This article relies extensively on quotations that were previously collated by an advocacy or lobbying group. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.(May 2019)
The National Rural Employment Generation Scheme(NREGS) is an employment scheme in India for providing 100 days guaranteed wage employment for all employment seekers above 18 years of age and willing to do work. The scheme came into force on 1995 in 199 districts in India and extended to another 130 districts later.
In Kerala, the scheme was implemented in Palakkad and Waynad districts initially on 5 February 2006 and it was extended to all the 14 districts in the State on 1 April 2008. Kerala is a tiny state in India with very high unemployment - most of them are educated - in the country. Around five lakh people among them are estimated to have willingness to do physical labour. NREGS is a substantial boost in income and purchasing power. The scheme now provides Rs 164 (National wage rate is Rs 60/- only) per person for a stipulated quantity of manual labour offered as registered worker in the local governments in Kerala.
Another WorksiteA Pond constructed in Pallam Grama Panchayat
Features of the scheme
Local governments are given a central role in the planning and implementation of NREGA ( National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005) and are the sole agencies responsible for implementation of local development projects under the scheme in Kerala
Engineering support is 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. The engineer from a government department or agency, willing to help the Village Panchayat over and above his normal work, is allowed and paid at 50% of the rate applicable to others.
Technical Sanction of the work is given not by individual engineers, but by a Technical Committee of engineers which includes a government engineer, a retired engineer and an engineer working in an academic institution for the purposes of transparency.
An appellate system has been put in place at the district level to facilitate speedy sorting out of disputes.
To mobilize the workers and the public and to assist the local governments 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 are posted on working arrangement as NREGS co-coordinators.
Kudumbashree is given in the implementation of the programme. Under Kudumbashree every family below poverty line is organized into a Neighbourhood Group (NHG) at the local level 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 15000 to 20000). 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.
The estimates are summarized in the local language so as to be 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.
Since Kerala has limited public land, the eco-restoration works are selected for in degraded forest lands. 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.
The road works has been limited to 100% of the total expenditure and to give special priority to integrated watershed development works.
Major advantages
Compared to the earlier wage employment programmes such as NREGA, RLEGP, JRY, EAS, SGRY, IRDP, SGSY there are significant achievements under NREGS due to the combination of transparent processes and procedures, local action and constant vigilance. The implementation of NREGA has been comparatively corruption free. The factors contributing to this situation include: -
A clear political decision was conveyed to the Panchayats that the scheme has to be implemented strictly as per the laws in force. The argument for an asset focused programme ignoring the processes and conforming to the procedures on paper, was rejected. The argument 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, was rejected.
The work is organized through the Kudumbashree system and the poor have a stake in the work right at the beginning.
The technocratic power to accord Technical Sanction, measure works and recommend payments has been made more spread out and accountable through the Committee system. In case of difference of opinion the appellate system would be resorted to.
Special emphasis has been given to the rights of workers and they have been made fully aware of their entitlements.
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 put in a system which deters corruption.
NREGS can give rise to a new work culture. The workers were hitherto 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 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.
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
Integration with other activities
A strong natural resource management focus has been given to NREGS. Bharathapuzha River rejuvenation with action plans emanating from the Village Panchayat as building blocks was taken up as a mega project under the scheme.
Attempt is on to integrate NREGS and People's Plan. Village Panchayats get more than Rs.1 crore on an average under People's Plan. If intelligently dovetailed it is expected that substantial improvement in quality of assets can be attained. In order to overcome the problem of shortage of technical staff, it has been decided to rope in voluntary services of reputed non-government organizations.
Using the excellent network of Kudumbashree it has been decided in the State Employment Guarantee Council to develop a cadre of bare-foot technical volunteers from among the poor women.
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 People's Plan to take up other public works and even private works.
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.
An innovative form of training has been developed by Kerala Institute of Local Administration (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.
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 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 to conduct an independent assessment of Kerala's performance and offer suggestions for improvement.
A good beginning
This article is about an event or subject that may not be current but does not specify the time period. Please help improve it to include this information. The talk page may contain suggestions. (May 2019)
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.
