[Reader-list] Rural Employment Program:Reality check

[Syed Yunus]

Dear Friends,
 National Rural Employment Gurantee ACT and program in India has been
debated and discussed  at length. recently I got the information about
how badly it  is being implemented in Sidhi district of Madhya
Pradesh. here is a brief account send to me by a friend (Abdul) who
works in a voluntary organisation, Pradan. we are expecting support
from people in media to get this story circulated, to Invoke
supportive ACTION.

for other details and information feel free to call me at:
09868597660,
Yunus,
take care


A Live case on NREGP in village Kursa, Sidhi district

Kursa is a village cum panchayat under Devsar Tehsil of Sidhi
district. The Village is 13 kms west of Tehsil head quarter and 68 kms
east of its disreict headquarter Sidhi. The village has geographical
spread of over 14 kms (diameter). The village consists mostly of Gond
tribes, other tribes are Kol, and Baiga. The SC mainly consists of
Kori, Kumhar, Cobbler and Mehtar. In backward community 100-150 HHs
belong to Teli caste. Altogether the population of the village is
about 3000. The spread of household is such that the village looks
sparse and at a time only 3-4 houses can be seen. It is hard to listen
to neighbors in crucial time because of the distant and sparser
housing pattern. It is a remote village and mostly people travel on
foot to attend market in Devsar. Its village boundary starts from a
Kachcha road, which joins National Highway 8 Kms at its north. This is
Rewa-Ranch highway passing through Churhat, Sidhi, Devsar and
Singrauli. More than 80% of the population belongs to SC-ST community.


The main occupation of the village community in general and SC-ST in
particular is farming. The farm supports their life for 4-5 months.
For rest of the period they rely on wages available in villages and
adjoining areas. Wood cutting and selling that in Devsar @ Rs 10/- per
head load also contribute to their livelihoods in a significant
manner. For this they travel 15-25 kms daily. The topography of the
village is highly undulating and many hillocks are seen in village
making the lands sloppy and poor productive. They take rainfed wheat
and maize in the sloppy cultivable land. A large area of the village
constitutes the wastelands along with barren hillocks. The villagers
have elected a Sarpanch Sampat Singh assisted by secretary Mundev
Upadhyay. The Sarpanch is an illiterate Gond tribe. He touches the
feet of his secretary Mr. Mundev who is a Brahmin by caste. The
secretary Mr. Mundev dictates the terms as per his wishes. He is there
for 40 years.


PRADAN intervened in this village 9 months back and gradually formed
10 SHGs. Before entering in to the village. We could not meet the
Sarpanch as usually we do. Since the villagers were relatives of other
villages where we have been working for last 2 years we did not face
much difficulty in-group formation. Gradually the team developed good
rapport with the village community in general and SHG members in
particular. NREGP started and our SHG members participated with full
strengths. All of them could get the job cards. Most of these families
got manual work for 20-25 days only (till today).  They signed on the
muster rolls simultaneously with a hope that they will soon get the
wages. After 2-3 months they got their job cards. All the SHG members
showed the job cards to us. Along with villagers our team member Abdul
Aleem Khan got surprised to see that almost all the job cards were
filled and showed that the household has already been paid for 95-100
days of work. As per villagers Rs 1.1 Crore  has been granted under
the project. The work has been done only for 20-25 days but in records
full working days have been shown and money is shown utilized. The job
cards are showing payment made for 100 days to the cardholders.



The SHG leaders along with some male members of the village lodged a
complain to the SDM and met him personally in his office chamber. The
SHG members showed their job cards to the SDM. The SDM personally
consoled them and promised to take stern action against the culprits.
For first 15 days he tried to overlook the problem but when the
problem appeared in local newspaper he constituted an enquiry
committee headed by a fisheries officer to look into the matter.  As
per the villagers the concerned officer is among the culprits. The
committee headed by him alongwith other culprits like Sarpanch visited
one member's house and threatened her to put her and similar families
in jail as they had lodged a written complain with the SDM. The same
complain letter wad also sent to the CEO, Jila Panchayat, Collector
and Commissioner. I (Anil) personally met with the CEO Jila Panchayat
a young IAS who also did not pay attention to this and only said I
will do this separately. After two months nothing has been done in
this regard and villagers feel threatened by Sarpanch and also
frustrated.

This is the first time that villagers under the leadership of Mahila
Mandals lodged written complain to the SDM. But seeing insensitivity
in the administration even at the higher level they are losing hope to
get justice.


Kursa is not the only village where such things are going on in almost
all the villages we are engaged in such cases are noticed as if this
is the normal way. The local media is also with the administration as
they also enjoy additional benefits in all the developmental
programmes.


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Change is the only constant in life !