PERFORMANCE OF MGNREGA

It has been five years since the launch of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) launch from Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh on February 2, 2006. The act has been instrumental in raising the productivity, increasing the purchasing power, reducing distress migration, creating durable assets while ensuring livelihood opportunities for the needy and poor in rural India.

The act is aimed at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. These works include water conservation, drought proofing, irrigation, land development, rejuvenation of traditional water bodies, flood control and drainage work, rural connectivity and work on the land of SC/ST/BPL/IAY beneficiaries/land reform beneficiaries/ individual small and marginal farmers.

PERFORMANCE

1. Employment provided to 4.1 crore households in 2010-11 up to Dec.10.

2. Women constitute 47%  while Scheduled Castes account for 28 %, and Scheduled Tribes 24% of the workers under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA in 2010-11.

3. Average Wages per day under MGNREGA has gone up from Rs. 65 in 2006-07 to Rs. 100 in 2010-11.

4. Wage rates enhanced by 17-30% by linkage with Consumer Price Index for Agricultural labour calculated on the basis of Rs. 100 or the actual wage rate, whichever is higher as on April 1,2009.

5. Around 10 crore accounts of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA beneficiaries opened in post offices/banks contributing to financial inclusion.

6. Allocation of funds for 2010-11 raised to Rs. 40,100 crores.

7. Expenditure on wages Rs. 74677 crores.

8. Water Conservation, irrigation and land development account for over  75 % of work taken up in 2010-11

9. Over 68 lakh works taken up under MGNREGA  so far.

10. Social Audits conducted in 71% Panchayats.

INITIATIVES & INNOVATIONS

1.Enhancement of  MGNREGA wage rates by 17-30 % by linking it with Consumer price index for agricultural labour calculated on the basis of Rs. 100 or the actual wage rate, whichever is higher as on April 1^st, 2009. The new wage rates which come in to effect from January 1,2011 are higher than the prevailing wage rates under MGNREGA at present in many states.

2.Wage disbursement to Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers through Banks/Post Office accounts has been made mandatory. Around 9.38 bank/post office accounts have been opened so far.

3. On line Monitoring : Job cards, muster rolls, wage payments, number of days of employment provided and works under execution have been put up on the website www.nrega.nic.in for monitoring and easy public access for information.

4. District Level Ombudsman : Set up to receive complaints from Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers and others on any matters, consider such complaints and facilitate their disposal in accordance with law.

5.Social Audits made mandatory: Gram Panchayats have been asked to organize Social Audits once in every six months. Reports on Social Audits uploaded on the MGNREGA website. 73 % Gram Panchayats have reported to have undertaken Social Audits in 2010-11 so far.

6.National Level Monitors (NLMs)Visit: 37 National level Monitor were deputed in 37 districts in 15 states for special monitoring of the program.

7.Eminent Citizen Monitors : 61 Eminent Citizens have been have been identified so far as per the Guidelines of the Scheme for independent  monitoring. It is proposed to set up a group of 100 Eminent Citizen Monitors to Report on the progress of the scheme.

8.Vigilance and Monitoring committees (V&MCs) at State and District level : Re constituted for effective monitoring of the implementation of the program.

9.National Helpline for receipt of complaints : Toll free National Helpline 1800110707 set up for the protection of workers entitlements and rights under the Act. This is being CT enabled and linked with the State and District Level Helplines.

10.State Helplines: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Orissa, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands etc. have set up state level helplines.

11.Partnership with Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDA): Mahatma Gandhi NREGA is  collaborating with UIDA. By creating a unique identity of the individual the process would eliminate duplicate job cards, ghost beneficiaries while facilitating easy bank account opening, tracking the mobility of beneficiaries  and ensuring a better monitoring of the system.

12.Construction of Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra/ Gram Panchayat Bhawans at the Gram Panchayat or block level: Included as a permissible activity under the act. Use of administrative head of 6% under the Scheme has been permitted for provision of latest ICT facilities in Gram Panchayats (BNRGSK) within the permissible norms of the State Govt. subject to due procedures.

13.Enlarging the scope of works permitted : Works related to provision of irrigation facility, horticulture plantation and land development facilities on the private land owned by SCs and STs or below poverty line families (BPL)has been permitted under the act. Gram Panchayats while approving work plans have been asked to ensure that works on lands of SC / ST and BPL receive first priority.

14.Work under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA in Naxal affected states : Union Government has issued instructions to all naxal affected States (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh) to intensify awareness generation campaign among rural households, issuance of job cards, implementing sufficient number of works and timely payment of wages.

