Impact of Mgnrega on the Socio

© 2019 IJRAR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 2 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) IMPACT OF MGNREGA ON THE SOCIO- ECONOMIC STATUS OF TEA GARDEN VILLAGE:A STUDY OF TEA GARDEN VILLAGE OF KALCHINI GRAM PANCHAYAT IN KALCHINI BLOCK OF ALIPURDUAR DISTRICT

Bobby Lama, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Alipurduar College, P.O: Alipurduar Court-736122, Dist: Alipurduar (West Bengal), India

Abstract: The inclusion of tea garden villages within the purview of Panchayat Raj Institution in 1998 followed by the implementation of MGNREGA in 2006 has given the native tea garden people a smile on their face. A number of development programs and welfare schemes have been launched, and a large number of women have participated, and were benefitted by the MGNREG schemes. Restricted, but gradually the developments are percolating in to the village, despite closure of the tea garden for over a decade. In the absence of alternate source of income, both (PRI & MGNREGA) have played a vital role in helping the people to sustain livelihood during difficult times. Although not much progress could be visualized, the quality of life of the people seems gaining momentum in its own pace. The present research paper highlights the socio-economic status, and tries to analyze the impact of MGNREGA in the socio-economic up-liftment of tea garden village. The study has focused especially on the impact of MGNREGA on the socio-economic condition, knowledge & awareness about MGNREGA, and the difficulties faced by them in the participation of MGNREG Schemes. Finally, it is suggested that a sincere and honest effort must be made by the concerned agencies for a successful implementation of MGNREGA in this part of the country. Key words: MGNREGA, Socio-economic, Tea garden village.

1.0 Introduction

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), 2005 or Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a kind of wage employment program designed and implemented to fight poverty in backward and rural areas of the country. With its legal framework and right-based approach, MGNREGA provides employment to those who demand it, and it is governed by the following characters:

- To enhance livelihood security through the provision of minimum 100 days of wage employment to every rural household who wish to work and ask for un-skilled manual jobs. - To create sustainable rural livelihood through regeneration of the natural resource base i.e. augmenting productivity and creating durable assets. - A standby wage employment to vulnerable people when regular source of income or other alternate employments dies down or become inadequate. - Empowerment of rural poor through the processes of a rights-based law. - Strengthening rural governance through decentralization and the process of transparency and accountability. - Provides unemployment allowances in case of non-allotment of employment.

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© 2019 IJRAR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 2 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) The right-based framework of the program makes the government legally bound to provide employment to those who demand it. The study revealed that the launching of MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) in 2005 have given the women in the village a great relief by providing substantial income to every households. The data shows the increasing number of women participation, the increasing person day’s employment per household, and the average wage per person day. Hence, MGNREGA is considered to be a potential force that can transform the backward & rural economy.

