THE RELEVANCE OF NREGA IN ENSURING A CORRUPTION LESS WAGE EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMME AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT A CASE STUDY

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1 Abstract THE RELEVANCE OF NREGA IN ENSURING A CORRUPTION LESS WAGE EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMME AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT A CASE STUDY Dr.E.M.Thomas The most ambitious and universal poverty eradication progrmme introduced in India since independence is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The historic National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) came into force on February 2, 2006 in 200 hundred most backward Indian districts and later from April 1 st 2008 onwards extended to cover all the districts in the country. It ensures the livelihood security of the poor households in the rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment, to the adult members who are willing to do unskilled manual labour, in every financial year. It resembles the Argentinian job creation schemes, the plan jefes de Hogar introduced in 2002, which helped them to recover from the virtual collapse of their economy. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the performance of NREGA as a corruptionless wage employment programme and to analyze the impact of NREGA on the empowerment of rural women. The paper is divided in to two sections. Section I presents a brief discussion of the concept of women empowerment. It also deals with a brief discussion of the unique features of NREGA as a wage employment programme. The second section deals with the experience of a village panchayat in Kerala in attaining the twin objectives of implementing NREGS without corruption and enhancement of women empowerment. Independent India s serious efforts to alleviate poverty began with the famous slogan Gharibi Hatao of the 1970 s. It was soon followed by a flood

2 of wage employment programme to eradicate poverty; like National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Rural Landless Employment Programme (RLEGP), Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY), Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) and Jawhar Gram Samrithi Yojana (JGSY). But the huge backlog of rural unemployed poor stands testimony to the limited success of these wage employment progrmmes. But the NREGS is quite distinct from all its predecessors. It is designed with the following unique features; a) it introduced a rights based framework, b) it introduced a legal guarantee of work as opposed to a government programme which could be withdrawn by a government at will, c) time bound action to fulfill guarantee of work within 15 days of demand for work, d) incentive structure for performance (central government funds 90% of costs of generating employment), e) disincentive for non performance (unemployment allowance to be paid within 15 days if work not provided within 15 days is a state government liability), f) demand based resource availability and, g) accountability of public delivery system through social audits. All the women empowerment programmes consider the attainment of the following targets as their ultimate goals; (a) distribution of power and influence (b) Financial independence (c) equal opportunities to develop personal ambitions. Hence the present study is an enquiry in to the real implications of NREGS in Vadakkanchery panchayat regarding the attainment of goals like erection of corruption and enhancement of women empowerment. THE RELEVANCE OF NREGA IN ENSURING A CORRUPTION LESS WAGE EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMME AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT 2

3 A CASE STUDY Dr.E.M.Thomas The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act represents a Paradigm shift from the other wage employment progrmmes operating in India. It is a shift from the programme to act, compared to the earlier programmes. Likewise women empowerment has been one of our long cherished goals. Both the political decentralization launched in India with the revival of panchayat raj system of local governance through the 73 rd constitutional Amendment, and the recent launching of NREGA, directly and indirectly gave a fillip to women empowerment activities. These two historic events ensure both political and economic empowerment of women in India. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the performance of NREGA as a corruptionless wage employment programme and to analyze the impact of NREGA on the empowerment of rural women. The paper is divided in to two sections. Section I presents a brief discussion of the concept of women empowerment. It also deals with a brief discussion of the unique features of NREGA as a wage employment programme. The second section deals with the experience of a village panchayat in Kerala in attaining the twin objectives of implementing NREGS without corruption and enhancement of women empowerment. Section I Brief discussion of the concept of Women Empowerment as well as the unique features of NREGA. Women empowerment can be considered as a dynamic process which enhances women s abilities to change the structures and ideologies that keep them subordinate. It is a process of challenging existing power relations and gaining greater control over the sources of power. Today nobody consider women as second to men. There is plenty of evidence that when women get 3

