November 2007 Edition

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Rakesh Agrawal
Lakhimpur Khiri (UP)

HUNDREDS of villages in the district of Lakhimpur Khiri in the Terai region of Uttar Pradesh lack schools, health care, roads and electricity. In fact, the entire district seems to have fallen off the map. This region was included in the initial phase of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in February 2006. But people found that work was given to those who knew the village power structure. The majority of them were left out. Then, out of 100 days of mandatory employment hardly 25 days of menial work were provided. Very few women and physically challenged persons got jobs, although under NREGA a minimum percentage of jobs is reserved for them. This might have been another sad story of business as usual. Except that some people decided to change things.

The Roji Roti Samiti (RRS), a community-based organisation that has been working in 81 villages with a population of more than a lakh since July 2005, decided to mobilise people under its banner.“We united villagers and spread awareness about the Act so that people could demand jobs and get them,” said Vinod Kumar, founder, RRS. The RRS has been promoted by AIM, a Lucknow-based NGO, to strengthen the community in its fight for rights. It has played a key role in facilitating work in this backward region. The RRS launched an interface between the district magistrate of Khiri and the villagers of Mitauli Block. A detailed plan to bring five villages under the employment generation scheme was submitted.

Then unions of all eligible labourers were formed in each of the 81 villages. These were called Job Card Dharak Sangh ( JCDS). “We do not just force our pradhan to give us jobs, but we also insist he makes more cards,” says Chameli Devi, 43, an active JDS member of Khamaria village. These unions built pressure on the pradhans and officials by staging dharnas, taking out demonstrations and issuing memos. They made an impact. Radhe Shyam, 38, of Khamaria village, is the most telling example. He lost both his big toes to an incurable disease three years ago. Now this physically challenged man eats two square meals a day, thanks to a job that he got under NREGA.“ The pradhan gave me 25 days work under the scheme last May when this one km long khadanja (a brick laden path linking the village to an all-weather road) was being built after the RRS persuaded him to do so,” says a grateful Shyam. His physical condition was given due attention. All he had to do was to sit and supervise work. This year, too, a pond was dug in the village under the scheme and he again supervised work for 25 days.

The villages in this block house some Dalit families and Kurmis (who fall under the OBC category). The spillover effect of the scheme is the unity that JCDS has brought to various castes. Most Dalits had to work as daily wage labourers on the fields of Kurmis at abysmally low wages that were seldom over Rs 30 a day. Since the employment guarantee scheme guarantees a minimum daily wage of Rs 58, (it has been raised to Rs 80), these labourers refused to work at lower wages. “Now, the Kurmis are forced to give us higher wages. Although, it isn’t Rs 80 yet, we’re getting Rs 50 a day,” says Shushil Kumar, 34, another active member of JCDS. The RRS has been creating awareness of NREGA since June 2006. “We took out a week-long Rozgar Haq Yatra (Campaign for the Right to Employment) that month. More than 50 people travelled from the block headquarters at Mitauli and visited all villages, informing them about the Act and what people need to do to get jobs,” says Niraja Rawat, a committed RRS worker.

A dharna was staged at Lakhimpur, the district headquarters. Its impact was soon visible as the chief development officer, responsiblefor the implementation of the Act, ordered money allegedly siphoned, to be paid back to the village account. At many places the RRS activists caught officials red-handed. For instance, in Bhudkuda village people were paying Rs 10 to get their job cards. “It was a god send opportunity as we not only got work for the entire month, we also got back the money we paid for the job card,” says Maina Devi, an active member of the village JCDS. Since then, people have been forcing pradhans and officials to implement NREGA honestly and efficiently in other villages too. Efforts are on to package the strategy. This is necessary to present a united front to fight powerful officialsand pradhans and the implementing agencies. All village JCDS will be united at the panchayat level. Every JCDS will select three representatives who will form a wider platform. This will eventually be extended to block and district levels.

 

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