1.1 Problems: Tea has been the bedrock of the district economy for more than 150 years. However, since the beginning of this century, there has been a trend in closure of some of the tea gardens in this district. The reasons may be attributed to fall in the international tea prices, and production of poor quality of tea because of aged tea bushes, poor management, and manufacturing technique. Many tea gardens had been locked out or abandoned by the management leaving unpaid salaries and no alternate employment. As a result, thousands of tea garden workers along with their family members were severely affected. There was acute food scarcity, malnutrition, and starvation all over the closed tea gardens. Thus, a high number of deaths occurred due to inadequate food and malnutrition. As per government data, between 1 January 2006 and 31 March 2007, the number of deaths in the North Bengal tea gardens recorded was 571. Out of which 254 were female and 62 were children less than 10 years of age. And, as per unofficial estimates, the total number of deaths during the year 2006-2009 was 2500. The important point to note here is that the cause of death was not due to catastrophic famine or drought, but it was due to the owners of tea gardens who had come into the market to make a quick profit and suddenly abandoned the plantations when times got a little tougher. Several studies have established that poverty was the main cause for such a high number of deaths in the tea gardens of this district. The sample village is therefore not an exception. It has witnessed a number of deaths during the crisis. The tea garden employs over 1300 workers and had undergone closures at least twice in the history of its inception. For the first time the workers got a jerk in the month of October, 1981 when the tea garden was closed for a month. Thereafter, the tea garden went on steadily for quite a long period until the beginning of the year 2000 when the tea garden was suddenly locked out. Since then, the workers and their family members had to undergo the most turbulent phase of their lives. As a result, the socio-economic and human right conditions of the people deteriorated drastically and reached to such an extent that the people started dying of starvation. Deaths record according to plantation dispensary is shown in the table-A. Further, the condition also induced large scale migration, and women & adolescent girl child trafficking. Many youths left the village for work to various places in the country; and many crossed the border into Bhutan to work for a pittance at local construction sites. The most vulnerable among the people were women and children. It was found that many women and adolescent girl child went missing from the village during the recession never to return back. However, majority of them remained in the village waiting for better times, and hoping that ill-fate won’t strike their families. During the crisis, the state government did step in with food and medical aid, but the workers only received less than half the quantity of food they required as many government subsidies were creamed off by corrupt local officials. In fact, the people had to experience outright neglect and callousness. Fact – Finding Report of Centre for Education and Communication (CEC), New Delhi and United Trades Union Congress pointed out that- the Women Workers were the most Sufferers. As the main wage earner of the household the women workers were under tremendous pressure. They were restricted by a lack of skills from joining other income earning activities, and unfavorable conditions for migrating long distances in search of alternate opportunities of work. Many women workers died due to malnutrition and pregnancy related complications during the crisis. The tea garden re-opened on the 23rd of October, 2010 and ever since, the hope of women for brighter days has rekindled. Behind this backdrop, the present study tries to un-fold the impact of MGNREGA in reducing and improving the socio-economic conditions of the laborers in the sample village, and attempts to highlight the difficulties being faced by them in the participation of MGNREGS works.

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Year 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Raimatang Tea Garden 53 41 30 43 63 73

1.2 Main objectives of the study: Following are the main objectives:

1. To assess the impact of MGNREGA on the socio-economic condition of respondents in a tea garden village. 2. To assess the level of awareness about MGNREGA. 3. To study the level of participation in MGNREGS. 4. To study the difficulties faced by them 5. To suggest measures for the attainment of successful implementation of MGNREGA in the tea garden villages.

1.3 Methodology

This paper is based on both primary and secondary sources. Primary data has been collected by direct contact method. A pre- structured questionnaire was administered by way of interview to the selected laborers in the six wards of Kalchini Gram Panchayat, Alipurduar. The selection of respondents was made through random sampling. About 182 laborers were interviewed and information on their knowledge, experiences and views about the MGNREGA were collected. Besides, interviews and discussions, observation of the implementation of MGNREGS were also made. It was done by personally visiting the work sites and residences of the respondent laborers of the village. The schedule for selected respondents had been regarded as the main tool in gathering their responses regarding various aspects covered by this study. Secondary data has been obtained from the magazines, news paper, books, journals, thesis and other Government publications.

1.4 Survey Area: The study has been carried out in the four wards of Kalchini Gram Panchayat, in the district of Alipurduar. With a house hold of 50231 and 26205 BPL families, Kalchini block stands at the highest poverty level in the district. The survey area is located north east of Kalchini Railway Station at a distance of 2 km. The village is considered to be the most backward in the block in terms of socio-economic and human right conditions. The name of the village is “RAIMATANG TEA GARDEN” and falls under Kalchini Gram Panchayat.

2.0 Findings and Analysis

a. In order to assess the socio-economic condition of the sample tea garden village, about 182 laborers were randomly selected from the four different wards of the Gram Panchayat. About 93.47 percent of them were job card holders (Table-8) , and had undergone through the most fatal man made calamity in recent times. Most of them in the village were associated with MGNREGS for a subsistence income, and were working hard for their betterment. From the visits to their houses, an encouraging change in the living condition was observed, but the ground reality did not indicate much impact of MGNREGS on the other aspects of socio-economic condition as envisaged. The demand for employment was very high and the corresponding generation of employment was very less in the village. The performance report of the concerned Gram Panchayat reveals the average employment per house hold at 34 days, and the number of households completing 100 days of work in the block at 327 (Block wise Performance Report, 2012-13). Thus, they could only hope that MGNREGS would one day help them tide over their difficulties and enhance their socio-economic condition. The trend in their participation to MGNREGS has been found in the following pattern. The caste-wise distribution of selected households implied that Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes participated more in the MGNREG works, whereas general and Scheduled Castes participated less because of the unskilled manual works, and most importantly the population distribution structure of the village. The backward ethnic groups participated more in the MGNREG works due to their deplorable conditions. The data from table-1 showed that scheduled tribes constituted the largest share (57.70%), followed by OBCs (29.67%), scheduled caste (7.15%) and general caste (5.50%). But, when we consider the block wise performance report of Kalchini 2012-13, it makes one wonder how there could be such a grave mistake. The IJRAR19K1006 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 42

