Looking for a new version of MGNREGA

Mains Paper: 2 Social Justice | Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population
Prelims level: MGNREGS
Mains level:  Merely putting the labour component of other projects in MGNREGA may not lead to any value addition.

Introduction

• There are several studies and reports that clearly show that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
• It has accomplished its objectives to a large extent. 
• Initially, this government derided the programme as some kind of a dole—but it later acknowledged its role in rural development.
• The chief ministers’ council in a Niti Aayog meeting in July demanded labour payments for farm activities, from sowing to harvesting, to be included in MGNREGA.

Addressing the issue

• Can MGNREGS funds be diverted for farming activity in privately held lands, as part of a wage subsidy initiative for cultivators? 
• The wage subsidy to cultivators is a viable idea or not can be discussed on some other day.
• But the idea of bringing it under MGNREGS needs urgent attention. 
• The recurring work on farms is almost not measurable, so this is like opening the floodgates to leakages.
• This will not create productive assets as is mandatory, according to the Act. 
• MGNREGS is meant to be an additional employment opportunity in addition to the opportunity to earn farm wages during the kharif season. 

Objectives of MGNREGS’ in the agriculture sector

• Wage and assets have been two sides of the same coin of MGNREGS.
• The permissible works and the type of work being undertaken is an assurance that MGNREGA provided the much-needed basic infrastructure for rain-fed farmers, especially small and marginal farmers.
• A study by the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research for the state of Maharashtra reiterates this premise. 
• But, thankfully, wisdom prevailed and now the discussions are about having projects under MGNREGS, which support agriculture but in the pre-sowing and post-harvesting period.
• This is about building productive assets by supplementing it with programmes of other departments. 
• The buzz word is convergence. 

About Convergence

• Convergence is when two different projects of separate departments can be dovetailed for better outputs. 
• Convergence is when a farm pond gets support from the fisheries department and fishing is an additional income; or when the well under MGNREGS gets a motor engine from the agriculture department or tribal department
• The cattle shed under MGNREGS gets additional support from animal husbandry department.
• But, when MGNREGS provides labour costs for sanitation (building toilets) or building houses, then this is a “divergence” of funds.
• These same programmes of rural housing and toilets were earlier part of other programmes of the ministry of rural development, and now are being partially put under MGNREGS. 
• While labourers could have got an opportunity to work under these programmes, they are instead getting paid for the same work through MGNREGS.

Problems with convergence

• The work under MGNREGS has to be implemented in coordination with another department. 
• Our administrative structures are not tuned to such coordinated implementation mechanisms. 
• The architecture for coordination has to be put in place. 
• But could this weaken the planning of MGNREGS work by the gram sabhas? 
• And how will this “projectivization” of works under MGNREGS affect demand? 
• The basic tenets of this programme is that it is demand-based. 
• So if a group of villagers put in a demand, but there is no “convergence project” ready to be taken up, then will this lead to more suppressed demand?

What is the purpose of convergence?

• Merely putting the labour component of other projects in MGNREGS may not lead to any value-addition. 
• The convergence of MGNREGS projects could be useful, but depends on the type of convergence. 
• Another concern is that the ratio for total expenditure on MGNREGS work is 60:40, meaning at least 60% is to be spent on labour wages. 
• This was to be maintained at the gram panchayat level, but now it is to be maintained at the district level. 
• Gram panchayats could be too small a unit, but a district is the other extreme.
• The danger is that the wage component might be spent by one part of the district and the more politically savvy will corner the material component of the expenditure. 
• Hence, a better unit could be a cluster of gram panchayats drawn on lines with their watershed regions. 

Conclusion

• It is necessary to discuss how to improve MGNREGS. 
• But the basic challenges are still the same, including providing work on demand.
• The challenge is to allocate adequate work when the average work provided to a household hovers between 40 and 50 days. 
• The  most labourers under MGNREGS are small and marginal farmers, and not just landless ones. 
• They are mostly rain-fed farmers, engaged in farming for a single season. 
• The way of denying a well-functioning programme is denying the opportunity of development, since the productive assets being made are enhancing their livelihood opportunities.
• By moving away from the demand for sowing, to harvest activities getting included in MGNREGS.

UPSC Prelims Questions: 

Q.1)  Consider the following statements:
1. Agriculture sector in India has never registered a negative growth rate in past decade.
2. India‟s Services export growth have been accelerating since 1990s.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Ans: D

UPSC Mains Questions:
Q.1)  How the existing MGNREGA scheme can be improved? 

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