4 opportunities, that are typically the preserve of men, they are no less successful in making use of these facilities that men have claimed to be their own over the centuries. There is plenty of evidence that whenever social arrangements depart from the standard practice of male ownership, women can seize business and initiative with much success. It is also clear that, the result of women s participation is not merely to generate income, for women, but also to provide the social benefits that come from women s enhanced status and independence. The economic participation of women is thus both the reward in its own (with associated reduction of gender bias in the treatment or women in family decisions) and a major influence on social change in general (Sen.A.K,2000). The topic of women empowerment has been discussed elaborately at various international conferences from 1975 onwards. The first U.N.General Assembly passed a resolution to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. It emphasized the need for ensuring freedom and equality for women in civil, cultural economic, political and social areas of activity. The 1993 Vienna conference on Human Rights, 1994 Cairo Conference on population and Development and the 1995 Beijing Women s World Conference also high lighted the need for the promotion of women empowerment programmes all over the world. All the women empowerment programmes consider the attainment of the following targets as their ultimate goals; (a) distribution of power and influence (b) Financial independence (c) equal opportunities to develop personal ambitions. The gender inequality in terms of opportunities has been evaluated by UNDP (2005) by considering the degree of participation and decision making power for women in the following spheres of human activities; (a) Political participation and decision making power as measured by women s and men s percentage shares of Parlimentary seats (b) economic participation and decision making power as measured by two indicators women s and men s percentage shares of positions as legislators, senior 4

5 officials, and managers and women s and men s percentage shares of professional and technical positions (c) power over economic resources as measured by women s and men s estimated income. The role of women in protecting the family members from hunger and poverty had been highlighted by Rosi Braidotti (1994) and Caroline Moser (1988, 1989). According to them, in 1980 s the international economic conditions and debt crisis led to increasing poverty of populations in the south and to what was termed a feminization of poverty. An increasing number of women became providers of family subsistence, while men often migrated in search employment. Women suffered disproportionately from cuts in government spending for health care and social services in so far as these cuts were compensated by women s increasing work loads. The development was seen to become more efficient and effective through women s increased contribution and their participation and equity were seen as the same thing. Caroline Moser called, this the Efficiency Approach to women s development. The concept of women s empowerment got wider popularity and acceptance in Kerala with the launching of decentralized planning in the state. The programmes for women empowerment designed in Kerala has three dimensions; viz. economic, social and political, which reinforce each other. The participatory model of development ensured by decentralized planning has opened up numerous opportunities for women in Kerala to prove their mettle in the political, administrative and economic activities of the state. Till now the performance of women in these areas of social life is enviable. The reservation of 1/3 of seats for women in Local Self Government Institutions (LSGI) has resulted in the compulsory political 5

6 participation of women in the administration of local bodies. The local bodies election, Kerala 2005 is an indicator of increased political participation of women in the state. The number of women contestants and winners went beyond the requirements of one third of total seats (33 percent). Out of the women contested for Local Government Institutions 7461 won the elections over and above the mandatory requirement of (Kerala Economic Review 2006). The increased participation of women in local governance have uplifted their self confidence and decision making power considerably. The introduction of gender budgeting which stipulate that 10% of the plan fund of local self Government institutions should be spend for women empowerment projects, also contributed much towards the empowerment of rural women in Kerala. Gender budgeting is an attempt to change budgets from exercises in resource allocation to tools for social change. It serves as entry points for broad based dialogue around gender equity issues tools for political and economic empowerment of women. The natural outcome of gender budgeting is economic empowerment of women. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is an epoch making event in the history of independent India. Since the year 1970, several wage employment programmes were introduced in the country. The prominent wage employment programmes introduced in India include, the National Rural employment Programme NREP, Rural Landless Employment Programme (RLEGP), Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY), Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) and Jawhar Gram Samrithi Yojana (JGSY) and Sampooran Gamin Samridhi Yojana (SGRY). But the huge backlog of rural unemployed poor stands testimony to the limited success of these wage employment progrmmes. But the NREGS is quite distinct from all its predecessors. It is designed with the following unique features; a) it introduced a rights based framework, b) it introduced a legal guarantee of 6

7 work as opposed to a government programme which could be withdrawn by a government at will, c) time bound action to fulfill guarantee of work within 15 days of demand for work, d) incentive structure for performance (central government funds 90% of costs of generating employment), e) disincentive for non performance (unemployment allowance to be paid within 15 days if work not provided within 15 days is a state government liability), f) demand based resource availability and, g) accountability of public delivery system through social audits. Of all the above mentioned programmes, SGRY was perhaps the most ambitious one next only to NREGA. But the implementation of SGRY in several parts of the country was not fool proof. For e.g.: the implementation of SGRY in Kerala was made possible by violating, the several fundamental principles and guidelines of the programme (Jos Chathukulam, 2005). The SGRY programme sought to reduce delay and corruption in the implementation through the creation of monitoring bodies like vigilance and monitoring committees and physical and financial audits. But vigilance and monitoring committees were functional only in two districts, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram. Likewise physical and financial auditing has not been done in most of the districts. The scheme had provision for putting up display boards at every work site in order to enhance awareness among the villagers and to ensure transparency in decision making. But the display boards were conspicuous by their absence in many of the work sites. But NREGA has been launched in the country with a vow, not to repeat the defects of the earlier wage employment programme. In the implementation of NREGA, the government seems to be very particular that, women should get proper and adequate representation in the state Employment Guarantee Council. The extra ordinary gazette of Government of India New Delhi, Wednesday, September 7, 2005, Chapter IV section 12 (1), specify that, for the purposes of regular monitoring and reviewing the 7

