People's Democracy

Strengthen Implementation Of REGA

CPI(M) Appeals To UPA Govt

The following is the full text of the letter written by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Rajya Sabha member Brinda  Karat to union rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh regarding implementation of Rural Employment Guarantee Act (REGA) on June 1, 2006

AFTER meeting officials and workers in several states regarding the implementation of REGA, I would like to draw your attention to some important issues. Any programme of this nature will certainly have teething problems that can be solved with proper intervention and therefore at the outset I would request you to take these comments only as a measure of concern that the REGA should not be weakened by vested interests. Also, nothing should be done from the government side to reverse some of the positive instructions in the guidelines issued to the states particularly regarding wages and work norms.

WAGES

The wages under the Act have been specified as the minimum wage for agricultural workers in the state. In many states this wage is below the sixty rupees specified as the minimum under the Act. For example, in Maharashtra even under REGA the workers are being paid the wages applicable to the EGS scheme which is only 47 rupees. In 89 districts of the 200, workers are getting a wage less than 60 rupees. At the same time, sometimes in the same area as the REGA work project, other departments of the government like irrigation or agriculture departments are getting earth work done through contractors who pay a higher wage as mandated by the schedule of rates issued by different state governments. Thus workers would prefer to wait for some work in projects where the wages are higher. I was informed by the officials I spoke to in Karnataka for example that the majority of workers in the REGA projects were women “because the men were not willing to work at such a low wage,” even though in this state the wage is slightly above sixty rupees.

There is a strong case for increasing the wages in all states where it is below sixty rupees. States should be allowed to fix their wage taking into account the higher prices of essential commodities. A related problem is that of the absence of any foodgrain component as part of wages. With the virtual collapse of the public distribution system, the main expenditure is on food which costs more. Some direct effort must be made to ensure that a foodgrain component is permitted in the wage payment programme. I would earnestly request you to make out a case for increasing the wages being paid under REGA which is necessary if the poor are to benefit under the Act and to include a foodgrains component.

PRODUCTIVITY NORMS

A crucial addition in the guidelines is the direction to states to conduct time and motion studies so as to fix a fair and just norm for piece rated work. At present if Uttar Pradesh is included then 114 of the 200 districts have task-based wages. You will recall that I had pointed out on the basis of the experience of the working of the National Food for Work Programme (NFWP), that the tasks set in most states is impossible for any worker to achieve within seven hours. The reality is that to earn a minimum wage the worker has to put in an extra three to four hours to complete the task. Unfortunately these impossible work norms have been used as the basis for the REGA also. For example in Rajasthan where there has been no time motion study, workers are having to dig 62 cubic ft for Rs 73. In Jharkhand it is 110 cubic ft for a wage of 50 rupees. In Andhra Pradesh where such a study has been done, workers complete 44 cubic ft. for 80 rupees (this comparison does not include added weightage for different soil types). In some states minimum wage requires digging of 100 cubic ft.  Clearly this is totally unjust. The norms for afforestation are also very difficult to achieve.  It must also be remembered that the work force is already highly malnourished particularly the women. Their work, mainly earth lifting, should not be linked with that of the earth digging work. Thus the necessity of time motion studies to have a physical check of what is humanly possible taking into account weather conditions also, is absolutely essential.  Women’s work calculation must form part of the study.  Unfortunately, according to reports there has not been much headway in the time motion studies.

I have received reports that the studies are being discouraged in the name of ensuring that “no backdoor” wage increase takes place which will “have a negative effect on the country’s finances.” Whether there is any truth in this report or not, I would request you to ensure that time motion studies are conducted as a priority by all states with a separate calculation for earth lifting. Otherwise it will mean that REGA is being used to build national assets through cheap labour, which is far from the intention of the Act.

WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION

There are no records being kept of gender disaggregated data. The forms with the district officials or the block level officials do not have a separate column to note the number of women who have been included in family job cards, number of women applying for work and number of women who have actually been given work. It is necessary to rectify this as it is required under the Act to ensure that at least one third of the beneficiaries are women.

The impact on women of low wages and high productivity norms as detailed above should be noted. Where men are not coming forward to work because of low wages, women at the site are required to do the earth digging work also. Often two women have to complete the task together earning just one wage. At the same time the earth lifting work done by women is still not counted separately although it has been mandated in the guidelines that all labour processes should be counted separately. As a result women are being underpaid.