© 2019 IJRAR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 2 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) predominant tribal population of the tea garden and rural areas were denied job cards by 40.40 percent in 2012-13 thus, reducing their participation by as much as 39.21 percent (Table-9). The SCs were issued job cards 37.30 percent less than the succeeding year bringing down their participation by at least 42.86 percent. However, the participation of women in sample Gram Panchayat went up by 2.22 percent. The study found that the socio-economic condition of the sample village attracts more attention from the government and the successful implementation of the MGNREGA in the area requires honest political will.

Caste wise distribution of the respondents Gross Income

Caste Number Percentage Income Monthly + MGNREGS Per Annum

SC 13 7.15 Average 2941.66+385.33=3327 39924

ST 105 57.70

Table-7 OBC 54 29.67

GEN 10 5.50

Table-1

b. During the shut-down era, many families of the tea garden village got fragmented on account of their pathetic socio- economic condition. The larger family size required large income to support, and therefore, as a measure to get relief from shouldering the family burden, many families were fragmented in to small family sizes. From the table-2 below, it is apparent that 74.17 percent of the respondents belonged to nuclear family and 25.83 percent of them belonged to joint family. The traditional concept of joint households appeared to be diminishing in the village. Besides, due to MGNREGA’s one household one Job card policy, many of the members of joint families registered themselves as individual households. Hence, the average size of households has been surveyed at 4.2 members per family.

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Cumulative No of HH issued Job Cards Participation

employment

ST SC

Women

Expenditure Incurred (Lakhs) SC ST Others

Year

Block

Average employmentperhouse hold (days)

Cumulative No. HH of demandedprovided &

37737

2012

Kalchini 8537 31469 19521 14 51 45 37737 28 1972.00

2011

43866

2013

Kalchini 5352 18762 35293 8 31 46 43857 34 2513.59

2012

Percentage +16.24 Increased (+) / Decreased (-) -37.30 -40.40 +80.80 -42.86 - 39.21 +2.22 +16.21 +21.42 +27.50

Table-9

(Source-Annual Performance Report)

c. It was astonishing to note how the people were denied their basic right to education (Table-3 & Table-4). At least 72.6 percent of the respondents falling below the age of 40 had been found to be deprived of education during the recession in tea industry. They belonged to their prime age of schooling when the tea garden closed down. The study finds out that 46.70 percent of the respondents were illiterate, 30.80 per cent had education up to primary level, 14.84 percent of them were under-metric and only 7.75 per cent of them had education up to secondary level or more (Table-3). Hence, the level of education of people in this village can be concluded as still low.

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Family Type Average

60+ family

Total Adult

Children

Toddlers

Teenagers member

Nuclear Joint 43 114 112 475 15 759 4.20

135 47

74.17 % 25.83 %

Table-2

Education & Age wise Distribution of the respondents

Level of education Number Percentage Age Number Percentage

Illiterate 85 46.70 18-30 61 33.51

Primary 56 30.80 31-40 71 39.09

Under-matric 27 14.84 41-50 36 19.78

Under Higher Secondary 11 6.05 51-60 12 6.50

Higher Secondary 01 0.60 61 & above 02 1.09

Graduate 02 1.10

Table-4 Table-3

d. Occupation: The study has observed that about 34.61 percent of respondents and nearly 41.76 percent of their spouses worked in the tea plantation, and the rest did not work in the tea garden and were jobless. They were all landless and had no subsistence farming in the village. Nearly 51.64 percent of the respondents were single earners of the household with their spouse either jobless or dead or separated or not eager to work in the tea gardens. The important point to be noted is that, for all the respondents MGNREGS was a subsidiary occupation, and those taking part in the programs were the real needy and vulnerable people of the village. Details of the occupation of the respondents and their spouses are given in Table-5 & Table-6. The study reveals that, due to large number of unemployment there is a greater urge for their participation in MGNREGS work.

