It was launched in 2006 to ensure livelihood security for the rural poor. Five years hence, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGS) has more aces up its sleeve: checking distress migration and being the world?s largest financial inclusion programme.
Consider this: NREGS helped marginal farmers stay afloat despite a drought in 2009 ?with an average 54 days of manual work ? when one might have witnessed migration, switching trades or even suicides. And thanks to NREGS, minimum daily wages across rural India has moved up 47% in the last five years, rising from Rs 65 in 2006-07 to Rs 96 in the current fiscal. And starting January 1 this year, the government has linked NREGS wages to the consumer price index, putting more money in the pockets of the poorest of the rural poor.
And what other inclusion programmes can only hope for, NREGS achieved unintentionally ? about ten crore saving bank accounts opened with banks and post offices for wage payments. As for livelihood security to the poor, it is making rich farmers in Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, to name a few, insecure enough to even use force and incentives like free food to prevent labourers from leaving.
As rural development ministry secretary BK Sinha put it, ?NREGS has raised productivity, increased purchasing power, reduced distress migration and helped in creation of durable assets in rural India.? Of course, millions have been poured into the scheme, and already Rs 1.1 lakh crore of the total budget outlay of Rs 1.32 lakh crore has been spent. Justifying the huge financial allocation for the programme, PK Joshi, director, National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), affiliated to the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), says: ?The Act has made a huge impact in increasing rural income, and through the programme, the government has made an attempt to share economic growth with the rural poor.?
But while a beginning has been made, ?we still have miles to go before we achieve the full potential of this unique legislation?, acknowledged none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself some time back.
Most of this can be blamed on incomplete works, poor participation by people and slow implementation by state governments. While during 2009-10, over 5.25 crore families participated in the landmark initiative, there has been a fall in participation of households thereafter. During the first three quarters of the current fiscal, only 3.7 crore families got work under NREGS. This fiscal, only 34 days of persondays have been created till December 2010, again far from the promised 100 days. The average annual personday per household under NREGS has never exceeded 54 days, and that was in 2009-10, the year large parts of the country witnessed severe drought. Data from the rural development ministry says over 68 lakh works, such as rural connectivity, flood control, water conservation and harvesting and micro-irrigation works have been taken up under NREGS since its launch, but only 3% of these works have been completed. During the last performance review in the ministry in December 2010, concern was expressed over the slow pace of work and states were asked for action-taken reports. During April-December 2010, only five states ? Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal ? provided employment to 2.38 crore families of the total 3.7 crore families employed under NREGS, accounting for around two-thirds of all rural jobs created under NREGS. On the other hand, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have been rather slow in providing employment. Similarly, on the total persondays generated this fiscal, only Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan have a share of 51% of the 124 crore persondays.
While the government is committed to provide more financial resources to NREGS in the coming years, with some reports pegging 2011-12 allocation at Rs 60,000 crore, critics feel skill enhancement, rather than providing mere manual labour to rural poor, should be the focus area for ensuring more equitable and sustainable economic growth. ?The government has indirectly admitted the failure of the current model of economic development, where a large chunk of the rural population would remain unemployed and survive on wages of the job guarantee scheme,? says Rajesh Tandon, president, Society for Participatory Research in Asia, an NGO engaged in empowering panchayats. Surprisingly, for a scheme that is the showpiece of the UPA government’s ‘aam admi’ plank, no comprehensive impact assessment has been conducted nor any accounts audit carried out in the last five years.
But even the most diehard critic would agree a movement has begun, and begun well.