Medowe Kapfo
Pfütsero town
[dropcap]D[/dropcap]emocracy is not all about periodic elections and political rights alone but is essentially about providing for the basic needs of the people. This can be achieved only when power structure is adequately representative of all sections of society.
The greatest challenge before our Democracy today is about how we make it applicable for the common man. It should work for the achievement of the socio-economic and political justice for the common man, for the abolition of poverty and providing the basic needs to the rich and the poor as well. The poor should have the same opportunity as the rich has. The fruits of development should reach one and all irrespective of any divide. One class should not be discriminated from the other.Today, the biggest divide between humans is the economic division. The division between HAVES & HAVE NOT is as old as the world itself. And instead of contracting the gap, it has been ever widening to a shocking proportion. In India according to the latest available information, 40% are poor out of which 25% are living under Poverty Line. The rich are becoming richer and poor are being added to the already existing size and blame-goes between the two.
The rich people blame the poor for all the ills in the society citing the example that population among the poor increases more and they are being responsible for various problems like health, travelling, food grains and education. The poor, in turn, envy the economic freedom of their rich counterpart; they blame the rich for eating away the fruits of all government’s schemes and projects, and they have been the chief hurdle in the progress of the poor.
The rich enjoy all pleasures of life; ease and comforts is the best companion while the poor fight everyday for a few penny. The rich think it is their legal right to enjoy everything the world has created while the poor think it is a curse not to have more than a few good daily meal.
The Government of India with a view of narrowing the wide-gap between the Have & Have Not had introduced various policies and schemes to eradicate poverty, generate employments, creation of rural transportation and providing basic amenities for people living in rural areas and unprivileged section of the Country. For instance, The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is one among them. It was launched on 2nd February, 2006 covering 200 districts further extended to 330 districts and has now been extended to all 604 rural districts of the country with effect from 2-4-2008.
Presently, this scheme is known as MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). This ongoing scheme is helpful in providing to the rural poor additional wage employments nearest of their place of residence, increase income, and generate infrastructure for development of rural areas so that rural people including youth are not forced to migrate to urban areas for livelihood.
Under the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), unskilled work is provided, when demanded at minimum wage, on works focused on water conservation, land development and drought proofing.
Some of the KEY ELEMENTS of MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). Households domiciled in a village (not just those below the poverty line) are enlisted to register for seeking unskilled employment. Job cards containing photographs should be issued to all entitled applicants within 15 days of application. Demand for work from job card holders should be acknowledged and unskilled work allotted within 15 days. Payment should be made within 15 days. The State’s notified minimum wage for agricultural labor is to be supplied.
Funds were released to the States out of the allocation made for National Food for work programme. In 2006-2007, budget provision for NREGA was Rs 11,300 crore and in 2007-2008, it was Rs 12,000 crore. In 2008-2009, a budget provision of Rs 16,000 crore was made for NREGA. An amount of Rs 163.12 crores has already been released for preparatory activities for 274 new districts.
But when it comes to a case like Nagaland state, it has been observed in most/almost all of the districts; the MNREGA schemes get vanished on the way before it reaches the targeted group. Neither job cards nor wages were issued to entitled workers but are rather being kept and manipulated by those working under BDO at village levels. The benefits never reach them because those people (Gram Rozgar Sahayak) involved/working in the implementation process take the most monetary advantages of the various schemes. The money just got disappeared into their own pockets. With the amount stolen from the MNREGA scheme; they led a lavish life-style, having daily parties with expensive foreign made liquors, buying cars or even buying of lands and building their own castles. Their living standard is so high that even those of first class gazette officers can’t afford them as much as that Gram Rozgar Sahayak does. When inquired, the rightful rural poor are harassed either psychologically or verbally and said that it has been diverted to some other village welfare projects and so on.
What’s more interesting and funny here is that; even those permanent well-to-do dwellers of town and urban areas too want to have their bounty share. So they retreat to their villages with the motif to serve as Gram Rozgar Sahayak to catch the big fish while leaving behind their families in towns. These intending individuals will politically and mentally control their poor ignorant village leaders and win them to their side. Believe it or not, even the Village Council Members and G.Bs are not spared by these greedy individuals. They are bribed by these so-called aspiring Gram Rozgar Sahayak candidates.
Operation guidelines laid down by the Government are not followed accordingly. Though, Vigilance and monitoring committees have been set up at State as well as district levels. Implementation of NREGA Act is not monitored on regular basis. Village level members of the central employment guarantee council also never undertake field visits to oversee the progress of the Act. Some irregularities reported in the implementation of NREGA mainly relates to procedures such as application for employment, issue of dated receipts, job card formats, muster rolls, maintenance of record registers.
As per the operational guidelines, a citizen information board has to be introduced and displayed at all prominent place which will enable the local community to the works being undertaken under NREGA, and would also facilitate the process of spreading awareness about the programmme. But it has never been done or displayed so in a single occasion. Muster Rolls verification are neither done properly nor placed on the website in campaign mode.
When matters of irresponsibility of the Gram Rozgar Sahayak are taken up to the concerned authorities, the inadequacies of the system and slow moving judiciary process once again crippled the common man and result in rejection of justice while striving for his rights. The hearings are pended for long period or intentionally closed without proper legal process. Often, due to fear of high court fees, they withdraw their case and devoid of justice. Such is the scenario.
So in order to generate faith in the mind of rural poor’s and create more transparency in the system; we have to implement stricter, corrective and coercive measures must be taken up to do away with corruption. The systems and methods have to be revolutionized before it’s too late. Else, schemes like MNREGA etc. will be just a wish for the sky in the minds of the rural poor and will never taste the sweetness of the various central schemes.
Therefore, in order to achieve the desire outcome; we need to share equal responsibility, equal participation and put our best efforts into it without fear of consequences. For this, an educated and informed citizen is one of the greatest assets and weapons we can rely on in this type of situation. We need to fight it on a war footing scale.
Thereafter only, the chances of reaching various schemes from the central government like MNREGA etc benefits to our rural villagers can be expected to bear fruits. If not, the amount of anger, hatred and jealousy that are being nursed in the thousand hearts of rural poor in our Naga Society by the greedy individuals. That day is not far. And I bet, if ignored, it is bound to explode like a bomb at anytime and cause a great destruction.
