findings suggest there is a high potential demand for work under NREGA as many of the respondents showed a willingness to work for more than 100 days under the act. The actual person days of employment availed by the households in the sample are much below even the stipulated 100 days. This might be because of the lack of involvement of the people in the 51 32 6 109 229 1 428 Percentage of respondents aware of NREGA through this medium 11.92 7.48 1.4 25.47 53.5 0.23 100

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planning process as that might have resulted in less number of projects coming to villages. IMPACT OF NREGA Water Availability Water availability has increased significantly due to NREGA in Sidhi district but in Nuapada there is hardly any impact to report. Further, a look at the caste wise distribution of responses gives more insight into the situation. Castewise distribution of Responses about the impact of NREGA on the Availability of Water Has the water availability increased due to NREGA work Caste ST % SC % OBC % General % Total YES 133 65.52 11 15.07 46 38.33 9 39.13 199 47.49 NO 70 34.48 62 84.93 74 61.67 14 60.87 220 52.51 203 100 73 100 120 100 23 100 419 100

The table above presents the caste wise distribution of responses regarding impact of NREGA on water availability. We can see from the table that the highest proportion of people who feel that water availability has increased due to NREGA is among the STs. This could possibly be attributed to the fact that the major works undertaken are those of well repair on private land in Sidhi and the major beneficiaries of this have been the tribals. While over 91% of the respondents in Siddhi block said that water availability had increased due to NREGA, only 65% said so in Kusmi block. This could again be explained

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by the fact the number of works undertaken in Sidhi block are larger than the number of works in Kusmi block. The powerful and dominant sarpanchs in Siddhi block are able to draw in a large amount of works while the tribal sarpanchs in Kusmi are often suppressed and unable to use their power to demand NREGA works for the villages. This is however, a very significant finding since it stresses on the huge development impact of NREGA works in places where they have been carried out properly and in large numbers. Another important benefit is from the rural connectivity work being carried out under the act. Construction of roads has definitely helped in improving the access of these villages to the main road as well as within the village. In Sidhi for instance these roads constructed have led to better mobility from village to the main road as well as within the village specially during monsoon. With movement becoming easier access to market has improved and women too find it easier to walk while fetching water, firewood, fodder etc. Construction of these roads has also meant construction of bridges over seasonal streams and these have aided in improving vehicular traffic including bullock carts. With regards to the effect of these connectivity works as well as the water harvesting works being carried out women and other marginalized groups have fared a lot better. Tough the survey findings on the effects on women are not very well spelt out but it is for anyone to see what improved water harvesting has done for the women in terms of the time spent in collecting water. In households that have invested in wells o their land in Sidhi district for instance women have stated during informal discussions that they have more time on their hands due to the availability of water within the house. This time is spent on market related activities like buying things, in a few cases in looking after the small shop/enterprise that the household ran, selling vegetables etc. In the long run, specially with tribals and poor households in mind, this time freed from collecting water may translate into better income opportunities.

