Nrega Pres

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    ON THE TOPICNRAGA

    NATIONAL RURALEMPLOYMENT

    GUARANTEE ACT (2005)

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    BACKGROUND

    y This act was brought about by the UPA coalition

    government supported by the left parties. The promise of

    this project is considered by many to be one of the major

    reasons for the re-election of the UPA in the Indiangeneral election, 2009.

    y Dr. Jean Drze, a Belgian born economist, at the Delhi

    School of Economics, has been a major influence on this

    project.A variety of peoples movements and

    organisations actively campaigned for this act.

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    ABOUT THE ACTy National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is an

    Indianjob guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on August 25,2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for one hundred daysof employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural

    household willing to do public work related unskilled manual work atthe statutory minimum wage of 120 per day in 2009 prices. TheCentral government outlay for scheme is 40,000 crore in FY 2010-11.

    y The law was initially called the National Rural Employment

    Guarantee Act (NREGA) but was renamed on 2 October 2009 asMahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment GuaranteeAct.(MNERGA)

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    NREGA is designed as a safety net to reduce migrationby rural poor households in the lean period

    through

    A hundred days of guaranteed unskilled manual labourprovided when demanded at minimum wage

    on

    works focused on water conservation, land development& drought proofing

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    HISTORY

    y MNREGA was launched on February 2, 2006 fromAnantapur in Andhra Pradesh.The project wasimplemented in phased manner covering 130 districts byyear 2007-08.With its spread over 625 districts across

    the country, the premier flagship program of the UPAGovernment has raised the productivity, increased thepurchasing power, reduced distress migration and helpedin creation of durable assets in rural India. This projecthas a formidable impact on rural India by providingemployment to 41 million households in year 2010-11.Also, It has strengthed the social and gender equaltydimensions as 23% workers under the scheme areScheduled Castes,17% Scheduled Tribes and 50%women.

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    SALIENT FEATURES OF THE ACT

    i) Adult members of a rural household, willing to dounskilled manual work, may apply for registration to thelocal Gram Panchayat.

    ii) The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue aJob Card. The Job Card will bear the photograph of alladult members of the household willing to work underNREGA and is free of cost.

    iii) The Job Card should be issued within 15 days ofapplication.

    iv) The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of thewritten application for employment, against which theguarantee of providing employment within 15 daysoperates.

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    vi) Employment will be given within 15 days of application

    for work, if it is not given then daily unemploymentallowance as per the Act.

    vii) Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of

    the village. In case work is provided beyond 5 km, extra

    wages of 10% are payable to meet additional

    transportation and living expenses.

    viii)Disbursement of wages has to be done on weekly basis

    and not beyond a fortnight in any case.

    ix) At least one-third beneficiaries shall be women who

    have registered and requested work under the scheme.

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    x) Permissible works predominantly include water and soil

    conservation, forestation and land development works.xi) A 60:40 wage and material ratio has to be maintained.

    No contractors and machinery is allowed.

    xii) The Central Government bears the 100 percent wage

    cost of unskilled manual labor and 75 percent of thematerial cost including the wages of skilled and semi

    skilled workers

    xiii) Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha.

    xiv) Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put inplace for ensuring a responsive implementation process.

    xv) All accounts and records relating to the Scheme should

    be available for public scrutiny.

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    KEY PROCESSESApplication for job card

    Issue of job card

    Demand for employment

    Work allocation

    Payment of wages

    Selection of works

    Approval of shelf ofprojects

    Informing village PRI

    Preparation of estimatesAnd approvals

    Acknowledgement ofdemand

    Maintenance of muster roll

    Verification

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    OBJECTIVE

    y To enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing

    at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a

    financial year to every household whose adult members

    volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

    y In the process also build up productive and durableassets.

    y Protecting the environment

    y Empowering rural women

    y Reducing rural-urban migration

    y Fostering social equity

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    NREGA ACTy NREGA fosters conditions for inclusive growth ranging

    from basic wage security and recharging rural economy to

    a transformative empowerment process of democracy.

    y

    The Act was notified in 200 districts in the first phase witheffect from February 2nd 2006 and then extended to

    additional 130 districts in the financial year 2007-2008

    (113 districts were notified with effect from April 1st 2007,

    and 17 districts in UP were notified with effect from May

    15th 2007). The remaining districts have been notifiedunder the NREGA with effect from April 1, 2008. Thus

    NREGA covers the entire country with the exception of

    districts that have a hundred percent urban population.

