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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Rural reach -Amita Sharma

Rural reach -Amita Sharma

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published Published on Feb 6, 2015   modified Modified on Feb 6, 2015
-Financial Chronicle

From the inner recesses of Chattisgarh to the upper crevices of Sikkim, a look at how MGNREGA initiatives are changing lives

The large blackboard outside the police station reads like a rate list. There are different monetary awards for Naxalites' surrender with different weaponry, the highest, Rs 4.5 lakh, for surrender with a light machine gun, Rs 3 lakh with an AK 47, and only Rs 30,000 with a 12 bore gun. This is the way to Dantewada, a left wing extremist (LWE) district in the state of Chattisgarh.

According to Devasenapati, collector Dantewada, the district witnessed 19 blasts, 91 deaths and 59 injuries, between 2008 and 2014, due to LWE violence. He himself narrowly missed being blown by an IED blast meant for someone else. Baptised in such fire, he firmly believes that people-centric, pro-poor development is the best antidote to violence as persistent poverty alienates them from the state. The way forward is to combine short term wage security with longer term sustainable economic development. For this, convergence of resources at the district level provides a platform for development. In this convergence, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) provides a useful base as the district amply shows.

Take just one of its gram panchayats - Bade Godre. Two bags of red chilli - this is what most men here would get in return for working on the red chilli farms in Andhra Pradesh, in Bhadrachalam or Nellipaka across the border from their village, where they migrated to every year from February to April to earn their living until they returned to cultivate paddy on their small pieces of land at home. Now, these men have formed groups for dairy farming that augments their income. This is part of the district administration initiating a dairy project Ksheersagar Milk Cooperative, Bastar division's first bulk milk chilling pasteurisation and packaging unit set up by converging different development programmes: MGNREGA for growing Napier grass for cattle fodder and for constructing cattle sheds for the cattle, so made as to drain cattle urine and dung for organic manure, dairy training and building a dairy plant under the national rural livelihood mission, with backward-forward linkages.

The total project cost was Rs 17.22 lakh, of which 34 per cent came from MGNREGA, 37 per cent from bank loans, 12 per cent from NABARD subsidy, 6 per cent as self-contribution and 12 per cent as state subsidy. About 45 dairies have been sanctioned so far by the district administration with 12 high quality cows for each dairy, 2,500 litres of milk processed daily, procured at Rs 34 per litre. The scheme has 270 beneficiaries so far, who earn an average monthly profit of Rs 10,000-12,000 after repaying the bank loan. Ksheersagar has been linked to the biggest available existing market in the district. Around 7,000 children of the local schools are getting milk every day. Ksheersagar is milking a white revolution in the red corridor.

In another village panchayat, Balud, marginal and small farmers who are also MGNREGA workers, have introduced "SRI (or Shree as it is locally called) cultivation" to yield more crop per drop. Another programme, MochoBadi (a Halbi word for "My Farm") enables agro-forestry, or multi -cropping and vegetable cultivation in their land, through convergence between MGNREGA and agriculture. Farmers have been trained in cost-effective and eco-friendly traditional crop varieties and organic farming methods, earning additional income and adding vegetables and fruits to their diet, a vital improvement in view of rampant malnutrition in Dantewada.

Dantewada is one of the 11 districts that was awarded the national MGNREGA awards by the ministry of rural development on Monday for the year 2013-2014 for using MGNREGA effectively to improve livelihood opportunities for its workers. Its neighbouring district, Narayanpur, another LWE affected area, received the same award as well.

Seven years ago, in June 2007, Narayanpur featured in an NDTV video show zooming in on a prostrate tree, felled by the Naxalites as a line of control that signalled the border of the district administration's reach beyond which lay 4,000 sq km of the red corridor - Abhujmadh - the hill that cannot be known - home to the primitive vulnerable tribal groups, for which, until as late as 2002, special permission was needed to visit.

Now, the tree has been removed and the Narayanpur-Kohakameta-Sonpur road has been built with a hume pipe culvert and a signboard of MGNREGA on it. According to Yahswant Kumar, who was the district collector in 2013, the Maoists oppose pucca construction and engagement of contractors so it is difficult to get contractors to fill tenders for work in the Orchha block of Abhujmadh. But under MGNREGA, since the work is manually executed by local labour, the first CC Road in the Orchha block headquarter has come up using the 13th Finance Commission and Janpad Shashktikaran funds. For such geographically isolated and socially cut-off places, vulnerable to violence, simple road connectivity under MGNREGA is the triumph of re- integrating people with mainstream administration and accessing various benefits such as health, school, PDS and markets.

