The UPA government is planning to amend the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to redefine the beneficiaries under the Act.
At present, the Act provides 100 days of work per household. The idea is to substitute the word ‘household’ with ‘nuclear family’ so that more families within a household would be eligible for a job card.
Under the law, a widow or a married son in the household is not eligible for an extra job card as the entire household gets only one card, entitling 100 days of work.
In April this year, the government had set up an expert group to amend the NREG Act to incorporate a new definition of the ‘household’ in the Act.
The report of the group was given to the law ministry, which sent it back saying the definition of ‘household’ should be according to the NREG Act. The Act says 100 days of work be given to every household.
The guidelines clarify that the word ‘household’ would mean a nuclear family, even single member families and any dependents.
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Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh brushes aside the developments saying there is no urgency for it as state governments are not yet demanding this. He said he had been sending clarifications to states saying all nuclear families were entitled to job cards.
| RURAL EMPOWERMENT | ||||
| Year | No of districts covered | Households (in million) | Expenditure (Rs crore) | Coverage |
| 2006-07 | 200 | 21 | 8,823.35 | 43 days/card |
| 2007-08 | 310 | 33.9 | 15,856.89 | 42 days |
| 2008-09 | 600 | 21.1* | ||
7,439.82^
| Projection by BS | |||
| Two job cards per household | 100 | 32,000 | 43 days/card |
| *(till June) (5 crore expected) ^(up to June) (outlay 16,000 crore) | |||
The scheme spent Rs 15,857 crore last year, and has at its disposal the same amount this year. It has provided employment to 21 million households in 2006-07, 33.9 million in the following year, and 21.1 million (till June) this year.
The minister hopes the figure will touch 60 million by March. He says the demand for amendment in the Act has been strong and the expert group is set up to pacify them.
Those pushing for the amendment say a redefinition of the household to enable multiple job cards within a household would not have the costs shooting up.
Since the number of persons getting 100 days has been very low (it was just 42 per cent last year), the increase in cards would not really have too much of an impact. Besides, the idea is to put money in the hands of the people and to increase their purchasing power, say officials in the Planning Commission, which has been keen on the change.
Magsaysay prize winner Aruna Roy, who led the struggle for the legislation, says there is no need to amend the law and it is implicit in the Act that every nuclear family can ask for 100 days of work.
A mother, father and dependent children get a card and if there are adult sons and daughters who are needy they will get a card too, she says.
However, households seldom get more than one job card and what is implicit in the law is too vague to be clear. Says Manoj Rai of Participatory Research In Asia: “The Act says 100 days for every household. And that is how it is when implemented.’’
Economist Jean Dreze, who is also a member of the National Employment Council (NEC), says the Act gives a convoluted definition of who is eligible. The guidelines say a nuclear family is eligible but people go by the Act, and hence households get a card each. The guidelines say each ‘nuclear family’ is entitled to a separate job card, while the Act talks only of the household.
The NEC had decided that the two would be reconciled on the basis of the nuclear-family definition but this hasn’t been done yet, says Dreze.
Who gets 100 days of work?
What the Act says: An Act to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
What the guidelines say: “The entitlement of 100 days of guaranteed employment in a financial year is in terms of a household.” But it specifically says that a ‘household’ will mean a nuclear family comprising mother, father, and their children, and may include any person wholly or substantially dependent on the head of the family.