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    WORKS/ACTIVITIES

    The MGNREGA stipulates that works must be targetedtowards a set of specific rural development activities suchas:

    y water conservation and harvesting

    y afforestation,rural connectivityy flood control and protection such as construction and

    repair of embankments, etc.

    y Digging of new tanks/ponds, percolation tanks andconstruction of small check dams are also given

    importance.y The employed are given work such as land leveling, tree

    plantation, etc. First a proposal is given by the Panchayatto the Block Office and then the Block Office decideswhether the work should be sanctioned.

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    CRITICISMS

    y The first criticism is financial.The national budget for the

    financial year 2006-2007 was Rs 113 billion and now

    fully operational, it costs Rs. 391 billion in financial year

    2009-2010.There are fears the programme will end up

    costing 5% of GDP.

    y Another important criticism is that the public works

    schemes' completed product (e.g. water conservation,

    land development, afforestation, provision of irrigation

    systems, construction of roads, or flood control) isvulnerable to being taken by over wealthier sections of

    society.

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    y Further concerns include the fact that local government

    corruption leads to the exclusion of specific sections ofsociety. Local governments have also been found to

    claim more people have received job cards than people

    who actual work in order to generate more funds than

    needed, to be then embezzled by local officials.

    e.g-A multi-crore fraud has also been suspected where

    many people has been issued the NREGA card who is

    either employed with another Government Job and who

    are not even aware that they have a Job Card. In

    Gujarat, a scam ofRs 10 million has taken place.

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    y The productivity of laborers involved underNREGA is

    considered to be lower because of the fact that laborers

    consider it as a better alternative to working under major

    projects. There is criticism from construction companies

    that NREGA has affected the availability of labor aslaborers prefer to working underNREGA to working

    under construction projects.

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    FUNDING PATTERNy The programme will be implemented as a Centrally

    Sponsored Scheme as cost sharing basis between the

    Centre and the Administration.

    y The Central Government will bear the cost on the

    following items:(a) The amount required for payment of wages for unskilled

    manual workers under the scheme .

    (b)Upto 75% of the material cost and wages of skilled and

    semiskilled workers.(c) Administrative expenses towards the salary of the

    Programme Officers and his supporting staff, Gram

    Rozgar Sevak and work site facilities.

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    y The Administration will bear the costs on the following

    items(a) Unemployment allowance payable in case the

    administration cannot provide wage employment on time.

    (b) 25% of the cost of material and wages of skilled and

    semiskilled workers.(c) Administrative expenses towards salary of the officials

    at District and state levels appointed underNREGA.

    (d) Administrative expenses of the State Employment

    Guarantee Council.

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    REVITALISING RURAL GOVERNANCE

    y Finally, we need to recognise the enormous potential inherent

    in NREGA for transforming the entire architecture of ruralgovernance in India.

    y In this era of reform,policy-makers have generally been pre-occupied with how to improve governance for the corporate

    sector. Hardly any attention has been paid to whatthe rural poor have to go through at the hands of insensitiveand non-transparent bureaucracies.

    y If implemented effectively NREGA could become the harbingerof a completely new era of rural governance in India.Everyconcerned citizen must learn and share with the panchayats

    and the rural masses who are involved in the implementationand monitoring ofNREGA or are its ultimate beneciaries.Once NREGA is effectively implemented, we can hope thattransparency and social audit will become the buzz-words ofpanchayat raj in India.

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    THANKS!!