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ChapterCONCLUSION
The paper attempts to gauge the prospective impacts of the act in providing sustained relief to communities by looking at the kind of works being undertaken at the village level under the act along with its associated realms like wages. Just to reassert our strategy and the lens through which we look at NREGA, we strive to answer the question Why monitor the impacts of NREGA on rural assets? From an environmental standpoint, rural employment programmes can play a key role in improving the rural natural resource base and increasing overall rural production. Environmental regeneration demands heavy labour inputs -whether it is reforestation, construction of water harvesting structures or soil conservation. But since the economic returns are not immediately apparent, impoverished people are likely to neglect these tasks. Rural employment programmes can help villagers solve this problem, because they have the capacity to mobilise impoverished labour in order to regenerate the environment. In this scenario, employment schemes such as the NREGA can play a key role since the bulk of unemployment (nearly 80%) is in rural India. In economic terms, this would be an investment in building up rural natural capital, which will result in creation of water harvesting structures to irrigate farmlands and increase crop production and well-stocked forests and grasslands to support dairy development and a variety of artisanal crafts. Rural environment's sustainable, employment-supporting capacity can thus go up substantially. Looking within the environmental systems in rural India, we see an increasing problem of land degradation and depletion of natural resources like grasslands and forests, etc. Though the entire system in itself is important when it come to focusing on re-generation, time and again it has been shown that wasteland development begins with water and not trees. Once a waterPGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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harvesting system is built and equitable sharing of the water evolved, the local community becomes involved in protecting and re-greening the catchment of its water system. But this is possible only if the villagers are empowered to plan and decide their future. We began from talking about the development potential of act in terms of employment generation through the creation of productive assets. This has been proved to a large extent through the findings of the survey specially in Sidhi district. If the structures created under the act work to their full potential they will create additional employment for people in the village and benefit the people on a sustained basis. Nuapada has treated the NREGA more like any other employment scheme. Sidhi, on the other hand realized the potential of the NREGA and used it as an opportunity to reinvigorate its traditional ecological balance through the creation of productive assets. Thus, while the programme has had a nominal impact on the lives and livelihoods of people in Nuapada, it has had a huge impact on the rural economic structure of Sidhi. In Sidhi, the NREGA can actually be seen moving towards its short term and long term objective of food and livelihood security and long term sustainable development through ecological regeneration. Keeping in mind the immense potential of the act and the findings from our study, below are mentioned some suggestions that could help improve the functioning of the NREGP Need to reframe evaluation parameters: NREGA must aim at creation of productive employment. To make this happen it has to focus more on the creation of productive assets at the village level. From the point of view of gauging the development effectiveness of the act the first area that comes to the fore is the evaluation and monitoring of the act. Instead of the simple calculations on jobs demanded and provided, the NREGA needs to be evaluated and monitored on its impact on livelihood security. Currently, the act is monitored by the majority on the number of jobs created and number of assets created under preferred works category. The

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real effectiveness of the scheme though may be measured using three parameters: 1. Increase in average annual income of households 2. Increase in the productivity of small and marginal land holdings 3. Quality and contribution of productive assets like water tanks By changing the evaluation parameters, the scheme will assume the character of a rural development scheme in the true sense, instead of a runof-the-mill wage-earning programme. This will also help the government to ensure that most of the works taken up remain within the preferred works category, that is, productive assets. Works taken up should improve total village ecology Under the NREGA, as our experience shows, water conservation works are being taken up as stand-alone activities. Village ecology is a fragile combination of soil, water and forests. A water harvesting structure, for instance, is rendered useless if its catchments areas are left unprotected. Works under the scheme need to be planned in totality to succeed, water conservation needs to take into account plantation works and drought proofing. Even the Second Administrative Reforms Commission has recommended that all works under the Act must be undertaken keeping in mind the overall improvement in total ecology. This needs to be implemented thoroughly. Use of a perspective plan prepared by village panchayats Village-level resource planning and designing ought to be strengthened further. As our data shows, there is a strong co-relation between people planning their works and the success of these works. With two years behind the act planning is yet to reach a large number of villages and gram sabhas. Without a village plan, developed by the villagers themselves the development impact of the NREGA will be poor. To make local planning integrated, NREGA works must be allowed in all lands i.e. private, forest and revenue based on Gram Sabha approval. This requires PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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administrative order from the forest department. This is crucial as catchments of water structures are invariably in forest areas. Setting up institutional mechanism for maintenance of assets Setting up of strong institutional mechanisms to manage and distribute the resources generated must follow the creation of assets. Poor maintenance and weak institutions are already rendering productive assets useless. Under the current implementation regime, maintenance is not covered. While assets are created in large number, the Panchayats are being told o maintain it. The problem is that Panchayats dont have the money to undertake such largescale maintenance works. Our studies pointed out that due to this most of the assets are going to be put into disuse. Also, there should be a binding work completion plan for each asset created. This must also include the maintenance plan. Further, given the unequal priority given to productive assets amongst states, NREGA should make provision to fix percentage of works in sector like water conservation. This should be done changing the NREGA. Capacity Building of the elected Panchayat Members Right capacity building of the elected Panchayat members must follow devolution. Training of government officials on the NREGA should be accorded priority. At the same time, Panchayat members must be included in the process so that they know the scheme well and can exercise rights effectively. Local experiences point at government officials dictating Panchayat members on the nature of works, citing vague government orders. This takes away the Panchayats powers under the Act, and has to be rectified immediately. Devolution of functions, funds and functionaries to Panchayats must be a condition for states to implement the NREGA. Though it is difficult given that the programme is demand driven, but Union government can offer fiscal incentive to states with such devolutions. As in other rural development

