 "Job scheme won't guarantee success")
In 2009, just after the United Progressive Alliance started its second term, leading social economists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey wrote an article that said the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, as it was known then, had stood up to its promise of inclusive growth, right to work and dignity of labour. And, this had been vindicated by the people's mandate.
Roy and Dey were commenting on the role the scheme had played in bringing the UPA back to power. Five years down the line, the Act and its implementation have drifted so far apart that the ruling alliance is wary of using it as a vote catcher. The reasons for the drift are rampant corruption, inflexibility of the scheme's design and inadequate monitoring.
A 2013, report by the Comptroller and Auditor General showed only 20 per cent of the funds allocated between 2009-10 and 2011-12 had been released for Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, which account for 46 per cent of the rural poor in India. It said Rs 2,252 crore of inadmissible work was undertaken under the rechristened Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), including roads, ghats and cattle platforms. The auditor also found Rs 4,070 crore of work was incomplete while Rs 2,374.86 crore extra were released by the ministry of rural development to six states by an error in calculation.
"The poorest of the poor were not fully able to exercise their rights under the MGNREGA," the auditor said.
Official data shows average employment under the scheme per household has dropped to a three-year low of just 41 days in 2012-13. Furthermore in early March, the Central Bureau of Investigation registered two cases against officials in Sant Kabir Nagar and Mirzapur districts of Uttar Pradesh for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and misuse of position while implementing the scheme.
Reports have also revealed how MGNREGS workers were forced to commit suicide by delays in wage payments and how the scheme had been plagued by widespread fraud in enlisting workers, with money being transferred to fictitious accounts.
Clearly, MGNREGS has moved away from its core objectives of providing employment opportunities, creating sustainable livelihoods and rural governance.
Even the claim that the MGNREGS led to a sharp increase in rural wages is debatable. A study by the former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), Ashok Gulati, showed that real farm wages rose almost 6.8 per cent per annum from 2006-07, but the impact of the growth of the gross domestic product, agriculture and construction was almost four to six times higher than that of the MGNREGS.
The MGNREGS, of course, has impacted rural jobs and employment. Figures show 2008-09 and 2009-10 were perhaps the best years for the scheme, when employment and incomes surged. Its fillip to financial inclusion is also considerable. In 2011-12, almost 78 per cent of MGNREGS card holders reported having savings accounts.
But then the scheme's performance faltered. Oversight failed, leading to corruption and mismanagement. "Barring two or three states, the MGNREGS has virtually collapsed in the country. Delays in wage payments and an over-the-top technocratic approach (electronic muster rolls) are to blame. These, in turn, are a reflection of the dwindling political interest in the MGNREGS" Reetika Khera, assistant professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, said.
Roy and Dey were commenting on the role the scheme had played in bringing the UPA back to power. Five years down the line, the Act and its implementation have drifted so far apart that the ruling alliance is wary of using it as a vote catcher. The reasons for the drift are rampant corruption, inflexibility of the scheme's design and inadequate monitoring.
A 2013, report by the Comptroller and Auditor General showed only 20 per cent of the funds allocated between 2009-10 and 2011-12 had been released for Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, which account for 46 per cent of the rural poor in India. It said Rs 2,252 crore of inadmissible work was undertaken under the rechristened Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), including roads, ghats and cattle platforms. The auditor also found Rs 4,070 crore of work was incomplete while Rs 2,374.86 crore extra were released by the ministry of rural development to six states by an error in calculation.
"The poorest of the poor were not fully able to exercise their rights under the MGNREGA," the auditor said.
Official data shows average employment under the scheme per household has dropped to a three-year low of just 41 days in 2012-13. Furthermore in early March, the Central Bureau of Investigation registered two cases against officials in Sant Kabir Nagar and Mirzapur districts of Uttar Pradesh for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and misuse of position while implementing the scheme.
Reports have also revealed how MGNREGS workers were forced to commit suicide by delays in wage payments and how the scheme had been plagued by widespread fraud in enlisting workers, with money being transferred to fictitious accounts.
Clearly, MGNREGS has moved away from its core objectives of providing employment opportunities, creating sustainable livelihoods and rural governance.
Even the claim that the MGNREGS led to a sharp increase in rural wages is debatable. A study by the former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), Ashok Gulati, showed that real farm wages rose almost 6.8 per cent per annum from 2006-07, but the impact of the growth of the gross domestic product, agriculture and construction was almost four to six times higher than that of the MGNREGS.
The MGNREGS, of course, has impacted rural jobs and employment. Figures show 2008-09 and 2009-10 were perhaps the best years for the scheme, when employment and incomes surged. Its fillip to financial inclusion is also considerable. In 2011-12, almost 78 per cent of MGNREGS card holders reported having savings accounts.
But then the scheme's performance faltered. Oversight failed, leading to corruption and mismanagement. "Barring two or three states, the MGNREGS has virtually collapsed in the country. Delays in wage payments and an over-the-top technocratic approach (electronic muster rolls) are to blame. These, in turn, are a reflection of the dwindling political interest in the MGNREGS" Reetika Khera, assistant professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, said.
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