A population of 1.45 million, 598 Gram Panchayats, 9 Blocks and only 3 Block Development Officers (BDOs), one of whom I met recovering from a tell-tale sign of a hangover and lying in his courtyard on a sunny winter afternoon. We reached his office and was quite taken aback by finding him on his cot in the backyard of government quarter instead of the office.
I was in Uttar Pradesh trying to satisfy my curiosity regarding what keeps UP at the bottom in NREGA implementation. Now don’t tell me you do not know NREGA. You will be hanged, drawn and quartered in the present government’s raj if you don’t. After all the current political party in power has beaten and keeps beating every willing and reluctant drum available to announce the program that at Rs 390,000 million has the single largest chunk of allocation and is second only to defense.
If you are part of the middle class paying tax diligently like me (just because the tax norms are becoming tighter and mutual funds and bonds are not as lucrative any more), you probably feel here is a scheme that is giving out to people as much as Rs 100 per day for 100 days a year from your pocket. After all the Daily that brings our daily dose of market tells us how NREGA is “doling out” and how it is based on a “system of doles”. We probably are not much different from a section of misinformed semi-educated party-infected (!) (or Bahenised) villagers in UP, who think the same. Much to a rude shock to this section, once you reach the work site to get your Rs 100 you are asked to dig a hole that is 3 mtr wide, 3 mtr long and 1 mtr deep!! Okay okay, if your maths is only as good as mine let me help you understand that this is such a task that the ultra-leftists are questioning the humanity as well as the welfare role of the government behind the proposition. And any of us probably not last half an hour into the task.
So let us all wake up to smell the sunshine in a May afternoon… this laborer is putting in every bit of hard work and more for what she earns at the end of the day. The irony is she does not get paid at the end of the day, not even by the end of the week and at times, not even in 15 days as directed by the law-makers. She might get paid 2 months later, if at all, when all her zeal of getting work at the doorstep is gone.
Did I say she? All that comes to our mind whenever we think of laborer are bare chested or vest clad men. However, the laborer working in the jobsites of Rajasthan, Andhra, Karnataka and Maharashtra are mostly women. These are the states that are leading the pack in NREGA implementation. We also have Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal the trio closely competing for the lowest rank despite having the worst case scenario in distress migration. Women do not get work here. They are told NREGA is not for women. But then, men do not get it too. 14 out of 18 Pradhans I met in a district in UP openly announced that NREGA is an evil that is making them work extra without any rewards. They are eagerly waiting to strike the last nail in the coffin or putting the first fistful of sand in the grave of NREGA. How they would love to bury the scheme in one of those 3 mtr wide, 3 mtr long and 1 mtr deep holes! What a predicament for them…its an Act and not a scheme.
It has been particularly difficult for women of Ghosi block. They fought tooth and nail to get job cards at first. They got hold of 1 of those 3 BDOs for 9 Blocks to intervene to even get job cards. They had to go through physical tests! Have you heard of such tests when not appearing for a NDA job or a coolie (with the hope of becoming the Foremen) in the Railways? They had to be present in a jobsite early morning with their own instruments and had to dig for hours to convince the administration who are supposedly implementing a welfare scheme that they can dig as required. A large number of women fell ill, had to take medicines…but that did not dampen their spirit. What has really got the better of them is the fact that eve after all their running around to get job cards, appearing for tests they have got an average of 7 days work last year. In the famous year of drought, when the monsoon failed and government admitted to it…they got 7 days of work!
After this, can you sit and listen to a government official saying people do not want to work and that’s why NREGA does not work here? You wonder how much is too much. You wonder when these people will get up and shout “Enough”! But, instead I get a smile at the end of the meeting with women in MangalgaoN. These women recognized me from one of my last visits and told me I was right if they get together they can get job cards. They asked for my phone number. No, not to complain, not to get something moved from Delhi
EXCELLENT WORK
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