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, .

RS.2.JANUARY 1990G

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Indira Awas Yojana is part of the JawaharRozgar Yojana. Construction of houses for

SCs/STs and freed bonded labourers is

taken up under this Yojana.

(

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Vol. XXXVIII

NO.4

January 1990

Pausa-Magha 1911

H u r ' u k s h e l r a'''i.

(A Journal of Department of Rural Development)

Production Officer

R.S. Munjal

Photographs-Courtes)': Photo Divisionand Deptt. of R.D.

The views expressed by the authors donot .necessarily reflect the "iews o/the Goyernment

Asstt. Editor

Surendra Tiwary

Sub-Editor

Kamal Kant Saxena

EdUor

B.K. Dhusia

Coyer

Alka Nayyar

This Copy: Rs. 2.00

Annual Subscription:. Rs. 20.00

. Enquiries regarding Subscription,

Agencies etc.:

Business Manager, Publications Division,

Patiala House, N.ew Delhi-I 10001

Editorial Office: 464-A. Krishi Bhavan.

New Delhi-I 10001. Tele. 384888

4

)

CONTENTS~,I

\t. JAY TO USHER IN RURAL REJUVENATION Navin Chandra Joshi

JRY FOR SOCIAL SOLIDARITY

Kamala Prasad

PAGE

4

9

PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION: AN

IMP ORTANT COM PONENT OF JR Y

Chhaya Datar

EMPLOYMENT SCHEMES HAVE TO CONTEND

WITH STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS

Bharar Dogra

PAGE

26

29

ARE PANCHAYATS PREPARED FOR JRY,! . 12

S.M. Shah

JRY-A LEAP TOWARDS POVERTY ALLEVIATION 17

Angsuman Basa

GIVE PANCHAYATS OPERATIONAL

FREEDOM UNDER JRY 21

S.P. Ranga Rao

WORKING OF GRAMODAY A SCHEME:

AN APPRAISAL

LGopalakrishnaiah

P. Mohan Reddy and

C. Sivarami Reddy

RURAL HEALTH CARE S ERVICE-A S URVEY

M. Felix Moneler and'

B. Murugesan

THEY S HOW THE WAY

31

35

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I

JRY to usher in rural rejuvenation

NA VI N CH AN DR A JO SH I

Reader,',Motilal Nehru College, Delhi University

I

OF 'THE CRITICAL PROBLEMS of Indianeconomy, poverty and unemployment prevalent par-ticularly in rural areas of the country needed some

effective solution on a sustained basis. As such a progres-

sive scheme, called Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, was

introduced in April 1989,which is now being implemented

and administered by the village panchayats all over the

country. Over 440 lakh families, which are below the

poverty line, are intended to benefit from this scheme.

The existing schemes, known as National Rural

Employment Programme and Rural Landless Employ-

ment Guarantee Programme, have been merged into this

new yojana (JR Y) which is to provide employmentj to

atleast one member of each poor family for 50 to 100days

in a year in the vicinity of places of their residence. Of the

total expenditure incurred, 15 per cent will be transferred

to village panchayats to be used exclusivelyfor the benefit

of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Of the

beneficiaries under the JRY, 30 per cent will be women. .

Allotment of funds

THE VARIOUS STATES and Union Territories have

been alloltedJunds under the scheme in proportion to

the number of persons living below the poverty line in

them. The devolution of funds to districts has been deter-

mined in -terms of criteria of backwardness such as the

share of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with total

population of the district, the share of agricultural labour

to total labour, and the level of agricultural productivity.

It has also been decided to give specific consideration tb

4

I

such areas as the hills, deserts and the islands. The criteria

for the distribution of resources to village panchayats from

the districts are on the basis of population of the village-

panchaya!. If the population of a village panchayat is less

than 1000, then it is assumed 1000 for the allocation of

funds. Panchayats with a population of 3000 to 4000 would

receive funds of the order of Rs.80,OOOto RS.l,OO,OOO.

Others would get on aprb ratabasis.

As is well-known, rubl imemployment and under-

employment, particularly affecting the poorest segments

ofthe rural population, h~ve been the major contributory

factors to the high incidence of poverty in the rural' areas

notwithstanding the level of economic development that

has taken place over the plan period. The Sixth Plan had

alleviation of rural poverty as one of tlie main objectives ..

As'such, the strategy adopted aimed at redistribution of

income and consumption in favour of poorer sections of

the'population by significahtly increasing employment op-

portunities in the rural; areas. The Naiional Rural

Employment Programmd (NREP) was started in Oc-

tober, 1980to achieve this objective. It replaced the Food

For Work Programme and became a part of the Sixth Plan

from April 1,1981. .

Subsequently, another programme known as Rural

Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP)

was launched on August 15, 1983. Its principal objective

was to improve and expartd employment opportunities

particularly for the rural landless la~our with a view to ~

providing guarantee of employment to at least one mem- .

ber of every rural landless labour household upto 100 days

in a year~ !I

KURUKSHETRAJanuary, 1990\

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Employment & plans

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SUCH EMPLOYMENT

programmes far mitigating rural paverty is also.

reflectecl in the Seventh Plan. It may also.be recalled that

the then Unian Finance Minister, in his budget speech far'

. 1989-90, announced a new scheme far intensive emplay-

ment ill backward districts with acute paverty and.

unemplayment to. be implemented in 120 districts far

which a pravisian af Rs.500 crores was made. The inten-

tian behind the new intensive emplayment scheme, which

was later named as Jawahar Rozgar Yajana, was that the

funds a1latted under the' new scheme wauld be an ad-

ditianality (a the existing NREP IRLEGP to.provide more

emplayment apportunities in view af their backwardness.

An annauncement was made in the budget speech that

NREP and RLEGPwauId be merged inta.Olleprogramme

and implemented as a centrally spansared scheme an thebasis af75: 25 sharing between the Centre and the States.

It was thereafter decided that NREP and' RLEGP,

alang with' the new programme annDunced by the then

Finance Minister, ShDUldbe merged into.ane single rural

emplDymentprogramme to.be named as JR Y. The expen-

diture imder JR Y is being.shared an 80:20 basis between

the Centre and the States. The Central assistance under

JR Y is released to.the districts direct. Nat less than 80 pet

cenfDfthe a1IDcatiDns'underthe pragramme, and received

by the district in respect afbath the Central assistance and

the state contributian, are required to. be given to. the

village panchayats. Thus it is hDped that distributiDn af

resaurces to.gram panchayats will result in increasing the

caverage af the pragramme to.all the rural areas. Further,

fuller and mare active participatian Df the peaple cauld

nDWbe ensured in the implementatian of emplDyment

programmes such as the JR Y.

.Objectives

B

ROADLY, THE FOL.L0WING ARE the abjectives.

af Jawahar Razgar YaJana:- . .

1Primary objectives: GeneratiDn Df additiDnal gainful

emplayment far the unemplayed and. under-emplayed

persons. both men and women in the rural areas;.

2. Secofuioryobjectives: 'Creatian Df praductive com-

munity assets far direct and continuing benefits to. the

paverty graups and far strengthening rural, ecanamic'and

social infrastructure that will lead to. rapid grawth af the

rural econamy alang with a steady rise in the incame levels

af the rural poor. The ather secondary abjective is to.bring

KURUKSHETRA January, 1990

abaut improvement in the averall quality aflife in the rural"

areas.

Biggest jobs programme

NowTHEJRY AIMS at strengthening the planning

'. process at the village !l,vel by involving ~illage

panchayats in the planning' and implementatlan Df

projects ..A-sum af Rs.2,600 crores will be spent in the

Central seCtar an JR Y. As such, ii becomes the biggest

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control mechanism has to be created within the massive

education programmes for villagers.

One serious criticism of iR Y is that some schemes or

funds for them have been shelved. They were the ongoing

schemes under NREP and RLEOP. However, this is not

a general phenomenon, blit only in rare cases such things

have happened. They need to be looked into and the

adequate funds provided for the ongoing projects.

DRDAs and ZPs have to open special accounts for JR Y

so that the Central assistance is deposited in them as also

the State assistance. The Yojana funds are not to be mixed

with other funds of the ORDAs 'and ZPs. DRDAs are

'expected to distribute the funds Within one month of the

receipt o( the money by them to all the panchayats on the

basis of population. The panchayats will open bank ac-

counts to which the released funds will be credited., They

are also to keep JR Y funds in the separate bank accounts.

