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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Looking for a new version of MGNREGA -Ashwini Kulkarni

Looking for a new version of MGNREGA -Ashwini Kulkarni

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published Published on Sep 22, 2018   modified Modified on Sep 22, 2018
-Livemint.com

Merely putting the labour component of other projects in MGNREGA may not lead to any value addition

There are several studies and reports that clearly show that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) 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, if reluctantly. 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.

This is a vital point for discussion. Can MGNREGS funds be diverted for farming activity in privately held lands, as part of a wage subsidy initiative for cultivators? Whether 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. It is unviable and detrimental to the programme. The reasons are specific. For example, 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. Moreover, MGNREGS is meant to be an additional employment opportunity in addition to the opportunity to earn farm wages during the kharif season.

But the question is: Hasn’t MGNREGS’ objective been to help the agriculture sector? Wage and assets have been two sides of the same coin of MGNREGS. Just a cursory look at 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.

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; cattle shed under MGNREGS gets additional support from animal husbandry department; and so on. 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.

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Livemint.com, 18 September, 2018, https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/9fhuTTI80mVSPZBczJxcZN/Opinion--Looking-for-a-new-version-of-MGNREGA.html


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