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PROJECT REPORT ON
“NREGA-A Case Study”
Submitted to
University of Mumbai
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement
For
M.Com (Accountancy) Semester III
In the subject
Research Methodology
By
Name of the student : - Vivek ShriramMahajan
Roll No. : - 15 -9672
Name and address of the college
K. V. Pendharkar College
Of Arts, Science & Commerce
Dombivli (E), 421203
NOVEMBER 2015
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DECLARATION
I VIVEK SHRIRAM MAHAJAN Roll No. 15 – 9672, the student of
M.Com (Accountancy) Semester III (2015), K. V. Pendharkar College,
Dombivli, Affiliated to University of Mumbai, hereby declare that the
project for the subject Strategic Management of Project report on “NREGA-
A Case Study” submitted by me to University of Mumbai, for semester III
examination is based on actual work carried by me.
I further state that this work is original and not submitted anywhere else for
any examination.
Place:Dombivli
Date:
Signature of the Student
Name: - Vivek Shriram Mahajan
Roll No: - 15 -9672
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is a pleasure to thank all those who made this project work
possible.
I Thank the Almighty God for his blessings in completing this task.
The successful completion of this project is possible only due to
support and cooperation of my teachers, relatives, friends and well-
wishers. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of them.
I am highly indebted to Principal A.K.Ranade, Co-ordinater
P.V.Limaye, and my subject teacher Mr. Prashant Naik for their
encouragement, guidance and support.
I also take this opportunity to express sense of gratitude to my
parents for their support and co-operation in completing this
project.
Finally I would express my gratitude to all those who directly and
indirectly helped me in completing this project.
Name of the student
Vivek Shriram Mahajan
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Table of Contents:
CHAPTER No Topic Page no
CHAPTER 1 Introduction
Introduction to Subject………………………..
Objective of the NREGA……...…………………
Features of the Act................................................
5
7
7
CHAPTER 2 Literature Review
Rationale of Workfare Programmes......................
Conceptual Framework …................................
Amendments...............................................
9
10
11
CHAPTER 3 Observation
Programme Implementation ……………………
Programme Outcomes.........................................
Impact: Early Trends And Outcomes....................
13
16
22
CHAPTER 4 Suggestions& Recommendations
Recommendations …………………….
Suggestions .............…………………..
25
26
CHAPTER 5 Conclusion
Conclusion………………………………….. 28
Webiliography………………………………. 29
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CHAPTER 1: Introduction
Introduction to Subject
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 The National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act 2005was passed unanimously in the Lok Sabha on 23August 2005. It
came into force in 200 districts on 2February 2006, and is due to be extended to the
whole of rural India within five years. This section discusses the basic features of the
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005(hereafter NREGA 2005 or
“Employment Guarantee Act” for short). The relevant sections of the Act are mentioned
in square brackets. Occasional reference is also made to the “Operational Guidelines”
issued by the Ministry of Rural Development in January2006. However, a detailed
account of these Guidelines is beyond the scope of this Primer. The full text of the
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (in English and Hindi) is available at
www.righttofoodindia.org. Other key documents, including the “citizens draft”
mentioned in the Preface and the Operational Guidelines issued in January 2006 by the
Ministry of Rural Development, are also available on this website. Detailed information
on NREGA 2005 can also be found at www.nrega.nic.in, a special website on NREGA
maintained by the Ministry of Rural Development.
For the first time in India, citizens are guaranteed employment by the government. Under
the terms of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), passed by the
Government of India in August 2005, each rural Indian household is now entitled by law
to one hundred days of unskilled work per year on public works programmes. Although
countless schemes have provided temporary employment on public works programmes at
the government’s discretion, no national Indian policy or legislation has ever before
provided any guarantee of employment. Now, within fifteen days of a valid application,
the government must provide work or unemployment allowance. Countless activists,
politicians, and academics have hailed the NREGA as vital legislation for improving the
situation of rural workers.
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) Promises to provide at least 100
days of guaranteed employment to every household in one fiscal year. Implicit in the
scheme is building rural infrastructure and making reality the concept of decentralized
planning.
Through this Act the government accepted the responsibility for providing a minimum of
100 days of unskilled work per year to every poor rural family that needs employment.
However, the implementation of NREGA has been ridden with bureaucratic glitches and
widespread corruption.