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© 2019 IJRAR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 2 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) 3. Impact of MGNREGA on Socio-economic Conditions a. The study has found that the income generated by MGNREGS and the daily wage of the tea plantation has increased the annual income of the respondents in the village by at least 12.71 percent (calculated as per the average days of employment per household in the block, see table-9). For instance, the average monthly average income had increased to Rs.3327 and the average annual income to Rs.39924 (table-7). However, the corresponding changes in the monthly average income were believed to be insignificant in the opinion of the respondents. During the survey, about 41.20 percent of the respondents acknowledged that MGNREGS had contributed toward improving the economic health of the house hold to a great deal (table-8), while 52.20 percent of them were of the opinion that MGNREG had made no difference in the socio-economic condition of the house hold because of the difficulties faced by them in availing the MGNREGS. They also argued that they were not in a position to fulfill their basic needs and were not able to save any amount of money from their earnings. Most of them were believed to have saving bank accounts, but were not able to accumulate any savings. Given the high requirement of monthly expenditure on food, health care and children education the meager rise in their income has not made expected impact on the socio-economic condition. Thus, the socio- economic condition of the respondents in the tea garden village, as described by many apparently stands unsatisfactory. The study concludes that, although the success of MGNREGS in the states has been acknowledged from all over the country, an extra effort needs to be provided to make it successful in this part of the country. b. Housing: The housing facility in survey area was found to be un-satisfactory. They lived in a house constructed by the parent Tea Company, or private houses constructed by individual effort, or provided by the Gram Panchayat through Indira Awash Yojana schemes. Houses provided by the company were in a dilapidated condition which was never repaired in lifetime. The study finds out that about 84 houses were old, weak & unrepaired ones, or have been modified, repaired & extended. 41 houses were found to be provided by the Indira Awash Yojana and, 57 of them were private houses built by individual effort. It was observed that there was considerable improvement in the condition of dwelling houses, and the availability of rooms per house hold stood at 2.50. However, nearly 74.20 percent of them reported that the rooms were in-sufficient for their family members to live in. c. Drinking water: Access to safe drinking water in every household has improved in the post shut-down era. It was revealed that supply of water is being carried out by the Gram Panchayat and the tea estate on almost fifty-fifty basis in the village. Most of them walk to the nearest source of water carrying jerkins, buckets & cylinders, and store water at home. Apart from being a strenuous and painful task, they argued that everyone is always in hurry to fill their buckets, which often led to quarrels & fights among family members and neighbors. The individual quarrels sometimes get converted in to family fights creating war like situation in the village the people said. Besides, most of the people have developed the habit of washing clothes, utensils and taking bathe at the source of water due to time limitation and the physical strain to carry water back home. Thus, the water was likely to be contaminated and un-safe for drinking. Almost 58.24 percent of the respondents were not satisfied with the supply of water. It was also observed that only few people (28.60 percent) were enjoying hassle free, and safe drinking water supply through their home connections. d. Sanitary latrine: As far as sanitary latrines are concerned the tradition practice of using open space, kitchen gardens and going behind the bushes & jungles are slowly and gradually fading away due to constructions of latrine rooms by Gram Panchayat, tea garden and individual effort. In the older days, people in the village lived in an un-hygienic condition due non-availability of latrine rooms, but today many of the households have latrine rooms. The only drawback is that the agencies built toilet rooms without septic-tanks and the people used them until the tanks were full. Besides, many of them did not use latrines because of the old habits despite having toilet rooms at home. The study found that about 58.80 percent of them went behind the bush, and 9.34 went to open space while the rest used the latrine rooms for the purpose of toilets.. e. Luxury items: The study has found that the acquirement of luxury items like color television and mobile phone has increased considerably in the village, and there is a significant improvement in the condition of dwelling houses with the availability of average 2.5 rooms per household. The availability of safe drinking water supply, sanitation facility in the household, and luxury items is an indication towards a better living condition and life style.