Where there are no panchayats functioning, the DRDAs, willpass on the funds to the blocks. '

Monitoring

THE WAGE COMPONENT of the programmes to be'

taken up in the panchayats as a whole should be at least

50per cent. The remaining 20 per cent of the funds will be '

left to the DRDAs' .disposal. First priority has to be given

to districts to complete the spill over works under the old

NREP and RLEOP schemes. After completion of the

spill-overworks at the district!evel, inter-village works and

programmes to benefit the community at large will be

taken up. The centre has asked th'e States that ttieyshould'

also work out monitoring and supervision arrangements of

,theschemes implemented under JRY,

Fund allocation criteria

'AS SAID EARLIER, the criteria for allocation of

resources to the Siates is backwardness, population of

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and agricultural

productivity, while at the village level it is only population,

It is suggested'thatthe criteria for allocation "frcsourcesat village panchayatlevel should be the same as it is at the

state level because poverty levels differs from one village

to another. Again"althOligh the population of Scheduled

Castes and Scheduled Tribes generally constitute the,

poorest section ofthe society yet their' condition of poverty

is no!.uniform in ali the villages. It is, therefore, necessary

to prepare some lists showing their means of livelihood,

income and such other relevant particular~ al the village

level.'On the basis of these Iisls, allocation of resourcesshould be made. ' ,


Also, a larger share of resources need to be given to

village panchayats which are located in the interior areas

of the country. Their condition is more acute and the

problems more severe. More than anything else, we have

to guard against the commanding ,influence of the rural

elite in our village panchayats as otherwise the condition

ofthe rural poor may not improve the wayit should. While

there is some inbuilt cushion against such an eventuality,

it is the genuine duty ,of all concerned to see that the

beneficiaries get their due share an,dare not duped by the'

powerful elements in villages.

However, an enduring solution to the problem of un-

employment under the JR Y would be to provide goods

and services in rural homes as that will give work to

millions and millions of idle hands. For instance,

Maharashtra owes much of its rural prosperity to coopera-

tive sugar factories. Oujarat flourished because of

cooperative Amul Dairyand Punjab gained due to ancil-lary home units. As such under the'JRY we should attempt

to create as much of goods and services as may be possible

from the local natural resources. ,

Boosting cooperatives

L'ET US,REMEMBER that cboperatives have still tomake lot of progress in the country. It is through them

that we'can multiply not only goods and services but also

generate sufficient employment. A 'market-oriented sys-

tem of production has an inevitable tendency to increase

concentration of wealth and income and to divert produc-tion to meet the demands of the affluent rather than of the

pOOLSuch a system, therefore, tends to deepen poverty.

Empl'oyrnent generation, 'as an 'objective oLeconomic

growth, suffers incompetition with the use oflabour saving

machinery. This is what has actually hap;'ened in India so

far in the industrial sectoLln fact, this has also happened ,

in the agricultural sector as the ranks of landless un-

employed have,increased over tl1eyears despite the green

revolution which took place in some limited areas.

Under-employment

THERE IS ALSO NEED: FOR removing under-

employment in our agricultural economy. We have not'

taken into account the nature land magnitude of their

problem. Under-employment has been a curse as it has led

10lower productivity. More than that, it has caused waste

of our human resources. Time has not come when, in the

wake of JR Y, we should launch a drive to map out the

defect for bringing about radical improvement in our

agricultural economy. '

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The backlog of total unemployment in the country al the'

commencement of the Seventh Plan(1985) was11.98 mil-

lion. As such, the number of people seeking employment

..during the plan period (1985-86) would be 51.36 million,

thus leaving 11million people unemployed in the begin-

ning of the Eighth Plan. On the basis of rural-urban ratio

of79:21, about 39 and 11 million jobs will need to be'

provided in rural and urban areas respectively. The growthin rural labour force is 2.39per cent and that of Ihe urban

labour force is3.44 per cent. If these growth ratescontinue

to remain, the estimated size onolal labour force in rural

and urban areas will shoot up from 240.63 million and

61.71 million to 269.16 million and 73.08 million respec-

tively in 1990. In sum, the basic issue is to create job

opportunities for about 40 million in India's rural areas'

with a view to achieving the objective of full employment

in the rural sector of the economy.

Other reasonsTTISSUGGESTEDTHAT ANY SCHEME forgenera-

J.tion of full employment inrural areas should take certain

factors into consideration. For example, there is a highly

skewed distribution pattern of resource base in the form

of landholding; producti-:e assets and levels of technology

adopted in villages. Further, there are wide differences in

the pattern of incomes, saving potential, investment

capabilities, risk-taking, entrepreneurial potentials,

educational. levels and access to knowledge about im'-

proved agricultural factors. Dependency on traditional

employment sources, as in the case of agricultural labour,

is also a n importa'Dt social structural constraint.

The strategy for creating larger employment oppor-

tunities under the JRY needs to be multi-pronged. The

potential of employment in non-agricultural rural jobs'

should be fully explored in order to accommodate those

who cannot find work in the land-based occupations. The

gamut of rural employment programmes should cover the

entire economic activities in rural areas. Through forma-

tion of skiIIs relevant to rural areas, rural manpower

shoiJld be developed for taking up self-employmentprogrammes. That would n.ecessitate the development of

a well-designed and broad-based support system capable

of assisting the new class of' artisans, craftsmen, in-

dustrialists and enlrepreneurs at all crucial stages, like the

formation of projects, procurement of finance, tool kit,

machinery and equipment, of raw-materials at reasonable

8

I

rates and marketing of finished goods.

lForestry potential

, I,

FURTHER, IT MUST BE RECOGNISED thai the

potential of forestry in generating employment is ~uch

greater than that of ariy other sector in most parts of the

country's rural areas. Forestry occupation is s,uchthat itcan involve any type of worker, semi-slcil1ed,without any

kind of intensive training. Employment in forestry is weD

dispersed and is available throughout the year, mOre par-

ticularly in the off-season for crop production. ;rhe

contribution of forestry occupation would be' in the

generation of emplo)'D1entin spheres of cultural opera-

tions, harvesting opedtions, supporting operations andindustrial operations. I ' .

,

Under the JR Y we should also establish throughout the

country agro-based ind'ustries for providing supplemen-tary part-time employment to farmers and their families..

The setting up of cottag~ and rural industries will also stop,

migration to cities. With smaIl implements many units can

come up and we shoule create apex marketing bodies

which will market their' products, provide credit, help .

research and developrnent, and otheir services. These

units have been successfuDyexperimented in Japan. They

have tremendous employment potential in India'scountryside.: .

I .

Needing responsive administrationI

ALL SAID AND DONE, providing gainful employ-

ment is the only way to remove poverty. From this

angle, ihe Jawahar Rozgar Yojana has not come a day too

soon. Its appropriateness ,cannot be questioned. What we

must now aim at is that gradually it mitigates the impact of

poverty and unemploymel't in the rural sector of Indian

society. Finally, a responsive administration becomes im- .

perative when programmes of rural development are

, initiated and pUIinlo opeiaiion. The need for an efficient

and honest administration is now no more a theoretical

slogan. The government Imeans business this time forbringing about radical social changes to usher in awelfare

State. Rural employment wbuld bring about social chang"!,

for a new awakening in the masses with regard to their

rights, duties and responsibilities towards the society in

which they live. This perhaps Would be the greatest con-

tribution of J awahar Rozgaf Yojanaior decades to come.D,, '

I ,


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T

HE JAWAHAR ROZGAR YOJANA is already nine

.rnonths old. It has generated widespread discussion

about its viability conceptually, financially and organisa-

tionally. The Bihar experience points to a positive

response during a massive educational effort .undertaken

to secure expeditious launch. The State had been prepar-

ing for the transfer of work to the local bodies for quite

some time. The decision to implement the transfer implied

simply the acceleration of the process. Even,before the

funds got transferred to the panchayats,' a massive orien-

tation programme based '''fj seminars of panchayat

functionaries and Government' employees was organised

at the district headquarters andmost of the sub.divisional

headquarters. The response to the seminars was very en-

couraging. It was not that the attendance was good, but the

~nteraction demonstrated:the I(een intcrcSllhal grassroot

people's representatives and'the.Governmenl employees

were evincing in the programme. The physical output so

far demonstrates that the strategy of these prcparatory

steps had paid good dividend. There has becn no setback

in the pace of eplpl0Y"1ent offered or programmes taken

up.

Rural scene

'THE POSITIVE CHANGES IN RURAL INDIA in

. the last 40 years is undeniable. There is improvement

~nincomes and life-:styles: However, the changes arc no~

as dram,alic as pro,mised. Some of the more impc)rtant

problems that faces rural India are under-employment

'migration of landless labourers from pockets of endemic

ufj-employrnent, lack of information revolution that

awakens the rural masses to their shar,e in the development'


JRY for social solidarity

t .