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Implementation of NREGA
The first phase of NREGA was launched in February 2006 in 18 districts of Madhya
Pradesh, and by the 2008-09 financial year all of the state’s districts were covered by
NREGA. Samarthan, a civil society organization (CSO) in India that works in the states
of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Chhattisgarh, has been monitoring the implementation of
NREGA since it was enacted. Samarthan facilitated social audits of NREGA
implementation in many districts and conducted two studies on the status of NREGA
implementation. Through these audits and studies, Samarthan found that the people were
not aware of what they were entitled to under NREGA. For instance, they did not know
that they could demand work under the law, how to demand this work, or what recourse
they had if they were not given work or did not receive payment for their work within the
time period stipulated by NREGA.
The Act stipulates that the panchayati raj institutions should be the key agencies for
implementing the program. The three-tier structure of the panchayati raj system of governance
consists of elected executive bodies of people‟s representatives at the village, the block (20 to
100 villages), and district levels. These elected councils, which traditionally comprised five
respected elders chosen by the village, are called panchayats. The village council (gram
panchayat) is accountable to the general body of the village, known as the gram-sabha. The
block council (janpad panchayat) is the intermediary in the three-tier system and is at the center
of development work. The zilla parishad (district council) is at the apex of three-tier system.
In terms of NREGA, the gram panchayat should prepare and approve a list of public works
projects, which should be undertaken whenever there is a demand for work under the law. The
village secretary gets administrative and technical approval for the list of works from the janpad
panchayat. The gram panchayat, the Additional Program Officer (APO) at the block level, and
the Program Officer (PO) at the district level prepare a labor budget for the year, which accounts
for the number of job-card holders who might need work during the year. Funds are allocated
accordingly.
The village secretary maintains a muster roll of the people working on projects under NREGA
and the work done and submits a weekly muster (project inventories of labor and materials used)
to the janpad panchayat for technical evaluation. A payment order or check is subsequently
issued to the bank account of the gram panchayat based on the muster, and the gram panchayat
makes the payment order for the bank to transfer wages into the individual bank accounts of the
workers.
If a member of a registered household has not been allocated work within 15 days of applying
for work through NREGA, an unemployment allowance must be paid to that individual.
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NREGA Objective
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) aims at enhancing the
livelihood security of the people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage
employment in a financial year, to a rural household whose members volunteer to do
unskilled manual work. The Act also seeks to create durable assets and strengthen the
livelihood resource base of the rural poor. The choice of works suggested in the Act
address causes of chronic poverty like drought, deforestation, soil erosion, so that the
process of employment generation is on a sustainable basis.
Salient Features of the Act
Salient features of the Act are summarized below:
a) Adult members of a rural household may apply for employment if they are willing to
do unskilled manual work.
b) Such a household will have to apply for registration to the local Gram Panchayat, in
writing, or orally.
c) The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job Card to the household as a
whole. The Job Card will bear the photograph of all adult members of the household
willing to work under NREGA. The Job Card with photograph is free of cost
d) A Job Card holding household may submit a written application for employment to the
gram Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought. The minimum
days of employment have to be fifteen.
e) The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for
employment, against which the guarantee of providing employment within 15 days
operates
f) Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work by an employment
seeker.
g) If employment is not provided within 15 days, daily unemployment allowance, in cash
has to be paid. Liability of payment of unemployment allowance is of the States.
h) At least one-third of persons to whom work is allotted work have to be women.
i) Wages are to be paid according to minimum wages as prescribed under the Minimum
Wages Act 1948 for agricultural labourers in the State, unless the Centre notifies a wage
rate which will not be less than Rs. 60/ per day
j) Disbursement of wages has to be done on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight.
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k) Panchayat Raj Institutions [PRIs] have a principal role in planning and
implementation.
l) Each district has to prepare a shelf of projects. The selected works to provide
employment are to be selected from the list of permissible works The different categories
of permissible works are as follows:
Water Conservation
Drought Proofing (including plantation and afforestation)
Flood Protection
Land Development
Minor Irrigation, horticulture and land development on the land of SC/ST/ -
BPL/IAY and
land reform beneficiaries
Rural connectivity
The shelf of projects has to be prepared on the basis of priority assigned by Gram Sabha.
At least 50% of works have to be allotted to Gram Panchayats for execution. A 60:40
wage and material ratio has to be maintained. Contractors and use of labour displacing
machinery is prohibited.
m) Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village or else extra
wages of 10% are payable.
n) Work site facilities such as crèche, drinking water, shade have to be provided
o) Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha.
p) Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive
implementation process.
q) All accounts and records relating to the Scheme are to be made available to any person
desirous of obtaining a copy of such records, on demand and after paying a specified fee.
