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Winning a fight by Sreelatha Menon


Villagers in Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh agitate and get their dues under the rural job scheme; but the authorities are not giving up easily

Villagers had to fight to get unemployment allowance worth Rs 14 lakh in Sitapur’s villages though this is something they are assured under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Villagers in Misrik and Pisawan blocks in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh would vouch for the benefit of persistence. There were 826 families from about 19 villages, all miserable and in need of work, and denied work ever since the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched. So, in 2007, when their requests for work drew no response from pradhans, Sangatim (or best friend) stepped in. It was a non-governmental organisation (NGO) started by former social workers of the Mahila Samakhya and celebrated in a book called Playing with Fire, published by Zubaan. Sangatim advised the villagers to keep receipts of each application they had made for work so that they could demand unemployment allowance, which is guaranteed under the Act if work is not provided within 15 days of the application.

To cut a long story short, the struggle led to the villagers getting Rs 14,99,340 as unemployment allowance, nearly two years after they first applied for work. The allowances ranged between Rs 150 and Rs 8,000. About 37 villagers got the latter amount.

The job applications were dated between May and December 2007. Armed with receipts of their various applications in a year, they began to send applications to the community development officer at the district level seeking unemployment allowance.

At first, there was no response. Then they were verbally told that it was next to impossible. So, the NGO, along with 500 villagers, began a dharna in Sitapur town before the district office that lasted till the district magistrate formed a committee of three officials and three people from the organisation. Following the report, the rural development department in the state government ordered payment of allowances early this year, sending the villagers into celebration and raising hopes in other areas of Sitapur, said Sangatim.

The block development officers went to the high court but were told off promptly by the court. Finally, in May this year, the villagers got their dues. Since this, there is more enthusiasm among villagers for demanding work under the scheme in Sitapur, says Sangatim. It is not that the pradhans have decided to give them work, but villagers have learnt to ask for it, says Richa Singh of the NGO. But a look at official data shows that most blocks, including Misrikh and Pisawan, haven’t crossed the average of 20 days of work, though half the year is over. In the whole district, just 421 people have completed the 100 days of work that the Act guarantees.

In Uttar Pradesh, it is an unwritten rule that payment of unemployment allowance is punishable. Ever since the compensation order was passed by the State Rural Department this year, at least two block development officers and five panchayat secretaries have been put under suspension and pradhans of 19 gram sabhas have got showcause notices. The entire pradhan fraternity in Sitapur has, meanwhile, turned against the NGO, even as there are shrill demands for jobs from other blocks, says Singh.

Narrating the story of the struggle, Singh does not seem ready to take up another battle on behalf of the villagers. What intrigues her is that why a simple provision in the Act needs such a long agitation to be implemented.

Whether Sangatim is ready or not, the villagers, she says, are demanding both work and allowances all the time, much to the dislike of the authorities.