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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | NREGS helps Kandhamal come out of communal hatred by Deba R Mohanty

NREGS helps Kandhamal come out of communal hatred by Deba R Mohanty

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published Published on Jan 31, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 31, 2011

Just two and half years ago, Kandhamal was India’s shame as a communal violence triggered by the killing of a Hindu seer left 38 people dead, thousands of houses and hundreds of churches burnt and vandalised and several thousand people scurrying to relief camps for safety. As Christian were slayed and attacked by VHP and RSS goons across the district, it forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call it a “national shame”.

The tag of national shame may be a soon be a thing of past for Kandhamal as district collector Krishan Kumar will receive the award for making the district among the top 10 districts in the country over innovations in Nrega implementation. Kumar will receive the award on February 2. The union ministry of rural development has chosen Kandhamal for using NREGA for livelihood generation and promoting communal harmony for the year 2009-10. The other districts in the top-10 list are Churachandpur(Sikkim), North Sikkim(Sikkim), Dharwad(Karnataka), Sant Ravidas Nagar(Uttaranchal), Rajkot(Gujarat), Jalpaiguri(West Bengal), Barmer(Rajasthan), Anupur(Madhya Pradesh) and Thiruvannamalai(Tamil Nadu).

As a team of officials from MoRD went around the blocks of Baliguda and Phulbani in Kandhamal last week, they seemed to be quite impressed with the work in the district despite the ethnic communal unrest. “Though there were other districts in the country that implemented NREGS quite well, what set Kandhamal apart was the kind of work it did in the difficult circumstances. I have never seen that a government scheme like this can be a bridge between two warring communities,” said NK Sahu, director (monitoring wing) of ministry of rural development, who went around inspecting the NREGS works of the district. In particular, the team was impressed by building of roads, farm ponds and integration of natural resources in Mediakia village of Baliguda block, Sirtiguda grampanchayat of K Nuagaon block and Sindhipankhala of Tumudibandha block.

What made Kandhamal’s achievement more credit-worthy is that the district had done badly in implementation of NREGS in 2008-09 due to the communal riot as the district could spend a Rs 22.57 crore. In comparison the district spent Rs 64.20 crore in 2009-10, a steep rise of 284%. While the number of families who got at least 100 days work was 1,020 in 2008-09, it shot up to 7,305 in 2009-10, an increase of716%. “In Kandhamal, more than 56% of the eligible families were covered under NREGS while the national average is about 23%. Kandhamal even bettered the state’s average of 25%. The way the district managed its natural resources for NREGS, it could be benchmark for other districts,” said Sushil Kumar Lohani, director(special projects) of state panchayatiraj department.

Kandhamal rise from hell was not an easy ride. Even before the riot, Kandhamal scraped the bottom when it came to development. In 'Food Security Atlas of Rural Orissa', a repot prepared by Delhi-based Institute of Human Development on behalf of UN World Food Programme (WFP) after the riots of 2008, Kandhamal was found to be Orissa's most 'insecure district' in terms of food security. Kandhamal was ranked 30 among 30 districts of Orissa while the access to food index put it at the 24th position.

With such depressing indices, district collector Krishan Kumar in December 2008 thought of NREGS as a possibility to bring the widening divide between the majority Kandh tribals and Pano Dalits. “The scheme has certain key properties like team-building spirit and if taken up well it can work wonders,” said Dr Kumar.

Senior officials in the state panchayatiraj department said NREGS played a pivotal role in rebuilding the broken bridges between Dalits and tribals. Immediately, after the riots, a youth programme called “ANTARANGA: Celebrating Diversity” was started in which 7,500 youths representing every Panchayat of the district mobilized workers for NREGS.

Work supervisors (mates) for the NREGS were from tribal and Dalit community which resulted in breaching the barriers between community and the programme.

To quell the tribal resentment over their usurping of lands by non-tribals, NREGS was dovetailed for improving the quality of their lands secured through Forest Rights Act. Each tribal household who got a piece of land under FRA, got monetary help for farm ponds, land development, well and plantation. “It has helped in not only creating social capital but also in building asset base for rural households which was eroded during conflict from 2007 to 2008,” said Kailash Dandapat, of Jagruti, an NGO based in Daringibadi block.

The Financial Express, 31 January, 2011, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/nregs-helps-kandhamal-come-out-of-communal-hatred/743837/0


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