suggestions:
1)
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is a scheme which started will a
noble goal but is seen floundering. NREGS still has a long way to go , it needs to meet the
commitment of 100 days of work for the unemployed. This practical reality of failure of
delivery system is clear from the CAG report.What can we do? Privatize it.. sounds weird.
Let us give this a shot at least on a pilot basis. How do we do it?
There are lot SEZ zones coming up. Make it mandatory for them to do some part of the
work by providing guaranteed employment for the people at that zone or near that zone.
Make them mandatory to put this in their audit. Also fund this through the normal
mechanism of NREGS, i.e., funded by public money executed by Private people. So not a
philanthropic endeavor on the part of private community. Also link it to corporate social
responsibility program through CII, Asocham etc.
Why privatize? Am i the in the gang of capitalists? Emphatic NO. But let there be
competition for the NREGS fund between private and the present mechanism of execution.
As the telecom revolution also made BSNL very responsive, let this be the case for
NREGS. From a waiting period of 5 yrs which we had for our first phone at home when my
father applied, today i got the
phone in 2 weeks from BSNL. This i think would not have been possible if there were no
Bharti, reliance etc.
But to again emphasis, No blanket privatization as this can result in unwanted level of
monopoly.
2)
transparency is the biggest problem the programme suffers from. Yes, there have been
measures to curb it and some like near elimination of contractors from almost every work
site has been implemented quite successfully. But the effectiveness of most measures
varies from state to state. Muster rolls and job cards is not much of a problem in states
like Rajasthan, but where we went too- proper Muster rolls and job cards were a sight for
sore eyes. Also the introduction of the payment system has been a step in the right
direction, but its execution so far, at least in our experience is botched. Also abuse of
power taking advantage of illiteracy of majority of workers in the backward states has not
been curbed significantly. If it’s not the pradhan, then it’s the BDO or someone else. We
think that if this can be controlled through stricter government vigilance or education,
then most of the other transparency problems will sort themselves out.
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3
keep in touch with villages where such work is going on and being are literate enough,
help those who are in need by writing job applications, ensuring proper passbook
updation and the like. The city slickers… well college students in Delhi can always
volunteer to go for the survey. Spreading awareness through various media would also be
a good exercise.
improvements from the past
MGNREGA, enacted by legislation in 2005, guarantees 100 days of employment to all rural
households. In 2006, the scheme was launched in 200 districts of India with a budget of Rs
11,300 crore.
It was later expanded to cover another 130 districts in 2007 and 2008, and eventually
covered all 593 districts in India by April 2008. In 2009 to 2010, the outlay rose steeply to
Rs 39,100 crore. About four crore rural households were provided jobs under the scheme
between 2008 and 2009.
nrega has come a long way since implementation. Awareness and Demand are the two
things which have hugely improved compared to the early days. Valuable assets are being
generated and employability of villagers has gone up a significant lot. Yeah there have
been problems with regards to transparency, but I feel it’s not one step forward two steps
back as many point out. So if we can deal the matter of corruption sternly, also the
upliftment of female workers under the programme has really been heartening to see.
Earlier not only they were mercilessly exploited and deprived of minimum wage, they were
given little respect. Now things have changed for the better a lot. Only if they had better
healthcare and childcare facilities on sight, that would have helped their cause a lot. I also
feel that it has created a strong community sense amongst the villagers. I would like to
bring up the Dumargadi example again, where a strong community through the Nigrani
Samiti meant a better worksite for the villagers and vice versa.
West Bengal and Karnataka government have initiated the process of shifting the
MGNREGA processes to mobile phones, to ensure transparency, information
dissemination, online monitoring and evaluation. Programme officer use the hand-held
device before starting any task and later to get status of the project under the scheme,as
many as 521 gram panchayats were given mobile phones for better implementation of
NREGA processes.
I think the NREGA has a long and bright future for the rural India.