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CHAPTER 2: Literature Review
Rationale of Workfare Programmes
A majority of the poor in rural areas of the country depend mainly on the wages they earn
through unskilled, casual, manual labour. They are often on threshold levels of
subsistence, and are vulnerable to the possibility of sinking from transient to chronic
poverty. Inadequate labour demand or unpredictable crises that may be general in nature,
like natural disaster or personal like ill-health, all adversely impact their employment
opportunities.
In a context of poverty & unemployment, workfare programmes have been important
interventions in developed as well as developing countries for many years. These
programmes typically provide unskilled manual workers with short-term employment on
public works such as, irrigation infrastructure, reforestation, soil conservation and road
construction.
The rationale for workfare programmes rests on some basic considerations. The
programmes provide income transfers to poor households during critical times and also
enable consumption smoothing, especially during slack agricultural seasons or years. In
countries with high unemployment rates, transfer benefits from workfare programmes
can prevent poverty from worsening, particularly during lean periods.Durable assets that
these programmes may create have the potential to generate second-round employment
benefits as needed infrastructure is developed.
Workfare Programes in India
The need to evolve a mechanism to supplement existing livelihood sources in rural areas
was recognized early in development planning in India. The Government implemented
workfare programmes that offered wage employment on public works at minimum
wages. The wage employment programmes started as pilot projects in the form of Rural
Manpower (RMP) [1960-61], Crash Scheme for Rural Employment (CRSE) [1971-72],
Pilot Intensive Rural Employment Programme (PIREP) [1972], Small Farmers
Development Agency (SFDA), Marginal Farmers & Agricultural Labour Scheme
(MFAL) to benefit the poorest of the poor. These experiments were translated into a full-
fledged wage-employment programme in 1977 in the form of Food for Work Programme
(FWP). In the 1980's this programme was further streamlined into the National Rural
Employment Programme (NREP) and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee
Programme (RLEGP). Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) [1993-94], Employment Assurance
Scheme (EAS), Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS), The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana
(JRY) was merged with Jawahar Gram Samriddhi Yojana (JGSY) from 1999-2000 and
was made a rural infrastructure programme. The programme was merged with
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Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) from 2001-02, and National Food for Work
(NFFWP) [2005]. These wage employment programmes implemented by State
Governments with Central assistance were self-targeting, and the objective was to
provide and enhance livelihood security, especially for those dependent on casual manual
labour. At the State level, the Govt. of Maharashtra formulated the Maharashtra
Employment Guarantee Scheme and Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Act, 1977 to
provide wage employment to those who demanded it.
NREGA - Giving a statutory framework to wage employment programmes
Based on the experience of these programmes, the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (NREGA) was enacted to reinforce the commitment towards livelihood
security in rural areas. The Act was notified on 7th September, 2005. The significance of
NREGA lies in the fact that it creates a rightbased framework for wage employment
programmes and makes the Government legally accountable for providing employment
to those who ask for it. In this way, the legislation goes beyond providing a social safety
net towards guaranteeing the right to employment.
Funding
The Central Government bears the costs on the following items:
The entire cost of wages of unskilled manual workers.
75% of the cost of material, wages of skilled and semi skilled workers.
Administrative expenses as may be determined by the Central Government, which
will include inter alia, the salary and the allowances of the Programme Officer
and his supporting staff, work site facilities.
Expenses of the National Employment Guarantee Council.
The State Government bears the costs on the following items:
25% of the cost of material, wages of skilled and semi skilled workers.
Unemployment allowance payable in case the State Government cannot provide
wage employment on time.
Administrative expenses of the State Employment Guarantee Council.
Districts have dedicated accounts for NREGA funds. They have submitted their proposals
based on clearly delineated guidelines so that funds may be distributed efficiently at each
level, and adequate funds may be available to respond to demand. Under NREGA, fund
releases are based on an appraisal of both financial and physical indicators of outcomes.
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NREGA - Paradigm Shift
NREGA marks a paradigm shift from the previous Wage Employment Programmes
(WEPs). NREGA provides a statutory guarantee of wage employment, that is, it offers a
statutory base, to wage seekers' application for employment. Employment is dependent
upon the worker exercising the choice to apply for registration and obtain a Job Card, and
then to exercise a choice to seek employment through a written application for the time
and duration that the worker wants. The legal guarantee has to be fulfilled within the time
limit prescribed and this mandate is underpinned by the provision of unemployment
allowance. The Act is thus designed to offer an incentive structure to the States for
providing employment as ninety percent of the cost for employment provided is borne by
the Centre, and there is a concomitant disincentive for not providing employment if
demanded as the States then bear the double indemnity of unemployment and the cost of
unemployment allowance. Earlier wage employment programmes were allocation based
NREGA is not supply driven but demand driven. Resource transfer under NREGA is
based on the demand for employment and this provides another critical incentive to
States to leverage the Act to meet the employment needs of the poor. The public delivery
system has been made accountable, as it envisages an Annual Report on the outcomes of
NREGA to be presented by the Central Government to the Parliament and to the
Legislature by the State Government.
