Government Schemes & Policies

Context:· While West Bengal is currently in the spotlight due to alleged irregularities in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS) implementation, resulting in funds being stopped by the Centre, the National Level Monitoring (NLM) reports available with the Union Ministry of Rural Development show irregularities in implementing the rural job guarantee scheme across several states.

Now the question arises, why do we cover this?

Because UPSC syllabus of GSII has these lines:

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Since MGNREGA is also one of the important schemes of the government, we need to cover it.

So the way we will approach this discussion is:

• Past employment schemes in our country
• Issues with these past wage employment programs:
• Benefits
• Issues with MGNREGA
• Steps taken by the government in trying to resolve the issue:

We are going to cut the details about the feature of the scheme in this discussion because that has already been covered multiple times in our DNS

The extent of India’s poverty can never be overstated

• The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index-2023: India still has more than 230 million people who are poor.
• As per Tendulkar Committee this estimation is around 21.9% of the total population of the country.

And a major contributor towards this is lack of Employment opportunities in our country.  For which the governments have run various schemes from time to time, like:

Past employment schemes in our country

• Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP):
• Jawahar Rozgar Yojana/Jawahar Gram Samriddhi Yojana:
• Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY)

But these schemes were not very successful as they faced following Issues

Funds                                 

• Funds were not fully utilized
• Untimely release
• Inability of the states to raise the matching contributions

Lack of planning

• Very low coverage area (less than 5% villages across country)
• Allocation was disproportionately tilted towards capital acquisition
• Serious flaws in project selection which had adverse impact on usability of the asset.

Lack of people’s participation

• No involvement of people in planning and implementation
• Limited role of Panchayats
  • Only minimally involved in implementation but totally out of planning stage 

Lack of inclusive ness

• Participation of women was very low

Hence a need was felt for a total reform in the way we look at the employment schemes

Then came MGNREGA

It marked a paradigm shift

• Provides assured employment for hundred days to rural household.
• Uniqueness
  • Focus on the word “GUARANTEE”
  • This was the first time that employment was legally recognized as a right

Benefits:                          

1. Poverty and Unemployment Reduction:

a. Obviou

Direct payment

b. Not obvious

In many states, up to half of the MGNREGA income was spent on food, which improved health and nutrition — a critical factor in a country plagued by malnutrition.

• Increase in agricultural wages and enhanced bargaining power of the rural poor.

2. Vulnerable section upliftment

a. Women Empowerment/ Gender bias in wage removed:

MGNREGA has been a critical source of income for female-headed households, providing as much as 15 percent of the household income in some states.

b. Backward classes

Since only the most needy sought work under this Act, it was an accurate self-targeting scheme, with a major proportion of the beneficiaries — much higher than their percentage in the general population — belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and other marginalized communities.

3. Migration reduction

There has been a drastic reduction in DISTRESS migration post MGNREGA from rural areas.

4. Asset creation benefits (Benefits for Economy)

Scheme has boosted agricultural productivity through development of wasteland/fallow land, and construction of post-harvest storage facilities and work sheds.

Additionally, the studies have revealed a significant reduction in water vulnerability index, agriculture vulnerability and livelihood vulnerability.

MGNREGA has also had a multiplier effect on the rural economy, with the additional purchasing power generated from it spent on items produced in the rural economy

The studies reveal that, far from being a wasteful expenditure, the works under the MGNREGA have helped create rural assets and infrastructure, ranging from anganwadis, toilets for individual households, crematoria, cyclone shelters, and playgrounds for children, to drought-proofing, flood protection and control, water conservation and harvesting, and rural road connectivity.

Hence it was meant to not only enhance the income of the people in short term by providing employment, but it also intended to create durable assets.

Issues with MGNREGA (ARC)

Shift towards universalization and entitlements

• Guaranteeing reach
  • Becomes difficult because of legal guarantee and seasonality of unemployment (explain agro cycle)
  • This becomes even more difficult because there is no selection criterion of beneficiaries (only BPL)

• Hence successful implementation requires understanding of
  • region specific labour demand
  • seasonal variation in labour demand
  • This has been lacking
• Guaranteeing outcome
  • Two outcomes are expected from MGNREGA
    • Sustainable livelihood for poor
    • Creation of durable assets
• Ensuring Convergence
  • Multiple flagships run parallelly which have almost the similar target group and aim
    • For Example: PMAY asset + Employment
  • This creates duplicity of efforts
  • There is a need for a holistic integrated development plan at the local level.

Funding by the union and execution by the state government

• Fund flow
  • The implementation of MGNREGA is mainly done on the funds transfers from the center which requires a great deal of two way communication from local level (demand flow) to centre (fund flow)
• Conflict 
  • Since the funding agency and executing agencies are different, this leads blurring of accountability.
  • There is a need to delineate the accountability through institutional mechanism. 