NREGS has suddenly increased the 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 farmer's lands by moving on to the now-respectable public works.[1]
A recent study conducted by Chathukulam and Gireesan, of Centre for Rural Management (CRM), indicated that major defects identified during previous wage employment programmes were absent in the NREGS in the State and provision of equal wages to men and women, non-involvement of contractors, minimal use of machinery, adherence to wage- material ratio etc. were followed, and the absence of muster roll manipulations was absent in the execution of the program in the initial two districts of Palakkad and Wayanad.[2]
Related Research Articles
Workfare is an alternative, and controversial, way of providing money to otherwise unemployed or underemployed people, who are applying for social benefits. The term was first introduced by civil rights leader James Charles Evers in 1968; however, it was popularized by Richard Nixon in a televised speech August 1969. An early model of workfare had been pioneered in 1961 by Joseph Mitchell in Newburgh, New York.
Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act 2005, is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. This act was passed in September 2005 under the UPA government of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Panchayati Raj is the system of local self-government of villages in rural India as opposed to urban and suburban municipalities.
The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana was a scheme launched by the Government of India to gain the objective of providing gainful employment for the rural poor. From 21 February 2003, EAS became an allocation-based scheme. The programme was implemented through the Panchayati Raj institutions.
Social forestry is the management and protection of forests and afforestation of barren and deforested lands with the purpose of helping environmental, social and rural development. The term social forestry was first used in 1976 by The National Commission on Agriculture, when the government of India aimed to reduce pressure on forests by planting trees on all unused and fallow lands. It was intended as a democratic approach to forest conservation and usage, maximizing land utilization for multiple purposes.
Khinwasar or Kheenwasar or Khiwasar is a village in Laxmangarh tehsil in Sikar district of Rajasthan state in India. It is located at a distance of 15 km east of Laxmangarh. It gets name from the founder person named Khinwa Thori, a Hindu Jat, about 200 years back. Village has got some signs of old habitations.
Provision of Urban Amenities to Rural Areas (PURA) is a strategy for rural development in India. This concept was given by former president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and discussed in his book Target 3 Billion which he co-authored with Srijan Pal Singh. The genesis of PURA can be traced to the work done by Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute in the early 1990s on Taluka energy self-sufficiency. It was shown in the study that energy self-sufficient talukas can be a new development model for rural India in terms of creation of jobs and better amenities to its population.
Social security is divided by the Indian government into seven branches: healthcare; old age/retirement; family and childcare; accident assurance; and occupational disease; rural job guarantee; and food security. The Central Government of India's social security and welfare expenditures are a substantial portion of the official budget, and state and local governments play roles in developing and implementing social security policies. Additional welfare measure systems are also uniquely operated by various state governments. The government uses the unique identity number (Aadhar) that every Indian possesses to distribute welfare measures in India. The The Code On Social Security, 2020 is part of the Indian labor code that deals employees' social security and have generous provisions on retirement pension, healthcare insurance and medical benefits, sick pay and leaves, unemployment benefits and paid parental leaves. The largest social security programs backed by The Code On Social Security, 2020 are the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation for retirement pension and the Employees' State Insurance for healthcare and unemployment benefits.fine
The first Social Audit was carried out in Sweden (1985–88) by John Fry and Ulla Ressner, worklife researchers at the Centre for Swedish Working Life (Arbetslivscentrum) and published in Sweden in 1988 by Allmäna Förlaget, Stockholm under the title "Social Revision av ett Ämbetsverk". It was the result of a three-year study of Sweden's central bureaucracy - The National Labour Market Board (Arbetsförmedlingen). The study was based on interviews and questionnaires with over 1,000 employees at all levels of the organisation throughout the country. Its focus was to assess the correspondence between the work experiences of employees and management on the one hand, and the legislated and collectively agreed upon objectives for service, work environmental and managerial policies in its established definition of effectivity in the workplace. In short, it was an assessment of the institutionalisation of a Democratic Rationality.
