Case study on Social protection through Public works in India Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

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2 Case study on Social protection through Public works in India Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) Presenter : Ms. Aparajita Sarangi Joint Secretary, MGNREGA Program Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India

3 Overview 1. Background 2. Processes 3. Public works under MGNREGA 4. Focus on NRM works for enhancing livelihood 5. Key Challenges 6. Take- aways from this event

4 Origin MGNREGA passed in Parliament on Sept. 9, 2005 Operational in the entire country from 1 st April 2008 Preamble of the Act For the enhancement of livelihood security of rural households by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work

5 Salient features of the Act 1. Right based Framework Right to demand work - up to 100 days by a rural household Right to employment - within 15 days of application, else unemployment allowance Right to wages - within 15 days 2. Labour Intensive Works 60:40 wage and material ratio for works No contractors or machinery allowed 3. Decentralized Planning Principal role of Village Administration in planning, monitoring and implementation Gram Sabhas (local councils) to recommend works

6 Salient features of the Act 2 4. Work site facilities Crèche, drinking water, first aid and shade provided at worksites 5. Women empowerment At least one- third of beneficiaries should be women 6. Transparency Proactive disclosure Social Audits, Citizen Information Boards, Grievance Redressal Mechanism, Right to Information

7 Primary Stakeholders 1. Wage seekers 2. Panchayati Raj Institutions (local government), specially the gram panchayat (village council) 3. Programme Officer at the Block level 4. District Programme Coordinator 5. State Government 6. Central Government - Ministry of Rural Development

8 Total Coverage across country 1. District Covered : Blocks covered : 6, Village councils (Gram Panchayats) : 2,62, Total Job cards issued : million households; 250 million workers 5. Total Active workers : Million Million workers

9 MGNREGA: Allocation & Expenditure Financial Year Allocation in Billion $ Expenditure in Billion $

10 Focus on vulnerable segments % Scheduled Caste participation 25% % Scheduled Tribe participation 21% % Women participation 56%

11 2. PROCESSES OF MGNREGA

12 Activity Flow

13 Other features Bare Foot Technicians (BFTs) Skilling: Livelihood in Full Employment (LIFE) Wall writings, citizen awareness, Rozgar Diwas etc.

14 Public Accountability measures 1. Program related accounts & records made available for public verification 2. Register of each work available at Village Council level 3. Citizen information boards at worksites With details of work, person days of employment, funds spent etc. 4. Display of key information, in local language, on the notice board 5. Data accessible to public on MGNREGA website:

15 Social Audit, Aadhaar & MGNREGA 1. Process of social audit shares details of MGNREGA resources with the community - held once every 6 months 2. Financial & non financial resources both considered 3. Community verifies all records, procedures & expenditures 4. Institution of Ombudsman created 5. Aadhaar numbers seeded against 85 million wage workers (85%)

16 3. PERMISSIBLE WORKS UNDER MGNREGA

17 Focus on public works 1. Category A: Public works relating to natural resources management Water conservation and water harvesting structures, Watershed management, Micro and minor irrigation works, Renovation of traditional water bodies Afforestation, tree plantation and horticulture and Land development works in common land 2. Category B: Individual assets for vulnerable sections Improving productivity of lands, by providing suitable infrastructure for irrigation Improving livelihoods through horticulture, sericulture, plantation, and farm forestry, Creating infrastructure for promotion of livestock Development of fallow or waste lands, Unskilled wage component in construction of houses, Creating infrastructure for promotion of fisheries

18 Category of works 2 3. Category C: Common Infrastructure For NRLM (National Rural Livelihood Mission) Compliant Self Help Groups Works for promoting agricultural productivity, Common work- sheds for livelihood activities of self- help groups 4. Category D: Rural Infrastructure Works for all- weather rural road connectivity, Rural sanitation, play fields, disaster preparedness or restoration of roads Construction of buildings for village counsels, women self- help groups federations, cyclone shelters, Food Grain Storage Structures, building material required for construction works Maintenance of rural public assets

19 Use of technology in MGNREGA 1. E- Payments payments directly transferred to beneficiary account Implemented in 95% of India s villages 84.4 million bank accounts of workers 2. NREGAsoft a software for data entry of details on works, beneficiary, human resource, funds and payment processing. Various modules one for each function Fund Management Module, Bank/Post Office module, Grievance Redressal System, Social Audit module, Labour budget module, Staff Module, Mobile Monitoring System, CSO/CFT Module, LIFE Survey, BFT Module, DBT Module 3. GeoMGNREGA Each public work asset created is geo- tagged and displayed on a public website 11.7 million assets out of 27.4 million assets already geo- tagged

20 GeoMGNREGA: Pan Indian coverage Use in Planning and Monitoring

21 Each tagged asset

22 4. SPECIAL FOCUS ON NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (NRM) FOR ENHANCING LIVELIHOOD

23 Significance of NRM 1. India has large rural population (68.84%) 2. Primarily engaged and dependent on agriculture 3. With massive population and over stressed productive land, dependent on erratic rainfall for irrigation 4. Only 45% of the net sown area is under irrigation out of total 141 million hectares area 5. Regional imbalances in the facilities of irrigation and lack of last mile command area network and other suitable interventions are creating problems in agriculture in rural areas

24 NRM focus of MGNREGA Create assets that will help in agriculture, thereby creating expanding livelihood for rural households and future self sustainability Total 155 kinds of works permitted under MGNREGS Out of these, 100 works (64%) relate to NRM Of these NRM works, 71 works are water related Water conservation for water management and drought mitigation: farm ponds, check dams, structures for ground water recharge, farm ponds, underground dykes, percolation tanks, artificial recharge of wells through sand filters etc.

