In the general election this year, India’s Congress Party benefited handsomely from a programme called “NREGA”, which is designed to help needy households in rural areas. Implementation started in 2005. In an interview, development economist K. P. Kannan explained what this programme is about.
[ Interview mit K. P. Kannan ]
What is the basic idea of NREGA?
The basic idea of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 – popularly known as NREGA – is to entitle all households in rural areas to up to 100 days of manual work per year at the stipulated legal minimum wage prevalent in their particular region. Sometimes Indian media also use the term NREGS, with ‘S’ standing for scheme. Both terms mean the same, however. […]
Who are the beneficiaries of NREGA?
The beneficiaries are, mostly, the landless poor in rural areas. These people struggle to find regular employment, so they have to accept whatever work comes by, even if it is at very low wages. There is a high correlation between this group with India’s scheduled castes, who were formerly known as “untouchables”, and scheduled tribes, who were outside mainstream society. However there are also sizeable sections of such workers who belong to the intermediate castes. A positive and important side-effect of NREGA is the improvement of rural infrastructures, a worthy goal in its own right. […]
At the same time there should be legal entitlements to a national minimum wage along with NREGA. Education and skill formation is crucial to enable the working poor to earn an income to take care of their basic needs. Instead of chasing aggregate economic growth, the central government should focus on generating employment that will ensure decent work conditions and fair wages.
I have read that NREGA has helped to stem internal migration, particularly from poverty- and conflict-ridden Bihar. Is that so? Yes, it is indeed the case, going by the reports of both the media and civil-society organisations. Much of rural to urban – or poor state to rich state – migration in India is distress migration. NREGA seems to have helped to reduce such migration, which is yet another proof of just how important it is to create regular employment opportunities in the local economy.
Why is guaranteed employment particularly important in rural areas?
India is, in a sense, a transitional economy. Only around 20 % of income is generated in agriculture. Nonetheless, 57 % of employment is still in agriculture. Rural people depend on agriculture and the primary sector in general. The main problem is that agriculture and other primary activities are mostly, if not entirely, seasonal in character. Employment, however, has to be provided during lean seasons too, which is why employment guarantees matter very much. […]
Questions by Hans Dembowski.
Source: D+C 2009/12 – Tribune – Kannan: Employment guarantees are boosting rural development in India – Development and Cooperation – International Journal. Address : http://www.dandc.eu/articles/162560/index.en.shtml Date Visited: Wed Apr 18 2012 10:07:00 GMT+0200 (CEST)
“Tribal men and women mix freely, but with respect for each other [but] caste Hindu society in India is so convinced of its own superiority that it never stops to consider the nature of social organisation among tribal people. In fact it is one of the signs of the ‘educated’ barbarian of today that he cannot appreciate the qualities of people in any way different from himself – in looks or clothes, customs or rituals.” – Guest Column in India Today >>
Photo: Report on Women’s Rights, p. 15
Equality of Opportunity in matters of Public Employment Constitution Article 15
Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.—(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. (2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to— (a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or (b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public. (3) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children. 2 [(4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.]
Source: pp. 9 & 16, “Women’s Rights in India: An Analytical Study of The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and The Indian Constitution, Legislations, Schemes, Policies & Judgements 2021” by Research Division, National Human Rights Commission, India (www.nhrc.nic.in) | Learn more >> URL: https://www.jorhatjudiciary.gov.in Date Visited: 9 May 2023
“The contribution of [over 200,000] charities—which range from small concerns to vast India-wide networks—to development and the individual lives of millions of poor Indians is incalculable. Activist groups helped India gain independence in 1947 and have since helped restrain the state’s excesses and compensate for its weaknesses.” – Civil society in India >>
“Religion is a personal matter and should not be politicised.” – Invitation by the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan (BJA) – a civil society platform involving organisations from across 15 states – extended to all like-minded citizens “who take pride in our progressive, inclusive civilization and are committed to our constitutional values of fraternity, liberty, equality and justice” | TheWire (2 January 2024) >>
“Doctors in the region [Palakkad district] argue that while the proportion of people with mental illnesses is not unusually high, the problem is a crisis because of their socioeconomic vulnerability.” […] “The non-inclusivity of Adivasis is nothing but racial discrimination. Adivasis were always ruled.” | In-depth analysis (Scroll.in 5 April 2023) >>
“Casteism is the investment in keeping the hierarchy as it is in order to maintain your own ranking, advantage, privilege, or to elevate yourself above others or keep others beneath you. […] For this reason, many people—including those we might see as good and kind people—could be casteist, meaning invested in keeping the hierarchy as it is or content to do nothing to change it, but not racist in the classical sense, not active and openly hateful of this or that group.” | Learn more about the effects of “casteism” on tribal communities >>
Tribal languages are a treasure trove of knowledge about a region’s flora, fauna and medicinal plants
“Tribal languages are a treasure trove of knowledge about a region’s flora, fauna and medicinal plants. Usually, this information is passed from generation to generation. However, when a language declines, that knowledge system is completely gone.” – Ayesha Kidwai (Centre for Linguistics, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) quoted by Abhijit Mohanty in “Seven decades after independence, many tribal languages in India face extinction threat” | Learn more about the work done by the People’s Linguistic Survey of India and endangered languages worldwide >>
“India’s geographic location at the confluence of three major biogeographic zones – i.e. the Indo-Malayan, the Eurasian and the Afro-Tropical – makes it extremely biodiverse in its genes, species and ecosystems. It is one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries (Mittermeier et al. 1997). India can boast of over 8.1% of the world’s biodiversity supported on 2.4% of the earth’s surface. An estimated 47,000 identified plant species represent 11% of the world’s flora.” | Learn more: eBook | Disseminating environment related information to improve peoples’ livelihoods >>
“The notion of ‘mainstreaming’ needs to be challenged not just because Adivasi culture is being crushed, but also because Adivasi values and ways of life offer insights that the ‘mainstream’ needs. If we are to halt the destruction of ecosystems, we need to understand how closely biodiversity and cultural diversity are intertwined. Perhaps it is time to reverse the gaze and begin to learn afresh from Adivasis.” – Felix Padel & Malvika Gupta (The Hindu) | Learn more about the role of tribal communities in fostering biodiversity, ethnobotany and cultural diversity | Success stories | Tribal identity >>
“I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and … toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader worship.” – George Orwell | Learn more: Childhood | Customs | Games and leisure time | Literature – fiction | Storytelling >>