KAMAlA PRASAI)

Planning Ad\'iser.t~m~Develo~menlCommissi?ner, Palna

programme designed for them, their isolation .from the

programme formulation activities generating a feeling of

indifference towards the programmes implemented

resulting in indifferent benefits and, fmally, lack of a spirit

of self-reliant developmeni. As the size of rural develop-

ment programmes expanded, the .local level dependency'

tended to aggravate', Obviously, what is required is not just

a massive induction of additional funds but a change in the

orientation of the Government e~ployees and the attitude

of the target groups. Such a qualitative change in the

scenario can be brought about provided adequate commit-

ment is fostered.

Dimensions of the programmes

. . : . I

T

HE JAWAHAR ROZGAR YOJANA is the latest in

the scrics of national programmes to meet the. chal.

Iengc of unemployment and ,under-employment in rural

India. Its coverage will be the most extensive since struc-

turally each village will have to be covered with schemes

under theYojana. This will no longer be discretionary. The

designbd coverage provides a cushion that can improve theemployability and emoluments of the rural landless. The

inbuilt thrust on job diversification for those who wor\( on

land can loosen the shackles of~social stratification. The

guarantee of reasonably rel1funerative manual work wilf

improve payment of wages 'in the rural areas in general.

This standby arrangement prornises to guarantee fuller

employment to the rural landless and those who are seek-

ing to improve their incomes: Manual labour alone is no

guarantee for employment; the availabilitY of opportunity

will make'a choice of either joining public works program-

mcs or taking on so,,:,e'self - ~mployment activity. It would

9

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improve programme content if specific provision for the

,educated unemployed (which has dangerous portent) is

built into the Yojana. '

Creative grass root planning

THE}A WAHAR ROZGAR YOJANA clearly under-'lines the need for a positive thrust to grassroots'planning. It would imply further that the weight of depend- .

, ency syndrome iii rural planning viz., dependency on the

Government machinery, dependency on the locals

dominant power structure, dependency on external inputs

for progress must be slackened.' A revolutionary

grassroots planning has to thrash out the socio-economic

goal cif local community; to'set priorities of development

works within a time frame; to identify locally available

manpower to undertake individual schemes; to seek

Government manpower support merely to fill in gaps in

local availability; to lay down the system of social account-

ability; and to transact all business connected with

.programme formulation and implementation in open and

,without secrecy;

Land development, irrigation system construction,

school or housing construction, tree plantation should

justify themselves by completion and durability rather than

adherence to niceties of public wo'rk specifications under

Government. Results achieved should justify the means

adopted in planning and execution of the programme. It

appears that in the name of sanction of schemes attemptsare on even now to further bureaucratise the process. This

will be a factor for' failure unJess steps are devised to

transfer to the community and local institutions respon-

sibilities that they have' undertaken for private work of

their own. The lawahar.Rozgar Yojana is a means to a.

beller planning of development activities by the local com-

munities and their elected representatives. The purpose

will be lost by the extensive bureaucratic control. The role

of' centralised hierarchies requires 10 be graduaily

reduced. The arrangement for technical and professional

consultancies should be fostered, Ihe rules of audit for

Panchayat-controlled work suitably changed. The con-

fidence in planning locally important schemes will emerge

from an almost totaJ freedom from imposed complexes

and steps towards laying down targets for groWth and

. quality of life indices.

Rural delivery system

THE SEARCH FOR A MORE ENERGETIC delivery

,system has for the present ended in the attempt 10

revitalise the Panchayati Raj Instit utions. Thc rcmoval of

control regarding sectoral allocation offunds hasa poten-

10

tialto strengthen the creative grassroots planning. Unifor-

mity creates many problems;,and an approach to job that

suits the needs of Jocal landless can strengthen the

decision-making competence of local instituiions. The

Yojana. can thrive on 'extending local consu1tationin

selecting programmes. It may also be worthwhile selecting'

schemes that require low expertise and are related to landwhere expertise exists at the local level. In regard to crea-

.tion of assets the choice cah very well lie in areas that,match

the production needs and quality of life indices within the

time frame available for completing the projects. The

reliance on local manpower and other resources available

can strengthen the roots ,!f local accountability.

The choice of the delivery mechanism,has been,a dif-

ficult one. There is a group of the opinio~ that Panchayats

represent the entrenched vested interests in rural India.

The Panchayats had the principal role under planning for

NREP also but experience shows that they did not care

adequately for_building the assets for the weaker sections.

The results of project implementation has been uneven. It

is expected that therestr~cturing of the Panchayats will,

bring about a salutary change. Additional steps need also

to be considered to ensure that the promises of, the

lawahar Rozgar Yojana is fulfilled. It is a weilestablished'

axiom of good administrat'ion that the responsiveness of

the delivery system is closely related to the proximity of the

system to the people involved in development. However,

this axiom can be converted into reality if we try to follow

Gandhiji's prescription on Swaraj which is apt for' thefunctioning of the Panchayati Raj Institutions, specially in

the light of experience in a state like Bihar. Writing in

'Young India' on 29.l.i925.he stated, "Real swaraj will'

come not by the acquisition of authority by a few but by the

acquisiiion of the capacity by all to resist authority when it

is abused. Swaraj is to be obt'ained by educating the masses

to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control

authority." .

A responsive delivery mechanism has to be sustained on

the re;i1ism pronounced by Gandhiji. '

, Grassroots organisation

THE PANCHA YATJ. RAJ INSTITUTIONS will also

face the challenge of evolving appropriate grassroots

organisation for resources assessment and project im-

plementation., The devolution of funds on the Pa"cnayal

will make it compulsory for them not to stall decision. A

matching of scheme' considered relevant for -the com-

munity and funds available at the Panchayat level has the

potential for a more meaningful prioritisation of schemes

lakcn as part of the annual: plan. The Panchayat must


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become a planning and guiding machinery aild the execu-

tian shauld devalve an organisatians far each individual

prajects sanctianed within the Panchayat. The autharity

devalved an small community graups willpramate massive

cammunity participatian in the warks pragramme. A

thrust on graup activities will also.reduce the chances af

misuse af funds and autharity which has been reparted

extenSivelyan niTal warks pragramme. Such devalutian

will pravide a twa fald, lest 10 . 'further refine the delivery

mechanism at the Panchayat level. It will firstly testthe:'

capability af Panchayat functianaries to. undertake the '

kind af creative plann;ng af warks and the management af '

funds entrusted to. them. It will simultaneausly test the

capability af the Panchayat members, particularly the

weaker sectians af the papulatian, to.assert themselves to.

secure what is due to. them under, the Yajana. It can be

safely assumed that the J~wahar Rajzar Yajana may be

able to. prave 'that the respansibility will make the

Panchayat and its members administratively capable.

A new philosophy

IT IS NECESSARY TO BUILD rural devilapment

strategy an a diagnasis 'af the roets af lacal frustration

and rural disenchantment. Jawahar Rezgar Yejana

premises to do.that.' "

An era afbureaucratic penetration has achieved physi-

cal gains but it has failed to.gain the leadership of rural

elitism. It isindistinguishable frem the lacal, feudal leader-

ship and is seen as a party to.explaitatian and 'appressian.

The anwilfd'march ef grassraetsbureaucreary has, there-

fare, to. be halted and a countervailing farCe is mere

permanent lecal institutiens established far sponsaring

and strengthening communitarian develapment pracess.

Rurai develapment philasaphy shauld aim at achieving

sacial salidarity.

. There has 'to. be an inbuild mechanism far handling

sacial alienatien. The iselatian af the, sexes, the an-

tagenism between castes, the discriminatian af socially

disadvantaged graups, the thwarting af the ambitians af

the yauth add to. the sense af alienatian. One autward

manifestatian af this alienatian is evident in the increasing

sacial crime and speradic eutbreak af vialence. The law

and arder enfarcement ef increasing in'tensity has made

no.,difference in the situatian: itfilrther adds to.the ema-

tienal divide between the administratien and the ,people.

The system has the tendency to. cripple the emergence af

sacial actian groups, to.bypass vocal graup administratian

and to.deal anly with individuals: There has to.be a whale-

sale change in this erientatien. The initial wastages in

effarts and finances have to.be talerated; after all we have

talerated wastages in bureaucratic management. This

march tawards a balance be~een sacially cansciaus

groups interacting with arganised bureaucracy has the

potentials to. impreve the environment af actian in rurai

dcvelopment. 0

Kurukshetra wishes its readers

I I

Yl. 9 - - f . 9 J . ! P P Y 9fW %~

KURUKSHETRA January. 1990

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Are panchayats prepared for JRY?'

