Abysmal implementation of MGNREGA in Assam

By TCN staff reporter,

Guwahati: The status of implementation of India’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme MGNREGA was very poor in Assam during 2010-11. More than 24 lakh households (65% of the total registered MGNREGA card holders in the state) did not get job in the entire 2010-11 under MGNREGA. While only 16,473 households got job for 100 days in the year, 611,032 households got job for less than 15 days.

North East Social Trust (NEST) is working in the north-eastern states of India for strengthening of rural livelihood opportunities and local governance in the region. In collaboration with Centre for Microfinance and Livelihood (CML), NEST carried out the research to understand the rural livelihood status under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the state of Assam on completion of financial year 2010-11.

Women working under a MNREGA program at Malir Alga village, Dhubri district of Assam.

Highlights of the findings on NREGA implementation in Assam in 2010-11 depict very abysmal implementation. Total No of Households that got job card in Assam is 3,749,672. Out of this the number of BPL Families Registered in NREGA – 25,616 (25+ thousand) which is 0.67% of total registered Household. District with highest percentage of BPL inclusion in NREGA is Dhubri with 1.53%. This figure implies a very poor implementation. It is also found that the total 6% of the job card holders belong to SC, 16% ST and 78% belongs to other categories.

A total of 24,36,848 Households (65%) did not get job in the entire year under NREGA in the year 2010. While only 16,473 numbers of house hold got 100 days employment in the year which is 0.56% of the total Job card holding House hold. 611,032 numbers of household got less than 15 days employment in the year which is 21% of the total Job card holding HHs

What is more worrisome is that 28,635 numbers of registered families are not given job card in the year and 29,331 person days of unemployment allowances are not paid in the state during the period.

Percentage of workers having bank account numbers is 41.13%. Work Execution Level Analysis for the Financial Year 2010-2011 shows that 42.9% of the work is being executed through GPs violating the norm of minimum 50% execution through the GPs.

Tasaduk Ariful Hussain, director of NEST said, ‘Our findings are an assessment only. It is hard to pinpoint the causes behind the poor implementation. NREGA is a very transparent process. May be government failed to have a clear vision about the implementation of MNREGA in the state. Also proper supervision for the MNREGA implementation is lacking. In Assam, till date no program officer is appointed as per the NREGA Act 2005. The Act says that there shall be program officer in every district whose position will be equal to the of BDO. Another factor is that out of 2021 gram panchayats in Assam, 1700 has no approved project. Without approved project, it is difficult to allot work.’

NEST findings made public recently carry some statistics of concern and are as follows:

[Photo courtesy: Morzina Begum]