Aruna Roy talks about NREGA

First a little bit about me. I am a non-activist layman, a technocrat by profession. I am an Indian urbanite but am not urbane; hence my essentially remote nonetheless abiding fascination with Indian rural areas. No, I do not unthinkingly romanticize rural areas, but only recognize them as belonging to the Indian landscape deserving of attention.

I am also a sincere and serious admirer of highly principled and motivated people who like to get-down-and-dirty, like Aruna Roy, Jean Drèze. This piece is about NREGA, the program about which I have written a few blogs with details gleaned from various non-official sources and also about the personalities involved, all of them appreciative. Here, I am taking recourse to an essay penned by Ms. Roy and Nikhil Dey of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), NREGA: Breaking new ground, that appeared in The Hindu of June 21, 2009 (Magazine section).

I need to say a few words about how I got to know about Ms. Roy. She was introduced to me through reports of her social sector and developmental activities. During the mid 1990s I spent three years in Jaipur and that is when I noticed that not a day passed without a mention in the local media of her leadership of the grass-roots citizen movements, including those that have led to the RTI and NREG acts, in the rural areas of Rajasthan. The more I read, the more I was convinced. That was an extended on-the-road-to-Damascus moment for me. I have never looked back. I admit to but do not apologize for my bias.

Getting back to the essay, the writers start off with, “Suddenly the NREGA has become a buzz word” and go on to note how the results of the general actions have validated the program. But, they also mention, as a word of caution to the victors, that the vote is an “expression of a fragile hope of rational participatory relationship with the government.”

They are absolutely right and I rightly claim, pointing fingers at the dominantly urban and sophisticated crowd that populate the blogosphere where I mark my presence (1, 2), “I told you so!” No, I did not predict that the current political dispensation will come to power on the back of NREGA, but did indicate that the initiative will assert its legitimacy over time. The time has come now. I needed to put on record my appreciation for the tireless efforts of the activists, on both RTI and NREGA. Thank you, for trying to sensitize the urban crowd.

But, the third sentence carries more significance and deserves to be quoted in toto:
“Basking in the glory and security of post-electoral analysis, it is actually the best time for those who support the basic philosophy of the NREGA to focus on what it has done and what it has not, by its own parameters.”

I support the basic philosophy of the NREGA. The dynamism built into it is its USP. To my knowledge no other scheme of the government incorporates a feedback mechanism and allows critical self-assessment tuned to self-improvement. All such putative efforts, till NREGA came along, have been only to fill shelf space with dust-gathering and unjustifiably self-congratulatory reports. NREGA has opened up a new way of reckoning the efficiency of governmental action: “…has woven transparency and accountability into the mundane fabric of daily interaction of people with government.” “…scams have been exposed by workers themselves.” That is, the beneficiaries have gone beyond being silent, being satisfied with immediate and temporary gratification. They are looking to improve the system. Another first for government programs?

In the essay one reads: “The NREGA has opened up a unique legal space for the poor.” This is achieved through adopting a rights-based approach. But the writers ask whether “the rights-based approach really work?” While admitting that there is a flavor of rhetoric in this, it must also be recognized that no one else has so far done bold to raise even such a question. No one has been willing to subject himself to “measurement”.

This is funny, because the neo-liberalists are all laptop toting management experts who swear that “what cannot be measured does not exist.” I ask the corporate lobby who have put their weight behind infrastructure development (salivating at the prospect of profits through PPP guaranteed by the sovereign) whether they will ever allow an honest comparison of their pre-project EIA and EIRR reports with the extant conditions after the project has gone on stream (mind you, in contrast the FIRR goes through periodic severe re-analyses only for the financial model to be re-worked to the benefit of the entrepreneur). I will give you the answer: No. Well, NREGA is more honest.

It is this honesty that is recognized when the writers say: “Proactive disclosure is a requirement of the RTI act, and is a good example of the larger potential impact of the NREGA on governance”, after pointing out that NREGA shows “how the RTI act can be woven into the fabric of the delivery system and the whole legal and governance paradigm.” And, I think this should be extended reasonably to businesses also.

Getting back to the right-based approach, the essay invokes a number of “trigger mechanisms” to “activate and establish people’s entitlements” and discusses the accomplishments and failures.

The application for and issuing the Job Card, rural poor’s driver’s “license” and “pan card”, the first of the trigger mechanisms, is mentioned as afflicted with inefficiencies. But, it is mentioned that these and the subsequent triggers like unemployment allowance payments are getting better “when workers groups have got organized.” “[W]here people’s struggles have gained political and administrative respect the NREGA has shown tangible results on a massive scale.” There have been breakthroughs in bureaucratic accountability.

The payment mechanisms have “initiated the biggest ‘financial inclusion’ drive.” The NREGA establishes the “dignity of labor” and wage has become a “real factor in determining the lower limit for market wages.” This is, of course, a distortion of how market works, as per free marketers. So be it. Dignity to the poor comes at a loss to the power elites. NREGA drives politics towards concern for the poor, thus meaningfully enfranchising them: “Chronic delays in wage payments in Rajasthan became a political issue, and the delays were wiped out. Innovations and mechanisms respond to a bottom-up demand.” But top-down also helps. Strong political will drive the “lethargic bureaucratic system” to “find a way to respond.” That is, NREGA may be indicating ways to effective governance. It has forced the power elite to recognize the “people’s right to fight endemic hunger and poverty with dignity.”

There is much more in the essay, and I, for one, prefer that if the reader is interested in NREGA (s)he may go through this article, as a primer. I will remain a non-urbane urbanite and be on the sidelines cheering the developmental marathoners, like Ms. Roy.

Raghuram Ekambaram