Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the
Nation, always cherished about India’s rural beauty, resilient power as
much he was concerned about the poverty and living conditions. His pet phrase was
India lives in villages. Therefore, it was in fitness of
things when the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s
government renamed its popular flagship programme
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) after him. The momentous
occasion coincided with completion of 50 years of institution of Panchayati Raj in the country. It
was on October 2, way back in 1959, country’s first Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, had
inaugurated Panchayati Raj
at Naguar in Rajasthan.
India, as we know, is a country of
villages and it goes without saying that since the dawn of Independence, concerted efforts have been made
to ameliorate the living standard of rural masses. Rural development as an
integrated concept of growth and poverty elimination has been of paramount
concern in all the five year plans. Traditionally, Rural Development programmes comprise of following basic steps like
infrastructure facilities in the rural areas, namely schools, health centres, roads, adequate drinking water and
electrification. There have been also schemes like improving agricultural
productivity, providing social services like health and education for
socio-economic development, implementing scheme for the promotion of rural
industry and importantly providing rural employment.
All these were going on smoothly
undoubtedly. However, despite the strides the country has made in the last six
decades, it must be admitted that there have been certain areas especially in
rural India where standard of living has been
far from satisfactory. Therefore, in 2005, the Government undertook a major
venture, which today could be easily called the turning point of the changing
face of the Indian villages. The Government enacted a law, under the
name of, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 whereby it says any
adult who is willing to do unskilled manual work at the minimum wage is
entitled to being employed on local public works within 15 days of applying.
Importantly, it laid guidelines
providing room for “unemployment allowance” in which case - if employment is
not provided within 15 days, the applicant is entitled to an unemployment
allowance – of at least one fourth of the minimum wage for the first 30 days
and at least one half of the minimum wage thereafter. So much has been the
success rate of the NREGA in the last five years that there is little to
dispute that the Act has helped a substantial Indian population during the last
few months despite economic meltdown. There are statistics and surveys to
suggest that NREGA has helped those undergoing reverse migration from urban and
major metros to rural areas.
Among other things, NREGA has able
to achieve substantial results in the field of reducing distress and seasonal
migration. The Union Rural Development Minister Dr C P Joshi has said that the
NREGA has also helped the rural and semi-urban people and NREGA workers in
particular in “increasing” their purchasing power. It has to be taken in that
context that the Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee remained focussed on Aam Admi and announced a slew of provisions for
inclusive development in the budget for 2009-10 and gave a major push to the
rural development projects.
Raising the flagship scheme NREGA by
whopping 144 per cent to Rs 39,100 crore, he said a key challenge remains to broaden the
agenda for inclusive development and to ensure that no individual, marginalized
community or region is denied the fruits of development. Officials say under
NREGA, as many as 4.49 crore households have been
provided employment in 2008-09 and 216 crore person
days of employment have been generated. In fiscal, 2009-10 up to July, Rs 2.53 crore households have
been provided work and 87.09 crore person days have
been generated.
Renaming NREGA
A decision to rename NREGA after
Mahatma Gandhi was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet on October 1. The
next day at a function at the gracious Vigyan Bhawan in the capital to rename NREGA as Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGREGA), the Prime Minister also
rightly launched a year-long Year of Gram Sabha. In
his speech, the Prime Minister said that the government move to
rename the NREGA is only a “humble tribute” to the Father of the Nation on his
140th birth anniversary. The Union
Minister for Panchayati Raj
and Rural Development, Dr Joshi said it is the need of the hour for the Panchayati Raj institutions to
play a pro-active role in the developmental process.
Gandhian Thought
A key emphasis of Mahatma Gandhi’s
philosophy about governance has been the task of ensuring the inclusive growth.
This is precisely an area the where old name NREGA, has provided employment
particularly for marginalized groups. The participation percentages were 55 per
cent (Scheduled caste /Scheduled Tribe) in 2008-09 and 53 per cent (SC/ST) up
to July, 2009 are yardsticks to measure this. Officials also say that the women
workforce participation has also surpassed the statutory minimum requirement of
33 per cent. In financial year, 2008-09, women participation was 48 per cent
which has increased to 52 per cent up to July this year.
Fast Forward
The Act is doing extremely well so far.
However, there have been instances of certain hurdles in implementation.. In the words of Dr Joshi himself, “so many ideas are
being formulated and plans made for implementation of NREGA, but panchayats which are implementing it, have no proper place
to do so”. This has been rightly addressed with the Government announcing
setting up Rajiv Gandhi Seva
Kendras in all 2.5 lakh panchayats of the country in the next three years. “These
would act as mini-secretariats for NREGA projects implementation,” the minister
said.
The Government has also rightly
started a consultation process with the Minister Dr Joshi himself meeting a
cross section of political leaders. After such a meeting he said the government is working hard
to address what had been mentioned in the President’s speech to Parliament on
ensuring transparency in NREGA. Several regional parties have also suggested
that the Centre should expand the scope of newly named Mahatma Gandhi Rural
Employment Guarantee Act by including new types of work under it and ensure
more transparency and accountability in its implementation.
The greatest strength of democracy
is that under this system of governance, the people are the masters of the
destiny and also of their own developmental works. This is one thing, Mahatma
Gandhi had always underlined.
The rural Indian population, their
welfare and the improvement in agriculture and rural India’s other facets were close to his
heart. India always lives in villages and still
it is a rural-based society. Yet, in a fast changing world and pressure of
urbanization has often led hundreds off the fields taking them away from the
villages. Perhaps going back to the field would be a difficult proposition for
many Indians, but the Government’s target of improving rural living conditions
is worth appreciating. Well, the MGREMA that way is a good instrument of
change!
Disclaimer:
The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do
not necessarily reflect the views of PIB
RTS/VN
SS-115/SF-115/13.10.2009