8 implementation of the act (NREGA) at the state level, every state government shall constitute a state council to be known as the (Name of the state) State Employment Guarantee council with a chair person and such number of official members as may be determined by the state government and not more than fifteen non official members nominated by the state government form panachayat raj institutions; organizations of workers and disadvantaged groups; provided that not less than one third of the non official members nominated under this clause shall be women. Like wise in order to ensure transparency and reduce corruption the government is particular that, NREGS works should be subjected to social auditing by gramasabhas. The Grama Sabha, shall monitor the execution of works in the Gram panchayat. The gram sabha shall conduct regular social audits of all the projects under the schemes taken up within the gram panchayat. The gram panchayat shall make available all relevant documents, including the muster rolls, bills, vouchers, measurement books, copies of sanction orders, and other connected books of account and papers to the gram sabha for the purpose of conducting the social audit. (Special gazette, Govt.India September section (17,1-3). Hence it is clear that, NREGA is unique in the sense that, it gives primary importance to women participation and empowerment as well as a corruptionless implementation of the wage employment programme; through social auditing by Gram sabhas. It ensures transparency and accountability. Section II Experience of a village panchayat in Kerala in the implementation of NREGA This section deals with an analysis of the experience of one village panchayat in Kerala in the implementation of NREGA. The new wage employment programme had been introduced in the village panchayat with a strong determination not to allow any sort of elements of corruption in its 8

9 implementation. Moreover it also aimed at the enhancement of women empowerment. The Kerala Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme came into force from February , in two districts, Palakkad and Wayanad. Since the primary goal of this programme is removal of rural poverty it is highly essential to look into the performance of rural village panchayat in this regard. The present study, is based on the evaluation of the performance of Vadakkanchery village panchayat in realizing the goals of implementation of NREGS without corruption and enhancement of women empowerment. Vadakkanchery village panchayat belongs to Alathur block panchayat of Palakkad District. It is a special grade panchayat having 19 wards. As per the census data of 2001 its total population is comprising of females and males. Among the total population 5048 people belongs to the category of Scheduled Caste and 19 to the Scheduled Tribe. Table (1) shows the profile of the panchayat in terms of classification of families into various categories. Table.1.BPL families and NREGS beneficiaries of Vadakkanchery village panchayat (2008) Families Number Total families 6991 Total BPL families 2370 Total NREGP job card holders 2225 Job card holders who demanded jobs 1072 Job card holders who received jobs 1072 SC families 310 Source :Records of Vadakkanchery village panchayat. 9

10 Table (1) reveals that out of the total 6991 families, 2370 are classified BPL families. Likewise even though there are 2225 job card holders only 1072 people demanded jobs and the village panchayat could provide jobs to all of them. When the scheme was launched in the panchayat a lot of people expected that they would get one or another type of white collar job within the panchayat area, commensurate to their educational qualification. Another group of youngsters thought that they would be deprived of government jobs if they fail to register their names in the panchayat for NREGA jobs. In the course of time they understood that all their prejudices and anxieties were baseless. Hence most of them did not appear for doing manual jobs provided by the panchayat as part of the NREGS. Moreover the wage rate of Rs.125 is too low to attract male workers to NREGS works, for most of them could get more than Rs.200 per day by doing other jobs. Hence there is the gap between the number of job card holders and those who actually demanded jobs. Table 2. Classification of NREGS works undertaken by Vadakkanchery panchayat during Name of the project Number Canal improvement 11 Narrow water channels(thodu) 6 Pond renovation 8 Roadside drains 42 Roads 3 Total 70 Source: Report of verification of muster rolls, Vadakkanchery panchayat The nature of NREGS works undertaken by Vadakkanchery panchayat shows that, it acted according to the guidelines issued by NREGA. Projects 10

