National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)- A Responsible Act or Surrender to Populism
Posted : August 31, 2005 at 10:14 pm [IST]
Will NREGA bring down the poverty in the country that has the largest population of poor people? Will it improve the GDP growth and per capita income? Is it a historic bill that will bring a smile to the poorest in India? It may go any way- from prosperity of the nation to disaster for the nation.
As a famous columnist points out, the NREGA may be a vast leap into the unknown for it violates no fewer than five canons of sound management:
Never divorce power from responsibility;
Never reward non-performance;
Never spend money you do not have;
Never count the benefits of an innovation without assessing its cost; and
Never take a leap into unknown waters before testing them (in a pilot scheme) first.
How much will the scheme cost? According to the calculations, the government appended to the bill, the scheme will cost of Rs. 40,000 crore to employ 4 million people in 2008-9, when the programme covers the entire country. It may be just 1% of the GDP of the year. But the assumption that there will be no addition to the number of the families below poverty line after 2000-1 can be just a wishful thinking. However, various other estimates place its cost at anything between the government figure and Rs. 1,500,000 crore. And that is the worry. The higher figure may cause a disaster that will mean no other developmental work and maintenance and may destroy all capital assets created in last 50 years.
How effective will be the expenditure? At the most conservative estimate, between 70% and 85% of the money is siphoned off. As known to every Indian, the state functionaries have created an intricate, mutually supportive web of corruption that involves everyone from the gram pradhans to the BDOs, zilla parishad members and MLAs. They will be the only beneficiaries. Some others give more alarming figures. As per Economist Surjit Bhalla, the poor received only 9% and 7% of the money spent on employment programmes in 1993-94 and 1999-2000 respectively. Even Jean Dreze, one of the masterminds behind the bills called a similar ‘the food for work’ programme ‘loot for work’ scheme.
What is the number of people involved? Can you believe, with so many projects for BPL (Below Poverty Line) households in last decades, there are still no authentic muster rolls of the households below poverty line? The list expands and contracts based on the size of grant that can be extracted from the central government or other aid agencies, when in the calamity such as draught and flood, the government comes out to provide special assistance in cash and kinds to BPLs. If the administration does not have the number, why can’t it identify the households below the poverty line from which one member will be picked up and provided employment? Why can’t it be done once for ever and an ID issued to these families? Perhaps, that will make it easy to monitor the controversial number easily, and bring an IT solution to make the scheme more effective. As I understand, TCS has taken up some scheme.
What will be the jobs under this rural employment scheme? There is a wealth of evidence that the jobs the scheme will create are not the jobs the unemployed poor wants today. The job in the scheme will be mostly menial. Remember the poor in India are not the same that the celebrities behind the scheme, perceive. The BPL households sent six million of their children to school during 1994 and 2002. Will they be ready to do what the government plans to provide? A recent survey of 51,000 households reported in ‘The Hindu’ showed that 40% of the respondents didn’t want to continue being farmers.
An anomaly: As per the government statistics, 430 million workers are employed in the organized and unorganized sectors. This is about 41% of India’s population. Based on the average number of members in households, it means that nearly every family already has some form of livelihood. But if we go by BPL ration cards, the number shows a population of 400 million very poor people in India.
Can there be an alternative and better way of providing the employment? The infrastructure such as good road connectivity and continuous electric power availability to every rural habitation can bring the similar result through empowering. Rs. 60,000 crore spent on power generation would add 12,000 MW year or 10% to the present generation capacity in the country. That would create millions of jobs for every year, unlike this one that is just for one year.
Perhaps, the need of the hour is to empower the people below poverty line with a lot of trade training and skill building that is simple but essential in this age requiring continuous up-gradation. The person who used to plough the field needs training in driving a tractor or repairing motors. Even, masons, barbers, carpenters, and blacksmiths in the rural area require up-gradation of their skills. It can’t be done in the old way of family learning process.
But then who will be benefited? As I know, the best beneficiaries will be the political parties with mafia like grip over the rural poor. One such party is CPM. In West Bengal, with total control of rural Bengal through party network, all the money of the scheme will flow through the party workers. I have seen, some of these party workers taking a commission in getting provident fund loans sanctioned and in getting the advance from the salary for the workmen from the company management. The party runs on the strength of these people. They must have a source of earning. They can’t be annoyed as they win the election for the so-called comrades and dadas. This leakage may be any percent of the money going to actual beneficiary.
Why does India alone of all socialist countries believe it must guarantee its citizens jobs? Is it because, India is sui generis, that is, India has no comparison in the world and is unique?
- Indra
Category: Rural development |
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