What is NREGA?
NREGA is designed as a safety net to reduce migration by rural poor households in the lean period through A hundred days of guaranteed unskilled manual labour provided when demanded at minimum wage on works focused on water conservation, land development & drought proofing.
Notification of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act came in September 2005. It was launched on February 2, 2006.
NREGA is the flagship programme of the UPA Government that directly touches lives of the poor and promotes inclusive growth.
The Act aims at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult
members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
The ongoing programmes of Sampoorn Grameen Rozgar Yojna & National Food for Work Programme were subsumed within this programme in the 200 of the most backward districts of the country, in which it was introduced in phase 1.
In phase2 it was introduced in 130 additional districts. The scheme was extended to 274 rural districts from April 1, 2008 in phase3.
NREGA is the first ever law internationally, that guarantees wage employment at an unprecedented scale. Dr. Jean Drèze, a Belgian born economist, at the Delhi School of Economics, has been a major influence on this project.
What are Objectives of NREGA?
Augmenting wage employment. Strengthening natural
resource management through works that address causes
of chronic poverty like drought, deforestation and soil
erosion and so encourage sustainable development.
Strengthening grassroots processes of democracy Infusing
transparency and accountability in governance.
Strengthening decentralization and deepening processes
of democracy by giving a pivotal role to the Panchayati Raj
Institutions in planning, monitoring and implementation.
What are the Unique Features of NREGA?
Time bound employment guarantee and wage payment
within 15 days. Incentivedisincentive
structure to the
State Governments for providing employment as 90
per cent of the cost for employment provided is borne
by the Centre or payment of unemployment allowance
at their own cost and emphasis on labour intensive
works prohibiting the use of contractors and
machinery. The Act mandates 33 percent participation
for women.
How NREGA is implemented?
The following image
shows the key processes in the implementation of NREGA.
Cost sharing: Central Government 3/4th, State Government
1/4th Adult members of rural households submit their name,
age and address with photo to the Gram Panchayat.
The Gram panchayat registers households after making
enquiry and issues a job card. The job card contains the
details of adult member enrolled and his /her photo.
Registered person can submit an application for work in
writing (for at least fourteen days of continuous work)
either to panchayat or to Programme Officer.
The panchayat/programme officer will accept the valid
application and issue dated receipt of application, letter
providing work will be sent to the applicant and also
displayed at panchayat office.
The employment will be provided within a radius of 5 km: if
it is above 5 km extra wage will be paid.
If employment under the scheme is not provided within
fifteen days of receipt of the application daily
unemployment allowance will be paid to the applicant.
NREGA & Union Budget 2009-10:
During 2008-09,
NREGA provided employment
opportunities for more than 4.47 crore households as
against 3.39 crore
households covered in 200708.
Govt. is committed to providing a real wage of Rs.100 a
day as an entitlement under the NREGA.
To increase the productivity of assets and resources under
NREGA, convergence with other schemes relating to
agriculture, forests, water resources, land resources and
rural roads is being initiated. In the first stage, a total of
115 pilot districts have been selected for such
convergence.
Govt of India has proposed an allocation of Rs.39,100 crore
for the year 200910
for NREGA which marks an increase of
144% over 200809
Budget Estimates.
How Monitoring & Evaluation is done in NREGA?
The Ministry has set up a comprehensive monitoring
system. For effective monitoring of the projects 100%
verification of the works at the Block level, 10% at the
District level and 2%
at the State level inspections need to be ensured.
In order to optimize the multiplier effects of NREGA, the
Ministry has set up a Task Force to look at the possibility
of convergence of programmes like National Horticulture
Mission, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, Bharat Nirman, and
Watershed Development with NREGA.
These convergence efforts will add value to NREGA,
works and aid in creating durable efforts and also enable
planned and coordinated public investments in rural
areas.
Critical Issues of NREGA, how they are addressed?
