Political India: Engaging America

Assured livelihood: Recent audits have affirmed the contribution the NREGS has made to employment security. Photo: P. Goutham

CHENNAI: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has matured from its 2006 launch to the point where the concept of NREGS-II is now doing the rounds in policy circles. However, before this act of succession occurs, greater clarity is required on which features of the policy need to be refined to strengthen this lifeline for the rural poor.

M.S. Swaminathan, chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, outlines some of the policy attributes that the history of the NREGS would suggest are important. The Maharashtra government was the first to introduce an Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in the 1970s, which guaranteed work at slightly below the minimum wage, he points out.

In 1980, the national version of the EGS programme was named National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) without the guarantee element included.

“The NREGS has taken the initiative of the 6th Five Year Plan to its logical end, namely converting NREP into NREGA. The aim of all such programmes starting with the colonial era is the development of permanent assets. NREGA, for example, aims to promote water harvesting, watershed management, soil conservation, land reclamation, etc.,” says Professor Swaminathan.

With the monsoon failing this year, the scheme has attained even more importance as a source of off-farm work during months that would have otherwise seen workers employed in agriculture. Recent social audits, such as those led by Jean Dreze and his colleagues, have affirmed the contribution to employment security the scheme makes in districts such as Villupuram, while acknowledging that implementation problems exist, including “mass fudging of muster rolls,” and “institutionalised kickbacks to private contractors,” in some cases.

Labour market impact

Wider economic effects, including a labour market impact, are also being observed across States: the supply of farm labour has, in some cases, dwindled, and this has been attributed to the NREGS. However, such claims must be seen in the context of two issues. First, the NREGS is designed to improve the labour market prospects of those living on the subsistence margin, and if farm owners need to raise the daily wage rate to compete for more labour, that will be a positive outcome for farm workers. Second, labour supply in many areas, including the Cauvery Delta, is, in any case, falling due to rural-urban migration, especially of younger members of the workforce searching for better-paid and physically less strenuous opportunities.

Any deleterious effects of the NREGS on farm labour supply can be minimised if, as Mihir Shah of the Planning Commission has argued, the government tries to bring about a convergence between NREGS projects and farm-related asset-creation works. For example, the NREGS could achieve convergence and synergy among numerous ongoing programmes in the fields of watershed development, water harvesting and so on.

Emphasising the need to increase technical inputs for the next phase of the programme, Professor Swaminathan suggests creating a technical consortium of experts drawn from agricultural universities. Additionally, “small and marginal farmers should be allowed to work under this scheme to develop farm ponds in their own farms, in order to enrich the aquifer and give crop life saving irrigation when needed.”

“Gender sensitive”

The revised programme should also permit women labour to work as organisers of crèches, daycare centres etc. “The programme must be gender sensitive,” he says.
Although the Finance Minister recently announced that more than 100 days of employment will not be provided, the drought or drought-like conditions found in many districts this year may require extension of the scheme.

In this backdrop raising the wage rate from its present level of Rs.80 per day to Rs.100 or more and increasing the number of guaranteed days under NREGS-II will signal the continued commitment of the government to a meaningful pro-poor agenda.

Labels: Cauvery, delta, EGS, Finance Minister, Jean Dreze, M.S. Swaminathan, NREGA, NREGS, NREGS-II, NREP

# posted by Narayan Lakshman @ 10:30 PM