Amendments in the NREG Act, 2005
Amendments in the Schedules in the Act were made in response to field feed back to
facilitate the implementation of the Act. These include the following:
i) In accordance with Section 4(1) of the NREG Act, every State Govt. is required to
formulate and notify a scheme for giving effect to the provisions of the Act. Some of the
State Governments could not make the said Scheme within the stipulated time. The
period of six months provided in Sub-section (1) of Section 4 was accordingly extended
from six months to one year by way of an amendment (Notification dated 4.1.2007 ).
ii) Schedule I to NREG Act, 2005 has been amended as under: (a) Before paragraph 1,
the following has been inserted: "1A. The scheme notified under Section 4 by all the
States shall be called 'National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme' followed by the
name of the relevant State. All documents pertaining to National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act must have mention of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(NREGS)".
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(b) In paragraph 1, sub-paragraph (iv) has been substituted by the following:
"(iv)Provision of irrigation facility, horticulture plantation and land development
facilities owned by households belong to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes
or to Below Poverty Line families or to beneficiaries of land reforms or to the
beneficiaries under the Indira Awas Yojana of the Government of India."
iii) In Schedule II of the NREG Act, number of workers required for starting a new work
under the Scheme as provided in sub-para (a) of para 13 has been reduced to 10 from the
earlier number of at least 50 labourers.
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CHAPTER 3: Observation
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: Programme Implementation
1. Statutory Institutional Mechanisms
(i) Central Council: The Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) was
constituted under Section 10(1) of the Act. CEGC Rules 2006 were notified on
25.05.2006 and set up vide notification dated 22.09.06. The Council advises the
government on all the matters concerning the implementation of this Act. The Council
also reviews the monitoring and grievance redressal mechanism from time to time and
recommends improvements. In the year 2006-2007 two meetings of CEGC have been
held. Union Minister for Rural Development is the Chairman of the Council.
(ii) National Fund: Under Section 20(1) of the NREGA, a National Employment
Guarantee Fund (NEGF) has to be constituted. The Central government established a
non-lapsable fund called National Employment Guarantee Fund to be managed according
to the Rules. The rules for National Fund were notified on 2.1.2007.
(iii) State Councils: The State Employment Guarantee Council (SEGC) is to be
constituted by each State Government under Rule 12(1) of the NREG Act. Till date
twenty two states have constituted their State Councils.
2. Communication and Awareness Generation
Communication was one of the critical areas for effective and efficient implementation of
the NREGA. The Information Educational and Communication (IEC) strategies include
newspapers, TV and radio spots, pamphlets and brochures to create awareness. States
organised Gram Sabha to communicate key features of the Act.
3. Operational Systems
i) Deployment of additional dedicated personnel for NREGA
Learning from the implementation of earlier wage employment programmes the Central
Government has initiated steps to support the management and implementation of
NREGS. Under the Act the Central Government provide assistance for administrative
expenses up to a limit as fixed by the Centre. The Ministry has permitted 4% of the total
cost to be made as administrative cost enabling resource support for deploying additional
personnel critical to implementation, viz. the Gram Rozgar Sewak at the GP level and
Programme Officer, engineers, IT and accounts personnel at the Block Level.
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ii) Strengthening capacity building at the state level
Another critical element for the strengthening of administrative systems pertains to
training different stakeholders. The requirements of training are considerable at all levels
and include functionaries, PRIs, and the local vigilance committees. While NIRD and the
SIRDs have initiated training programmes, the challenge has been to design training
programmes calibrated in content and process according to different target groups and to
manage large scale training needs without compromising on quality. Systems for
recurrent cycles of training, using the feedback available, also need to be established.
iii) MIS
A web enabled MIS www.nrega.nic.in was developed. This makes data transparent and
available in public domain to be equally accessed by everyone. States undertook the
creation of the data base at the block and district level. It is a household level data base
and has internal checks for ensuring consistency and conformity to normative processes.
All critical parameters get monitored in public domain:
a) Workers' entitlement data and documents such as registration, Job Cards, Muster Rolls,
b) Work selection and execution data including, shelf of approved and sanctioned works,
work estimates, works under execution, measurement,
c) Employment demanded and provided and,
d) Financial indicators such as, funds available, funds used, and the disaggregated
structure of fund utilization to assess the amount paid as wages, materials and
administrative expenses. Since the MIS places all critical data on the web and this data is
software engineered, it has significant advantages in terms of transparency as it allows
cross verification of records and the generation of reports on any parameter of the Act.