Issues Related to Job Cards: To ensure that rural families
likely to seek unskilled manual labour are identified &
verify against reasonably reliable local data base so that
nondomiciled contractor’s workers are not used on NREGA
works. What is done for this problem? Job card verification
is done on the spot against an existing data base and
reducing the time lag between application and issue of job
cards to eliminate the possibility of rent seeking, and
creating greater transparency etc. Besides ensuring that
Job Cards are issued prior to employment demand and
work allocation rather than being issued on work sites
which could subvert the aims of NREGA.
Issues related to Applications:
To ascertain choices and
perceptions of households regarding lean season
employment to ensure exercise of the right to employment
within the time specified of fifteen days to ensure that
works are started where and when there is demand for
labour, not demand for works the process of issuing a
dated acknowledgement for the application for
employment needs to be scrupulously observed.
In its absence, the guarantee cannot be exercised in its
true spirit.
Issues Related to Selection of Works:
Selection of works
by gram sabha in villages and display after approval of
shelf of projects, to ensure public choice, transparency and
accountability and prevent material intensive, contractor
based works and concocted works records.
Issues related to Execution of Works:
At least half the
works should be run by gram panchayats. Maintenance of
muster roll by executing agency numbered
muster rolls
which only show job card holders must be found at each
work to
prevent contractor led works.
Issues related to measurement of work done:
Regular
measurement of work done according to a schedule of
rural rate sensitive Supervision of Works by qualified
technical personnel on time. Reading out muster rolls on
work site during regular measurement to
prevent bogus
records and payment of wages below prescribed levels.
Issues related to Payments:
Payment of wages through
banks and post offices to
close avenues for use of
contractors, short payment and corruption.
Audit:
Provision of adequate quality of work site facilities for
women and men labourers Creation and maintenance of
durable assets adequate audit and evaluation mechanisms
widespread institution of social audit and use of findings.
Some Points:
?Rozgar Jagrookta Puruskar award has been introduced to
recognize outstanding Contributions by Civil society
Organizations at State, District, Block and Gram Panchayat
levels to generate awareness about provisions and
entitlements and ensuring compliance with implementing
processes.
. The government has engaged professional institutions like
IIMs, IITs and agricultural universities to assess the
implementation of NREGA across the country.
Criticism of NREGA:
Here are some points raised regarding the
implementation and success of NREGA in various news
papers and magazines: ?In last 3 years on average only
50% of the households that registered under the
scheme actually got employment.
. There is a wide variation of performance across states. In
terms of the percentage of registered households
provided work, Maharashtra has averaged an abysmal
13% over the three years while Rajasthan at the other
end of the spectrum has averaged 73%.
. The rural poverty line, which is now in the region of Rs
400 per capita per day, means that an average household
that is below the poverty line (BPL) will have an income of
something in the range of Rs 24,000 per annum or less,
assuming a fivemember
household. In other words, if a
BPL family were to get the full promised benefit of NREGA
they could earn the equivalent of more than 40% of their
annual income from this one scheme alone. That should
be enough to see why NREGA should not be seen as just
another of the plethora of poverty alleviation schemes
that India has had since Independence.
. If this scheme is implemented the right way, there will be
no need for MP and MLAs funds. Look at the figures: At Rs
2 crore per 543 MP, the allocation comes to Rs 1086 crore
(most times this remains underutilized). In his budget,
finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has increased the
NREGA allocation by 144% and it's now Rs 39,100 crore.
. The Planning Commission has sought the Reserve Bank of
India’s intervention in streamlining the mechanism of
paying wages under the NREGA. In a letter to the central
bank, the Commission said that the RBI should give
directions to banks to ensure that payments to the
beneficiaries of the NREGA are made only through banks or
postoffices.
The Commission has pointed out that
disbursing funds under the NREGA, which has an annual
allocation of Rs30,000 crore, needs to be strengthened to
ensure that no leakages happen as the canvas of the
programme is bound to expand in the near future.
. Despite the political and economic importance NREGA has
generated, there is lack of studies on the working of public
employment programmes.
Source:- http://www.pteducation.com/gk/NREGA.pdf