Dr. s .M . SHAH

. Former Adviser, Plannina Commission

THE PRIMARY OBJECflVE OF JawaharRozgar

Yojana (1RY) is to generate additional gainful

employment for the unemployed and underemployed per,

soilS, both men and women; in the rural areas, In the

budget for 1989-90 a 'provision of Rs:500 crore has been

made for the Yojana, The JRY is extended to cover all

, gram panchayats in the country, Expenditure under the,

scheme is shared. between the Centre and the State' on

80:20 basis, It is hoped that the new programme will

provide fuller employment opportunities to atleast 'Onemember in each family living below the poverty line (as in

IRDP survey register) and who, is seeking unskilled

employment

Objectives

THE YOJANA IS THUS TARGETED to the un-. employed poor and the purpose is io add' to' their'incomes and improve their standard of living, Besides, the '

, ruralinfrastrueture itself is proposed to be improved and,

prOductive community assets of durable nature created,There will thus be, an improvement in the overall quality

of life 'of people living in the rural areas,

permitted. Also, thirty per cent of the 'employment oppor-

tu~ities arc reserved f or ~omen. .

, Furthermore, in order to monitor effectively the

'Quarterly Report of Achievement' information is called

for separately on sectoral distribution, of expenditure,

employment generation and physical assets created for

SCs/STs (item vi) as distinct from' those under total works

(iteinvii)

For the first time' specifically the "freed 'bonded

labourers" are included amongst the target group below

the poverty line. But, will this break their shackles? '

In order to ensure that the beneficiaries employed on

works belong to the target groups, the cOncerned officials

are required 'to record on the muster roll itself, at the time

of weekly payments, a certificate indicating the empioy-

ment generation for' the Scheduled' Castes, Scheduled

Tribes and others separately as also the total-employment

generated. The total number of mandays generated for the

landless labour and women labour is also required to be

indicated separakly (item iii)

THE GENERATION: OF EMPLOYMENT oppor-

tunities is through 'rural works' which result in the

-creation of durable productive community assets so as to

ensure continuing incomes to the beneficiaries. High

priority is given to works which 'are required for putting

inlO effecl the infrastructure for the implementation of

various poverty allcvialiol1 programmes such as Integrat~d

.

It is estimated that the Yojana will rea~h 440 lakh

families -living below the poverty line in all rural a~eas in

the country. It seeks to reach every single panchayal.

As focus groups, the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled

Tribes and women are the major beneficiaries. Funds' are

earmarked for them. Fifteen per cent of the annual alloca-

tion must be spent on items of works which "directly benefit

the SCs/STs. Diversion of funds meant for SCs/STs is nol

I

I,

Nature of work

12 I , '

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Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Drought Prone

Area Programme (DPAP), Oeser! Development,

Programme (DDP) and Development of Women and,

Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA):'

To'guard against wrong 'identification of beneficiaries,

the 'IRDP Survey Register' is now the basis for locatingpersons below the poverty lin~. Earlier adhocism of id~n-

tifying persons at ihe whims of villagelblock officials is ,

done away with. '

Five sectoral works are specified; viz., (A) directly

productive economic assets" (B) socio-economic com-

munity welfare assets,(C) Indira Avaas Yojana, (D)

Million Wells Scheme and (E) 'Social Forestry Schemes.'

The directly produced eCOnomicassets includejrriga-

tion wells, irrigation tanks, field channels, flood protection

works, anti-water logging, 'soil conservation and landreclamation, construction of village ponds and lanks, land

development and other works.

The Socie-EconomicCommunity Welfare Assels in-

clude provision of drinking water wells,rural roads, school

buildings, development of house sites, construction of

houses,panchayat ahars, construction of buildings, mahila

mandals, cons,truclioil of sanitary latrines and'olher works. '

Social Forestry 'Works incl~de farm forestry (tree~

planled), plantation',on forest lands, and plantation on

village community lands (area).

The IndiraAvaas Yojana refers tothe numbcr of houses

constructed for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribcs.and

the freed bonded lallourers.

The Million Welis Scheme includes the number of wells

completed and in progress. It has objective of providing

open irrigation wells free of cost to the poor small and

marginal farmers belonging to SCs/STs and the,freed

bonded labourers. .

Several States have acquired ceiling surplus land and,have allotted these to the landless. However, 'these

beneficiaries are unable to develop profitable cultivation

oothe assigned land which is generally of poor quality. The

allottees who are below the poverty line can now takcup

recovery"of costs under land developmcnt .from the

Yojana.

'Indira AvaasYojana

A DISTINCTIVE FEATURE OF JRY is the i'mpor-tance given to housi~g for the poor through Indira

Avaas Yojana (lAY) and to environmental upgradation

through 'Tree Pattas' under social forestry works.

The SCs/STs and the freed bonded labourers form the

target group under Indira Avaas Yojana. It seeks to pro-.

vi!!eshelter, Iiroof over therr head.

The plinth area under lAVis 17to 20 Sq. Mt. The house, should have a kitchen, a smokeleSs chu'llah and a sanitary

latrine unit. A sum ofRs.6000 is provided for the cllnstruc.

tion of a house, RS.I200 for sanitary latrine and smokeless

chullah and RsJOOOfor common facilities. all totallini to

Rs;lO,200 per family.

An attractive feature of lAY is that the houses have to

be 'built in clusiers on 'micro-habitat approach', 'where

land is available. This Writer has seen in Maharashtra, ,

Karoataka and Andhra Pradesh such n:ticro:habitat

clusters of about 30 to 40 houses built under the earlierFood-For'Works Programme for SCslSTs. These 'arc '

planned habitations with commonfaci1ities. ThecluSteriDg',

has also enabled the habitat to Construct a bie-gas plant

enabling cooking and light in the,houses. It has,paved the

way for new fonn of energy creation and energy use and

improved the quality of lire-in the rural areas. It is feasible

to replete this under lAY. These human settlemenu are

much more livable than their counterparts and evcJithe

better offs in village proper.

"

Treepattas

'A NOTHER ATIRACTIVE SCHEME' under the so-

.l"1cial forestry sector is the tree pattas. Planting of all

types of fruit, fodder, and fuel irees can be taken up.

Preference is on quick growing trees. Planting can be taken

up on government and community lands and on road sides,

canal embankments, along railway lines and on degraded

forestlands. This will also lead to environment protection

and itrIprovement.

An important 'feature and an incentive under the

scheme is that the benefits of social forestry ,are to accrue

directly to the'rural poor. The tree planting permit tree

patta holder to Usufruct the trees. These rights include

rights to gather dead branches, take twigs and loppings of

the branches, harVest produce such as fruits, flowers,'

seeds, leaves, tappings, etc., carry on treed : based

activities ,such as bee-keeping, silk worm rearing, lac

production, etc. The cost oC-saplings and'wages for the

labour put in tree planting' and the cost of maintenance

upto three years from tlie year of plantation are to bernet'

from the Yojana.

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Expenditure under different sectoral ,programmes,

after allowing for 5 per cent on administ~ative expenses

and 10 per cent on maintenance, is to be utilised as fol-lows:- .

Th~ 'illustrative list' includes works of a pureiy social

and community nature such as dispensaries, panchayat

ghars; community centres, creches, balwadis, anganwadis,

. etc. linder ICOS. The aganwadis at several places are

found having-no roof al)d are run in open space for want

of accommodation. The JRY should.be fully exploited for

the construction ofanganwadis.. '

., - , . . . . .

The need for having a 'central place' in every village to

run common programme like Panchayat, adult literacy,

FLAW classes on funetionalliteracy, tailoring and other

activities of artisan type is keenly felt. Many programmes

en ,like Mahila Mandals have suffered on this score. This will

help provide a strong 'infrastructure to run several ac-

tivities in the village. Even propagation of village theatre

is not ruled OU(.Such a central place can provide colourfol

charts and maps to educate the public.

1. Economically productive assets

2. Social forestry works

3. Million wells s~heme

35%

25%

15%

agricultural season. In the payment of wages; the man.

datory obligation is tliat the wages ,for a category of

employment will be same as notified for the'televant

'scheduie' of employment, under the Mininium-Wages

Act. The 'schedule' of present rates in different States is

provided to the State Government (see Jawahar Rozgar

Yojana, State Resource Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New

Delhi, July 1989). Wages may be paid partly in cash and

partly in kind, i'.e" foodgrams (wheat, rice). The ratio of

distribution of foodgrains shall not exceed i.5 kg. per

manday. .

Payment of wages should be made on a flied day of the

week,' preferably the local marlCet. day: The foodgrains

, compclnent of wage should, as far as possible, be given ci.n

the work site itself. Arrangements for providing facilities

like drinking water, rest sheds and craches for children of

working mothers.at work sites are required to be made outof thematerial component of the Yojana. . . .

Decisive role of village panchayats

THE DISTRICT RURAL DEVELOPMENTAGENCIES and village panchayats are the two inainactors in the field. The OROAs have gained considerable

experience in implementing a major scheme like IROP.

They, therefore, should not be found wanting on this score. "

4. Other works including roads and buildings 25%'

The JRY thus provides a balance of works of different

nature. Thereis a clear cut emphasis on bestowing on the

intended beneficiaries benefits of a long term, continuing

nature. .

