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 The world's largest job guarantee intervention, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which came into force in 2006, mandates that every rural household gets 100 days of work in a year. It was designed to address chronic poverty by creating productive assets on the ground and empowering the rural poor, the majority of whom belong to socially excluded communities. The actual implementation of this intervention, however, is fraught with challenges of discrimination, lack of accountability and poor planning. For Poorest Areas Civil Society Programme (PACS), the MGNREGA is one of its key thematic areas. PACS is working on this issue in partnership with civil society organisations in 25 districts of Bihar and Jharkhand in terms of generating work demand, helping community organisations conduct social audits and building a process of community resource mapping. In this special series, Women's Feature Service brings you fascinating stories of change and challenge from these districts.
India: One tribal village in Jharkhand has been able to prevent delays in getting MGNREGA job cards, work and wages, thanks to a unique campaign, the MGNREGA Abhiyan, launched by the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) programme, in partnership with local civil society organisations, in the two states of Bihar and Jharkhand. This is the story of Khijri Panchayat, whose Mukhiya Nandlal Hansda was recently awarded the President’s medal for running an effective rural job guarantee programme. Click to read full story WFS REF NO: INDLM311N
India: What is striking about the rural jobs guarantee intervention in rural Jharkhand is that most people here are using it not just to gain employment but to create permanent assets for themselves. In fact, according to the MGNREGA ombudsman in the state, 90 per cent of work undertaken under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act is in digging wells. These wells, in turn, have been transforming local farming practices. Whereas earlier farmers would wait for the monsoon to irrigate their fields - often with disastrous results if the rains fail - now with a permanent source of water they can consider going in for multiple crops. This also means that local farmers like Somra Oraon and Mura Khariya can now be more optimistic about the future. Click to read full story WFS REF NO: INDLC14N
India: In Gumla, a small district in Jharkhand, ordinary tribal villagers are now demonstrating how the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) can be made into an instrument of economic as well as social transformation through awareness raising and information delivery. People like Dhuran Oraon and Sita Devi, who joined forces with other families in their Suwargurha village to construct a well that everyone in the village could access, including tribals and the scheduled castes. Then there's also young Budhnath Khariya, who has just realised that the job guarantee intervention can also be a way of mobilising the community to assert its rights. Click to read full story WFS REF NO: INDLC02N
India: How is the world's largest rural jobs guarantee programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) faring? Not so well, if we are to go by the evidence that surfaced at a recent public meeting and social audit conducted in the Berama panchayat of Bihar's conflict prone Jehanabad district. Not being paid wages was a very common complaint that surfaced. Money was being made by vested interests on things as trivial as the photograph that was needed to be fixed on a job card. Every MGNREGA site in the Berama panchayat lacked facilities like drinking water and shelter, both of which are legal requirements. Not surprisingly, not one of these sites had a crèche - a provision that is vital for women workers with small children. What did emerge through this exercise, however, was that for the poorest of the poor, for India's most marginalised communities, the MGNREGA continues to be of immense importance. Click to read full story
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