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programmes like BRGF preparation of district plan has been made compulsory, the NREGA must also be made conditional.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005 is landmark legislation in Indian history of social security legislation after independence. Enacted after a successful struggle for an employment guarantee legislation, this legislation is a partial victory towards a fullfledged right to employment in any developing country context. The essential feature of this legislation which separates it from any other public service provisioning scheme is its enactment through the parliament of India. Read with the Right to Information Act, this legislation has been bringing about a silent revolution in rural areas of the country. In brief, this Act provides for 100 days of employment for all households in rural areas in manual work, if demanded. Read with various transparency and accountability measures and provisions for social audits, this Act for the first time brings the role of the state as provider of livelihood within the reach of the participants/beneficiaries themselves. By design it is different from any employment generation scheme that has been previously implemented. It requires a different approach towards employment generation schemes and towards overall involvement of the State in providing the right to employment to its masses (even though it is still far from being a full right). The real challenge as well as the strength of the Act comes from it being given the legitimacy as well as authority from the Indian Parliament, which puts the onus of its implementation in the hand of the recipient as well as that of the implementing authorities. The recipients have a greater role, at least by design, not only in demanding the employment but also in deciding on how the Act will be implemented. Such a situation is unique in terms of posing challenges of implementation where the existing system has one of being a dole to be handed to the recipients at the mercy of the babus of the state. It also drastically alters the power equations which the agents of the state and the powerful groups within the local society have become used to enjoying.

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Moreover, for the first time, it provides for mechanisms for penalising the government if it fails to provide employment on time. Precisely because of these, despite the wellintentioned nature of the Act, it poses necessarily new challenges and enables new ways of exploitation as well as new ways of fighting such exploitation. Needless to mention, a legislation of this nature is bound to have repercussions at different levels, right from altering the socioeconomic conditions of the affected districts, more particularly for the disadvantaged and the poor, to altering the social dynamics which are currently very heavily weighted against the disadvantaged and the poor in these backward districts. To a certain extent, the extent and nature of impact of NREGA on overall economic and social conditions is influenced by the overall political economy and nature of change in the social and political structures of power in these districts. Although well intentioned in spirit, this Act has found limited support from the states as well as central government in implementation of the Act. Arguments and excuses have been manufactured to make it as toothless as possible. However, despite these, the Act has become a rallying point for smaller struggles on field as well as in larger public policy arenas to highlight the success of a democratic state in ensuring right to well being for its members. These experiences vary from state to state with relatively large successes in states like Rajasthan to almost negligible success in states like Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. At the same time, a programme of such a large scale has drawn both criticisms and accolades. The critics, mainly from the minimalist state perspective have argued against the efficacy of such a programme in providing either income support or employment support to rural poor. This has also taken the form of questioning the logistics of transferring such large sums of money to poor in a state where the track record of public service delivery has been acknowledged to be dismal. On the other hand, the success of the programme has emboldened the government to introduce the Act to all the

