National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme and Social Audit
 

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (or NREGA) 2005 is a milestone in the socio-economic sphere of Independent India. This scheme was dedicated to the father of the nation - Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, 2009, after which it became popular as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme. After attaining independence, this is the first time that a focused and targeted attempt has been made to increase the wage labour or control labour unemployment. This Act provides the unorganised sector with the legal right to earn through work, to lead a life of dignity and honour as a fundamental right, and is actually the first step towards social security. In fact, the right to work provides food security to people. This Act could also be termed as the People’s Act, since all its powers are vested in the people, be it preparing a plan for village development, or monitoring or assessing the quality of work that is being implemented. Glancing at the other side of the coin, it makes the non-stop information flow within the reach of the masses through the tool/medium of social audit, which is a vital criterion to make any process people based and effective. It also acts as an agent of silent revolution in terms of facilitating people’s participation in the system. This newly implemented methodology of social audit is what makes this scheme more popular than all other schemes implemented till date. We hope that this process of social audit will give rise to transparency in the system, on whose basis we may be able to realise the dream of ‘self-governance’ and make the journey to attain this goal an enjoyable and comfortable one.

Social Audit : Meaning and Relevance

Social audit is a methodology to monitor the progress and nature of any work. In this methodology, the assessment of the work under the programme/scheme by all the beneficiaries and the stakeholders and its utility for the community is analysed in depth and the collective pressure of the community forces those conducting the work to plan and execute the scheme in an appropriate and effective manner. The role and importance of social audit become extremely effective in the context of NREGA. This scheme makes the government machinery and the different units of self-governance accountable and responsible towards the masses; it also acts as a major tool for the capacity building and empowerment of the rural people, which can obtain any kind of information regarding the work implemented under NREGA, the man-days spent in the work, work expenditure details, and the utility, quality and effectiveness of the work implemented by the service-providing agencies. This methodology of social audit can connect the local community to the participatory planning process, thus providing a great momentum. The people can also strongly assure their participation in the political roles assigned by the State.

The Process

In the meeting organised with the purpose of social auditing, the Panchayat will present all the documents pertaining to the NREGA project - including the muster roll, bills, vouchers, measurement book, cash book and copies of the sanction orders - to the house or the Gram Sabha (Village Assembly) in this case. During the process of social audit, a number of questions can be raised by the Gram Sabha members regarding household registration, distribution of job cards, receipt of applications for employment, technical assessment of the work, sanction of the work order, work allocation, implementation and monitoring of work, payment of unemployment allowance, work evaluation, etc. In the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, social audit has been given a central role in terms of public vigilance, which strengthens the role and participation of the common man in the process of self-governance and also makes other bodies/agencies responsible for imparting information pertaining to people-oriented schemes and programmes.

Process Review

There must be a meeting of the Gram Sabha (village assembly) on every six months to review the process of social audit, which is termed as the Social Audit Forum. The information regarding the time and date of the Social Audit Forum should be widely disseminated. This forum should be chaired by an individual who neither heads, nor is involved in any way with any agency implementing the NREGA works. This simply means that none of the Panchayat heads (or Sarpanch) or even the Panch can chair the Social Audit Forum. Even the Secretary of the Forum cannot be a part of Gram Panchayat. Its quorum would be the same as that of the Gram Sabha. In this forum, all the information would be read out loud and clear for the benefit of all the participants. Everyone present at the forum has the right to enquire about the work being implemented, the expenditures incurred and also the quality of the work and all such issues pertaining to the NREGA activities. In order to answer these queries, the presence of all the concerning officers of the implementing agencies at the forum is a must. The reporting of the proceedings will be carried out by an individual who is not related to NREGA activities in any manner. The essential or regular agenda of the forum must be discussed in every meeting and it must be put in a proper format if anyone has any objection to the regular features of the agenda. It is the duty of the Progamme Officer to organise the social audit forum. The District Programme Officer must monitor whether the review of the social audit is being conducted on a regular basis or not. The success of the forum depends on its fearless atmosphere and active participation of the stakeholders.

NREGA is unique among all the rural development schemes, both in terms of its large scale of finance and the vast canvas of its work area. Taking this approach, both social audit and social audit forum play a pivotal role, wherein the man on the last rung of the social ladder has free access to information pertaining to individual and societal development in a fearless environment and has the right to be a part of the decision-making process, which acts as a positive catalyst for implementation of any result-oriented scheme in a healthy and participatory democracy. q

Chandan Kumar Mishra
ckmishra@devalt.org