Under the Food for WorKs Programme earlier, major

'expenditure was on c0!1.struclion arid repair of rural roads,

cutting stones or spreading mud, The benefits were short-

lived and roads washed aw'!)' after ooe rainy season, U~der

Employment Guarantee Scheme in Maharashtra percola-

tion tanks took away a bigger slice, It was 'medium andlarge farmers who benefited from the creation of these

assets. The JRY guards.against these pitfalls. '

Minimum wages to pay

To ENSURE THAT niE POOR working as unskilledlabourers derive full benefits of the programme, thewage component is kept at. 50 per cent, the rest being on

materials, adm~nistration and maintenance. In order that

vital agrjcultural operations do not suffer [.rom the non-

-availability of the requir~d_ labour) it

is recpmmcndcd thatworks should be initiated preferably during th~ Icpn

14

Village panchayats on the other hand had no field prac-

tice of this nature, The Yojanagives a central place to the

Panchayat; Raj Institutions - Zilla Parish ads, Mandals and

village panchayats, The village panchayats are to playa

crucial role in the selection of.schemes, (felt needs),

prioritisation and in execution of works, not to mention the

~onitoring of the progress.

The Manual (August 1989) lays down, "At the village

level, the programme will be implemented thrcmghthe

village panchayats, the 'lowest elected body, who will be'

responsible for planning and execution of the Yojana, The

technical supervision will be the responsibility ofthe Blockagencies/DRDAs.

The State Governments. will release centra) assistance

direct to ORDAs withi~ one month of its receipt fT~m the

Government of India. Likewise, fu.nds to village

panchayats will be distiibuted by the DRDAs/Zilla

Parishads within a. month of its receipt from the State

Government. Funds for payment from the account of vil-

lage panchayats are' required to be drawn through a

cheque signed by. the Head of the Panchayat (that is,

Pradhan) along with Secretary of the Panchayat..-

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A laudable provision is made that payment of every

amount is to be authorised in the meeting of village

panchayat and the village assembly (Gaon Sabha) which is

supposed to meet twice in a year and be informed in'the

followlngmeeting.

, What is encouraging is simplification of the prOcedure

of works. The, block samitildistrict level Panchayati Rajbody Willprepare and approve standard design ilDdcost

estimates. Village panchayats caD.execute works on the

basis of approved cost norms and designi. Contract~rs,

middlemen,; power.brokers are not permitted to be

engaged (even as sur,rogates) for the execution of these

works. The procedure obviates the need for calling tenders'

and for obtaining technical, administrative and financial

sanction for each work. '

To 'compensate and assist the village, panchayats, a

proviSionof 5 per ceni has been earmarked for adminisira-tiv,e expenses which can be used for strengthening

DRDAs/Zilla Parishads/BlockiViUage panchayats for

pro~ding technical, administrative and tniiningsupport.

A maximum of one fifth of 5 per cent provision can be

spent to lIleet the training expenses of the officials/npn-

officials involved in the implementation of the .Yojima.

Village panchayats are also allowed 10per "!Ontof annual

allocation towards maintenance of assets.

Annual plan of action

THE VILLAGE PANCHA YATS are competent under, the Yojaria to accilrd approval to the projects themsel., 'ves after these 'have been technically apprised and

approved by the Panchayats/Samiti officials. At the same

, time, panchayats are advised to take up simple small,works

which do nOt require high level of technical inputs. Nowork shall be 'taken up by the village panchayat which

caimot be completed within two years after they have been

started.

A novel feature of the Yojana, as distinct from the

hitherto rural works programme, is a requirementenjoin-

ing upon the villagepanchayats to prepare an annual plan,

of action at village Jevel. "The plans for development of

villages in the juris4iction of different village'

panchayatSlmandalsshould be discussed thoroughly in the

meetings of the village panchayat and the final decisions

arrived at $hould determine the plan of works to be takenup during'a particular year', Each village panchayat and'

bl0l'kidistrict should have complete inventory of the assetscreated under the programine giving details of the date of

the start and the date of completion of the project, costinvolved, benefits obtained, employment generated and


other relevant particulars.

Monito"ring arrangements

M'ONITORING OF THE PROGRAMME is being

str-engthened at the village'level. The scheme also

provides for what is called 'sOcial audit' at the village

panchayat level. 'In order to ensure social conltol of they.ojana, meetings of village panchayats shall be held every

month at"ar o o : < ! date, time and place to conSider the iSsues

regarding the planning, eXeCution,monitoring 8nd super.,

viSionof JRY, according to the manual. '

The monthly progress reports and quarterly reports of

achievements, to be obtained from eaCh DRDAJZi\1a

Parishad,isa part of ~onitoring arrangement devised for

, the purpose. Hopeful)y, these Willbe co-ordinated iuid

processed by the Director, Administrative Intelligence, in

the Department of Rural Development, Government of

India, New Delhi. . '

,A Central Commit!ee to be set up by the Department

of Rural Development in Krishi Bhawanwill oversee the

progress and implem~ntation of the programme. Similar.

ly, there will be State Level Coordination Committee

(SLCC) which will supervise and ,obtain appropriate

returns and records from DRDAsIZilla Parishads.~ . .

,Actitique

THE FOLLOWING POINTS EMERGE on a critical'

, examination of the Jawahar 'Rozgar Yojana. ,

1

Looking atthi: design ofthe JR Y as is now available in

the form of a Manual (August 1989) it seems that the

scheme has been fOrmulated, based on experience gained

in the implementati9n of programmes like Rural Works

Programme (RWP), Food For Works (FFW), Employ-

ment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in Maharashtra, National'. I -.

Rural Employment Programme (NREP) and Rural Land-

less Employment Gdarantee Programnie'(RLEGP} etc,, ,

, Various lessons learnt in the ev3.Iuation reports of

Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO) ,and the

Public Accounts Cominitlee of Parliament have been in.

corporated in the guidelines. such as banning the

contractors, paymeni "fwages as per the Minimum WageSAct, payment of wages in cash-cum.kind, proVision of,

facilities at work sites like drinking water; creches for

children, etc. selection of schemes and preparation of an

annual action plan by the panchayats.

15

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2

Proper selection of the beneficiaries is the first require-

,

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JRY - a leap towards poverty alleviation

ANGSUMAN BASU

Diredor of Schoo) Edutafion, West Bengal

Objectives

THE NREP AND THE RLEGP HAD, among others,

the following common objectives:

The guidelines for implementation of the two program-

mes were with some -minor exception almost identical.

RLEGP, however, was supposed to be different from

NREP conceptually in programme contents and coverage

investments are channelised for the ultimate goal of max-

imising the direct and long term employment

.opportunities. Viewed in this perspective the new scheme

of J awah.r Rozgar Yojana (JR Y) was announced in Par-

liament last year by merging three employment generation

programmes of NREP, RLEGP and Jawahar Rozgar

Yojana (which was introduced only a few weeks ago by the

former Union Finance Minister while. presenting the

Union Budget for 1989-90).

creation of durable. and productive community

assets for direct and continuing benefits to the

poverty groups and for strengthening rural

economic and social infrastructurewhich can

lead to rapia growth in income leveis of the rural

poor; and

improvement in overall quality of life in the rural

areas.

generation and expansion of gainful employment

for the unemployed ~nd underemployed persons,

both men and women in the rural areas through;

(c)

(b)

(a)

The NREP was started in October, 1980 replacing the

Food for Work Programme and it became a major weapon

(rom April 1,1981.10 fight rural poverty as a component of

the Sixth Five Year Plan. The RLEGP was launched lateron August 15, 1983 and was accepted as a part of the Sixth

Plan strategy at creation and 'expan~ion of employmen't

opportunities, particularly for the rural landless people

with the hope to provide guaranteed employment upto 100

days in a year to at lea-st one member of every rural. landless

labour household. The role of the employment generation

programmes in reducing the incidence of rural poverty is

reflected in the Seventh Five Year Plan (1985-90) which

.has laid emphasis on food, work and productivity. The plan

also seeks to provide productive employment to everybody

in .need of the same and assign priority to ai r activities

which help in this regard. In other words, the Seventh Plan

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOY-

MENT have been identified as the major contributory

factors for the very high incidence of poverty in the rural

areas ofthe country. It was precisely for this that the Sixth

Five Year Plan adopted a two:pronged strategy towards

eradication of poverty which aimed at redistribution of

income and consumption in favour of the poorer segments

of the rural people by significantly increasing employment

opportunities in th~ rural areas through creation of (a)

wage employment opportunities under the National Rural

Employment Programme (NREP) and the Rural Landless

Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP), and (b)

self employment opportunities under the Integrated Rural

Development Programme (IRDP) and some other areas

and/or skill development programmes reflected in sec-

toral plans.

