Several sammelans, nuked nataks and sarpanch sammelans have been organised in villages as part of the campaign. Sammelans organised in the Dharadi and Laloni panchayats of Ishanagar block of Chhatarpur district revealed that:

• Widows applying for work are told to bring along a man if they want work.
• Women are being given work for just 2-3 days
• Work is given to those with no job cards.
• In Dharadi, job cards are yet to be made. In Laloni, most of the 250 job cards distributed had no photos, signatures or numbers.
• In a majority of cases, applicants have been bluntly told to get photos taken at their expense
• People who are ‘close’ to the sarpanch demand Rs 200 from potential applicants for ‘helping’ them to get their job cards made.
• Women are being paid Rs 55 per day, and Rs 5 is being deducted from their wages every day for ‘facilities provided’ at the work site.

Further, it was found that women are being given heavy work to do and then being dismissed for not being able to do it. PACS Programme partners report this is a common ploy across all NREGA districts.

CSOs have also found many instances of panchayats indulging in malpractices. In Gadhera, Chhatarpur, the panchayat secretary claims money for taking up NREGS works has been deposited in a bank, but is yet to be used because of ‘internal’ (read caste) problems. Thus, no work has been initiated so far, and no job cards made. However, the panchayat cheque book showed payments amounting to Rs 6 lakh in 20 wards, though no work has actually been done

At a samooh meeting at Sendhurjana village in Betul taluka, Betul district, villagers discussed various aspects of NREGA with the staff of Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), a PACS Programme partner. Another samooh meeting was held at Imli Dhana village, block Chicholi, Betul, and at Motipur, block Chicholi. At Godra, the meeting was also followed by an NREGA rally at the village level.

At Balaghat, the NREGS week was inaugurated simultaneously in seven villages through village-level samooh sammelans. The villages included Bhanderi and Mendki Kinarda (Baihar block), Lokmara, Ghodadehi, Gudwa and Roopjhar (Paraswada block).

Nukkad nataks were held in Paraswada block in the villages of Badgaon and Ghoradehi. Audio and video CDs were distributed to women SHGs for sharing with other group members.

The NREGS week is being observed across the six PACS Programme states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. It is coordinated at the national level by Development Alternatives-PricewaterhouseCoopers, and at the state level by programme support teams led by the programme’s state anchors.

A number of resource organisations are also involved.

During the week, PACS Programme CSOs will cover approximately 1,466 gram panchayats and 3,064 villages in 45 blocks in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. “The PACS Programme approach to awareness generation on NREGA implementation in the two states will not only reflect the challenges in making such a far-reaching piece of legislation a reality, but also the positive effects of having such a system in place," said Sanjeev Ranjan, MP state anchor, at a press conference in Bhopal where the campaign was formally launched.

Read more details about the NREGS week in MP and Chhattisgarh in these bulletins in PDF format prepared by Write Solutions, the PACS Programme communication agency for these two states:
NREGA Bulletin July 3
NREGA Bulletin July 4
NREGA Bulletin July 5
NREGA Bulletin July 6
NREGA Bulletin July 7
NREGA Bulletin July 8
NREGA Bulletin July 9