While the Left parties often claim that the Congress returned to power benefiting from schemes like the NREGA which came about because of the Left parties? sustained pressure, figures show that the CPI(M)-led governments failed to push through the rural job guarantee programme in West Bengal and Kerala.
Statistics compiled by the Central government show that while a job-seeking household under the scheme got over 40 days of employment on average nationally in 2008-09, about 72% of such households in West Bengal did not get even 15 days of employment.
According to the data, of the 26 lakh households which availed jobs under the NREGA in Bengal, less than 7.5 lakh?about 28%?sought more than 15 days of employment. Over 70% of job-seeking households in the state belong to the below poverty line category. On the national level, over 66% households availed more than 15 days of employment during 2008-09.
In Kerala, about 50% of the rural poor did not avail even 15 days of employment during 2008-09. While a total of 6.3 lakh households availed jobs under the NREGA scheme in the state during the period, only 3.2 lakh sought more than 15 days of employment.
The Left-ruled Tripura, however, fared much better as over 90% job-seeking households availed more than 15 days of employment in the state. Even in the first five months (till August 2009) of the current fiscal year, job-seeking households in Tripura have availed 47 days of employment as against the national average of 39 days during the same period.
In the current fiscal year too, employment provided to job seekers in Kerala and West Bengal is far behind the national average. While the data compiled by the rural development ministry for the first five months of this fiscal year showed that on average 39 days of employment was provided to job-seeking households nationally, in West Bengal the average was 19 days while in Kerala it was 16.
Interestingly, BJP-ruled states like Karnataka (74%), Madhya Pradesh (67%), Chhattisgarh (69%) fared better as over two thirds of the households which sought jobs availed more than 15 days of employment during 2008-09.
In Rajasthan, which went to polls towards the end of 2008, 86% of the households which sought jobs got more than 15 days of employment, the statistics showed. Rajasthan tops the list of states in terms of job-seeking households getting more than 15 days of employment.
Among the bigger states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh continue to fare badly. Almost 53% job-seeking households in Bihar could not avail even 15 days of employment under the scheme, which guarantees 100 days of employment to every job-seeking household. In Uttar Pradesh, 45% did not avail more than 15 days of employment.
The performance of states like Assam (about 46% did not get even 15 days of employment), Tamil Nadu (45%), Gujarat (58%), and Punjab (about 50%) was also dismal, the figures showed.