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Development ata much laier stage of its implementation,confirmed most of the above lacunae. The report revealsthat: .

of larger works.' in actual practIce there is hardly any

difference between the NREP and the RLEGP,I'. .

The shortcomings

THE SHORTCOMINGS WHICH prevailed in respect

..of one programme were basically those which were

noted in the context of the other: Evaluations undertaken

by different agendes have disclosed the followhlg major

weaknesses of the two programmes:- .

(i) While each of NREP and RLEGP proVided

short-term emplbyment;none of them was effec-

tive in so far as providing long term and

continuous employment and the programmes

could not lead to any significanl increase in the

employment of the indiVidual worker o~ in his

.level of liVing,which were the declared objectivesof both the programmes;

(il) Coverage of the programmes and .allocation

under them were both insufficient.

(i)

(ii) .

(iii)

(iv)

(v)

in 8 years of implementation of the programme,

only 55 per cent vi)Iageswere covered;

I .

there was inadequate investment under the. I

programme. When the employment guarantee

scheme required Rs.8 crores per district per year,

the fund proVision.proVided was Rs3 erores per

district; .

high spending on' economically non-productive

works like buildings and roads (above 48%)

restricted the sCope for employment generation;

separate administration of. basically identical

schemes under NREP and RLEGP created

duplication of agen.ciesand unnece~sarydrainage

of money;.and : '.

I

lack of public involvement.

(iii) No systematic efforts were made to assess the

nature and extent of employment and plan the

works so that continuous employment could be

offered to the rural poor. Moreover, the long term

goal of the two programmes, namely, .the

rehabilitation of the poor in the mainstream ofthe

economy by increasing its labour absorbingcapacity through the creation of durable and

productive community assets could not als~ be

achieved. The reason behind this shortcoming

~as the lack of articulate planning at micro level

caused by an absence of popular planning bodies

at the district level and beiow.

(iv) Leakages of fund were quile substantial in each

of the programmes. The leakages were 'caused

mostly through engagement of contractors in one

-form or the other in most of the States.

(v) There was absence of adequate monitoring both

at micro and mac'ro levels.

(Vi). There was fitiIe response from the rural poor as

their involvement in the planning and execulion

of schemes under both the employment gcncra-

tion programmes was negligible.

The balance

RESULTS OF CONCURRENT EVALUATION ofNREP, introduced by the Union Department of Rural

18

Merger

INTHE CONTEXT OF THE WEAKNESSES noticed

in NREP and RLEGP as also considering the identical .

nature of programme objectives and methodology, therewas growing demand from economists, planners and the

administrators ior the merger of the two major employ-

ment generation programmes into a more comprehensive

beller knit programme. This demand was being actively

considered by the Government of India and ultimately the

two programmes converge(J with the newly intro.duced

. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana in April 1989. The new

programme, after the merger of NREP and RLEGP, has " I

come to he known as the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana after the

name of the first Prime Minister of the country. The

announcement of the new programme after the name ofi

Jawaharlal Nehru has perhaps been in the fitness of things

in the centenary year of the much respected leader of the

country.

ObjectivesI

. I

THE QUESTION MAY OBVlOUSL Y arise now as to

. what really the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana aims at achiev-

ing atid how does it differ from its predecessor

programmes. The objectives of the JRY have beendeclared to be as under:-

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(a) Primary objective

Generation of additional gainful employment for the

unemployed and underemployed persons, both men and

'!Vomen,in the rural areas.

(b) Secondary objectives(i) Creation of productive community asserts for direct

and continuing benefits to the poverty groups and for

strengthening rural economic and social infrastructure,

which will lead to rapid growth of rural economy and

steady rise in the income levels of the rural poor.

(ii) Improvement in the overall quality oflife in the rural

areas.

The Primary objective of JR Y is, without any change of

.form or even language, the same as objective No. (i) ofNREP. The other two JRY objectives in the secondary

area convey the same ideas as those ofNREP and RLEG P.

The basic difference is that the 'guarantee'element of

RLEGP has been completely dropped from the objectives

of JRY. If the lessons from the execution of RLEGP

during the past few years b.eany indicator, this omission

was perhaps called for.

The gains

W

HAT THEN THE COUNTRY may expect really to

, gain from the new programme in the period of itsexecution? The gains are expected to be many. Firstly,

merger of the three employment creation programmes will

eliminate the chances of having two or more parallel ad-

ministrative agencies at one stroke and there will be an

integrated implementation of JRY under the supervision

and control of one agency. In fact the growth of multiplicity.

of programmes and agencies since the decline of the Com-

munity Development Programme has created adminis-

trative difficulties and lack of cohesion resulting in tardy.

achievements in almost all the sectors. In this connection

it may be recalled that introduction of RLEGP in August,1983was ~Olviewed with favour since there already existed

a similar programme of NREP.

Secondly, it is certainly. in the intercst or planning that

the three programmes should havc becn mergcd. With an

enhanced outlay for a single programme, aiming at

employment generation through ,creation of productive

assets, planning at grassroots level and above will not only

become easier but also will be morc comprehensive.

Monitoring at the execution stage similarlywillbc possible

in the desired direction.


Thirdly, JRY guidelines are clear with regard to timely

release of funds directly to die district level Panchayati Raj

body (the Zilla Parishad - DRDA, where Zilla Parishad

has not been constituted or is not functioning) which, as a

planning body, will, therefore, be in a better position to

decide the priority in consultation with the Gram

PanchayatslMandals or the lowest planning unit.

Fourthly, coverage of entire rural areas under JRY has

been envisaged by making.it obligatory on the part of the

Zilla ParisahdIDRDA to distribute minimum of SOper

cent resources to Gram PanchayatsIMandais.

Lastly, but not the least, the Yojana envisages resource

allocation to States/UTs on the basis of incidence of rural

poverty alone instead of 50 per cent weightage to poverty

and the rest 50 per cent weightage on combined number

of marginal farmers, agricultural labourers etc._

The changed basis of distribution of resources on pover-.

ty incidence. only is a most welcome ~nesince it is

contemplatcd in the interest of ensuring wider coverage of

the rural poor. Once the State allocations are decided on

the indcx of-poverty o.nly,the allocations to districts in a

State will, however, be guided on the baSis of backward,

ness formulated on the principle of percentage of

agricultural labourers to main workers in rural areas, per.

centage of rural SC/ST population to total rural

population anc;! inverse of agricultural productivity

defined as the value of agriculture produce out of each unit

of land for the rural areas taken on the net basis in the

weights of 20:60:20.Again, the distribution of resources to

village Panchayats from the district will be made on the

basis of population of e.achvillage Panchayat.

The norms fIXedunder JRY for village Panchayat-wise

resource distribution o n the basis of population, however,

will pose a th~eat to the concept of district planning since

the planning body will not be able to allocate more resour-

ces on one or more items/areas decided. on -priorityunder

thc JRY. For instance, construction of sehool1>uildings

.undcr the operation Black Board Programme in seJectedO.B. blocks, so long undertaken under NREP &RLEGP,

will face tremendous resource constraint under the JRY

guidclincs and planning for school building will receive a

jolt unlcss sufficienl fund from other sources can be ar-

ranged for the purpose. When, however,_larger coverage

of areas under employment generation is considered as the

major objcctive of Ihe programme, the uniformity in al-

location of resources among Gram Panchayats on

population basis has to be. accepted as sound. Indira

Awaas Yojana (lAY) will, however, nol suffer since 6

pcrccnt of earmarked JR Y fund will be operated at the

district leveL .

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The weaknesses

Fund utilization

THE YOJANA P~ESCRIBES the pattern of utiliza-tion of fund received at the district and GramPanchayatleveIs. Of the total allocation received by the

DRDNZiIla Parishad, 6 per cent is earmarked for Indira

Awaas Yojana which is to be utilised at the district levelfor buildinglA Y houses in SC;ST areas of different blocks.

After earmarking of allocation for ]AY, 80 per cent of the

remaining grants will go to the Gram Panchayats 'and

DRDASlZilla Parishads will retain balance 20 per cent.

DRDAs/Zilla Parlshads and Gram Panchayats are to

utilise their share of the funds received under JR Y asfollows:.

(i) Administrative expenditure upto 5%

(ii) Expenditure on maintenance upto 10%

Balance resources will be utilised for different sectoralprogrammes as under:.

