Who Stole My Job?

22/03/2010

Who Stole My Job?

Prateek K Anand

(BiharTimes) I am a quintessential Bihari ever in search of a livelihood. This world is a witness to my travails. Few years back, a good fellow Samaritan, a doctor in mathematics, offered me a faint hope. NREGA as it is known in the popular parlance, of course renamed since as MANREGA or is it MAREGA, is what the doctor prescribed to this BIMARU self. It promised to deliver me from my never ending pursuit of having my ends met. In came the BABA brigade which quickly realized its potential as an election winning formula. In the process, focus of NREGA got reoriented to help the political fortune of its master. I, now discover to my horror that my pie is being eaten away. At least it appears so from the noises emanating from ruling elite of my state. Truth remains that even now I continue to wander in search of that elusive job only to be held hostage at times or being bashed up on other occasions. Who did steel my job?

The truth is more bizarre than conveyed in the aforesaid lines. State is home of close to 12% of BPL population as per the figures arrived at by ‘The Planning Commission of India’. A comparative chart of the percentage share of BPL population distribution among the major states of India is as given in the pie chart alongside.

Bihar which roughly accounts for about 8.5% of total national headcount, counts for disproportionately higher number of BPL population. Another state doing disproportionately bad is, of course, UP. It counts for 16 percent of total Indian population and in turn accounts for 19% of BPL numbers. Still, it does substantially better than Bihar. While it has almost double of Bihar’s population, in terms of BPL percentage it falls short of 24 percent by about five percent.

Above details are anyway very well known facts. But what comes as surprise is the number of Job cards holder in different states. Absolute numbers of job cards issued do not appear to follow the pattern of BPL population distribution. UP & Maharashtra are worse of on these counts. Yet, it is the percentage of job card holders versus the BPL population of some other states which comes as a real surprise.

Chart on the right is outright puzzling. State like Tamilnadu has distributed Job cards to almost 80 percent of its BPL population. In effect, this means that almost all the members of BPL family including even the minor children (assuming family unit of at least three, if not four, members) have got job cards issued in their name. Other state to show such a wonderful figure of Job card issuance is Rajasthan. Given these numbers one can offer very limited justifications for this anomaly, like:

BPL figures arrived at by Planning Commission is grossly understated in all the state. If this is assumed to be true then India is hardly making any progress in combating poverty.

Or, APL persons also find daily wages under NREGA attractive enough. If this is to be true then criteria used for BPL classification itself comes under question.

Or, there is gross irregularity in issuance of JOB cards. Fraudulent issuance of job card has been resorted with active official connivance in some state. This points out to siphoning out of substantial amount of NREGA fund.

Bihar’s performance under NREGA has seen substantial improvement over the last year, be it in terms of issuance of job card or overall fund utilization. However, in relative terms it is even now pathetic. While with regard to issuance of job cards, state commands pole position in absolute terms now. However, it performs abysmally low in terms of job creation and consequent utilization of the funds. Surprisingly, there seems to be a lack of demand for Job under NREGA in the state. Very few people have been shown to have demanded job and got compensated (amount is just about eight crore rupees overall) for non provision of the same. Reasons for this could be either lack of awareness or an artificially suppressed demand by the officialdom involved in this program.
Loss to state seems enormous on account of failure in job creation under NREGA. Even with lesser number of job cards UP, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are drawing comparatively larger amount riding on better job creation. This way, while Rajasthan is able to take Rs.5362 crores home, Bihar is stuck at rs 1562 crores. UP comes second with Rs 5125, MP third with rs 4216 crores and Andhra at fourth place with rs. 3433 crores. This comparison shows that Bihar is losing out big time on its share in NREGA pie.

Even the allegation and counter allegation between center and state is becoming a bit weird. While state government claims that center is not releasing funds, the fund position status shows surplus amount with state. Whether this outstanding amount is under dispute for want of utilization certificate is not known from the available information and statements. Another point made in this slugfest has been a reported statement by Mr Rahul Gandhi that the state is able to use only 20% of amount allocated to it. However, the statement from MORD had put the figure at over 50%. Here again the problem is with regard to numbers used. While MORD is talking in terms of total amount (last years balance + this years additional provisioning together equaling approved labour budget) provided for the year and the amount actually used in current year, Mr Rahul Gandhi seems to be erroneously considering only the amount released for this year (around Rs 850 crores) as utilization for current year vis a vis total labour budget. However, the state is not limited in providing jobs by the size of estimated labour budget as this is a demand driven program. This entire slugfest can only be called a misinformed one. The losers are the intended beneficiaries who still go around scouring nooks and corner of India even for earning comparable wages in much harsher working conditions.

Overall, with failure to utilize better share of NREGA fund, state is only compromising on its own interest. Had state been able to provide hundred days wages to its one crore twenty two lakhs odd job card holders it could have got over rs 12000 crores through this window. Thus, Bihar would be getting each year additional fund of the size on par with its demand for Kosi package.

As for economic value of the work, if each job card holder were able to dig a trench of 1 meter length having a cross section of 20 M X 5M amounting to 100 cubic meter in hundred days, then Bihar can boast of 12,200 Km of trench/ canal of sufficient water flow capacity in a year’s time only. This work would have been sufficient to link all the rivers of state. Alternatively, Bihar can accomplish earth work of over 5000 KM of eight lane (5 meter wide per lane on average) and 5 meter high expressway. By making use of NREGA funds itself, Bihar can meet all its pressing development needs including de-silting of rivers and canals, embankments reinforcement and plantation of tree on them. Only if state can use its full strength of Job card holders, state can be drastically transformed in shortest span of time. Need is to take up NREGA in mission mode by creating an independent society with clear job cards issuance and matching fund utilization target. This would call for a dedicated principal secretary level committee comprising of planning, water resources, finance, labour, road, environment & forest. Such a committee monitoring NREGA programs on monthly interval can help change the situation. Given the stakes, there is an urgent need for dedicated NREGA ministry and NREGA department at state level as well.

So, whosoever has conspired to steal away the jobs of the impoverished people of Bihar is doing a great harm to this state. Whether the buck stops at the door of leader of BABA brigade or at the door step of Bhagawan is a moot point. As the situation exists today, it needs to be redeemed in a double quick time.