How is NREGA doing?

(200 districts, 2006-7)

Jean Drèze and Christian Oldiges

 NREGA: Fundamental Principles

Employment on demand.
Legal right.
Universal entitlement.
Participatory approach.
Accountability to PRIs.
Full transparency.
 NREGA: Basic Entitlements

Employment within 15 days of application.

Unemployment allowance.
Work within 5 kilometres.
Minimum wages.
Payment within 15 days.
No gender discrimination.
Basic worksite facilities.
 NREGA: Employment Generation, 2006-7

Total: 90 crore person-days

Per job card: 24 person-days

Per rural household: 17 person-days

Minimum “requirement”:a 200 crore person-days

a NAC estimate, 2004.

NREGA Expenditure, 2006-7
Total: Rs. 8,813 crores

Per district: Rs. 44.06 crores

Estimated requirement for 200 districts: Rs. 20,000 crores

Budget allocation for 2007-8 (330 districts): Rs. 13,000 crores

Number of NREGA works, 2006-7
Taken up: 8.3 lakh

Completed: 3.8 lakh

In progress: 4.5 lakh

Approximate number of
villages in NREGA districts: 2 lakh
NREGA Employment, 2006-7:
Person-days per rural household
Rajasthan 77 Uttar Pradesh 11
Assam 70 Andhra Pradesh 10
Madhya Pradesh 56 Haryana 9
North-Easta 45 Tamil Nadu 9
Chhattisgarh 34 Bihar 8
Orissa 21 Gujarat 7
Himachal Pradesh 20 Punjab 7
Uttarakhand 20 West Bengal 6
Karnataka 17 Maharashtra 4
Jharkhand 14 Kerala 3
Jammu & Kashmir 13 INDIA 17
a
Except Assam (approximate figure, based on incomplete data).
Person-days per rural household
Share of Disadvantaged Groups in
NREGA Employment
Women: 40%

Scheduled Tribes (ST): 36%

Scheduled Castes (SC): 26%

SC/ST Combined: 62%

 Share of Women in NREGA
Employment
National average: 40%

Highest shares: Tamil Nadu 81%

Rajasthan 67%
Kerala 66%
Andhra Pradesh 55%

Lowest shares: Bihar 17%

Uttar Pradesh 17%
Himachal Pradesh 12%
Jammu & Kashmir 4%
Share of Women in NREGA Employment
 Average Expenditure and Labour Costs

Average Expenditure per Person-Day Rs. 98

Share of Wages in Total Expenditurea 66%

Average Wage Cost per Person-Daya Rs. 64

Unskilled labour only.

a
 Average Wage Cost per Person-Day
Kerala 121 Jammu & Kashmir 69
Maharashtra 104 Assam 67
Haryana 97 Karnataka 67
Punjab 94 North-Easta 63
Andhra Pradesh 86 Chhattisgarh 63
Jharkhand 80 Madhya Pradesh 59
Tamil Nadu 80 Uttar Pradesh 56
Uttarakhand 72 Gujarat 56
Bihar 70 Orissa 53
West Bengal 70 Rajasthan 51
Himachal Pradesh 69 INDIA 64

a
Except Assam (approximate figure, based on incomplete data).
 NREGA: Employment and Wages, 2006-7

140

120
Wage rate (Rs/day)

100

80

60

40

20

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Person-days of work per rural household

 CDE-IHD Survey, 2007
A field survey of NREGA was recently conducted by the
Centre for Development Economics (CDE) and the Institute of
Human Development (IHD), with students from Delhi
University and Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Date: May-June 2007

Survey Districts: Ranchi (Jharkhand)
Surguja (Chhattisgarh)
Number of Gram Panchayats: 23
Number of worksites: 47
 Surguja: Positive Findings
Most families have a Most of the works
job card. are productive.
Awareness levels Corruption levels
have improved. have gone down.
Employment on a Where there is work,
massive scale. NREGA is a lifeline
Minimum wages are for the rural poor.
being paid. Massive progress
Contractors have compared with
disappeared. earlier years!
 Surguja: Areas of Concern
Work is not “demand-driven”.
Long delays in wage payments.
Shortage of staff at all levels.
Poor worksite facilities (e.g. creches).
Violations of the transparency safeguards.
Corruption persists.
 Survey Findings: Application Process
Were most labourers at this worksite employed in
response to an application for work?

Ranchi Surguja
Yes 4% 11%

No 96% 89%
 Survey Findings: Wage Payments
Proportion (%) of worksites where:
Ranchi Surguja
Most labourers earned
the minimum wage n/a 84

Wages were paid in front

of the labourersa 54 79

Wages were paid within 15 days 32 16

Labourers had complaints

about wage payments 71 90
a Excluding payments through Banks
 Survey Findings: Worksite Facilities
Proportion (%) of worksites with the following facilities:

Ranchi Surguja

Drinking water 64 100

Shade for periods of resta 68 (16)

“Medicine kit”68 59

Crèche 4 11

a Not including natural shade.

Survey Findings:Vigilance Committees

Proportion (%) of worksites with:

Ranchi Surguja

Vigilance committee 89 84

Active vigilance committee 11 21

Survey Findings:Estimated “Leakages”
Earlier surveys:

Dungarpur, April 2006: (negligible)

Garhwa, October 2006: 85%

CDE-IHD survey:

Ranchi 33%
Surgujaa 5%

a Gram Panchayat works.

The Future of NREGA: Critical Issues
Activating the work application process.
Implementation of transparency safeguards
Timely wage payments.
Need for a wage policy.
Women’s participation.
Redressal systems!
NREGA and Party Politics
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