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Self & Spouse Occupation wise distribution of the respondents

Self Spouse

Occupation Number Percentage Occupation Number Percentage

Tea Garden Labor 063 34.61 Tea Garden Labor 76 41.76

House wives 111 61.00 Un-employed 73 40.10

Petty business 004 2.20 Dead 21 11.54

Government Service 004 2.20 Rickshaw Puller 02 1.10

Waiter 01 0.55

Petty Business 04 2.20

Mason 03 1.65

Table-5 Carpenter 02 1.10

Table-6

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Description Number Percent

Job Card Holders 170 93.47

Received Job Cards within 15 to 30 days of application 010 05.50

Received Job Cards within 31 to 90 days of application 086 47.30

Received Job Cards after 03 months but less than 06 months of the application 057 31.31

Received Job Cards after 01 year of application 018 09.90

Unaware of un-employment allowance 176 96.70

Recipients of 100 days of work in a financial year 000 0000

Indefinite delay in wage payment 171 93.95

Recipients of payment in full 081 44.56

Recipients of payment in half 090 49.45

Never received wage payment in full 090 49.45

Contribution of MNREG toward improving the economic health of the house hold 075 41.20

MNREGA has made no difference in the socio-economic condition of the house hold 095 52.20

Table-8

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© 2019 IJRAR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 2 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) 4. Difficulties faced by the people & suggestions: a. Lack of Awareness: Due to low level of education the respondents had no knowledge of the guidelines of the MGNERGS and their legal entitlements. Some of them did not have the job cards and did not know how, where and whom to demand work. The study found out that most of the respondents were at the mercy of the implementing agencies. As a result of which, corruption at various levels had been encouraged. It is suggested that some training or workshops may be organized to improve the awareness about the MGNREGS. b. Job Card Issue: The concerned Gram Panchayat (GP) is a unit which is responsible for registering the households, issuing Job Card and providing employment on demand. During the survey it was revealed that the women beneficiaries did not receive the job cards in time. Some of them (5.5 percent) received between 15 to 30 days of application; many of them (47.30 percent) received job cards between 31 to 90 days of application, some received (31.31 percent) job cards between 03 months to 06 months, and 9.90 percent of the respondents received job cards after 01 year of application. The above facts indicate serious faults in the system- political, technical, and administrative. c. Un-employment allowance: If an applicant for employment under the MGNREG Scheme is not provided such unemployment within fifteen days of receipt of his application seeking employment or from the date on which the employment has been sought in the case of an advance application, whichever is later, he/she shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance. Every payment of unemployment allowance under sub-section (1) shall be made or offered not later than fifteen days from the date on which it became due for payment provided that no such rate shall be less than one-fourth of the wage rate for the first thirty days during the financial year and not less than one-half of the wage rate for the remaining period of the financial year. Nearly 96.70 percent of the respondents were unaware of the unemployment allowance and they had never been paid the allowances despite prolonged delays in the issuance of job cards. d. Delay in wage payment: Most of the beneficiaries (93.50 percent) reported indefinite delay in wage payment as the prime constraint. About 49.45 percent of the respondents complained of half payment of wage and non-payment of wage in full (Table-8). e. No regular work: Inability to create man days has deprived the beneficiaries to meet their employment demand. This has raised the question on the effective functioning of Gram Panchayat, and the implementation of MGNREGA in the survey area. Block wise performance report indicates the average employment per house hold at 34 days per financial year which is against the norms envisaged in the act (table-9). f. Demand for Employment: MGNREGS is basically a demand driven program. Actual provision of employment is based on demand expressed by the registered persons at the Gram Panchayat. Since the demand is increasing at a faster rate, the demand of employment is not being supplied in the corresponding rate. As per the record, there was a hike of 16.24 percent in the number of house hold demanding employment in the block, and 16.21 percent of the house hold were provided with the employment in the block in 2012-13. g. Generation of Employment: The important indicators for implementation of this program are the total generation of employment, total number of households who got employment and the average number of days of employment received by those households. The generation of employment is going on in slow pace. The study has found that there was a complete lack of proper planned initiatives to generate employment. h. Banks/Post offices: Long queues on the days of wage payment, and the process of filling the forms were the difficulties associated with bank or post office payments. Besides, the non-cooperative attitude of the officials and staffs of the post offices/banks for opening & operating saving bank/ post office account have further added salt to their wounds. To make payments smooth, a dedicated section in the banks and post offices to deal with MGNREGA works must be established, and the workers may be trained on payment procedure of bank or post office. i. The other difficulties associated with the program were existence of corruption at many levels, nepotism, illegal retention of job cards by the Gram Sansad members & the office of the Panchayat Pradhans for vested interest, absence of work site facilities and politicization of MGNREGA works. Adequate attention and cooperation was not paid towards the