The aim is to ensure connectivity at the Block level on priority and where ever possible,
at the Gram Panchayat level.
iv) Monitoring and Evaluation
Field verification of NREGS processes is through external and internal agencies and the
feedback is shared with the States for follow up. National Level Monitors have visited all
Phase-I NREGS districts and 112 NREGS districts of Phase-II. Independent concurrent
studies were also taken up and were shared with the States. States were directed to ensure
100% verification at Block, 10 % at District and 2% at the State level specially of Works,
Muster rolls, and Records. Guidelines for Muster Roll verification were evolved and
shared with State Governments.
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v) Programme Review
The status of implementation of NREGA has regularly been reviewed at the level of
Minister (Rural Development) and Secretary (Rural Development) and Secretary (Rural
Development) from time to time through the Regional Performance Review Committee.
4. Public Accountability
The Act contains specific provisions for public accountability. Based on the statutory
directives, the Guidelines stipulate a three pronged strategy for public accountability.
a) Proactive Disclosure: Annual Reports on outcomes to the Parliament and the State
legislature are mandated. Annual Report 2005-2006 on the implementation of NREG
Act, 2005 was prepared and presented to both Houses of Parliament on 19.12.2006.
b) Information under RTI: Documents have to be made available to public on payment of
prescribed fee. This is stipulated in NREGA,Schedule I,Para 17&18.
c) Social Audit: Section 17 of NREGA provides for social audit of all works under a
Gram Panchayat by the Gram Sabha. The Gram Panchayat has to provide records for all
the social audits. This requires creating capacity for social audit among officials, GP
members, and the Gram Sabha. Social Audit processes have been initiated by States, with
support from the Ministry for capacity building that include resource support for planning
and training and evolving processes in partnership with Civil Society Organisations
(CSOs). Two workshops were conducted at Udaipur and Andhra Pradesh to develop
manual for social audit. A significant feature here is the active role played by CSOs in
facilitating social audit processes in partnership with State Governments as well as
independently.
d) Grievance Redressal: Enforcement of the Right to employment requires setting up an
effective grievance redressal system. The Act vests the responsibility for grievance
redressal with the Programme Officer. To ensure prompt grievance redressal certain basic
arrangements must be ensured, such as setting up a grievance redressal cell at the
PO/DPC offices, preferably with a toll free Help Line. The PO and DPC must review the
disposal of complaints on a monthly basis and the persons concerned must be informed.
States have initiated grievance redressal at GP and block levels.
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The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: Programme Outcomes
1. Demand for Employment
The main objective of NREGA is to meet employment demand. The number of
households demanding employment stands at 2.12 crore and 2.10 crore households were
provided employment (See Figure 1 below for State-wise employment provided and
Annexure V for details on employment generated).
2. Person days
The rationale for transiting from Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) to NREGA
was to reinforce the focus on employment and to augment employment generation
opportunities. There has been a significant increase in the person days generated in
NREGA as compared with SGRY, as Table 2 below shows.
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3. Share of women in workforce
The Act stipulates that priority shall be given to women. In terms of implementation it
mandates that a minimum of one-third of the beneficiaries are women who have
registered and have requested for work. (See Figure 2) Against this backdrop, figures
from 27 States point out that this has been met in 18 states, the highest being reported in
Tripura (85%) and Tamil Nadu (82%) respectively. In half of these states the figures
reported were higher than the national average which stands at 40% (See Table 3 below).
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4. Share of SC/ST Households in Employment
In terms of providing employment to members of SC & ST households in 2006-07 the
figure stood at nearly 62%. In 9 states it was higher than the national average. Though the
programme is not confined to any particular group, experience in almost all States shows
that most of SC and ST families are under BPL and they have been able to get
employment under NREGA.
5. Creating Community Assets
As per Schedule 1 of the Act, the focus of the NREGS shall be on the following works:
1) Water conservation and water harvesting;
2) Drought proofing, including afforestation and tree plantation;
3) Irrigation canals, including micro and minor irrigation works;
4) Provision of irrigation facility to land owned by household belonging to the SC/ST, or
to land of the beneficiaries of land reforms, or to land of the beneficiaries under the Indira
Awas Yojana;
5) Renovation of traditional water bodies, including de-silting of tanks;
6) Land development;
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7) Flood control and protection works, including drainage in waterlogged areas;
8) Rural connectivity to provide all weather access. The construction of roads may
include culverts where necessary, and within the village area may be taken up along with
drains;
9) Any work that may be notified by the Central Government in consultation with the
State Government.
