Shrinking jobs under MGNREGA driving villagers to choktis

AJMER: Anger was visible on the faces of women MGNREGA workers who had assembled at Tilonia looking for work after a long time. The going has not been good and they shuddered to think what would follow if there were further job cuts. On an average, last year, they had all worked for just 40 days when the minimum mandatory number of days of work is 100, except for the tribal populace of Shariya, Kathori and Khairwa for whom it is 200 days.
"We can't just sit at home. We have been seeking private jobs. There is no work available here. I am from a community that used to beg for food but if there is work, then I would not be forced to do that," said Ganga Devi. She was joined by Lali Devi, Meera Devi Saroni Devi and Prabhu Lal - all of whom have barely got work and even if they did, the payment was task based and they barely got Rs 120 to Rs 130 per day.
"There has not been much work. In 2013-14, there were just about 30 to 40 persons who had finished 100 days," conceded former sarpanch of the village, Kamla Devi. In fact, people from Tilonia have already started going 5 kilometres away to Bhojawas in search of work and they may not be the only ones to do so.
The budget squeeze in the past couple of years and the refusal to register demand for work have taken the scheme to such a tipping point that any further reduction in nominal or real terms could only mean a collapse of the scheme.
Though the allocation to Rajasthan for the year 2014-15 at Rs 2,760 crore was slightly better than that for the last fiscal which was Rs 2,059 crore but the approved labour budget came down from Rs 2,334 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 2,071 crore in 2014-15. As a result, the fall in employment generation was evident.
In a far-off village of Sangarbas also in Ajmer, the story is no different. Sanku Devi who had got about 90 days of work in 2013-14 finished last year with just 32 days of work. "There has been no work and the way things are, it does not seem that I will be able to get work like I used to get earlier," she said.
But she is better off than her co-worker Amri Devi whose her three sons with their wives and children have gone to the neighbouring district of Bhilwara for working in stone quarries. "It is a very hard work, but with no work available here, there is little option left with us. The children too had to opt out of school. This is a mountainous region and there is very little land here for cultivation. The MGNREGA is the only source of earning for us," said Amri Devi.
And Amri Devi's plight is fast getting reflected at the choktis where more and more people are assembling for work as daily labourers. Harkesh Bhugalia, general secretary, Rajasthan Nirman Evum General Majdoor Union, said, "For the past one year or so, there has been an increase in the number of people congregating at the choktis to look out for work at private places every day. The MGNREGA had kept the people employed, but with jobs shrinking under the Act, even women, who used to stay home and work in MGNREGA, are queuing up. The everyday wages that had increased to Rs 350 to Rs 400 per day due to MGNREGA have now dropped to Rs 250 to Rs 300 per day. Women from the state are going to Gujarat to look for work as domestic workers while women and men from Bihar and Jharkhand are coming here."
"When the scheme came into being, it was immediately and enthusiastically taken up by the people of this drought-prone state.
As a result, in the early years when budgets were not restricted and demand was proactively met, Rajasthan spent over Rs 6,000 crore per year and consumed almost 20% of the national budget. What this meant on the ground was that it dramatically increased capacities to combat drought both through employment and the building of drought proofing works. It had given employment to anyone who needed work, it helped chased away starvation, and the works have helped build millions of drought-proofing structures across the state," said Nikhil Dey, a social activist.
"But it seems the scheme has its enemies both at the local and the national level. However, it is certain that Rajasthan desperately needs MGNREGA to work as mandated by the Act where demand is met by supply and shortcomings like delayed payment of wages are penalised. It would be suicidal for the government to cynically destroy a programme created for ending endemic poverty," he added.