11 for improvement of road connectivity and improvement of water bodies like ponds, canals and thodu received much importance in the NREGS of the panchayat. These projects help to enhance the storage capacity and supply of water resources in the comparatively droughtprone areas of the grama panchayat. Though nobody could receive 100 days of employment in the year , ten families of Vadakkanchery panchayat could achieve this goal during Table 3 shows the number of work days received by different job card holding households in the grama panchayat. Table (3) Number of households and the number of NREGS work days received by job card holders in Vadakkanchery panchayat during Number of work days Number of households Number of households Upto

12 Total Source: Records of Vadakkanchery panchayat (2006 to 2008). Table (3) shows that there is a remarkable increase in the number of households which received nearly 100 days of employment in Like wise, 301 households received wage employment for 40 to 50 days in It also reveals that there is an increase in the total number of workers wage employment from 859 to 1072 during the period to The village panchayat tried to introduce NREGS projects with almost all the precautions to avoid the occurrence of corruption. In order to ensure transparency and accountability, Vadakkanchery village panchayat took all the mandatory steps enlists in the NREGA. Major Findings of the study Transparency: As per the NREGA, it is mandatory that notice boards showing all the details of the work should be placed at all the work sites. In the study area out of the 70 work sites notice boards were place only at 48 sites. Social Auditing: Social audit of government work is a unique tool of establishing governments direct accountability to the people. In NREGA (Section 17, subsection 1,2,3) it has been made an integral and important part with the purpose to enforce the constitutional and democratic right of the citizen to get the correct information about the spending of public money. It is observed from the study that Vadakkanchery panchayat conducted only one social auditing programme for the two year period, and Contractors and middlemen: All the transaction related to the NREGS works were done without the help of contractors and 12

13 middlemen in the study area. The notorious PC system, reported elsewhere in the country could not be found in this panchayats. Mode of payment of wages: Wages to the workers were paid through commercial banks in the panchayat. The details regarding the Banks and the Number of NREGS workers receiving wages from them can be observed from the following table(4). Table 4 Number of NREGS workers receiving wage income through commercial banks. Name of the Bank Number of NREGS workers receiving wage income State Bank of Travancore 643 Bank of Baroda 128 Federal Bank 117 Dhanalakshmi Bank 44 South Malabar Gramin Bank 75 Centruian Bank of Punjab 65 Total 1072 Source: Records of Vadakkanchery panchayat (2008). It could be noted that out of the 1072 bank account holders 910 of them got an opportunity to open their first bank account only because of the 13

14 NREGA programme. Initially, State Bank of Travancore provided ATM facilities to 51 beneficiaries of NREGS. Delays in the payment of wages: It is mandatory that wages should be provided to all the workers related to the NREGS within 15 days. But in Vadakkanchery panchayat most often workers receive wages only after 20 days. Disparities in the measurement of projects: In the study area no disparities could be noticed between the estimated and actual measurements of the size of the NREGS projects. It seems that the monitoring committee in the panchayat is very efficient and active in ensuring the timely and proper completion of NREGS projects. Mandays of work generated and the total amount of wages paid: From the verification of the muster rolls of the panchayat, it is found that, the panchayat could generate 46,245 mandays of work during the two year period from ; and the workers received Rs as wages. It is evident that all the workers received Rs.125 per day as wages. Involvement of Gram sabhas: In fact all the project proposals came form various gram sabha meetings. Hence all the viable projects(70), proposed by the gram sabhas were undertaken and implemented by the panchayat. Hence, no external influence could be noticed in the selection and sanctioning of NREGS Projects in the panchayats. Records of Gram sabha meetings substantiated this fact. The performance of Vadakkanchery panchayat in the implementation of NREGS work shows that it could achieve the goal of elimination, of corruption in the sanctioning of NREGS works, bribery, middle men,mismatch in the measurements between the estimated and achieved targets, the implementation of the NREGS projects. Moreover all the workers received the mandatory wage rate of Rs.125 per day through commercial banks. But the failure of the panchayat to conduct mandatory and periodic social auditing is a matter of serious concern. Likewise the delays in the payment of wages also should be avoided. In short, it is found that in general the panchayat could succeed, in the implementation of NREGS works without any corruption. Women empowerment 14

