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Piloting Innovations in
NREGS:
T Over the past years Bundelkhand
region, the heartland of India, has been facing regular spates of
drought that has resulted in mass exodus by the communities - especially
the men - to look for work away from home, thus leaving the women,
children and the aged to battle the crisis back home. The women in the
region are very closely connected to the natural resources and seek
their sustenance from them. Despite the fact that this programme has
been showing trends of providing ‘economic breathers to the poor’,
a majority of NREGS workers stand very low on human development
indicators and earn their livelihood through unskilled, casual manual
labour and exploitation of the natural resource base, thus creating an
eternal dependence on the programme, making them more vulnerable to
crises like climate shock, natural disaster, ill health, all of which
adversely impact their employment opportunities and reduce their ability
to move out of the poverty trap.
In pursuit of its mission for creating inter-institutional alliances and strengthening livelihood systems through people to technology and people to nature interface and strong understanding of NREGS, Development Alternatives (DA) is implementing an action-based research project ‘NREGS + Convergence for Sustainable Livelihoods’. The proposed pilot intervention aims at enhancing the quality of implementation and nature of influences that NREGS can pose for the benefit of the demand side by addressing the limitations of the NREGS as well as testing and demonstrating how large numbers of poor can be pulled out of the poverty cycle through converging with planning processes and varied government programmes, building up skills and capacities and setting up essential support systems. The project is being implemented in 7 Gram Panchayats in two blocks of the drought-ridden Bundelkhand Region - Badagaon Block of District Jhansi in the state of Uttar Pradesh and Niwari Block of District Tikamgarh in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The project pertains to developing and piloting innovative ideas under the canopy of NREGS and is financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and supported by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. The testing of this innovative model brings about a need to work in tandem with the stakeholders, including the State governments, line departments, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), the community and CBOs. The key objectives of the pilot
intervention will be to test out approaches for: This model envisages
bringing in the following innovative concepts: • ‘GIS-based Mapping’ shall be the tool to facilitate the NREGS in planning and monitoring of resources, namely, natural resources and infrastructure mapping that shall be tested in one Gram Panchayat each• The model envisages setting up a ‘Workers’ Employment Committee’ at each Gram Panchayat as well as at each of the two blocks in the form of an association with a demand-driven perspective. These committees are visualised as dynamic groups of members drawn from the stakeholders and strengthened through capacity building as a support mechanism of the workers to uphold and negotiate their rights, monitor the existence of essential supports, track skill building and act as an employment information hub to on the behalf of the workers as a bridging platform with NREG administration• The work sites should be ‘platforms of empowerment’ for women, the old and the marginalised, addressing the critical issues of health, functional literacy and education, building a rights-based perspective, and skill building that shall evoke their self esteem and confidence to join the mainstream development. A lot of impetus is being given to the adult literacy initiative at the worksites wherein TARA Akshar, an e-based literacy programme will be conducted for women groups that will empower them to demand transparency in the works and payments under NREGS. Since the pilot is for a period of one year, the TARA Akshar, a daily two-hour programme that completes the literacy cycle in 45 days, shall be able to demonstrate the desired results amongst 150 women. The incentive for the women will be that the two-hour literacy classes conducted in the worksites shall be paid for as part of the NREGS works• The project envisages harnessing the strength of CIGs through collective actions for sustainable livelihoods. Women, farmers and the artisans have been identified as the key groups who shall be capacitated for ‘skill development’ to ensure them that their current skills and traditional livelihood practices are up scaled through the NREGS works. There exists tremendous strength in these clusters and a potential in engaging them as groups under the scheme and building up sustainable livelihoods for them collectively. Here, women groups may be trained on afforestation, fodder and livestock management and off farm interventions, the farmers will receive information and training on NRM based intervention – water /energy efficiency, land and crop management, while the artisans will get guidance and instruction on eco constructions and durable assets creationThe proposed model establishes innovative measures and sustainability to the project wherein the programme intervention is linked through a Bottoms Up approach from the Gram Panchayat right down to the Block, setting up processes with engagement amongst the different stakeholders - CIGs, line departments – for skill building, gender equity, etc. The ‘Workers’ Employment Committee’ shall sustain the project beyond project intervention and provide lessons for scaling it up as also to provide a model for national application. This process will enable the poor to climb the ‘development ladder in a sustainable manner’ with the objective of strengthening the Natural Resource Assets with enhanced livelihood opportunities for the poor and the marginalised, especially the women where the investment into social supports pays dividends in the form of productive, skilled and economically independent human resource. q
Ruchi Kukreti
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