Previous Rural employment programs in the country:

1. Rural Manpower program- 1960-69

2. Crash scheme for rural employment.
3. Food for work Program- 1977-80
4. National Rural Employment Program- 1980-89
5. Rural Landless EGP- 1983-89
6. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana- 1989-99 ( merges in Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojna)
7. Food for Work Program II- 2000-2002
8. Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojna- 1999-2001
9. SGRY- merged in NREGA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Common objectives of EG programs:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Gainful employment generation.

Creation of durable assets.
Mitigate seasonality of demand.
Raise nutritional standards of rural poor.
Prevent distress migration.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Shortcoming of EG Programs:
1. Lack of planning: inability of states to generate matching resources. Various developmental
initiatives did not converge at the grassroots.
2. Lack of utilization of funds.
3. Less coverage of areas.
4. Activities were capital intensive instead of being labor intensive.
5. Bogus reporting to achieve targets.
6. Assets created were not durable.
7. Encouraged corruption, both at political and administrative level. Fudging of muster rolls
8. Low participation of women.
9. Contractors were involved and machinery was used.
10. Lack of peoples participation. Bureaucracy took over the task of planning and implementation
resulting in technocratic and top-down approach.

CHALLENGES TO NREGA:
The aim is to provide the poor with gainful employment in the short term and to create much-needed productive
infrastructure for poverty alleviation in the long run.

1. Shift towards universalization and entitlements:

A. Guaranteeing reach:
The employment is to be provided on demand.
Hence region specific labor demand and its seasonality must be understood properly to roll
out demand based shelf of projects.

B.

C.

D.
E.

No supply side selection of beneficiaries.

Failure will result in imprudent use of funds and financial burden on the state government
since the unemployment allowances are to be paid by states.
Application to physically disabled persons.
Guaranteeing outcome:
Wages must meet the daily subsistence need.
Assets must be durable to promote sustainable development. Productive infrastructure must
be created for poverty alleviation.
Ensuring convergence:
Integration with other developmental initiatives in the areas.
A long term development plan for the area must be envisioned and pursued.
Method of Expansion:
Gender Balance:
Prevent casualization of labor and feminization of poverty.
Empowerment of women. Mainstreaming gender balance.

2. Duality in funding and execution:

Fund flow should be demand based and not through normal bureaucratic procedures.
Fund flow must also be proactive rather than the current practice of reactive i.e. released when
demanded.
Accountability must be delineated in clear and unambiguous terms.
Distortion of incentives: the contribution of states in unskilled works such as earthworks is
almost nil. So the states may run the programs for a longer time and on a larger scale that
required so as to continue drawing funds from the Union. Similar practices may be adopted by
the panchayats also.
Funds must be used exclusively for furthering the goals of the program.

3. Centrality of Local governments:

Panchayats ave been entrusted with identification, execution and supervision of projects.
Need for capacity building in these institutions.

4. Administrative and institutional arrangements:

Technology: should be the backbone owing to the scale of the program and possibility of
complexity growing over time. It will also bring about efficiency, expediency, accountability,
transparency, flexibility and help prevent leakages.
Corruption and leakages: clear charter of roles and responsibilities. Simultaneous monitoring at
various stages.
Transparency in selection of beneficiaries and works and preparation of estimates, payments on
pre-announced dates, muster to be made public etc.
Participation of the communities in planning, implementing, supervising and monitoring to
preclude usurpation of responsibilities by bureaucracy as was done in previous programs.

5. Challenges in backward areas:

Poor infrastructure
Weak governance, low organizational capacity.
Difficulty of access.
Highly stratified social and economic structure.

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Special challenges in backward areas:

1. Adoption of uniform norms is impossible due to varied topography, large variation in size and
population of districts.
2. Non-existent or dysfunctional Panchayats.
3. Weak governance, understaffing and large scale leakages. Delivery of basic services has been
ineffective even when funds have not been the constraint.
4. Difficulty in ascertaining the no. of households. Even voters list can not be used for the purpose.
5. Lack of connectivity and penetration of banking and post office infrastructure ( Natl. avg. is 1 bank
branch per 15000 persons.)
6. Socio-economic indicators are below average. E.g literacy (national average 65%). Higher proportional
of SC/ST population ( National level: 16.2% and 8.2% respectively)
7. Higher ( than national average of 33%) percentage of agricultural laborers in total working population
which indicates large scale landlessness and lack of employment opportunities.
8. Implementation of PESA in scheduled areas. Powers and responsibilities devolved upon the Gram
Sabha and panchayats is not matched by the concomitant transfer of funds and functionaries.
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RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Universalization:

Action against prejudices rampant in rural society: Registration of households in objective and
transparent manner. 3 pronged approachstrong affirmative action by states, proper monitoring
by MoRD and awareness campaigns aimed at changing attitudes.
Special norms to be laid down for difficult terrain areas.
Contradiction between the Act and the Operation Guidelines over the term household.
Household should be defined to mean a nuclear family as is done in operational guidelines.
Job cards be issued to PWD and they should be assigned special responsibility of supervision,
measurement etc. which do not require much physical work.
Awareness campaigns must be undertaken in local language.
Compare participation against other available date like voters list, census, BPL survey etc. to
determine participation and take affirmative action, if necessary.

2. Guaranteeing outcomes:

Impact evaluation at regular intervals. Parameters to be assessed are: poverty, migration,

nutrition, sustainability of income from assets created and unemployment & access to essential
services.

3. Convergence:
With other service delivery mechanism such as healthcare, education services, housing, food
and nutrition security, social security etc.
With other asset creation programs
4. Expansion: Block should be taken as a unit to eliminate inclusion of relatively urban areas within the
district.
5. Duality:
Define wage rate
Transfer funds directly to districts. No need to route through state Govt.
Proactive and not reactive transfer of funds. Release funds when 60% of the previous
installment is utilized.
Streamwise ( unskilled, skilled, material, admin expenses, unemployment allowance) release and
monitoring of funds.
States must also contribute.
Fix maximum fund level the panchayat is required to hold so that funds do not remain idle.
Uniform financial information flow system should be prescribed for the entire country.
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PESA: Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996

Applicable to areas mentioned in 5th schedule only ( not extended to 6th Schedule).
Spells out functions, powers and responsibilities of Gram Sabha and Panchayats.
GS will approve plans, programs and projects before they are taken up for implementation by the
Panchayat.
GS will also identify beneficiaries for poverty alleviation and other programs.
GS will certify utilization of funds by the Panchayats.

Part IX of the constitution does not apply to 6th schedule areas.

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Bharat Nirman Plan:

Every village to be provided electricity.

Every habitation of 1000 or more to be provided with an all-weather road.
Safe source of drinking water for every habitation.
Telephone connectivity for every village.
100 lakhs hectares of additional irrigation capacity to be generated.
60 lakhs houses to be constructed for the poor.

Essential elements of a Financial Management system:

Adequate availability of funds.

Smooth flow of funds and financial information.
Appropriate accounting system to provide timely and reliable information.
Timely detection of any financial violations.
Total transparency and accountability.
Procedural simplicity.
Authentication of usage of funds.
Time Rate Vs Piece Rate:
Time rate
Piece rate
Payment in proportion to the time spent by the Payment based on amount of work turned out.
worker at the workplace.
Schedule of rates is used to convert the work into
monetary terms.
Allows minimum wages to be paid.
The same work may require different level of
effort from persons of varying strengths.
Does not generate the necessity productivity
Efficient and productivity guaranteed.
More scope for misuse of funds.
Complexity of fund disbursal
Simplified calculation. Worker knows his share.
Complex calculation. Uncertainty.
Difficulty of estimation of work
Integral to this mechanism.
Misuse by influential villagers.
May be.

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Change in the development approach recently. Tilt towards universalization and entitlements.
Flagship projects:

Project
Ministry/department
SSA
Dept of Elementary Education-MoHRD
MDMS
RG Drinking Water Mission
Dept of Drinking Water supply- Mo
Drinking Water and Sanitation
Total Sanitation Campaign
NRHM
MoHFW
ICDS
HRD- dept of W&C Welfare
NREGA
MoRD
JNNURM
Ministry of Rural Development----80000 crore.

Outlay ( Crore Rs.)

27250
13200
15260
21300
17700
33000
14873

What is needed for effective implementation of all flagship projects?

Common Implementation Framework so that all programs converge at the grassroots.
Suitable Administrative and financial management system needed.
Both horizontal and vertical co-ordination required.
Capacity building to the heads of panchayats.
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??? when any problem is at hand, we should choose a path which is self sustaining and there is a perceptible
end to the problem.