Centrality of local governments

• Panchayati Raj Institutions have been given the responsibility of
  • planning
  • implementation
  • Social auditing
• However, given the track record and capacity levels of the PRIs across the county, there is a need for capacity building.

Administrative and Intuitional arrangements

• Leakages
  • Have become a common feature in MGNREGA
  • There have been large scale association of contractors and fabrication of muster rolls.

• Transparency
  • In most cases there is lack of transparency in the way
    • Beneficiaries are identified
    • Identification of work
    • Preparation of estimates
  • There is also lack of community participation in any stage which perpetuates the opacity.

Issues related to wages

Two different rates and their clash:

• While the minimum wages are fixed by the states, NREGA wages are fixed by Central Government; this creates a conflict because these wages are below minimum wages in many states.
• So, states demand that central government should fix the wages above their minimum wages. But since, any such increase would put financial pressure on the centre; this has become a centre-state tussle for last few years.

Wrong Anchor

• The Centre has linked the wage rates to CPI-Agri Labour. However, it is thought that this index does not provide a comprehensive picture of inflation in rural areas.

Delay in wage payments

• Supreme Court has slammed the government many times for not giving compensation to workers for delayed payment of wages under MGNREGA even during the current drought.

Reduces the availability of agricultural and industrial labour

• The MGNREGA has altered the power balance between the landless poor and their employers (agricultural landlords, labour contractors), making it less loaded in favour of the latter; two, by raising rural incomes, it has decreased distress migration to the cities, thereby reducing the numbers of the reserve army of labour, and increasing the cost of labour.
  • For ex: Prevented migration of cheap agricultural labour to Punjab, Haryana and thus, inflation in agricultural produce. Shortage of construction workers in metro cities.

Quality of assets:

• the assets created by MGNREGA works are of poor quality; that the money would be better spent on skill-development; that promoting economic growth and private investment is the only way to battle rural poverty, etc.
• Most of the assets made are not durable and thus donot reflect properly on our GDP growth.

Social audits not being conducted.

• CAG submitted report on MGNREGS Social Audit Rules, 2011, according to which: 
  • Only 51% of the gram panchayats were covered for social audit across the 25 states.

Steps taken by the government in trying to resolve the issue:

• Transparency in Implementation
  • Management Information system
  • Social Audit
  • Dist. Level ombudsman
  • Transparency in execution of work (uploading three photographs)
  • Proactive disclosure

Initiatives of the Government to strengthen the implementation:

• Professional staff at gram panchayat level
• MGNREGA audits of scheme rules

Focus on IAP districts

• To lay special focus on backward areas.
• Addition of 30 new works (Watershed, Irrigation and Flood management works, Agricultural and Livestock related works, Fisheries, Rural Drinking water and Sanitation related works)
• NREGAsoft:
  • Link the scheme with Skill India to prevent recurring of MNREGA activities in same areas.
  • Allow migration for people and MNREGA benefits can be linked all across India using Aadhar
• Geo Tagging
  • Geo-tagging can help track the location and development status of, say, a pond or a bridge, funded by MGNREGA and located in any of India’s 6 lakh villages. 

Context: Despite demands from many states, scheduled tribal populations of India have been left out of fifth schedule’s protection awaiting approval from the Indian government. 

Under Fifth schedule the constitution of India provides that “in this Constitution, the expression “Scheduled Areas” means such areas as the President may by order declare to be Scheduled Areas.”    

These areas are primarily inhabited by Scheduled Tribes in any State other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram, which are indigenous or tribal communities. These areas are subject to special constitutional provisions and safeguards to promote the welfare and advancement of the Scheduled Tribes living in these regions. 

Key features of Scheduled Areas Under Fifth Schedule  

Tribal Advisory Council

• Each state with Scheduled Areas must establish a Tribes Advisory Council, consisting of not more than twenty members of whom, as nearly as may be, three-fourths shall be the representatives of the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly of the State. 
• This council advises the Governor on matters related to the welfare and development of Scheduled Tribes in the state. 

Regulations

• The Governor of the state has the authority to make regulations specific to Scheduled Areas.  
• These regulations can include restrictions on land transfer, land allotment, and the regulation of money-lending practices, among other aspects, to protect the interests of Scheduled Tribes. 

Laws and Their Application

• The Governor can issue notifications exempting or modifying the application of certain laws passed by Parliament or the State Legislature in Scheduled Areas.  
• Additionally, the President has the authority to declare, modify, or rescind Scheduled Areas. 

