NREGA In Naxal-Affected Areas

By Neelashi Shukla and Pankhuri Tandon (St. Stephen's College)

Since its inception in 2005, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA,  or now MNREGA) has been a topic of great political as well as socio-economic debate. NREGA came in the form of an act, unlike any other welfare and employment generating schemes that the country had seen before. It gave the “right to work”, and initially targeted the 200 most backward regions of the country. However in a country as diverse as ours, it has been confronted with a plurality of challenges. It has had to face administrative and bureaucratic malfunctioning, corruption, political hazards and other forms of leakages similar to other welfare schemes. But since it has targeted the backward-most regions of our country, it has also had to face additional challenges, in the form of socio-economic and institutional barriers. One such major barrier is the issue of Naxalism. Besides posing a threat to national security, the Naxal ideology, in the name of being “anti-government”, also ends up hampering and disrupting various government developmental programs, and instigates the local communities against the state. For NREGA to be successfully implemented, these barriers need to be overcome.

We see Naxalism as what it is today, through the eyes of a so-called “Operation Green Hunt”, a national outcry of rupture of internal security, troubled states of the red corridor, and the intimidating horrors of violence, bloodshed and the chanting of the much dreaded “Laal Salam”. What happened in Dantewada in 2010, brought to everyone’s notice all this and more. In this fight of ideologies, it is the people who suffer at the end of the day. This strife is no longer political, but has very serious economic as well as social ramifications.

However, recently it was revealed in the 2010 Social Development Report (prepared by Council for Social Development) that the Naxals were not blocking any activities that were being implemented under the NREG Scheme. The report states that as a combined result of the NREGA and the Naxalites’ pressure, contractors are paying higher wages to manual workers in the areas hit by left-wing extremism. The Naxalites have been blocking road and bridge construction but not other permissible works under the NREGA, the CSD has claimed. We critically examined this report and analysed the performance of NREGA in the states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh by taking a sample of nine districts which come under the Red Corridor. Looking at the recent trends of the provisioning of job cards, employment and completion of developmental works for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, we observed that the picture is becoming steadily positive in Chhattisgarh, gradually positive in Orissa and has been deteriorating in Jharkhand.  Overall, the recent trends of the performance of NREGA in the Naxal affected States in the last three years are more or less consistent with the CSD’s results. That is, the Naxals are not hampering any developmental works under NREGA. However, that does not imply that the picture at the grass roots level is all rosy. There are still problems which restrain the schemes under NREGA from achieving its full potential. The Naxal issue in this case is a smaller problem as compared to other, much bigger problems of bureaucratic inefficiency. The main problems hindering the development are still misappropriation of funds, discrepancies in allocating job cards, pending wage payments and so on.

In the naxal-affected areas, the Government has opted for the strategy of tackling the security issues first and development later. But it needs to realize there should be a simultaneous progress in both fields. The above-mentioned states have recently witnessed a highly significant increase in paddy yields in the naxal-affected regions. We also observed how works like micro-irrigation, land development have achieved dual objectives: employment generation (which is necessary to raise purchasing power and induce demand) and an increase in productive assets crucial for agriculture. This is not opposed by Naxalites because the people supporting Naxals in that area are mainly dalits and adivasis, who are mostly landless or small/marginal peasants. Anything that helps them improve their livelihood is not going to be touched by the Naxals since they are not in a position to provide a better economic option. Thus the government should realize the role of development as a powerful weapon and use it to its fullest to combat the naxals. It has also been observed that there has been an increase in developmental works barring road connectivity (which is still blocked by the Naxals). Thus, the government needs to come up with better strategies to improve road connectivity. This will increase accessibility in these areas and help in identifying the core issues specific to these areas. Moreover, the government can’t blame the failure of implementation to the lack of coordination between state and Central governments because states ruled by opposition parties like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh are doing better.

NREGA holds promises for millions of rural poor in India. Among these is a section of people who are struggling every single day to live their life in the midst of the grim battle between the government and the naxalites. Implementing NREGA efficiently will not only bring development, which till now is not so familiar to them, to their doorstep, but also help them free themselves from this grim battle and enhance their capabilities.