In Orissa, ghosts come to life

Business Standard, Sept 24, 2008


Few social sector schemes have drawn so much flak as the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, now in its third year. Implemented all over the country, it seeks to give employment for a specific number of days every year in the construction of rural infrastructure including roads, wells and check dams. A large chunk of the money, its detractors allege, has gone into a black hole. In fact, there have even been calls to jettison the programme altogether. What is the final verdict? While a Planning Commission study shows that NREGP has done better than the earlier job schemes, another study carried out by the National Council of Applied Economic Research says it has flopped and the poorest of the lot have gained little access to the promised goodies. Another study by the government-owned National Institute of Rural Development gives a doomsday picture of the scheme for 2006-07, though it found things took a turn for the better the following year. A three-part series does a reality check on the scheme:

The numbers tell without any ambiguity how deep the rot runs in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. A study of the scheme carried out by the National Institute of Rural Development in Orissa says that in 2006-07, there were 31 per cent ghost workers, 53 per cent ghost mandays and 58 per cent ghost wages.

Clearly, it was nothing more than a ghost scheme and a cruel joke for the majority of the rural poor in the region covered, which includes the ultra-poor districts of Koraput, Kalahandi and Bolangir.

The only good news is that the ghosts are now being replaced by real people. The study has found that in 2007-08, the number of fake workers reduced to 8.6 per cent, fake mandays to 23 per cent and fake wages to 38 per cent. Pilferage may be down but it is till very high. It should make the alarm bells ring for the minders of the scheme as well as those entrusted with its execution.

The institute had been asked by the state government to survey 19 districts and 40 gram panchayats to inquire into the findings of various independent surveys which had indicated all was not well with the ambitious rural jobs scheme.

Earlier surveys were done by teams led by economist Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera and another by activist Parshuram Ray. While Ray said there was a leakage of Rs 500 crore from the scheme in 2006-07, Dreze’s team said records were poorly maintained and there was a total lack of transparency. Ray says he feels vindicated by the NIRD study which was done through a massive social audit involving 40 NGOs.

On his part, NIRD Project Director S Rajakutty says the improvement in 2007-08 should not be ignored: “Not only has the leakage reduced to half, the other positive thing is that 95 per cent of the works reported even in the earlier year were actually taken up.” He adds in his report that the leakages can be attributed to irregular entry, systemic deficiencies and irregular practices.

There are several instances of taxpayers’ money not spent judiciously. Rajakutty gives the instance of one district which built a stadium using the money meant for NREGP! Another big leakage source was the large number of rural concrete and cement roads taken up under the scheme in the state. As these are highly capital-intensive, it meant the NREGP rule of using 60 per cent of the money for wages and only 40 per cent for material was openly flouted.

The gram panchayats, which are supposed to implement this project, justify this saying that when stones are used for roads, workers are paid for cutting them. The only difference is that these workers don’t have job cards. So the money is actually being paid to people!

While the scheme has cut down fake numbers, it has also shed the actual workers this year, says the NIRD report. In fact, the sample size of NIRD shrank from 4,237 in 2006-07 to 1,902 in 2007-08 and the number of workers who actually worked came down to 1,739 from 2,455 during the period.

Orissa Government has now asked NIRD to extend the study to 25 districts, taking two panchayats in each block. A total of 520 social audits are to be done followed by another after a year. The audits are not only about NREGP schemes but also of the public distribution system and the Integrated Child Development Scheme.

Clearly, a social audit of all such schemes is in order if the benefit has to reach the poorest of the poor.