Narayanpur is also using MGNREGA for strengthening livelihoods and among several initiatives, it has introduced lac or semilata cultivation through convergence of land development and plantation under MGNREGA, bore well under Backward Region Grant Funds, sprinklers under horticulture and seed drill under agriculture programmes. As Fulsingh Kachlam of the gram panchayat Devgaon says, such effort earned him a net profit of Rs 2.77 lakh in the last two years which he has put into fencing his land and sending his children to an English-medium school.

The district with a dominant tribal population and 68 per cent forest cover has 4,114 beneficiaries under the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights Act, 2006), of which 703 beneficiaries have got their land developed through MGNREGA, covering an area of around 698 hectares. Many beneficiaries have undertaken diversification of crops by growing potatoes, peas, etc. A few beneficiaries have focussed on allied activities such as gro­wing fish in their farm ponds cons­tructed under MGNREGA. Su­ch convergence of MGNREGA with agriculture and horticulture schemes has brought additio­nal land under cu­ltivation in the district with the result that the procurement of paddy has gone up from 4,861 metric tonnes (MTs) in 2012 to 8181 MTs in 2014.

Interestingly, in the Halami gram panchayat, workers are being trained in masonry work even as they work under MGNREGA. The district administration has a system of sending information on employment availability through SMS to these MGNREGA workers.

Information and communication are critical to Narayanpur. The Panchayat Bhawan built under MGNREGA becomes a multi-purpose information cum service centre housing banking correspondent model kiosks in remote blocks like Gadhbengal with about 800 savings' accounts and Mahima Gawadi with 400 accounts of some of the poorest people. Narainpur's young CEO, District Panchayat Deepak Soni is also using ICT for tracking individual beneficiaries and assets through google mapping to avoid duplication.

In the bordering state of Odisha, its largest tribal dominated district, Mayurbhanj, covered with dense forest is also an LWE district. Around 80 per cent of its population is dependent on agriculture and allied activities. Most of the job seekers under MGNREGA are poor, landless or marginal farmers, who earlier migrated to nearby industrial areas like Jamshedpur, Kharagpur and Kolkatta and during harvesting season to coastal areas like Balasore and Bhadrak to work as agricultural labour.

Mayurbhanj has also received the MGNREGA award for using MGNREGA for augmenting productivity. The district collector of Mayurbhanj, Rajesh Patil, is trying to lead MGNREGA workers towards self-reliant economic activities.

He should know how. Growing up in a poor family, he found the way to move from manual labour into the IAS, and feels that MGNREGA can become a comprehensive equalising force in terms of public investment in backward areas, and can strengthen the livelihood resources of the poor while giving them wage employment. For this, he has adopted an integrated approach by converging MGNREGA with programmes like horticulture, soil conservation and integrated tribal development.

This is best evident in the plantation projects of mango, cashew, bamboo, rubber, banana with vegetable and cash crops such as maize and ground nut for intercropping. Market tie-ups are being ensured. Farmers are being organised into producer groups for sustaining backward- forward linkages. 4969 hectares have been brought under plantation , demonstrating how by converging resources, the same costs can yield higher productive outcomes. Steady irrigation was assured by creating 69 bore-wells under a state scheme, 1450 hectares of drip irrigation under national mission on micro irrigation, farm ponds under MGNREGA, and plastic mulching under National Horticulture Mission. About 5143 MGNREGA workers have benefitted through this integrated approach.

The choice of plantation is determined through careful technical analysis of the eco zone. Of particular success is the banana plantation in 94 hectares benefitting 216 MGNREGA workers. This is a complete package with tissue cultured suckers, mulching and drip irrigation producing 4230 MT of bananas. generating an income of Rs 4.65 crore for the MGNREGA workers. Market linkages have been established with local buyers like Bokaro fruits and Vegetable. For value- addition, a pulp unit at Jahipur of Mayurbhanj district is also planned.

Mayurbhanj' s climate is appropriate for sericulture. MGNREGA workers have planted Asan and Arjun trees on their individual lands. Field preparation activities as digging pits, planting, weeding and watering have been done under MGNREGA, technical inputs, capacity building, and forward-linkages have been provided by Serifed ( State Sericulture Federation) and farmers have been organized into producer groups under the Odisha Livelihood Mission. Families benefited have an average additional annual income of Rs. 10000- 20000 per year.