(a) Economically productive assets 35%

(b) Social forestry works 25%

(c) Individual beneficiaries schemes for SC/ST

including Million Well Scheme 15%

(d) Other works including dads and buildings 25%

Wage and' non.wage components on the, works under

the JR Y willnormally be 50:50but under no circumstances

wage component should be less than 50 per cent as wasthe

case under NREP & RLEGP. The wages to be paid wili

be also not less than those enVisagedunder the Minimum

Wages Act of the respective States as was the practiceunder NREP &RLEGP. '

A,ction plans

THE DRDAs/ZILLA PARISHADs will have to

, p'repare sheIf of projects which will form thc Annual

Action Plan of the district. Ther,e is nothing new in this as

similar provisions existed in the guidelines for NREP andRLEGP. But the Plans of Action for development of

villages in the jurisdiction of Gram Panchayats need dis-

cussion thoroughly in the meetings of gram panchayat and

the final decisions arrived at should determine the plan of

works to be taken up during a particular year. The

guidelines prescribe thai while preparing the plan of

works, care should be taken to safeguard the interests of

the weaker sections in the .villageand highest priority

should be givento the works benefiting the SC/ST, Women

and the oth'er weaker sections of the village society. Again,

20

the Gram Sabha (village assembly) has to be apprised of

the progress of implementation of the programme at least

twice a year. Thus, the JR Y pins hope in the people and

docs not propose withholding of information from the

people. This is a very welcome aspect of JR Y and here the

JRY wins a victory over its predecessor programmes.

As regards the investment component of works to be

undertaken at village level under the Yojana, no ceiling has

been imposed on the cost, but it has been direcied that only

such works should generally be taken up whose size, cost

and nature are such that may be implemented at the local

level and do not involvehigh level of technical inputs, etc.

lt has been further directed that large and costly works

should not be taken up nor works in which there is a large

,component o(skilled wages or material purchase should

normally be taken up. This leads one to doubt if the very

small amount of project-wise investment will lead ul-timately to creation of productive community assets for

direct and continuing benefits to the rural poor as also for

strengthening rural economiC and social infrastructure.,

I

CONCEPTUALLY THE JRY IS certainly an im-proved employment programme. and is much betterconeeiv,ed than the earlier' programmes of NREP and

RLEGP: But it also suffers from various weaknesses.

Some of them emanate from the fact that although the

implementing agencies at the GramlMandai Panchayats

have been asked to formulate and execute economically

productive ,schemes, none the less they have not been

provided any technical support/staff. Again, though the

physical and financial audit of the'works implemented by

the gram panchayat have been made, compulsory, the

authority which should undertake the job has not been

specified. Moreover, the staff pattern of the grassroots

level panchayats does not, in most cases, have the com-

petence of accounts keeping involving lakhs of rupees.

Besides, though the manual of JR Y forbids employment

of contractors or middlemen in one form or other forexecuting works under the Yojana, it is apprehended that

even under the Panchayati Raj bodies the middle men will

continue to have their shares in the same way in which they

enjoyed the benefits under NREP & RLEGP (both of

which also banned employme~t of contractors).

The programme has been !launched with high hopes

with total proposed expenditure of Rs.2,625 crores of

(Contd. on page 25)


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Give pancbayats '.operationalifreedom

iunder.JRY:.

PROF. s.P. RANGA. RAO

Osmailia University, Hyderabad

FORTYTWO YEARS AFTER 1NDEPENDENCE

and implementation of seven' Five Year Plans, indc-

pendent India is still faced with the stupenduous task of

providing a livelihood for its 440 lakhs rural families living

below the poverty line. Thanks to the Green Revolution of

the sixties and later industrial progress, India could

develop a self-reliant economyinspite of several hand-

icaps. However, the fruits of development were cornered

largely by the rich in rural areas thereby further widening

the gap between the rich and the poor. The task of provid-

ing gainful and productive employinent to the rural poor

remains unfulfilled inspite of repeated attempts to do so

under different centnilly sponsored programmes.

Earlier employment schemes ..

STARTING WITH THE RURAL MANPOWERProgramme, schemes such as the crash programme forrural employment, Pilot Intensive Rural Employmcnt

programmes,.Food for Worlq; Programme, National Rural'

Employment Programme' (NREP) and Rural Landless

Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) wcrc un-dertaken by the various-States at the instance of the

Government of India with a view to p",vidinggainfu! wage

employment to the rural poor.Ofthese the Food for Work

, Programme, started with effect from the lSI April, 1977 as

a non-plan scheme, may be described as a milestone in the

wage employment anti-poverty programmes. It was aimed

at generating additional employment to the poor while

irrigation works, soil conservation, land'reclamation, af.

forestation, construction of school buildings, etc. were

permitted to be taken up undet the. scheme. The

programme was undertaken on :50:50 financial cOntribu-

tion by the Centre and the States. In addition to cash

contribution the Centre was also providing foodgrains as

grant-in-aid to the States. In practice more than 60 per cent

of the man days of work generated under the scheme per- .

tained to the repair of village roads. As perthe guidelines

of Ihi: Government of India, preference to ~o'di:s benefit-I ...

ing .backward areas and members of SCs and S:rs Were

given under the programme. Thoughthe scheme b,*"me

popular, its slow progress was attributed to orgamsatiodal

bottlCnecks, absence of proper planning and failure to

choosc appropriate project mix,1

A numoerof other draw-.'backs were also detected in tlie.working of NREP. For

instance, the employment provided was for a very shorl

period of time. There were irregularities in.the-_seleetio~

of thc beneficiaries and consequently to the poorest of the'

. poor, for whom the programme was really. intended, were

oflen ignored.2

The works undertaken benefited the con-

tractors more than anyone else~

I

L.Pandey, K.C. Rural Developme~lin Modem India; New/Delhi,1986,p. 128;

2.. Annuai Report, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,

Government of India, 1986~7, p.23.

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Exactly two years after NREP was launched the

Government of India announced the establishment of

RLEGP to provide gainful employment to at least one

person in every poor family living in rural India. The

objective of the new programme was to provide employ-

ment of atleast 100 days in a year for one member of every

landless family. Unlike for the sister scheme here theGovernment of India provided 100 percent financial assis-

tance. The objective of the programme was to create

durable assets for the strengthening of the infrastructure

for the rapid ll':0wth of rural economy and for. improving

the quality oflife in rural areas.3 However ,inpractice many

drawbacks were noticed in the implementation of the

programme. For instance, more importance was attached

to creating permanent assets and generating employment

potential among the poor which was .considered secon-

dary. Along with some landless, others also could manage

to get the benefit of the scheme. The NREP and the

RLEGP were administered through the .Panchayati Raj

Institutions like the Zilla Parish ads and the Panchayat

Samithis. Inefficient management, limited finances

coupled with increase in population wcrc identified as

major limitations for successful functioning of these

programmes of rural development. It is said that over a

period of seven years these two programmes could reach

only 55 fer 'cent of the village panchayats around the

country.

Jawahar Rozgar Yojana

WITH EFFECf FROM THE 1st April, 1989, the

Government of India decided to merge the NREP

and RLEGP into. a new scheme known as the Jawahar

Rozgar Yojana (JR Y) with an outlay of Rs.2100 crores for

the year 1989-90 (the amount has since been enhanced by

Rs.5oo crores). The scheme which aims at reachi~g all the

Panchayats in the country has several distinct features

compared to the earlier schemes. In the first place, money

is made available directly to the Sarpanchas of the gram

panehayats. Since the emphasis is an elimination of paver.

ty; funds arc distributed to the districts on the basis of theproportion to the size of the population which falls below

the poverty line. The other criteria prescribed for back-

wardness arc the share of thc SCs and STs to the total

population, proportion of -agricultural labour 10 tolal

labour and level of agricultural pr.oductivily. An average

village with three to four thousand population is to get

.Rs.80,OOOto one lakh per year under the programme. The

3. Instructions for the lmplem

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should be considered as thousand. The formula for dis-

tribution is said to provide a raw deal to tribal villages.

Thus thi: district as a whole may obtain more fund~ be-

cause of the large tnoal population but the invariably small

tribal villages would get1imited funds compared to the

larger non-tnoal viIIagesobf the district. The expenditure

targets presenOed may, prove to be another'major hurdle ..

for the panchayats. The Union Government prescribedexpenditure targets of 10 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent

and 35 per cent for the four quarterS of the year and any

shortfall in a quarter would result in proportionate reduc-

, lion in the release" of next instalment; It is almost

impossible for the panchayats with their several limitations

to stick to the schedule and maintain eXpenditure targets

on works. Consequently they would stand to lose the

benefit of the fullgrant. '

Sectoral. allocations prescribed for ihe Yojana to be.

strictly"followed may prove to be another major impedi-

ment in the efficient utilisation of funds ..Out of the total

allocation for the di,trict, six percent is meant ror the

IndiraAwaas Yojana and out ofthe balancea'mount 80

percent is distributed among .the Panchayats 'and 20 per-

cent is retained by the Zilla Pa.rishad.Out of the funds

retained by the Zilla Parishad, five percent and ten percent'

are set apart for administrative eXpenditure and main-

\te.;ance respectively. The balance amOliili is to be utilised

'for i\ifferent sectoral works. Out of L"e total works 35

perCe'!.t is earmarked for economically productive assets,

25 'percent for social forestry, fifteen percent for SC/ST

b'ene~ciari~ (includingjeewan dhara

scheme) .aDd 25 per-'cent for o!her works including roads and buildings. The,

same eXpenditure pattern has to be followed by the Gram

Panchayats', also which is described by many as an her-

culean task.