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districts of the states in 2008 itself. Nevertheless, the debate is far from settled on this controversial issue. It is in this context that an urgent need is felt to do a stocktaking of the implementation of the NREGA in the last three years. Although a programme of this magnitude will take time to settle down and be of any relevance in changing the landscape of rural India in such a short span of time, initial reports of the evaluation studies of NREGA by various institutions and individuals has documented the processes of revival and resurgence largely driven by the NREGA as an axis of struggle by the rural poor. It has neither been claimed nor was envisaged that NREGA is the key to successful rejuvenation of rural areas of the country that have remained marginalised in the growth process of the country. This requires many such efforts particularly towards ensuring the broken linkages of the growth process to include the rural areas as engines of growth. Nonetheless, it does offer an opportunity for the rural poor to stake claim to the fruits of the growth. Moreover, success stories of NREGA provide opportunities for mainstreaming and legitimising the struggle for other social security legislations. Above all, they reenforce the faith in the state in being able to do something for the poor and marginalised of the country in being included in the growth process. Therefore, the success of NREGA is as much a hope for those civil society activists fighting for the rights for the poor as it is a critique of the developmentalist state in case it fails to deliver.

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CASE STUDY - IMPLEMENTATION OF NREGA - EXPERIENCE OF KERALA

Kerala has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. But most of the unemployed are educated. Thus NREGA has only limited application in tackling the problem of unemployment among the poor of Kerala. Yet it has a niche ideal for about 4 to 5 lakh people who are willing to do physical labour and for whom an addtitional annual income of Rs.12,500/- obtained from the Employment Guarantee Scheme would be a substantial boost in income and purchasing power. Therefore right at the beginning a political decision was taken to target the eligible families, visualising NREGS as the nucleus of a concerted and convergent anti-poverty initiative. Innovative features. The following are the innovative features in the organization of the Employment Guarantee Programme. 1) The agriculture workers of Kerala are fairly well organized into trade unions. Therefore primacy is given for the organization of meetings of registered workers. This enables proper assessment of demand and in inculcating the workers perspective in the design of the programme - in choice of the works in preference of locations and in deciding the schedule. 2) Kerala uses trained facilitators in the workers meetings as well as in subsequent Grama Sabhas. This ensures that these fora are used effectively to convey the principles and features of NREGA to the lay citizen. These facilitators help in the conduct of these meetings in a semi-structured and orderly manner. 3) Panchayati Raj Institutions are in the central place in the planning and implementation of NREGA. They are the sole agencies responsible for this. Since Kerala has a very strong decentralization experience, Panchayati Raj Institutions have considerable capacity in the planning and implementation of local development works. They PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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have used this capacity to full advantage in the implementation of NREGA. It is significant to note that as of now the entire implementation is in the hands of Village Panchayats. 4) A strong engineering support system has been put in place. In addition to one diploma/degree holder working on contract at the level of the Village Panchayat, there is a system of accredited engineers. Such engineers are drawn from amongst retired engineers, staff working in Engineering Colleges, Polytechnics/ ITIs, engineers working in NGOs etc. These engineers are paid for their work, at rates fixed by Government. Further, if any engineer from a government department or agency is willing to help the Village Panchayat over and above his normal work, he is also allowed to do so and is paid at 50% of the rate applicable to others. 5) Technical Sanction is given not by individual engineers, but by a Technical Committee of engineers. The Committee normally includes a government engineer, a retired engineer and an engineer working in an academic institution. This has introduced transparency in the issue of Technical Sanction. 6) Since disputes are common regarding measurements, an appellate system has been put in place at the district level. This has facilitated speedy sorting out of disputes. 7) In order to mobilize the workers and the public and to assist the panchayat in carrying out its duties, Village Panchayats have been given the freedom to identify one public servant of their choice having the time and inclination to do social work from any government department and such persons are posted on working arrangement as NREGA co-ordinators. 8) The most radical feature of implementation of NREGA in Kerala is the central place given to Kudumbasree in the implementation of the programme. Under Kudumbasree every family below poverty line is organzied into a Neighbourhood Group (NHG) at the local level PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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consisting of 15 to 40 families with each family being represented only by a woman. The NHGs are federated into an Area Development Society (ADS) at the level of the Ward of the Village Panchayat (a Village Panchayat Ward in Kerala has a population of around 1500 to 2000). The ADSs in a Village Panchayat are federated into a registered body called the Community Development Society (CDS). Each NHG, ADS and CDS has five volunteers carrying out different functional roles. The ADS has been entrusted with the task of organizing public works under NREGS. Muster Rolls and other records are maintained by the ADS, implements are provided to labourers by them and the transparency and monitoring requirements are also carried out by them. Welfare amenities to the workers are also provided by the ADS. Since ADS is an organization of the poor and is basically a woman's group, there has been greater sensitivity and community participation in the implementation process. 9) In order to promote transparency, it is mandatory that the estimates are summarized in the local idiom as understood by ordinary people. At the beginning of every work, the nature of work, expected out turn and the likely wages are explained to the workers' groups. 10)Since Kerala has limited public land, it has been decided to take up eco-restoration works in degraded forest lands. It is significant to note that Village Panchayats would implement the programme in forest areas with the technical supervision being done by field level officials of the Forest Department representing a new kind of relationship between a Panchayat Raj Institution and a government department. 11)A conscious decision has been taken by Government in keeping with the spirit of NREG Act to limit road works to 10% of the total expenditure and to give special priority to integrated watershed development works.