15.Convergence : Guidelines have been developed for convergence of the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS with different Schemes and specific programs. 150 convergence pilot projects have been instituted in 23 states under the monitoring of National Institute of Rural Development.

16.Business Correspondent Model : Adopted in Rajasthan with the help of Central Bank of India  to ensure  timely payment of wages to the  workers.

17.Strengthening Monitoring Mechanisms: A Professional Institutional Network (PIN) has been constituted , including IITs, IIMs, ASCI, IIPA, IIFM ,agriculture universities and other professional institutions, for lending support to Mahatma Gandhi NREGA to conduct impact assessment and concurrent monitoring and appraisal.

18.Management and Administrative support for social audit, grievance redressal and ICT infrastructure has been strengthened.

Over the years the experience has shown that the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable groups have sought employment under the program. Focus now is on transparency and accountability with social audits, Biometric enabled-ICT based MGNREGA process for safeguarding the worker’s rights, enhanced productivity and sustainable development. Strengthening Of Gram Panchayats and empowering the workers are among the key areas where the emphasis would be in the years to come making it an effective instrument of inclusive growth and development.

Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill, 2011,

IT is heartening that the Centre has tabled the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. This was long overdue since child abuse has not only increased in the country over the years but is also having a deleterious impact on child psyche. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau show that the number of cases of sexual offences against children has risen from 2265 in 2001 to 5769 in 2008. The gravity of the problem can be gauged by the fact that two out of every three children are physically abused. The Bill has some unique features to protect children against offences of sexual assault, harassment and pornography. It provides for imprisonment up to seven years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for those found guilty of sexually assaulting children. Sexual assault will also include fondling the child in an inappropriate way, which would invite a punishment of a minimum of three years in jail. The Bill, which will now be sent to the Standing Committee for examination and scrutiny, envisages establishment of special courts for trial of such offences.

Significantly, the Bill provides for treating sexual assault as an “aggravated offence” when it is committed by a person in a position of trust or authority over a child, including public servants. This is a very important provision because studies by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, UNICEF and Save the Children, an NGO, reveal that most of the time the sexual abuse was perpetrated by someone known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility. Not surprisingly, most children did not report the abuse to anyone. Studies reveal that only 53 per cent of children reported having faced some form of sexual abuse.
The Bill is expected to fill the gap in Indian jurisprudence. Though 19 per cent of the world’s children live in India, the country has no special law at present to tackle the menace of child abuse. The Indian Penal Code does not spell out the definition of child abuse as a specific offence. Nor does it offer legal remedy and punishment for the offence. Moreover, the IPC laws are rarely interpreted to cover the range of child sexual abuse. Even the Juvenile Justice Law does not specifically address the issue. Despite all its merits, the Bill would help the country only if it is strictly enforced by the authorities after due enactment by Parliament.

CHILD MARRIAGE

THE practice of marrying girls off before they attain the legal age for marriage continues unabated, despite the growing outrage over child marriages in India. An indication of the fact that laws have failed to check marriages of minor girls comes with the latest UNICEF report. In a shocking disclosure, the report reveals that India has the eighth highest population of married adolescent girls in Asia and Africa. In fact, 30 per cent girls marry between the age of 15 and 18 years, and are thus deprived of their right to education and health. In Rajasthan, child marriages, often solemnised secretively, are widely prevalent.

While India boasts of demographic advantage in terms of its adolescent population, adolescents themselves continue to remain disadvantaged and often have to face sexual and physical exploitation. Early marriage also deprives them of the chance to blossom. As many minor girls become mothers, they are exposed to greater risks during pregnancy, and the risk of infant deaths too increases. While the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 has a provision for making the child marriage null and void, society and the law have to ensure that such marriages are not allowed in the first place. For, in a gender-biased society, nullification of a marriage will have its own repercussions detrimental to the fair sex.
While proposals like the compulsory registration of marriages and linking it with the issuance of ration cards and birth certificates can go a long way in curbing this social evil, institutions, especially panchayats, can play a positive role too, as sometimes they have done so in the past. If India has to reap dividends of its economic growth, it has to break the vicious cycle of poverty and undesirable social customs, which are deeply rooted in gender prejudices. For this both the law-enforcing agencies and society, including the NGOs, have to work in tandem. For the sake of both the present generation of young women and future children, marrying girls before they achieve adulthood must be prevented