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NREGA renamed Mahatma National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
The new name was unveiled on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, on October 2,
2009, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announcing it to a gathering of heads of
villages in New Delhi to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the launch of panchayati
raj. “This is a small effort to pay homage to the Mahatma who always believed in gram
swaraj. This is a pious and historic day,” the prime minister said.
Flooded with complaints about corruption in NREGS works, the Centre has also decided
to appoint 100 prominent people from across the country to carry out independent
evaluations and monitoring of the scheme. The idea is to openly discuss its performance
and share details with gram panchayats and villagers so that the scheme can be
implemented well and transparency brought in.
The MGNREGA Design: Continuum and Innovation
Wage employment programmes have a long history in India, where they meet the daily
subsistence needs of casual labour that forms a major share of the rural workforce.
Income-generation programmes depend on external linkages and markets and take time
to return benefits. The supplemental subsistence of wage employment programmes
provides productive work and social security. The MGNREGA design benefited from
past experience of wage employment programmes, using the instrumentality of labour
intensive public works, wages and self-selection. The significantly distinctive innovative
feature of MGNREGA is that it is a legal guarantee with a rightsbased framework. This
also guarantees the programme’s sustainability. The rights-based framework of
MGNREGA has the following key components: workers’ rights, transparency and
accountability, and productive green jobs.
WORKERS’ RIGHT S
• Self-selection: There are no eligibility criteria or prerequisite skills.
• Demand-based: Any rural households willing to do unskilled manual work may apply
for registration in their local gram panchayats (local governments at the villageor small
town level) if they want to be eligible for employment under the Act. Following
registration, the applicants are entitled to receive job cards. The job card is the basic
physical instrument that enables an applicant to demand work, and it is also the worker’s
record of rights. To obtain employment under MGNREGA, the holder of the job card
must submit a written application for employment to the gram panchayat or to the
Programme Officer at the block level, specifying the period for which employment is
being sought.
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• Time-bound guarantee: The worker’s application for employment is acknowledged
through a dated receipt issued by the village local body or the gram panchayat or the
Programme Officer. This initiates the guarantee process in response to the demand. The
right to employment is guaranteed through timelines: 15 days to allocate employment, 15
days to make payments. An unemployment allowance is paid by the respective State
government to the applicant in case of a delay in employment allocation.
• Local employment must be provided within five kilometres of residence or else
transport and extra wages of 10 per cent must be paid.
• Flexibility is given to workers to participate according to need.
• Wage payment must be as per notified wages within a week and not beyond a fortnight.
• No contractors or machinery is permitted.
• The labour-intensive works have ratios of wage costs to material costs (inclusive of
skilled and semi-skilled labour) that are 60:40.
TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Workers’ rights are safeguarded through transparency and public-accountability
provisions:
• Legal documents such as workers’ job cards that record workers’ entitlements and
receipts;
• Right to information through proactive public disclosure and free citizen access to
information;
• Social audits conducted by the village assembly (gram sabha);
• Grievance redressal mechanisms; and
• penalty of Rs 1,000 as a fine on violation of the Act.
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IMPACT: EARLY TRENDS AND OUTCOMES
AUGMENT ING EMP LOYMENT
Unskilled Labour
When MGNREGA covered the entire country in 2008-2009, it generated 2.16 billion
person-days, and in 2009- 2010, it generated 2.83 billion person days. The scheme has
provided employment to around 52.5 million households. Skilled Labour MGNREGA
has opened up opportunities for large-scale employment of skilled manpower at the block
and/or village level in rural areas through large-scale deployment of mates, engineers,
village assistants, accountants, information technology personnel (at the gram panchayat
level, for example, 0.18 million Gram Rozgar Sahayaks were appointed; at the block
level, 23,102 technical assistants, about 6,966 accountants and 9,296 computer assistants
were appointed).
Employment opportunities for the educated and skilled are being promoted both directly
within the administrative system of the scheme and indirectly in the form of business
avenues opened up by MGNREGA in the postal network, financial and information and
communication technology (ICT) services.
ENHANCING INCOME
In the initial stages, wages under MGNREGA were linked to minimum wages for
agricultural labourers. There has been an increase in minimum wages for agricultural
labourers in most States. The average wage rate rose from R s 65 per day to Rs91 per day
from 2006 to 2010.
EF FECT IVE TARGE TING OF DISADVANTAGED GROUPS
MGNREGA is designed to allow women equity in access to work and in wage payment.