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12)Another unique feature of implementation of NREGS in Kerala is that there is total financial inclusion of each and every worker; that is, the wages are paid only into the individual bank accounts of workers, and no exception has been made till date. Achievements Compared to the earlier wage employment programmes there have been significant achievements under NREGS. They are: 1. So far through a combination of transparent processes and

procedures, local action and constant vigilance it can be proudly be claimed that implementation of NREGA has been totally corruption free. The factors contributing to this situation include: a) A clear political decision was conveyed to the Panchayats

that the scheme has to be implemented strictly according to the letter and spirit of the Act. There were several pragmatists arguing for an asset focused programme ignoring the processes and conforming to the procedures on paper, and it was argued that Kerala would lose out as the demand for unskilled labour is very limited and as the wages are much higher than the statutory minimum wages in more than 90% of the State, it would be better to go for public works. But this opinion was firmly rejected. b) The work is organized through the Kudumbashree system

and the poor have a stake in the work right at the beginning. c) The technocratic power to accord Technical Sanction,

measure works and recommend payments has been made more spread out and accountable through the Committee system and in case of difference of opinion the appellate system. d) A lot of social activists have been motivated to keep constant

vigil as a kind of continuous concurrent social audit. e) Special emphasis have been given to the rights of workers

and they have been made fully aware of their entitlements. In a state PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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where workers are fairly well organized this has resulted in their jealous guarding of their privileges. f) All the payments are made only through the individual bank

accounts of workers. This is the ultimate preventer of corruption. Yet there are apprehensions that once material purchase starts, corruption would come in, in some form or the other. The state is earnestly trying to put in a system which deters corruption and the details are being worked out. Till then the focus would be on labour-intensive works. 2. Implementation of NREGA has contributed to very high levels of

women empowerment, particularly in the following aspects. i) As the work is organized by womens groups, the gender

perspective gets built in automatically. ii) As women are comfortable working along with their

neighbors, nearly 80% of the workers have been women. iii) For the first time equal wages are really paid and this has

boosted the earnings of women. iv) which As the wages are paid into Bank accounts the habit of thrift was already inculcated through the Kudumbashree

experiment has further been strengthened. v) As the Bank deposits are increasing, the intra-household

status of the woman has also been improving commensurately as she controls substantial cash resources and withdrawal can be only on her decision. 3. NREGS has given rise to a new work culture. Hitherto workers were

controlled by contractors and their middlemen who knew how to extract work. When NREGS began the out-turn was very poor as the workers could not be supervised properly. But soon the workers themselves realized that they would be losing collectively and a new internal dynamics evolved with peer pressure forcing workers to put in their maximum effort. At the same time a kind of social responsibility also became evident as PGP/FW/2008-10 DF/08/10-M-104

