Assessing the Outputs of NREGS in Sirohi district, Rajasthan, India

1. Assessing the Outputs of NREGS in Sirohi district, Rajasthan, India Presentation on the Key Elements of the Pilot (II) Proposal CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research & Training (CART) Jaipur March 14, 2007

2. What the Act says ‘To provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing atleast one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto’

3. Status in Rajasthan • In initial phase, the NREGA has come into effect from February 02, 2006 in two hundred districts of the country • In line with the Act, the State Government has also formulated its own scheme titled ‘Rajasthan Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme’ (RREGS). • The RREGS is being implemented in six districts namely Banswara, Dungarpur, Jhalawar, Karauli, Sirohi and Udaipur.

4. Background and Scope • The Act places a judicially enforceable obligation on the State, and thus provides bargaining power to the labourers • Hence, under the purview of the Act, the “accountability” component for the service providers becomes very crucial. • In the past, there have been numerous employment programmes/schemes, but, most of these have not been enough effective in addressing the employment claims. • Also, the needy were not aware about most of the programmes and schemes.

5. Scope………. • The NREGA will cover all the districts of the country by 2009 in a phased manner. • Since, the Act provides a universal and enforceable legal right to the most basic form of employment, it is essential to peep into application modalities of the scheme in the first phase itself, in order to make the planning and its implementation more of people oriented in the following phases.

6. Claims of the Governments • Rajasthan is one of the states where the scheme implementation is at its best. • High number of labourers has been employed under the NREGS in six selected districts, strictly following the Centre’s guidelines on NREGS. • The State Government claims that nobody is being denied employment under the NREGS and work is given on demand, and payments are also being made in every 15 days. • The government says that the task was calculated on the basis of Rs.73 as minimum wages, as stipulated in Rajasthan and the task set for a day’s work was less than that of Maharashtra.

7. Claim of State Govt. • As per State Government statement, on an average, a labour gets Rs.55 under NREGS in Rajasthan. • Moreover, the government claims that “there had not been a single instance – other then one case in Pindwara block in Sirohi district where anomalies were found in NREGS”.

8. Ensuring SA through pilot • The traditional way of measuring effectiveness of the people oriented programmes/schemes is from the standpoint of expenditure against the allocated budget and headcount. • But along with these two parameters, in addition, the parameters of “access” in terms of attempts for benefits by the appropriate target groups, “coverage” in terms of area and quantum of stakeholders participation, “reliability” in terms of transparency in set service delivery mechanism and “satisfaction” in terms of socio-economic prospects emerged in, will be applied under the pilot project.

9. Project Description • The proposed pilot project aims towards assessing the level of commitment of service providers towards “accountability”, with regard to implementation of NREGS in the state • Pilot study also assess the preparedness and planning of the state Government with regard to implementation of NREGS. • Efforts will also be made to evaluate quality results explored so far by applying specific provisions and rules of the NREGA

10. Proposed Activities • Project scoping through village visits and consultations with stakeholders • Sampling of Survey • District Level Launch Meeting • Preparation of Questionnaires and field testing • Identification of Surveyors and Orientation • Conducting the actual surveys and expenditure tracking • Secondary Data Collection, Documentation & Analysis • District Level Dissemination Meeting • State Level Dissemination Meeting • Finalizing the report and disseminating the findings.

11. Why Sirohi District? • Sirohi is one of the districts, where the Government claims that “there had not been a single instance – other then one case in Pindwara block in Sirohi district where anomalies were found in NREGS”. Hence we have chosen this district for the pilot • Secondly, Sirohi is one of the backward districts out of the six districts, where the scheme was introduced in the first phase • Thirdly, this is one of the districts close to Gujarat, where large scale migration takes place during drought

12. Justifications….. • Most of the social audits, assessments and evaluation workshops, whether it is done by the Government of India, Government of Rajasthan or by the CSOs, had taken place at Udaipur district, which is the divisional head quarters, easily accessible by air, rail and road and place of tourist attraction. Hence we have decided to select Sirohi for doing the survey

13. Suggested Tools • Community Score Card (CSC) • Citizen Report Cards (CRCs) • Participatory Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS)

14. Thank you

15. Scaling up PETS on MDMS into the entire state of Rajasthan, India • Presentation on the key elements of the Phase II Proposal CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research & Training (CUTS-CART), Jaipur March 14, 2007

16. Rationale for Scaling Up • Rajasthan Gov. has expressed interest (Discussions with the Minister, note from the Minister to Sec., RD, Letter from Sec. RD & Commissioner MDMS to assess the programme in larger context by scaling up similar exercise in other administrative divisions of the state. • Expanding the scope of “social accountability” • Positive changes taken place as result of pilot study