The participation rate of the women’s workforce surpassed the statutory minimum 33 per
cent every year, reaching 48 per cent in the financial year 2009-2010 at the national level.
Independent studies point towards positive trends and women’s empowerment as a result
of economic opportunities under MGNREGA. This is evident in the emergence of
women’s identity; their growing contribution to their households’ livelihood and
decisions on its expenditure, especially on food, consumer goods, children’s education
and health care; and the offsetting of debts. Women have also started to appear more
actively in the rural public sphere as they take up their work and responsibilities. Factors
motivating women’s work participation include local work availability, reduction in risks
associated with migration, flexibility in work choice and participation, notified wage
rates and wage parity with men, easy working conditions vis-à-vis other hazardous
options, and regularity and predictability of working hours. The abolition of contractors
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eliminates chances of exploitation and discrimination based on caste and community and
so restores dignity and self-esteem
INCREAS E IN WAGE RAT E S
Initially, wage rates were linked with minimum wages of agricultural labourers, resulting
in minimum wages for agricultural labourers rising significantly in all States, from as low
as Rs50 per day to Rs100 per day in several States. The wage rate is to be indexed with
the cost of living to give a real wage rate of Rs100 per day. Workers now have the
assured wage rate under MGNREGA to bargain with private employers.
EXPANDING CONNECT IVI T Y
MGNREGA is improving rural connectivity in many ways.
Rural Roads
Fair-weather roads are connecting those hinterland areas left out of larger rural network
programmes, particularly benefiting scattered tribal hamlets. Roads internal to the village
along with side drains are also being started. This provides a critical link with markets,
schools and health services.
Financial Inclusion
Ninety million accounts opened in banks and post offices for MGNREGA workers for
their wage disbursement make this the largest financial-inclusion scheme of the rural
poor. These accounts have also encouraged thrift and saving among some of the poorest
families. Wage payment through the workers’ accounts has helped to reduce leakages in
wage payment.
ICT in Rural Areas
Reaching far-flung areas and flattening management levels for efficiency and
transparency have resulted in strengthening ICT infrastructure in rural areas. Currently,
92 per cent of block offices have computers and 55 per cent have Internet connectivity.
States have been permitted to extend ICT facilities to the gram panchayat levels to make
the newly proposed village knowledge resource centres ICT-enabled and to facilitate
citizen use of ICT for accessing information and asserting rights. Towards this end
MGNREGA has in recent years been most proactive in promoting ICT innovations,
including biometrics and low-cost handheld devices, information-technology kiosks and
automated teller machines (ATMs), all of which empower the rural poor to access their
rights. Backed by financial resources and propelled by legal guarantee pulsating towards
yet unreached areas, MGNREGA is emerging as an accelerated strategy for connecting
the rural poor and rural areas with highways of opportunities.
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Information and monitoring: ICT for rights, governance and transparency
At the village council office, or the Panchayat Samiti, in the Suwarna block of the
Bhilwara District of Rajasthan, the words of a song blare through a back room – dhole
gethi pavdo ladere nrega me chal bharo naam mandade re (“buy me a shovel and stone
cutting equipment and take me to register for NREGP [National Rural Employment
Guarantee Programme] works”) – as a group of NREGP workers queues up in front of a
touch-screen information kiosk. The desire for information draws so many workers to the
Panchayat office. Through biometric or fingerprint technology, workers are able to
access, by means of an information kiosk, updated information on their application status,
number of days worked, wage payments due and, importantly, information on works
currently under way in nearby districts. Further, it serves as a convenient, quick portal to
register villagers under NREGA. Any information needed by the worker can also be sent
through a mobile phone via Short Message Service (SMS).
IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES
Prerequisites for effective implementation of the Act are:
Capacity of people to demand their rights. In this case, lack of literacy,
organization and resources as well as existing structural hierarchies affects the
assertion of rights.
Capacity of the administrative system to plan, implement and enforce. Existing
institutional delivery mechanisms often tend to be constrained both in resources
and capabilities;
Accountability and transparency systems. These are major challenges given the
limited capacities of both the supply and demand sides; and
Adequate budget. A demand based law challenges existing budget systems in
terms of processes and funding capacity
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CHAPTER 4: Suggestions & Recommendations
Policy recommendations
• Removal of the cap of 100 days of employment in districts where more than 50 per cent
of the working population belongs to SCs and STs, or in distress situations of calamity.
• Land development and upgradation on lands of marginal and small farmers (besides
SC/ST and Indira Awas Yojana families).
• Engagement of workers after the construction phase of public works to allow them
downstream benefits of asset creation.
• Clarity on the definition of ‘household’ as described under the Act.
