Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

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

From The Hindu

CHENNAI: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is of significant benefit to agriculture in the Cauvery delta area, according to sources in the Thanjavur district administration.

Speaking to The Hindu, Collector M.S. Shanmugham explained that until recently, work on A-class canals, the main ones connecting rivers directly to fields, was not included within the ambit of NREGS projects.

“However, after last year’s floods, I wrote to the government and managed to get a government order passed to permit NREGS de-silting projects to also take up A-class canals. The de-silting work and anti-flood operations have been of much benefit to agriculture in the district,” Mr. Shanmugham said. Additionally, this had significantly increased work opportunities in this district for NREGS workers.

In the Cauvery delta, canals make up the “nerve centre” of agriculture, which is highly dependent on the flow of water released from dams upstream, Mr. Shanmugham explained.

Given this “huge network of canals in Thanjavur the budgetary allocation to de-silt that entire network, if it were to be done by the Public Works Department, will be Rs.100 crore at least,” according to him.

However as the NREGS budget is effectively utilised for this purpose the financial burden is taken off the State government, creating a “win-win situation”.

Simultaneously, “Rs.1.4 crore in purchasing power is being pumped into the rural economy every week, in the form of wages for approximately 30,000 workers district-wide,” Mr. Shanmugham said.

Most workers tend to receive Rs.75-80 per day, and “there is usually no underpayment of wages as the schedule of rates clearly defines separate terms for hard soil, soft soil, jungle clearance work, and so on.”

Labour budget

According to data provided by the district administration, labour budget has been approved for 1440 canal, tank and road works projects for 2009-10 at an estimated cost of Rs.47.35 crore.

Funds to the tune of Rs.62.61 crore have been received by the district from Central and State governments for this year, of which 76 per cent has already been utilised.

Employment under the NREGS has been provided to 1,68,721 job cardholders in Thanjavur district thus far, generating 60 lakh mandays of work, according to the administration.

Labels: canals, Cauvery, delta, desilting, job card, NREGS, Public Works Department, Thanjavur

From The Hindu

CHENNAI: Agrarian distress is spreading through parts of Thanjavur and Tiruchi districts, gathering speed as farmers realise the full impact of monsoon failure.

The release of water from the Mettur dam on July 28 was significantly later than the usual date of June 12. This delay has caused the failure of the Kuruvai crop to the extent of 30,000 hectares in Thanjavur.

In neighbouring Tiruchi the original target of 6,000 hectares of Kuruvai was missed by a wide margin: “Only 4,224 hectares have been reconciled,” T.Soundiah, the District Collector, explained to The Hindu. Paddy has not been the only casualty of the monsoon failure, according to Mr.Soundiah, who also pointed out that only 610 hectares out of a potential 54,000 hectares are being cultivated under millets.

Farmers depending on pump irrigation have seen marginally more success with Kuruvai than their counterparts who depend on canals. In Thanjavur, 15,000 hectares of Kuruvai were cultivated using pump irrigation.

However, even pump irrigation is no guarantee of sufficient water. A farmer K.Sundararajan who cultivates 10 acres of paddy in Thanjavur has pumps and bore-wells and is also not far from the river bank. Yet he says, “I have been unable to plant Kuruvai this season and have only got enough water for my animals to drink.”

In the “rice bowl” of Tamil Nadu farmers are left with intensifying distress. They are being constricted by a wide array of deteriorating circumstances including water shortages, power shortages, inaccessibility of loans for farm inputs, and barriers against mechanisation.
Optimism about the next round of cultivation for the Samba crop is fragile.

The Secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Association, S.Ranganathan, explained, “If we get the normal amount of water and it is released on time – on June 12 – we can expect up to seven months of continuous water through the canal system. However, this year we can only expect water for 1.5 days in every 10 days.”

Insufficient power supply

Power supply for pumps is also insufficient, according to J.Varadarajan, who owns 50 acres of farmland in Devangudi, Thanjavur district. Normally he uses 4 bore-wells, each of which can irrigate up to 15 acres if continuous power is provided.

“Given the fluctuation in power supply, we are only able to irrigate about 5 acres per well,” Mr.Varadarajan noted. “I have also received no water via the canals, and my dependence on the bore-wells is even more,” he said. However this dependence has led to an imbalance in the pH of the soil which potentially reduces the yields of all farms in the vicinity.

Farmers are struggling to combat the drop in yields by increasing input productivity. In part, this is driven by finance for fertilisers, pesticides and equipment being completely beyond the reach of small and medium farmers. P.Manikavasakam and V.Jivakumar, who cultivate five acres and one acre of land respectively, explained that under the AIADMK administration they might have got a loan of Rs.9,000 with an acre of land as collateral. “At present we can only expect to receive a loan of Rs.1,000 to 2,000, which is barely sufficient to finance transplantation of paddy,” Mr.Manikavasakam rued.

Collectivised approach

Mr.Ranganathan makes a strong case for a collectivised approach to agriculture. Pointing to a sharp drop in agricultural yield in the lands that he farms, he said, “The solution lies in increased mechanisation, which has however not gained momentum in the Delta region. Given that threshers, for example, cost Rs.18-20 lakh, the entire village must pool its land as collateral and obtain finance.”

However, the interest in collective action is being thwarted by the diminishing prospects of those who remain in agriculture. They face the grim reality of having to choose between watching their margins get squeezed as their indebtedness grows and forsaking the lands that their families have cultivated for generations.

Labels: Cauvery, delta, fertiliser, Kuruvai, mechanisation, Mettur dam, power, pump irrigation, rice bowl, Thanjavur, Tiruchi, water