National Rural Employment Guarantee Act NREGA

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National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)

• Government of India
• Ministry of Rural Development

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National Rural Employment Guarantee Act,
2005(NREGA)

• Structure of Presentation
• -Legal Design Processes and Issues
• -Implementation Issues
• - Stepping out of/Stretching the Legal Box..?

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NREGAProcess of Law Making

• Almost two years of wide debate and consultation
  across the nation multiple voices, fears, hopes,
  myths and sober facts.
• Process of debate continues after legislation
• Opportunity of making NREGA a Peoples Act..

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National Rural Employment Guarantee Act,
2005(NREGA)

• Enacted August, 2005
• Legal Guarantee of 100 days of employment in a
  financial year
• To every rural household
• Whose adult members volunteer
• To do unskilled manual work
• At the minimum wage rate prescribed in the
  State.
• or else an unemployment allowance

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Rationale for NREGA

• Opportunity for lean season support.
• 100 days supplement to existing resources
• Reduce distress migration through local
  employment
• Address the Geography of poverty
• Generate employment in the most deprived areas
  through productive works
• works that rejuvenate the natural resource base
  of livelihood of poor communities.

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NREGA

• LEGAL DESIGN

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Key Processes Demand for Employment
Rural Household Registration Application
Gram Panchayat



(GP) Verification- local residence not poverty,
employment
Registration
Employment Demand
GP
Job Card HH

Dated Receipt
Work allocation 15 days of Demand
Else Unemployment Allowance
Facilities Creche,medical aid,water
Work- Site
Muster roll with Job Card Nos. Measurement
Wages-15 days
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Key ProcessesSelection of Works
Gram Panchayat finalises Village Plan
Gram Sabha Recommends
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-Block- Panchayat Consolidates village
PlansBlock Plan
Programme Officer
Other agencies
Programme Coordinator-
District-Panchayat
Final shelf of Projects

• Water conservation, land development
• Afforestation,roads, other works
• 6040, labourmaterial
• No contractors,machinery

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Critical IssuesDesign-Safeguarding local
workforce Rights

• Time Bound Action to fulfill legal Guarantee
• Incentive Structure for Performance (Centre funds
  90 of costs of generating employment)
• Disincentive for non performance (Unemployment
  allowance is state liability)
• Demand Triggers employment.
• -Checks arbitrary action of supply side in
  opening works heedless of employment needs
• Numbered Muster rolls for each work issued by the
  Programme Officer (checks false muster rolls)
• Muster rolls to mention Job Card number (Checks
  false names/Contractors)

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Critical IssuesDesign-Transparency
Accountability

• Right to Information
• -Compulsory display through public notice of all
  essential information
• -Public access to records and information
• Information Technology enabled information system
  for easy access to critical information
• Social Audit by Gram Sabha
• Annual Reports on outcomes to the Parliament and
  the state legislature mandated
• Addresses problem of no Public Accountability in
  early WEPs

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Critical IssuesDesign Resource Availability

• Demand Based Budget Allocation
• Non- Lapsable National Fund
• Revolving Funds at each level sufficient funds
  to plan and respond
• Indigenous funding. 90 by the Government of
  India, 10 by State Govts.

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NREGA

• Critical Issues Implementation

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Implementation Early Trends

• Central Government notified NREGA on February 2,
  2006 in 200 Districts
• In five years entire country
• About 1.61 crore households have received job
  cards
• About 72 lakh persons demanded employment. About
  52 lakh persons provided employment. Women large
  share. About 72,000 works being executed.

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1. Articulating Demand- Voice of Poor

• -General Awareness. Making choices.
• - But need for greater information specially
  about entitlements
• -Need for Work but not yet familiar with process
  of Demand
• Strategic response
• -Emphasis on Community mobilisation
• -Communication
• Supply Vs DemandComplex relationship

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2. Planning for Employment-Labour Budget

• Planning in Advance Labour Budget to be ready
  for each successive year well in advance.
  Forecasting seasonality, intensity of employment
  demand.
• Matching Household employment demands with
  community Works
• Insufficient capacity, poor coordination.
• Strategic response Capacity Building staff,
  skills, expertise, infrastructure GP level
  upwards

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3. Choice of works

• Challenge labour intensive and durable asset.
  What People want and what is desirable for
  sustainable development.
• Not easy choices
• Strategic response
• -Making District Perspective Plans estimating
  resources and benefits in terms of employment,
  asset and other productivity indicators.
  Integrating NREGA works with other livelihood and
  infrastructure initiatives
• -Designing Prototype Projects eg. watershed

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4. Form of Wage Payment

• -Cash transfer from Centre. No Food. Earlier WEP
  food transfers fraught with leakages.
• -Cheque systems being encouraged
• -Reading out muster rolls and payments before
  local community needs to be insisted upon
• .

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5. Creating a Data Base

• A web-based Management of Information System
  being operationalised
• Accessible at http//nrega.nic.in
• Can work online as well as offline
• Data generated at Gram Panchayat level captured
  at Block
• Reports generated on the basis of primary data

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Critical Issues
Implementation
6. Monitoring Evaluation

• Central Council being set up Major role
  in ME
• Intensive external/internal ME initiated
  Delivery structures/processes,impact on
  household, worksite,legal design.
• Use feed back to facilitate problem-solving
  interventions

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7. Transparency and Accountability

• Continue to be issues
• Legal design makes them central concerns. State
  Govts willing to partner with civil society
  organisations. Eg.MKSSS Social Audit in
  Rajasthan. Starting in AP.
• RTI.

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8. Equity

• As a distributive concept is intrinsic to
  programme
• -Work Measurement Schedule of Rural rates
• -. Valuing each activity.( work done by women
  often not counted). Work Time and Motion
  Studies-gender sensitive.
• Equal remuneration
• An Area of serious concern needing concerted
  effort
• Work site facilities
• Need to be more than just a flimsy overhead
  canopy.

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9. Empowering Workers

• Leveraging the Act Voice of the Poor
• Can access to resources move towards control
  over resources?
• Negotiating local power structures on more
  equal terms?
• More than a distributive understanding of Equity
• -Developing capabilitiesliteracy.
• -Converging with livelihood initiatives for
  sustainable employment.
• -Organisation of Workers
• Not a welfare option. Necessary Dialectic that
  needs to be understood to strategise towards.

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If the Act delivers..

• Mitigate hard times
• Household earnings may increase through 100 days
  supplement
• Strengthen natural resource base of livelihood
  and build community assets
• Quantum of fiscal resources needed for wage
  employment programmes may reduce
• Because of better targeting-Mirror of Poverty
• Possible spin off
• - more schooling for children of migrant
  families,
• - Women greater participation in work
  forcemore voice?

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If the Act delivers, then

• Step out/ Stretch the Legal Box?
• If the Act delivers, it should really deliver
  beyond itself.
• Legal Design may evolve based on experience
• -Open up Works to include social services
• -Skill development/skilled works-to include other
  forms of rural unemployment artisans?
• Problem of Targeting(self-targeting through hard
  labour), complexities of planning
  (market,technology,credit)
• Stay within Box (Numbers within it may reduce
  with a growing economy) Strengthen integration
  mechanisms with the development environment

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Thanks
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Rural India

• Population 1.19 billion total population
• age of Rural Population 72.22
• States28
• Districts602
• Villages 638,365