25 Outcome of NRM activities 1. Increasing NRM focussed expenditure: 1. FY : 2.58 billion USD (49%), 2. FY : 4.46 billion USD (59%) 3. FY : 4.96 billion USD (61%) 2. In Financial Year (FY) 16-17: Total of 3.15 million works were completed 35% (i.e million) works were irrigation related Of these, 0.57 million were farm ponds

26 Farm Pond, Tamil Nadu

27 Well Created for irrigation, MP

28 Check Dam, Meghalaya Check Dam, Kerala

29 Thudikotukonam Pond; Village Puliveedu; District Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 29

30 30 Irrigation Well: Village Naitand; Block Jainagar; District Kodarma, Jharkhand

31 Irrigation Channel: Village Bardeva; Block Padma; District Hazaribagh, Jharkhand 31

32 Path & Footbridge from PWD Road to Gujrara Paristhan Block, Ukheral District Ramban (Jammu & Kashmir) under Convergence with MGNREGA

33 Cattle shelter: Village Mararikulam North; Block Kanjikuzhy; District Alappuzha, Kerala 33

34 Poultry shelter; Village Ektali; Block Jashipur; District Mayurbhanj, Odisha 34

35 Way Ahead: 1. Mission Water Conservation (MWC) Framework issued last year: 1. Convergence with other government schemes with common objectives: 1. Prime Minister s Irrigation Programme (PMKSY) 2. Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) 3. Command Area Development & Water Management (CAD&WM) 2. Focus on 2264 water stressed blocks where 65% of the total expenditure will be on NRM activities. 2. MGNREGA 2.0: institutionalization of evaluations, skilling etc.

36 Income & Livelihood Impacts 1. Improved Standard of Living: level of living improved due to participation in MGNREGA (NSSO Survey Jan- June, 2010) 2. Supplementary Household Income: Earnings from MGNREGA are used as a supplementary income source during non- agricultural seasons 3. Increased Employment Opportunities: Employment in the post- MGNREGS period had increased between 12 and 18 percent 4. Increased Food Security : MGNREGA has benefited and enabled the lower landholdings in meeting their daily food expenses and has ensured food security

37 Gender & Inclusion impacts Participation of women high in MGNREGA Female share on works under MGNREGA is greater than their share of the work in the casual wage labour market in all states. Wage Parity & Improved Access to Income Reduced difference inthe male- female wage rates for casual labours in rural areas vis- a vis urban areas Improvement in Women s SocialStatus A large percentage of the women receive wage themselves in their accounts and have greater say in the way money is spent. Effective targeting of marginalized groups Tribal, Below poverty line

38 Impact on Agriculture 1. Improved irrigation & Increase in crop area Irrigated land area increased by 26% Increase in income fromcrop 15% to 117% 2. Creation of assets brought about changes in cropping patterns helped beneficiaries move from subsistence to surplus farming 3. Benefits for Small & Marginal Farmers (SMF) Labour intensive projects benefitted SMF and landless agricultural labour land belonging to SMF from backward communities have been developed in the last couple of years and the additional benefits was found to be in range of Rs 15 lakh mainly from higher yields.

39 Quality & Durability of Assets 1. High Return on investment Study of over 140 best- performing MGNREGA water related assets in 75 villages across 8 districts of Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala and Rajasthan shows that, on an average, these assets were able to recover their investments in a little over a year 2. Durabilityof Assets Wells, check dams and Anicuts have a design life of years. However, plantations were found to have an average life of only 2-3 years. 3. Low Work Completion Rate District level studies note different reasons for non- completion of works, including inaccurate estimation of dimensions during the sanction of work, wrong time for starting of works, irregular flowof funds

40 Environment & Sustainability 1. Creation of Green Jobs Green Jobs created as 70% works relate to Agriculture and allied activities (water conservation, water- harvesting, restoration, renovation & desilting of water bodies, drought- proofing, plantation & afforestation) 2. Adaptation & Mitigation to the impact of Climate Change Reduction invulnerability Increase inwater availability Improved livelihood security 3. Natural Resource Regeneration Increase in groundwater level, water percolation and improvement in soil fertility & land productivity.

41 KEY CHALLENGES

42 Key Challenges 1. Capacity Building of field functionaries 2. Quality, durability and usefulness of assets 3. Delays in wage payment 4. Shortage of dedicated field staff for MGNREGA 5. Improper Planning of work and limited availability of fund 6. Lack of Outcome- based Monitoring

43 Key Challenges 7. Lack of ICT Infrastructure at the GPs (village council) level 8. Limited reach of financial institutions in rural area 9. Poor maintenance of records, including Muster Rolls, Job Cards etc. 10. Misappropriations/ corruption 11. Inadequate availability of shelf of works

44 Take- aways from this event Lots to learn and a lot to improve: 1. Learn- Earn- Achieve- Progress (LEAP) (Phillipines) `100 days of wage- work to 365 days of livelihood 2. More focus on Skilling (many countries) 3. Holistic approach adding health and education aspects (many countries) 4. Autonomous institutes for evaluation (Mexico)