In an innovative turn, the district has used MGNREGA for promoting craft design. Sabai grass used for hand- crafted products has been planted and intercropped with bamboo and cashew, under MGNREGA. Support from other livelihood programs enables organising MGNREGA workers into producer groups for training and collective procurement. Design development has been done by NIFT, Bhubaneswar and marketing tie-up has been established with local buyers and Fabindia.

More such linkages of unskilled work with skilling, entrepreneurship and marketing can integrate the wage security under MGNREGA increasingly with economic activities in the market.

A holistic approach towards natural resource management, asset development and income generation specially of the 20 per cent of the poorest of the poor is the MGNREGA approach of Sandeep Tambe, commissioner, rural development, Sikkim which has received a state level award and a district level award for leveraging MGNREGA effectively for augmenting livelihood security. This is manifest in a visit to the South District of Sikkim. To augment income in the small pieces of lands on fragile hill sides, South District attempted a household level analysis to identify the most feasible sustainable livelihoods for 20 per cent of the poorest households. Animal husbandry which is the main livelihood of the landless and near landless households was prioritised by local communities in a big way, for the first time. MGNREGA was leveraged for reviving 30 Himalayan Springs and two hill top lakes.

An independent study by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 2013, noted an increase of 10 to 15 per cent in the quantity of water collected from springs for domestic purposes, throughout the year. It further noted an average reduction in soil erosion of 8.7 t/ha/year, an increase in water availability for irrigation by an average of 5 to 20 days, an average 18 per cent increase in crop yields from dry land, and an increase in crop yields by about 25 per cent for irrigated crops such as paddy, tomato and vegetables. All the villages studied showed lower vulnerability in the range of 20 to 41 per cent, in the post-MGNREGA scenario as compared to pre-MGNREGA. This reduction in vulnerability has been attributed largely to land development and water related works under MGNREGA .

Springshed development has strengthened the natural resource base of the livelihoods of the poor and supported horticulture (large cardamom, orange, guava). About 300 hectares of large cardamom, for example planted under MGNREGA, now benefits 1,006 beneficiaries, supplementing per household income by an average additional income of Rs 29,000 per annum.

The facility to work on individual land of SC/ST/BPL /small and marginal farmers has also been used well by Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh received the National award for convergence for using MGNREGA to create a package of evocatively named schemes- Kapildhara that provides an irrigation facility comprising a dug well from MGNREGA, a pump-set from agriculture with an average cost of Rs 1. 50 lakh. Kapildhara is usually given with BhoomiShilpa or land development under MGNREGA. Quality seed, tool kit and forward linkages with proper storage facility and collective marketing through farmer producers company under development schemes, all together constituting an improved POP or Package of Practice.

Similarly, the Nandan Phalodhyan or horticulture scheme converges MGNREGA with the National Horticulture Mission. This has been used as VanvasiSanvardhan for augmenting agriculture productivity on individual land allotted to 1.76 lakh forest dwellers with a package of irrigation wells, farm ponds, horticulture, wherein the workers could earn wages as labour and graduate to being farmers augmenting their income and agricultural productivity.

What is common to these initiatives? Besides winning the National MGNREGA awards for the work done in the period between 2013 and 2014? They share a kindred approach to MGNREGA: to move it away from isolated ad- hoc activities, that often leave incomplete works without ownership and commensurate benefits towards an integrated approach for enhancing productivity and income by prioritising individual lands or clusters where MGNREGA works are converged with other program resources and most importantly, technical know-how. In fact, MGNREGA has mobilised about Rs 11,000 crores from various departments as convergence funds for productive interventions. The award winning districts are also a timely reminder that the best form of social security is not just a direct intervention in creating a limited form of employment but in augmenting employability through skill development and entrepreneurship.

More significantly, these initiatives have been effective because they indicate a set of factors critical to strategies for inclusive growth reaching out to those on the periphery of development. Such strategies need to be shaped by an understanding of contextual differences. Developmental outcomes are a composite of multiple inputs across sectors. Inter-sectoral convergence is best achieved through decentralisation enabling an osmotic balance between normative frameworks and local flexibility. Resources are also dovetailed with greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness, if there is block transfer of funds with functional autonomy at the implementation level. The test of effectiveness should lie in the outcomes generated, rather than in a rigid adherence to procedural prescriptions - the anathema of most government schemes. Performance reports need to be in public domain so that development processes are not just grist for remotely placed theoreticians but are part of the experiential discourse of communities to be appraised and decided upon by them.

(The writer was the joint secretary MGNREGA from its inception in 2005 up to 2011. She has now superannuated from the Indian Administrative Service)

Financial Chronicle, 2 February, 2015, http://www.mydigitalfc.com/knowledge/rural-reach-445


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