There are problems regarding registration and job cards for women in many states. I have received a complaint which I enclose from women of Kushinagar, UP, who wanted to get registered for work but were refused because their husbands were not with them. This is just in the way of an illustration of the problems that women face. In some states statements from the “head of the family” are required for registration and if the “head” is not available or is a migrant worker as is often the case, the woman is denied registration and a job card. It is necessary to give explicit instructions that women may be registered separately and that individual job cards for women should be issued.

Unfortunately the shelf of projects in most states is not in the least creative or gender friendly. Here also the centre could consider helping the states with specially designed proposals for women workers so that they may get the benefits of the Act.

CASE OF JHARKHAND

On my recent visit to Jharkhand I met a number of workers from different districts who shared their experiences with me. I also spoke to the officials concerned about the complaints I had heard. These in the main consist of difficulties in receiving the job cards and the inability to provide work. However the most shocking information was that the government of Jharkhand is sending the money for projects directly to the bank accounts of two office bearers supposedly “elected” by the gram sabha. I was informed by workers in Godda, Saraikela, Koderma, Jamtara and Ranchi that block officials send a “gram sevak” to convene a gram sabha which requires only 10 per cent attendance to meet the quorum requirement. There are complaints that information is not given in time so attendance is low. In the open forum people are asked to “vote” for a president and treasurer by raising their hands. Powerful elements including agents of landlords and contractors stand for the elections and the poor are rarely able to challenge them through their own candidature. There have been a few cases where poor people did get elected. But the main problem here is that the money then goes directly into the account of the two “elected” office bearers who have full authority over the money. There is no panchayat system in Jharkhand since elections have not been held.

I believe this is a serious violation of the guidelines and will subvert the very purpose of the Act. When I spoke of this to officers in charge Chintu Naik and also Ashok Kumar Singh they were unaware of what was happening. I hope you will take urgent note of this and check the veracity of these reports and if found correct, take suitable action.

NON-AVAILABILITY OF WORK

There are complaints that workers are not being given job cards. This is one reason that explains the huge gap between registrations at the national level of 2.43 crore and the job card issuance of just 1.61 crore. I would question the veracity of the figures of those seeking employment also which is just 72 lakhs for the whole country. Even among these only 50 lakhs have been given work We have received complaints in many states that local officials are refusing to accept applications for work saying that the projects have not been vetted by the concerned authorities. Since the monsoons are approaching when there is a great demand for work, this specific aspect must be attended to with urgency in the states. We know that central monitors are working to ensure that the state governments comply with the Act. As you had said in the consultative committee meeting the implementation of the Act has been delayed in five states because of the elections. The situation is bound to improve with your interventions.

EXTENSION OF REGA

I am sure you will agree with me that the effort must be to spread the REGA to all districts within a time-bound framework within the next year. In the meanwhile as I had suggested earlier, states should be given the right to implement the programme on the basis of block level identification as there are so many “backward” blocks in so-called better off districts which require urgently the benefits of REGA.

SGRY

I would also like to bring to your notice the problems with Sampoorn Gram Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) which I believe is getting neglected although the majority of districts are still covered only by SGRY. The major issue here is that of the short supply of foodgrains. I was informed by Karnataka officials for example that only half the SGRY requirement of foodgrains is being supplied to them. They have been asked to increase the cash component.

This payment of cash in place of foodgrains is nothing but bringing down the real wage of workers since foodgrain prices are rising.

I request you to ensure that there are no such cuts in the foodgrain allotment. You will recall that at the time of the budget allocations this issue had been raised in parliament and the finance minister had given a categorical assurance that there would be no such cut. Unfortunately the apprehensions I had expressed are being proved correct.

I request you to verify at what price the foodgrains are being replaced by cash. It will be most unfortunate if the cash equivalent of 5 kgs of foodgrains given in SGRY is being calculated at the BPL rates for wage payments. I would request you to urgently review the SGRY implementation.

I would also like to assure you of the fullest cooperation from the CPI(M) for the implementation of the Act which will indeed be of great benefit to the poor in rural India.