The Hindu Business Line : The NREGP: Unlearnt lessons

What an irony that an economy, slated to be one of the strongest in the world by 2020, has failed to create enough rural jobs despite the good performance in the national income. This is perhaps one of the reasons for the Government to introduce the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, the implementation of which was launched on February 2, 2006. The Act is noble in its intentions but these alone cannot deliver good results. The concerns appear to be legitimate when seen from the results of similar but older programmes such as the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS).

EAS launched

The Sixth Plan, for the first time, explicitly stated the aim of reducing unemployment. Accordingly, the EAS was launched in October 1993 for implementation in 1,778 identified backward blocks across 257 districts. The scheme was subsequently extended in phases and finally universalised in 1997-98 to cover all the 5,448 rural blocks in the country. The EAS was open to all rural poor in need of wage employment but preference was given to those belonging to a Scheduled Caste/Tribe and parents of child labourers, withdrawn from hazardous occupations, who were below the poverty line.

Wage employment

The primary objective of the EAS was generating wage employment opportunities while the secondary aim was creation of durable community assets. The scheme was implemented as a Centrally-sponsored one with cost shared between the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25. The EAS was later merged into the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) launched on September 25, 2001.

The impact assessment of the EAS revealed diverse results across States. The selection as well as the execution of projects under EAS was carried out by Block Development Officers (BDOs) with the help of Extension Officers and Gram Sevaks but priority was also given to the recommendation of the local MLA. However, the gram sabhas did not seem to have any role in the selection of the beneficiaries.

EAS Assessment

As regards wage payment, none of the gram panchayat presidents or group leaders reported the use of muster roll for payment of wages. It seemed that everything was carried out on verbal instructions. Under the wage employment programmes such as EAS, the beneficiaries got less than two months of work in a year on an average. The wage rates also varied between blocks and gram panchayats in the same district. In some cases the beneficiaries received wages at less than the government rate while in others at a higher level. Assets such as rural roads, school buildings, community halls, market sheds, agricultural bunds, culverts and minor irrigation projects were reportedly created under the EAS. .

Although the beneficiaries were registered in the gram panchayat office for the EAS, only some were issued the family card. Furthermore, as the wage fixed by the government was less than the market rate, especially for skilled labour, about 90 per cent of the beneficiaries got wages higher than the official rate. This was then accommodated by adjusting the number of mandays of employment generated. Thus, in practice, fewer mandays of employment were actually created than what was shown in the muster roll.

Power struggle

Interference at all levels — political and official — was rampant. In fact, the EAS failed in some areas because of this. The non-cooperation between block and gram panchayat officials compounded the problems. Thus, implementation was uncertain and far from smooth. Unless the programme details are carefully designed to prevent and pre-empt such occurrences and effective monitoring mechanisms installed, the implementation of the ambitious NREGP could be stalled.

If the NREGP is to be implemented by the State governments, the results may be similar to those of the EAS as the executing machinery is likely to be the same. Do we have any new ideas to avoid the same pitfalls?

(The authors are professors at the International Management Institute, New Delhi.)

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