15 Another important area of concern of NREGA is the empowerment fo rural women. In this regard, the village panchayat seems to have made admirable achievements. Major findings Participation of women The NREGP works in the panchayat is characterized by the presence of a large number of women. Out of the 1072 NREGP workers, 912 are women. In other words 85% of the NREGP work force of Vadakkanchery panchayat is comprised of women belonging to the BPL households. Sole bread winners of families and widows: Another notable feature of the women workers of NREGS works of Vadakkanchery panchayat is that, out of 912 women workers are 98 are the sole bread winners of the families. Moreover 50 of them are widows. Educational standards: The level of education of women workers were found comparatively very low. Out of the 912 women workers, 273 use thumb impressions in the official records. Table (5) shows the details regarding this aspect. Table (5) Levels of education of women workers of NREGS (Vadakkanchery panchayat,2008) Level of education Number of women Percentage(%) Illiterate Lower primary school Upper primary school High school Above the high school 0 0 Total Age of women workers : The women workforce of NREGS of Vadakkanchery panchayat is characterized women. More than 70% of this belay to the age group of The age wise classification of women workforce. Given in table(6) shows the details. Table (6) Age wise classification of women workforce of NREGP (Vadakkanchery panchayat) 15

16 Age Number of women workers Percentage (%) Total Impact of NREGS on the Empowerment of Women workers The success or feature of a project is generally evaluated on the basis of its impact on its participants. The NREGS works also can be evaluated by analysis its effects on the workforce. The following table (6) shows the impact of NREGS works on the women workforce of Vadakkanchery panchayat. Table.6.Impact of NREGS works on the women workforce of Vadakkanchery panchayat. Yes: Number Percenta ge No : Num ber % No idea: Number % % Satisfied self confidence Credit worthiness Civil society participation Saving

17 Repayment family debt of Education Medicine Supporting family of Empowerment to meet government officials Empowerment to meet bank officials Economic independence Social contracts Source: Survey data The table 6 indicates that all the women workers are fully satisfied with NREGS works. The main reason for their satisfaction is that; today they are assured of 100 days of jobs. It means that no longer they have to fear the occurrence of seasonal unemployment and poverty. Likewise all of them unanimously opine that, the NREGS enabled them to participate effectively in the civil society. Now all them have no fear to enter in to a commercial bank or government office to hold discussions with the officials. Like wise 93.20% of them believe that, the programme enhanced their credit worthiness and 67.43% women believe that, they could start saving some money only because of the NREGS. More over the income form NREGS helped them to finance the education of their children (46.60%), repay family debt (57.89%), medical expenses(98.79%). At the same time 88.82% of the women had the opinion that today, only because of the NREGS, they are able to support their families and 93.31% opined that, the income from the NREGS works 17

18 provided economic independence to them. No longer they are dependent on the income earned by their husbands. All the women to also opined that, NREGS contributed much to the enhancement of their social contacts. In short, the launching of NREGS enhanced the economic and social participation of women in the society. The elimination of disparity between men and women in the payment of daily wages is a notable achievement of NREGA. In other words, the new wage employment programme succeeded ensuring freedom and equality for women in civil, economic and social areas of activity. To conclude, NREGA, the most ambitious wage employment programme introduced in India since independence could succeed in realizing its primary goals. The present study reveals that, NREGS implemented in Vadakkanchery panchayat is a success in the elimination of corruption and bribery associated with public works. At the same time will have to take more initiative in propagating the message of NREGA to the rural poor. Regarding the empowerment of rural women the study found that, NREGS helped to enhance the self confidence and credit worthiness of women. Moreover it enabled them to participate actively in the civil society. In short the study found that, even though there are some gray area of concern, the performance of NREGS is highly encouraging. References:- Kerala Economic Review Moser, Carline O.N. (1989), Gender Planning in the Third World: meeting Practical and Strategical Gender Needs in World Development Vol (1988) Residential struggle and consciousness: The experience of poor women in Guayaquil, Ecuador, London. Rosi Bradiotti et al. (1994), The Environment and Sustainable Development: Towards the Theoretical Synthesis Zed Books, London. 18

19 Sen A.K., (2000) Development as Freedom, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.U.N.D.P;Human Development Report,2005. Jose Chathukulam(2005) Concurrent Evalution of Sampoorne Grameen Rozgar Yojana, Kerala, Report submitted to ministry of Rural Developmetn Govt.of India, New Delhi, October 2001). Five year plan documents of Vadakkanchery Village panchayats Muster Rolls and Audit report of Vadakkanchery village panchayat related to NREGA. The Gazette of India, Extra ordinary Part-II-Section 1, Published by Authority, New Delhi, Wednesday, September 2005, BAHADRA 16,1927. *The author Dr. E.M. Thomas is Reader, Department of Economics, Christ College, Irinjalakuda, Kerla. 19