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more capable workers became more than willing to put in extra effort to make up for those who genuinely could not do hard work beyond a point, like the women and the elderly. 4. Public works have gained respectability. Hitherto they were seen as

highjacked either by a contractor or a local leader. Now the workers see it as their right. They tend to distinguish between wages provided by a contractor and wages directly given by the Panchayat. The latter is almost equated with a salary. This has motivated a large section of people who were hitherto unwilling to work into join the work force. There was an interesting instance of a penurious descendant of the erstwhile Kollengode royal family in Palakkad taking an active part in NREGS and even motivating her relatives to join on the logic that self-help and access to legally entitled emoluments from a public source is better than charity from relatives. 5. NREGS has suddenly increased purchasing power of the poor and

there is visible local economic development. This is particularly true of Wayanad which was ridden with farmer suicides. The peasants have managed to get substantial relief from NREGS by getting over their inhibition in working as labourers in richer farmers lands by moving on to the now-respectable public works. New Initiatives Now that a working model for operationalization of NREGA has stabilized certain new initiatives have been started. They are: (1) A National Rural Employment Guarantee Mission has been approved and a Mission Director posted. (2) A convergent Anti-Poverty Sub-Plan is to be prepared using the Kudumbashree network. The components of the Anti-Poverty SubPlan would include: NREGS - for wage employment

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SGSY and Kudumbashree programmes for skill development and self employment SSA NRHM ICDS o Including nutrition for children in the age group 0 3 and adolescent girls Annapoorna and Anthyodaya Anna Yojana for food security IGNOAPS Asraya of Kudumbashree Health Insurance IAY infrastructure Peoples Plan The detailed methodology has been developed and firmed up in about 100 Village Panchayats whereby at the local level Neighbourhood Groups of the poor prepare micro plans focusing on individual and family needs and at the level of the ADS these are consolidated and components relating to community assets added and thereafter the plans are integrated by the CDS at the level of the Village Panchayat by bringing in elements related to human development and economic development. The plan prepared by the poor is negotiated with the Panchayat and approved. (3) A strong natural resource management focus has been given to NREGS. One of the topmost environmentalists in the country has been recruited as a consultant and agricultural graduates are being taken as young professionals. It has also been decided to take up a Minimum needs Social Security for Human Development

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mega scheme for Bharathapuzha River rejuvenation with action plans emanating from the Village Panchayat as building blocks. (4) A methodology is being developed to integrate NREGS and Peoples Plan. Village Panchayats get more than Rs.1 crore on an average under Peoples Plan. If intelligently dovetailed it is expected that substantial improvement in quality of assets can be attained. (5) In order to meet the problems due to shortage of technical staff it has been decided to rope in voluntary services of reputed nongovernment organizations. Already in one district a firm offer has been received and in principle clearance given. The details are being worked out. (6) Using the excellent network of Kudumbashree it has been decided in the State Employment Guarantee Council to develop a cadre of barefoot technical volunteers from among the poor women. (7) In order to develop the skills of the workers it has been decided to set up Labour Banks. A pilot has been launched in one Village Panchayat. The Labour Banks would be supported under Peoples Plan to take up other public works and even private works. (8) It is well-nigh impossible to identify works in the plantation areas as well as in the coastal areas. It has been decided to seek the expert support from Government of India to come out with a shelf of projects which can be taken up in such geographical areas. (9) An innovative form of training has been developed by KILA where there is a shift from the cascading model to a ripple model, according to which outstanding Panchayats become the master trainers and the neighbouring Panchayats formally learn from the experience of the best performers. (10) Monitoring has been strengthened with the decision of the State Employment Guarantee Council to put in a system of State level and District level quality Monitors by identifying persons with reputation for

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integrity and competence. The State level Monitors would be of two categories outstanding individuals whose views are widely respected by society and senior Technical Experts capable of giving authoritative feed back on the quality of implementation. Further the State Employment Guarantee Council has decided to request a team consisting of eminent experts like Smt. Aruna Roy, Prof. Jean Dreze, Shri P. Sainath and Shri Nikil De to conduct an independent assessment of Keralas performance and offer suggestions for improvement. CONCLUSION Though there were several teething problems it is clear that the policy focus on natural resource management and corruption-free implementation and the administrative measures introduced to operationalise the policy especially the involvement of the Kudumbasree network have resulted in a strong foundation being laid and opened up space for pro-poor innovations.

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