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© 2019 IJRAR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 2 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138) wards belonging to the opposition political party. A mechanism must be developed to minimize political interference in the MGNREGS programs. j. Renewal of Job Cards: Despite the increasing demand for employment, the process of renewal of job cards has become a hurdle in the process of employment generation and meeting the employment demand. Due to lack of awareness, cumbersome process and delay in renewal of job cards most of the workers had the tendency to skip the process and get deprived of employment or MGNREGS works.. 4. Conclusion Gram Panchayat is the most responsible stakeholders in successful implementation of MGNREGS program. It prepares self schemes to provide employment within the stipulated 15 days of demand, and to provide timely wage. In addition, it makes arrangement for enough funds for wage payment. The study has found that, despite the enthusiasm of respondents to participate in MGNREGS works, the implementing agencies were found to be lackadaisical in the survey area. The reason may be described by various dimensions but, the important reason behind such attitude of the stakeholders, as discussed with the respondents could be the obligation towards the tea garden owners. Further, the rate of daily wage of MGNREGS is much higher than that of what the tea garden owners are paying to its workers, and the tea management suspect shortage of labor. The study has further revealed that the socio-economic condition of the households regularly working under the MGNREGA scheme were poor and vulnerable people of the village, and poverty was the main cause of their low level of education, poor health condition and starvation deaths. In these circumstances, MGNREGA is expected to play an important role in the socio-economic development in the long run. Besides, extension of all rural development schemes to the tea garden (plantation and non-plantation areas), and execution of schemes like land development, creation of community kitchen gardens, construction of roads, drains, culverts, social forestry etc and generation of natural resource base employment with a view of creating man days for jobless men and women would definitely contribute towards the socio-economic condition of their households. Besides, good governance is imperative for the effective implementation of such diversity of works to create durable assets in the tea garden area for a long-run, which in turn will help in sustaining their livelihood. In true sense, the 100 days’ work will not only improve the socio- economic condition of the tea garden people, but it will also provide employment opportunity to their jobless spouses and dependents which will in turn reduce deaths, migration, and women trafficking. Finally, the study concludes that, as the developments in the tea garden villages are taking place with its own pace, the people in the tea garden village can hope for many opportunities to smile in future.

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5. References

AHRC report on Worker Malnutrition from Asian Human Rights Commission, Masum foodnetwork.net

Census of India, West Bengal census operations (2001): District Census Hand Book, Jalpaiguri.

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Fact Finding Report of Centre for Education and Communication (CEC) and United Trades Union Congress, May, 2007.

GOI (Government of India) (2008): The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA): Operational Guidelines, 3rd edition, Ministry of Rural Development, New Delhi.

Ramjhora Tea Estate – A BBC report on October 13, 2007.

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Starvation Deaths Stalk Tea Plantations: The Epoch Times, March 28, 2007

Tea Plantations of West Bengal in Crisis Centre for Education and Communication, 173--A, Khirki Village, Malviiya Nagar, and New Delhi-110017.

Tea garden closures, underfed families, and starvation in Bengal – some hard facts by Ashok Ghosh, State General Secretary, UTUC Translated by Soumya Guhathakurta, Sanhati. Sept. 5, 2007.

The Gazette of India, New Delhi, Wednesday, September 7, 2005.

MGNREGS, 2006. Annual Performance Report for the year 2011-12 & 2012-13. District Programme Coordinator MGNREGS, Jalpaiguri.

West Bengal GP Act, 1973, Government of West Bengal, Law Department. West Bengal Human Development Report 2004 (http://data.undp.org.in/shdr/wb/WBHDR.pdf)

West Bengal Human Development Report (2004). p 219. Based on indicators such as literacy rate, infant mortality rate, school enrollment rate, life expectancy rate; health, education and income indexes. Available at http:// planningcommission.nic.in/plans/stateplan/sdr_pdf/shdr_wb04.pdf.

Women’s Labour in the Tea Sector: Changing trajectories and emerging challenges, Rinju Rasaily, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

www.nrega.nic.in, Official website of MGNREGA, Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi.

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