THE YOJANA. PRESCRIBES that the followingschemes/works may betaken up by theparishadslpanchayats: social forestry, construction of ir-

rigation wells, tanks, field channels, drains, ponds,

-drinking water wens, water resources, rural roads,_panchayat ghars, buildings, mahila' mandals, sanitary

latrines, houses and the. development of house sites. Ac-

cording to the guidelines no work which could not be

completed within tWo years should be taken up. Most of

the works listed out need amounts of money and hence~

the smaller panchayats would find it very difficult to stick

to the sectoral allocations. Further the grain panchayats

have to strike a balance between the wage and non-wage

coD?-ponents,undertake planning, execution an d monitor.

iog of wor~s, maintairi the muster rolls of workers


employed and records of assets created while managing

the maintenance of assets created and providing training

for personnel. Evidently, in most cases it would be beyond

the comprehension of the sarpanchas to meaningfully un-

dertake any of these functions. .

Earlier, the Zilla Parishads were utilising the funds by

undertaking sufficiently large works at considerable cost

in select panchayats. The practice provided considerable

patronage for the Parishads which was utilised by influen: .

tial surpanchas usually belonging to bigger panchayats.

With the discontinuation of the NREP and RLEGP, the

Parishads tOday .are faced with the problem of rmding

money for the half-finished works such as construction of

school buildings, irrigation wells and operation black-

board. Under the JRYthe Parishads are permitted to

spend only twenty percent of the funds allotted to them for

spill over'works, whiCh are said to be grossly inadequate ..

For instance, the twenty percent works out to Rs.30 crores

in Andhra Pradesh whereas the spill over works requireRS.70 crores. Now it has'become the reSponsibility of the

State government to provide funds for the completion of

the unfinished works, failing which they have to be aban-

. doned. .

The Panchayat SamithislMandal Praja Parishads are

the worst affected under the new scheme. Earlier they

were associated with the management of NREP /RLEGP

. works while they stand completely alienated under the

JRY. In Andhra Pradesh several Presidents ofMPPs have

commented that it pays more to be a Sarpanch that to be

a President cif MPP.

There are about 19540 .gram panchayats in Andhra

Pradesh of which 18372 are lpinor panchayats with less

than 5000 population and an annual income of less than

Rs.40,OOO. There are a few thousand panchayats which.

have practically no income worth the name. It is these

small panchayats which are .benefited most linder the

Yojana. Of the total Panchayats in the State, 46 per cent

of the Sarpanchas owe allegiance to the TOP while 44 per

cent are Congressmen, the rest being independents and

others. For the year 1989-90, ihe Government ofIndia have.provided RS.l48.44 crores while the State Government

have contributed RS.37.11 crores. .

Recently, a survey was conducted by News Time, a

popular English daily published from Hyderabad, to elicit

th~ opinion of the functionaries of Panchayati Raj in the

State on JR Y. The survey covered several districts of the

State from which hundreds of Sarpanchas and a few Presi-

dents/Chairmen of MPPslZPPs were interviewed. The

survey revealed that almost all sarpanchas, irrespective of

their party affiliatiOli, have expressed their appreciation on

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the Yojana, under which, for the fIrst time in their long

existence, the panchayats have received large amount of

money (according to their standards) even without asking.

for the same. The comments of a President of a MPP

belonging to TOP appears to rellect the popular feeling in

the State about JRY. He thinks that, "Before voicing any

protest against the bill and the Yojana the mood of the

people sbould be read." Further, he feels thilt. there is"tremendous enthusiasm among the rural masses about.the

Yojana" and apprehends that "anybody who opposes the

aspirations and genuine demands of the people in the gram

Panchayats would be written ofr. The funds available for

undertaking development works by providing employment

to the poor albeit on a limited scale would help the

Panchayats for theflfsttime to meet certain pressing needs

oUhe .villagers. The Sarpanchas feel that certain basic

needs such as protected drinking water, construction of

side drains, link roads, repair of dilapidated school build-

ings, provision of streetlights have totally neglected so farwhich could be taken up under the scheme:

A tribal MPPpresident when asked by the News Time

survey team as to how the not-well-educated surpanchas

without training would be alile to implement the JRY,

makes a cryptic remark that "the British also used to say

that the Indians who were illiterate wlluld not be able to

handle swaraj". He feels, "the testimony is all before us to

see how Indians have strengthened democracy". Another

Sarpanch belonging to CPI(M) described how, after "a lot

of bodding" and "intense lobbying" with the President of

the MPP, he could get a borewell and a few street lig)Jts

for his village. As he could not secure money for fIxingthe.

bulbs, he had to borrow some amount "from a 10c3JfInan-

cer". It is unfortunate that at alime when the Government

allover the country are trying to rescue poor citizens from

the clutches of money-lenders, an elected Panchayat had

to borrow money for a public cause from a private party.

Yet another Sarpanch says that the JR Y "should havebeen

implemented some forty yearsago".

The apprehensions

THERE ARE A LARGE NUMBER of people whofeel that there may be gross misuse of fu.nds by the. Sarpanchas. But it should be remembered that unlike the

higher levels of local government the village is too small a

place for the sarpanch to do anything without the public

. noticing it. When asked about :the probable misuse of

funds, one Sarpaitch remarked: "If we swallow the public

24

money which is coming to the village after ages we Would

have to digest it only in heaven". On the other haitd today

the Sarpanchas are under tremendous pressure to take np

works to meet the competing demands of local gr011JlS.

Inter-group rivalries, more factionalism and even violence

are going to surface in several villages in the utilisation of

JR Y funds. i

Though funds are provide4 by the Union Governinent,

it is the Panehayat legislation which is the source of

authority for the GramPanchayats to act. Infad, the large

number of obligatory and perrissive funCtions mentioned

in the Panchayat laws all over the countIy havebeaime

meaningful and operational for the fIrst time because of

JR Y funds. The Sarpanchas .are of course aCcountable to.

the State authorities only. They sbould send the details of

works undertak~n and the money spent. on each item to

the concerned State offIcers from time to time. The com-

missioner of Panchayati Raj, Andhra Pradesb has alreadyI - - cautioned that "action would be taken as per the Panchayat

Act in case of irregularities". For instance, action against

a Sarpanchwho purchased a horse with the JRY'fundsunder the pretext that he h~s to inspect a few hamlets

under his jurisdiction has already been initiated by the

State authorities. The Union Government has no Qpera-tional control over the funds provided by them. They could

only reduce or withdraw the grant if they so desire. The

Government of India ~ave of course gained considerable

political clout for providing funds to the villages directly.

An over-view

THERE IS BITTER CRITICISM that the Union. Government have ignored the State Governments inproviding funds to the Gram Panchayats directly. Even

earlier they were providing funds to the DRDA directly.

But the present move has gained political signifIcance in

the context of the political climate and the strained Centre-

State relations. The Union Government mentioned two

reasons for the c;lireetfunding of Panchayats. Flfstly, the

funds provided for the NREPIRLEGP are either not fuIIy

utilised or diverted for/other purposes. For instance, .the

former Union Minister of State for Rural Development

revealed that in Andhra Pradesh funds provided for both

. the schemes remained partly unspent to the extenl shown

. in the followingtable:5 i. I

I

5. News Time, Hyderabad, dt. 25.9.1989

,

KURUKSHETRAJanuary, 1990

,

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RLEGP (Amount In crores 01 Rupees)

Year Funds released Funds utilised

19l16-81 74.86 70.80

1987018 "79.41 6Z.31

1988-89 93.50 63.8Z

NREP

1986-87 116.86 88.53

1987018 74.44 58.92

198U9 102.89 67.55

Though the Panchayati Raj Institutions at the district

and the block levels are unhappy, th.~Gram Panchaya~

feel extremely happy about the unexpected gift "fromthe

heaven" which would permit them to meet some of the

longstanding needs of the villages. However, the Sar.parichas have to face several hardships in spending the

money made available to them. The guidelines are so

. complicated that in theabsenee of asSistance from offi.

cials, the'Sarpanchas may not w.derstl!"d ~em. Majorityof the Pil.nchayats in the country do 'not have qualified

executive assistance. Even where officials are .available

..they may, instead ofdemystifyipg the guidelines, bring in.

more bureaucratic complications

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