• Devising means by which provision of unemployment allowance can be strictly
enforced.
• Stemming inefficiencies in the release of funds.
• Integration of works with natural resource management and watershed development
plans.
• Convergence with the health and aaganwadi schemes to ensure greater emphasis on
creating sustainable livelihoods. Coupling of work activities offered under the NREGA
with provision of social services (for example, involving workers in activities such as
preparing meals for the Mid Day Meal Scheme, housekeeping services for primary health
centres, care givers for crèches, etc.).
• Evolution of strict grievance redressal mechanisms for reporting of violations and
issuing corrective action (for example, Employment Guarantee Mission/ district
ombusman to serve as an empowered external authority, receiving complaints from
complainants, NGOs, civil society organizations, labour unions, etc.).
• Use of an employment calendar to avoid conflict of NREGA work with the demand for
labour in agriculture.
• Incorporation of breast feeding breaks into the work schedule of women at NREGA
worksites.
• Incorporation of skill training and capacity building and efforts towards establishing a
wage floor.
• Making the scheme more worker-friendly by reducing paperwork.
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• Ensuring sustained political will and commitment in undertaking the Scheme.
• Examination of exit opportunities after the NREGS.
• Clarity on the purpose of NREGS as the Scheme suffers from an identity crisis, being
simultaneously considered as a poverty alleviation programme, a social safety net, a
programme of investment, and a wage employment programme.
Suggestions to improve implementation
Beneficiaries
• Increasing awareness among beneficiaries of rights and entitlements under the Scheme
and also roles and responsibilities of implementing agencies.
• Incorporating tribal sensitivity into the systems and processes of the scheme.
• Arresting worksite politics at the time of allocation of work and wage payment.
• Allowing rural communities benefits from carbon trading.
• Using ‘Process-Influence–Mapping’ as a participatory tool to understand the influence
enjoyed by various actors at different stages of the scheme.
• Seeking greater participation of beneficiaries in translation of the Scheme.
Wages and Wage Payment
• Reviewing the schedule of rates for wage payment, based on gender-sensitive concerns
and geographic factors.
• Replicating a clearly defined wage payment cycle, as instituted in Andhra Pradesh, with
wages disbursed through post offices within 15 days.
• Introducing mobile banking to prevent costs of traveling to and from banks.
• Introducing the ‘mate’ system of work measurement to increase worker productivity.
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Works
• Expanding the scale of works so that 100 days of employment can be provided in the
long run to all job seekers.
• Expanding the list of works to be undertaken on the recommendation of the workers.
• Issuing dated receipts following application for work to ensure that work is provided
within 15 days.
• Focusing greater attention on the quality of assets created.
• Identifying new players responsible for asset maintenance and conservation.
Social Audit
• Involving of civil society groups and NGOs in social audit to ensure objectivity.
• Videography of social audits as a record for the future.
• Devising central rules (along the lines of an election act) for the accountability of
implementing agencies.
Personnel
• Making provisions to ensure that there is no staff shortage in implementation of
Scheme.
• Providing compulsory induction training for technical staff.
• Institutionalizing incentive mechanisms for staff awards for successes and penalties for
failures.
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CHAPTER 5: Conclusion
The NREGA is closely bound up with notions of entitlement and citizenship. It was
associated with a rights-based agenda pushed in the Supreme Court. Its supporters
claimed it would empower the poor and foster democracy, unlike passive beneficiary
employment programmes. Some argued it was mandated by the 2004 election. However,
the NREGA was an elite creation. Leaders in civil society and politics shaped its
progress, building coalitions between them to generate support for guaranteed
employment. Champions in government were critical in pushing the NREGA onto the
agenda and in overcoming the resistance of their colleagues.
The model of the ‘tipping point’ fits this process very well. Once on the national agenda,
the only real opposition to the NREGA came from fiscal conservatives in the government
and bureaucracy. Political opposition was notably absent. Rural employers who may have
lost out through rising wages were far too poorly organised to protest, and not
represented politically. Right-of-centre commentators expressed displeasure at the Act in
the media, but their political representatives dared not echo them. Yet, political parties
had not previously taken the idea forward seriously. The ‘tipping point’ was the
Congress’ surprise victory in the 2004 election. More specifically, it was the combination
of a determined activist campaign targeted on the Congress party and the belief in the
Congress party that the 2004 election was not winnable that allowed the inclusion of a
commitment to an EGA in the Congress manifesto. To the amazement and jubilation of
the EGA’s advocates, one year later, that manifesto formed the basis of the national
government’s policy programme, and the passage of the NREGA was underway.