Amendment

• The Fifth Schedule itself can be amended by the Indian Parliament, but such amendments do not require the special amending procedure outlined in Article 368 of the Indian Constitution. 

Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996

• PESA empowered the gram sabhas to exercise substantial authority through direct democracy and stated that structures “at the higher level do not assume the powers and authority” of the gram sabha. 

Criteria For Declaration of a Scheduled Area  

Neither the Constitution nor any law provides any criteria to identify Scheduled Areas. The Supreme court in a judgement held that the identification of Scheduled Areas is an executive function, and it lacks the expertise to scrutinise the empirical basis of the same. 

But based on the 1961 Dhebar Commission Report, the following are the guiding norms for their declaration: 

• Preponderance of tribal population. 
• Compactness and reasonable size of the area. 
• A viable administrative entity such as a district, block or taluk. 
• Economic backwardness of the area relative to neighbouring areas. 

Declaration of a Schedule Area 

The process of designating an area as a Scheduled Area in India involves a series of steps.  

Consultation with State Governments	Before issuing the Presidential Order, the President usually consults with the concerned State Government.  This consultation is aimed at considering the views and recommendations of the state government regarding the proposed designation of the area as a Scheduled Area.
Presidential Order	The initiation of the process typically begins with a Presidential Order.  The President of India can, by issuing an order, declare that a specific geographical area or region is to be designated as a Scheduled Area.  This initial order specifies the boundaries and details of the Scheduled Area.
Parliamentary Approval	After the Presidential Order is issued, it needs to be approved by the Parliament of India.  The order is typically laid before both houses of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) for discussion and approval.  This step ensures that there is legislative scrutiny and debate regarding the designation.
Amendment	If Parliament approves the Presidential Order, it becomes part of the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.  Any changes to the Fifth Schedule, including the addition or alteration of Scheduled Areas, require a majority vote in Parliament but do not require the special amending procedure outlined in Article 368 of the Indian Constitution.
Notification	Once the area is designated as a Scheduled Area under the Fifth Schedule, the government issues a notification specifying the boundaries and details of the Scheduled Area.  This notification is essential for the implementation of special provisions and regulations in that area.

After that the administration of the Scheduled Area is regulated as per the provisions of the Fifth Schedule. The Governor of the state in which the Scheduled Area is located plays a significant role in its governance, and a Tribes Advisory Council is often established to advise on matters related to the welfare and development of Scheduled Tribes in the area. 

Facts about the Scheduled Areas  

• India has 705 Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities, comprising 8.6% of the country's population. They are spread across 26 states and six Union Territories. 
• Scheduled Areas cover 11.3% of India's land area and are notified in 10 states: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Himachal Pradesh. Kerala has proposed to notify more areas, pending approval. 

Challenges Faced by Scheduled Areas 

• Land Alienation: Land disputes, inadequate implementation of land reform policies, are persistent issues in scheduled areas. Due to lack of awareness about land rights communities often struggle to assert their land rights depriving them of their traditional means of livelihood. 
• Inadequate Implementation of Laws: Due to bureaucratic hurdles, corruption, and lack of awareness there is an ineffective implementation of laws and provisions that protect the rights and interests of tribal communities. 
• Lack of Political Representation: Despite reserved seats in legislative bodies, tribal communities often face challenges in electing representatives who genuinely advocate for their interests leading to lack of voice in decision making. 
• Naxalism and Conflict: Some Scheduled Areas are affected by left-wing extremism or Naxalism, which disrupts governance, development, and security. These areas face a unique set of challenges related to insurgency and counterinsurgency operations. 

Recommendation of Xaxa Committee on Schedule Areas 

The Xaxa Committee, officially known as the "High-Level Committee on Socio-economic, Health, and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India," was constituted to examine the status of tribal communities in India, particularly in Scheduled Areas.  

Land Rights and Livelihoods 

• Ensure the effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act and Land Acquisition Act to protect tribal land rights. 
• Recognize and protect the rights of tribal communities over minor forest produce and traditional occupations. 
• Promote sustainable and community-based livelihood options such as agroforestry and non-timber forest produce collection. 

Governance and Participation 

• Strengthen the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in Scheduled Areas and ensure that they have adequate resources and decision-making powers. 
• Promote tribal participation in local governance and decision-making processes. 
• Establish effective mechanisms for the implementation of tribal welfare schemes and monitor their progress. 

Legal and Land Reforms 

• Undertake land and tenancy reforms to protect tribal land rights and prevent land alienation. 
• Review and repeal laws that are detrimental to tribal interests. 
• Provide legal aid and support to tribal communities in land-related disputes. 

Women's Empowerment 

• Promote the participation of tribal women in decision-making processes at all levels. 
• Implement programs to address issues of gender-based violence and discrimination in tribal areas.