Magazine / The Hindu
Jan 02, 2005
Perspective
NOT EVERYBODY LOVES A GOOD DROUGHT
The Employment Guarantee Act, among other things,
offers an opportunity to remove substantially the
spectre of starvation deaths from rural India.
While public discourse has brought the issue into
focus, the debate in the media begins with
assumptions that people are well informed about
the context of the act. But many are not aware of
the subject and have come to some alarming
conclusions. ARUNA ROY and REETIKA KHERA place
the facts in perspective.
[Photo] ANU PUSHKARNA
In New Delhi -- one lakh signatures in support
of a full-fledged Employment Guarantee Act.
PUBLIC works immediately conjure up visions of
roads and bridges that exist only on paper. They
are described with scepticism as projects of
private gain at public cost. So when there is a
demand for the State to take responsibility for
providing work for people on the margins, public
opinion based on a fear of misappropriation
begins to reject the alternative altogether. The
unfortunate consequence of this, is that the
debate on corruption gets converted to a question
of whether we should have an employment guarantee
act at all.
The EGA
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government
in its Common Minimum Programme has made some
historic promises to the people. An earlier
government under the prime ministership of V.P.
Singh, made an effort to bring in the right to
work, but did not stay in power long enough to
make the law. The Employment Guarantee Act (EGA)
promises one adult in every rural household 100
days of manual work at minimum wages to create
productive assets. More importantly, it offers an
opportunity to remove substantially the spectre
of starvation deaths from rural India.
Public discourse has brought the issue into
focus. The debate in the print and electronic
media begins with assumptions that people are
well informed about the context of the act. But
many are not aware of the issue and have come to
some alarming conclusions. This is an attempt to
try and place the issue in perspective.
While it is true that public works have been used
to siphon funds, they have also facilitated our
lives. Corruption arises primarily through the
manipulations of middlemen and contractors who
are used to execute these works. When people are
involved with the process, they are far more
effective at monitoring the works to create sound
infrastructure. There is a wealth of experience
in carrying out public works across the country.
Water harvesting and water management projects
have shown that much can be achieved even through
simple mud works. The cliché of digging a pit
only to fill up, is only a small part of the
story. There are in fact, numerous examples of
useful and creative earth work. The digging of
talais, for instance, often described as "just
digging a pit" is one kind of misunderstood earth
work. An easily accessible rainwater harvesting
structure, the talai saves cattle and their
owners great time and effort from otherwise
having to trek many miles each day in search of
water.
Problems of management
Some of these anomalies are simply problems of
management. There is for instance, the proverbial
lack of supervision, a lack of attention to
maintenance, and the resultant erosion of the
quality of work. This gets worse when the
responsibility is divided among diverse
departments. The metaphor of too many cooks
spoiling the broth cannot be more appropriately
applied. Problems of accountability also arise
when the material costs are borne by one
department and the implementation is carried out
through another. But none of these is
insurmountable.
One solution is to facilitate better supervision
and ownership by increasing the role of
panchayats and, more importantly, the people
through Gram sabhas, in the planning,
implementation, evaluation and even auditing of
public works. This has been amply demonstrated by
the "people's plan" in Kerala where 40 per cent
of the State's plan expenditure is carried out
through panchayats. This argues for greater
devolution of powers and finances to the
panchayats.
The issue of corruption
There is a genuine fear of large-scale corruption
in such programmes. But we cannot forget that
these arguments are most often cited as reasons
for not implementing programmes for the poor. Why
is it not an issue when there is equal evidence
of corruption in other spheres? In defence deals
for instance, we have not stopped buying guns or
aircraft. Nor has the Enron scam resulted in the
change of the power policy; the Unit Trust of
India (UTI) scam to the closing down of UTI
altogether.
Recent experiences of the implementation of the
Right to Information law from Rajasthan,
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi, show that with
adequate provisions for transparency and
accountability, much of this siphoning off can be
curtailed. In the drought relief programmes in
Rajasthan in 2003, for instance, it was
universally acknowledged that transparency and
public vigilance helped reduce corruption
drastically. Simple measures such as the
provision of job cards to workers, exhibiting
muster rolls on a notice board, have made a great
difference and made people vigilant.
Another fear is that legal action may flood the
system and the courts, and cause delay. However
what is overlooked is that legal recourse is
difficult in this country, especially for the
poor. Judicial procedures are time-consuming and
too expensive for those who will use the EGA. One
has only to look at the case of Maharashtra where
the Employment Guarantee Scheme has been in place
for nearly three decades now to examine the
invalidity of such fears. There, the number of
people who have turned to the courts to enforce
their rights has been almost non-existent. Modes
of public pressure have been used frequently and
effectively. In fact this act would help involve
and mobilise the poor on a large scale across the
country by giving them a stake in its
implementation.
Financial implications
However, foremost among the worries is that of
the financial implications of an Employment
Guarantee and the affordability of such a
programme. The implementation of an employment
guarantee will require money, but it saves social
and economic costs of poverty. Most estimates
place the upper limit on annual expenditure at
Rs. 40,000 crores for expansion to the whole
country in five years. At approximately one per
cent of the GDP, the fear is clearly
disproportionate.
The Employment Guarantee Programme which promises
100 days employment at minimum wages, will help
up to 70 per cent of the poor families cross the
poverty line. The former Chief Minister of
Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, has made public
statements that until we have an employment
guarantee act in place, we will continue to
receive news of starvation deaths. The question
of affordability is as much a question of
political commitment as economic resources. The
promise of a National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act "immediately", appears as the first item in
the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA.
In a democracy, the poor majority can justifiably
demand a one per cent share of the GDP, of a
country which has a six to seven per cent growth
rate. With one of the lowest tax to GDP ratios in
the world, the question of whether we can afford
it is almost farcical. It seems that the fear of
appearing pro-poor may outrage a country
committed to shine! Maharashtra enacted an
employment guarantee act almost 30 years ago,
with a cross section of civil society -
politicians, business people, academics and
concerned citizens, expressing a social
obligation and finding resources through four new
taxes dedicated to the EGA. It was a recognition
that the poor wanted to, and must be given an
opportunity to use their resource of land and
labour and contribute to the economy.
If there is political will and a social
conscience, this country will come together to
ensure that there is a genuine effort to enact a
law. There is a historic opportunity to empower
the poor to live with dignity and with an
entitlement to prevent starvation and hunger. We
cannot allow this to pass.
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