Sudha Nagavarapu and Dwiji Guru, 23rd February, 2009 :A milestone was achieved recently in the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Uttar Pradesh. The UP govt. approved payment of unemployment benefits of almost Rs. 15 Lakhs to 826 families in 20 villages of Mishrikh and Pisawa blocks of Sitapur district.
A person living in a rural district can apply for work under NREGA with either the Pradhan, Panchayat secretary, or the Block Development office. If s/he is not given work within 15 days of filing the application, s/he can apply for an unemployment allowance. If 100 days of work is not provided to the applicant’s family in that year, they are entitled to an unemployment allowance.
Sangtin Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan is a movement that came together in 2005 in the Mishrikh block of Sitapur dt. The farmer-labour movement was mobilized on the issue of bringing irrigation waters in the Islamnagar Rajbaha (canal). The rajbaha was dry and had been written off as unusable, even though the UP Irrigation Dept. continued to issue contracts for its cleanup every year. After a few months of mobilizing in the affected villages and sustained non-violent
campaigning at the block and district offices of the Irrigation Dept., water was released into the rajbaha for the first time in decades. The success of the campaign is underscored by the fact that water continues to flow through the canal three years after the campaign. During this campaign, the Sangathan first took on the issue of payment of minimum wages and the inclusion of women in the work force.
Sitapur district was one of the 200 pilot districts in which NREGA was launched in 2005. Realizing the potential of the Act, the Sangathan decided to take up its proper implementation in the villages they were active in. The non-issual of job cards, illegal charges taken for photographs, refusal to receive work applications, refusal to provide work, denial of work to women, illegalities in measurement of work done, payment of less than minimum wages and various other shortcomings in the implementation of NREGA were taken up. Farmer-labourers from nearby Pisawa block joined the campaign and became an integral part of the Sangathan in this period. While tackling these issues at the day-to-day level, the Sangathan decided to pursue unemployment benefits for those who had applied for work but had not received any. The campaign for unemployment benefits was launched in Nov. 2007 as a test of the administration’s sincerity in implementing NREGA. It was also part of a strategy to pursue a targeted campaign while engaged in tackling the various local issues relating to the implementation of the Act.
The district officials initially refused to acknowledge that the applicants were entitled to unemployment benefits. In December 2007, after a 10-day dharna at the district collectorate, the District Magistrate intervened and set up a six member committee, with equal representation from the govt. and the Sangathan, to investigate the claims. This committee submitted its report in March 2008. This was opposed by the Pradhan association. In response, the C.D.O. asked the committee to give them a hearing. He also asked the committee to calculate the individual payments that were due to the eligible farmer-labourer families. The committee submitted its final report in October 2008 establishing the eligibility of 826 families to receive Rs. 14,99,340 in unemployment wages. As and when the district administration used stalling tactics due to vested interests or a lack of initiative, the Sangathan used non-violent protests involving larger and larger numbers of farmer-labourers to move the administrative machinery.
Finally on January 15th 2009, a govt. order was issued by the office of the Commissioner of Rural Development authorising the disbursal of unemployment benefits. The order also called for disciplinary actions to be taken against the responsible officials during the time period
in which employment was denied, as confirmed by the committee. The then B.D.O.s of Mishrikh and Pisawa subsequently filed a writ petition in the Lucknow High court challenging the constitution and composition of the committee. In a quick decision, the two judge bench noted that the Commissioner of Rural Development is the responsible and empowered authority under NREGA and that the appellants should file a representation before the commissioner within three days of the court’s order. It went further and noted that the Commissioner has the responsibility to ensure that deserving families are not denied their rights in the process of reviewing the work of the committee.
During the Sangathan’s latest dharna in Sitapur between 16th and 20th January, a representative of the district administation confimed receiving the order for disbursal of unemployment benefits from the state offices in Lucknow and read it out aloud to much cheering and jubilation. The dharna was ended after five days when the district administration acceded to eight other points on the local aspects of the implementation of the Act and laid out action plans. Camps at the block offices every second and fourth Thursday for issual of new job cards and display of the revised measurement of work standards on the walls of the panchayat and block buildings are a few of the steps to be taken up by the administration.
It is the first time that the UP govt. will be disbursing unemployment benefits for those denied work under NREGA. Beyond this, the setting up of a committee with equal representation from the Sangathan and the govt. is a big step in participation of civil society in the implementation of a govt. programme. Different govt. programmes have incorporated people’s participation in planning, monitoring and oversight as part of their definition. The committee set up by the District Magistrate of Sitapur to look into the demand of unemployment allowance is in keeping with this spirit. This decision came about only after sustained campaigning by the Sangathan and stands testimony to the strength of people’s power.
It is also reassuring to see that once again a people’s movement has been able to amend the designs of govt. officials (more than once) and enforce a fairer implementation of a govt. programme. Each of the voices in the Sangathan has grown stronger as the campaign has progressed. Questions have been raised and action plans are being charted to tackle not just the challenges in the implementation of NREGA but also other govt. programmes and schemes. The coming days will reveal how the strength of mobilization can change the rural landscape of Sitapur within the existing framework of laws, programmes and schemes.