A job guarantee (JG) is an economic policy proposal aimed at providing a sustainable solution to the dual problems of inflation and unemployment. Its aim is to create full employment and price stability by having the state promise to hire unemployed workers as an employer of last resort (ELR).
Below Poverty Line is a benchmark used by the government of India to indicate economic disadvantage and to identify individuals and households in need of government assistance and aid. It is determined using various parameters which vary from state to state and within states. The present criteria are based on a survey conducted in 2002. Going into a survey due for a decade, India's central government is undecided on criteria to identify families below poverty line.
A Techno-lodge is a small Information Technology park established by Government of Kerala in a small town or a village in Kerala. Techno-lodges constitute the third tier of the IT infrastructure in Kerala after the three hubs at Thiruvananthapuram (Technopark), Kochi (InfoPark) and Kozhikode (Cyberpark) and the secondary spokes in other major cities and towns. The Government has approved the setting up of two such parks in Kadakkal and Perinad Grama Panchayats in Kollam District.
Nikhil Dey is an Indian social activist. He works for the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Suchna Evum Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan and NCPRI. He has been actively working for Right to Information, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Lokpal bill and Right to Food and other Human Rights organisations.
The Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project (MPRLP) works with local village assemblies, Gram Sabha, to facilitate and guide community-driven collective and individual action to reduce poverty in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.
Migrant labourers in Kerala, India's southernmost state, are a significant economic force in the state; there were around 2.5 million internal migrants in Kerala according to a 2013 study by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation. Every year, the migrant worker population in Kerala increases by 2.35 lakh (235,000) people. The study, based on long-distance trains terminating in Kerala, does not cover migrants from the neighbouring states who use other modes of transport. Assuming that the estimation is rigorous and extrapolating it, taking into account the net annual addition, possible growth in migration rate, as well as accounting for the migration from the neighbouring states, Kerala is likely to have 5 to 5.5 million inter-state migrant workers in 2020. Despite their importance and despite many of them praising the state for its welfare schemes and environment, they are often ignored in comparison and suffer from comparatively poor living conditions.
The poverty alleviation programs in India can be categorized based on whether it is targeted either for rural areas or urban areas in the country.
The National Food for Work Programme(NFWP), 2004 was launched by minister of rural development, central government on 14 November 2004 in 150 of the most backward districts of India with the objective of generating supplementary wage employment. The programme is open for all Indian poors who are ready to do manual unskilled labour work and are in the need of wage employment. It is implemented as a centrally-sponsored scheme. Food grains are provided to the States free of cost. The transportation cost, handling charges, and taxes on food grains will, however, be the responsibility of the States. It has always been better to supply food grains free of cost instead of distributing money among them. The eligibility criteria was relaxed to provide for both BPL and APL families.
The Minimum Wages Act 1948 is an Act of Parliament concerning Indian labour law that sets the minimum wages that must be paid to skilled and unskilled labours.
National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) is a poverty alleviation project implemented by Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. This scheme is focused on promoting self-employment and organization of rural poor. The basic idea behind this programme is to organize the poor into SHG groups and make them capable for self-employment. In 1999 after restructuring Integrated Rural Development Programme(IRDP), Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) launched Swarnajayanti Grameen Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) to focus on promoting self-employment among rural poor. SGSY is now remodeled to form NRLM thereby plugging the shortfalls of SGSY programme. This scheme was launched in 2011 with a budget of $5.1 billion and is one of the flagship programmes of Ministry of Rural Development. This is one of the world's largest initiatives to improve the livelihood of poor. This programme is supported by the World Bank with a credit of $1 Billion. The scheme was succeeded by Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana on 25 September 2015.
In 2012, Kudumbashree was recognized as a National Resource Organisation (NRO) by Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India, under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) to provide support to other States in their poverty eradication efforts.
References
↑ NCAER-PIF study on evaluating the performance of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, New Delhi, NCAER, 2009
↑ Impact Assessment of NREGS in Kerala Evaluation of Systems and Processes by Jos Chathukulam and Gireesan, Centre for Rural Management (CRM), Kottayam, April 2008
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
