The PACS Programmes NREGS Campaign 2008 has uncovered several systematic forms of denial of benefits under the scheme, in Uttar Pradesh, especially to people from poor and traditionally voiceless communities.

This denial takes on several forms, such as:

• Refusal to register families and provide them job cards.
• Refusal to register or provide jobs to physically challenged persons.
• Payment of lower than stipulated wages.
• Refusal to employ women.

Below are some instances recounted by programme CSOs from the first phase of the campaign, conducted in July 2008.

No work for people with disabilities

In Badloopurwa village, Suratganj block, Barabanki district, 30-year-oldShanti Devi, who belongs to the backward Kumhar caste, was denied a job card and work because she is disabled. Most people in the village have very small landholdings and work as agricultural labourers for rich farmers.

Shanti Devi is illiterate and unable to walk properly. Her husband Hansraj is the only earning member of the family; he works as an agricultural labourer for a daily wage of Rs 50-Rs 60. But he does not get work every day.

For Shanti Devi, the NREGS offered great hope for 100 days of guaranteed employment a year. However, according to the PACS Programme CSO Sharnam Sansthan that works in the area, Shanti Devi was denied a job card by the village pradhan who told her that as a disabled person she was unfit for work.

In July 2007, after waiting three months, Shanti Devi applied in writing for a job card to be issued to her. She also contacted the panchayat mitra who told her that job cards were given only to men. Till August 2008, Shanti had neither job card nor work under the NREGS.

Denial of full wages

Keshan Lal, a 35-year-old scheduled caste labourer from Gova village in Basantpur gram panchayat, Suratganj block, Barabanki district, is the only earning member of a 12-member family. The village is extremely backward and most people work as agricultural labourers.

When Keshan Lal learnt about the NREGS he went to the village pradhan and asked for a job card. He was refused six times. Finally, on May 12, 2006, four months later, his household was registered; he got a job card 12 days after that. Initially he was given work for seven days, at a wage of Rs 58 per day. Subsequently, over a period of nine months, he got work for a total of 43 days at the same rate.

Then no work was provided for three months. After appeals to the village pradhan and the panchayat secretary, Keshan Lal was given work digging a pond. He completed around 200 days of work. But, as staff at Sharnam Sansthan found out, nothing was recorded on his job card. And the wage he was paid was way below the stipulated Rs 100 per day. Keshan told the CSO that when he had asked for his full wages he was told to quit work. Unable to confront the panchayat, Keshan Lal preferred to continue working for Rs 58 a day.

Denial of job cards

Dhannu Lal, 45, is a landless labourer from Malahanpurwa village, Basantpur Manjhar gram panchayat, Suratganj block, Barabanki district. Like most people in the village he belongs to an other backward class (OBC). Dhannu is illiterate and supports a family of six. When he applied for a job card in June 2007, the pradhan told him to submit two photographs even though photographs are supposed to be provided by the administration.

Dhannu Lal was not called even when NREGS work began. When he asked he was told that he did not possess a job card and so could not be given any work. Dhannu pleaded that despite having submitted his photographs, a job card had still not been issued to him. But his words fell on deaf ears. Dhannu continued to visit the pradhan to ask for a job card; till August 2008 it had not been issued.

Assertion of rights

The first phase of the PACS Programmes NREGS Campaign 2008 made a difference in several such cases.

Forty-five-year-old Rajdev from Bhudsuri village, Ratanpura block, Mau district, has five children and also supports his parents from a small agricultural holding. He has a job card and received full wages for the 15 days he worked under the NREGS. But his job card remained with the village pradhan.

During the NREGS campaign in his village, Rajdev learnt from staff at the Purvanchal Rural Development and Training Institute (PRDTI) that job cards must stay in the possession of their owners. On July 15, 2008, he asked the pradhan for his card and was given it, but with a false entry. The card showed that Rajdev had worked for 25 days when in fact he had worked for just 15 days.

After this, Rajdev made sure that the entries were made in front of him after the days work. If it had not been for the campaign I would have continued to be cheated," he said.

Vested interests aimed at cornering NREGS benefits have several means of obstructing the assertion of rights. Following PRDTIs campaign in Ratanpura block, Mau district, Bagrangi, 37, a rickshawpuller from Haldharpur village applied for, and obtained a job card and was promptly allotted 10 days of work, in July 2008. But he was not paid the stipulated wage. When he asked he was told that work was given on a measurement basis, so if he wanted wages at Rs 100 per day he would have to wait until the work was measured. If he wanted his wages immediately, he had to take whatever was given to him. Bagrangi made repeated attempts to extract his full wages, but, till August 2008, he had had no success.

Only when people are mobilised and organised can they resist and overcome such injustices. This is what the women of Ratohi in Ratanpura block, Mau district, proved.

Ramawati is a poor woman whose husband is a labourer. In July 2008, she decided she would work alongside her husband on a road being constructed under the NREGS, in order to supplement the family income.

But when she went for work on July 13, the village pradhan allegedly pushed her and shouted that the work was not for women who should be at home doing housework and looking after the children.

Ramawati told the other women in the village about this incident. Five women, all of whom had attended an awareness meeting held by PRDTI, went to the pradhan and demanded written proof that women could not work under the NREGA. Realising that the women were well informed, the pradhan began including the names of women in job cards.

A few days later Ramawati was given work. She worked for 10 days and earned Rs 1,000. From this money she bought two goats that graze nearby as she works.

(This story is based on inputs provided by Vidyasagar Associates)