JOURNEY DEBMALAYA NANDI ACTIVATING PANCHAYATS THROUGH MGNREGA Implementing MGNREGA in Introduction its fullness is a movement — to establish local HE MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL democracy and instruments Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is of local governance, considered to be the foundation for establishing local democracy. The Act itself is empowering for local honour local wisdom governance and the provisions of the Act strongly and knowledge, promote promote power decentralization to panchayats and power decentralization to villages. The Act honours local knowledge and wisdom, panchayats and encourage and its operational structure is based on the principles of decentralized and participatory decision-making. participatory decision-making. T Jharkhand’s experience The provisions of decentralized planning and implementation processes warrants telling. embedded in MGNREGA have great power to establish the instruments of local governance and activate gram sabhas (GSs) and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). 35 The true potential of decentralized operations in MGNREGA is yet to be realized in Jharkhand. The gram panchayats (GPs) in Jharkhand are relatively new but are gradually maturing. PRIs are also at a nascent stage MGNREGA’s operations at decentralization, wherein people’s control and people’s pro-active the grass roots are supposed participation in planning, participation in the programme. to strengthen the local decision-making and monitoring accountability structures has to be fully established. Whereas MGNREGA has several and ensure transparent provisions that can be used to implementation on the ground. MGNREGA has given the GS the strengthen the processes of Whereas the Act itself is amply ultimate right to make their own democratic decentralization and equipped with provisions for plans, which no other institution establish good local governance decentralized operations, this can interfere or tamper with. It through people’s participation, potential is yet to be fully has given the panchayats the right the CFT programme has enriched realized. to implement at least 50 per cent the state with many more of the schemes under MGNREGS. provisions. These include circulars and detailed specific roles for The Vision of Decentralized In Jharkhand, the panchayats each stakeholder, in the form Governance have been made fully responsible of guidelines and office orders, for 100 per cent implementation — which can further establish a of MGNREGS. The Cluster Facilitation Team system of people-centric planning and implementation. This also (CFT) experience in Jharkhand The idea of employment encourages strong accountability can be seen as a practice and guarantee completely eradicates praxis-based study of the gradual and action-strategies through the concept of contractor-based realization of the envisioned the Public-PRI-Administration labour engagement in schemes, strong rural decentralization integration. which was so far the way rural and the strengthening of jobs were given out. The new the local governance. The method empowered the rural The Jharkhand Context positive experiences of the CFT — programme have shown a few unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled glimpses, which have helped us people to have jobs in their The true potential of understand how through strategic locality and, at the same time, decentralized operations in engagement with the community, strengthened the rural service MGNREGA is yet to be realized in the administration and the sector with opportunities in Jharkhand. The gram panchayats elected local representatives, local institutions. MGNREGA (GPs) in Jharkhand are relatively normative influences can be promoted a system of demand- new but are gradually maturing. ensured, which can lead to a based work allocation, which PRIs are also at a nascent stage. change in culture of the rural empowered people to choose the Most GPs are on a learning path governance eco-system. time and duration of their work. and the panchayat secretariats It has a robust monitoring and are not fully activated. There The idea of strong local grievance redress mechanism have been efforts, both by the governance is incomplete articulated in the Act. All this government and civil society, without the idea of democratic is directed to ensuring local to enhance the capacities of the 36 NEWSREACH JAN_FEB 2019 In the context of present-day situations in rural Jharkhand, democratization to the last layer is important, to enhance the state of delivery of services to the poor representatives of the panchayats awareness and benefits do not true spirit never materialized but the idea of developing GPs reach the last person. on the ground because as an organization is very recent. implementation was mostly Slowly, it has been learned In the context of present-day target-based and controlled by that along with increasing the situations in rural Jharkhand, the block administration. Also, capacities of its members, the democratization to the last layer the contractor-based supply GP, as an organization, has to be is important, to enhance the state mechanism was established capacitated holistically so that the of delivery of services to the poor. in many areas due to the local secretariat starts functioning and The panchayats as local governing malpractices and the lack of bodies, the GSs as the ultimate proper systems and processes are monitoring. put in place. decision-makers for grass-roots planning and implementation Although civil societies and The local elite and influential and the strong democratic governments have run demand people have dominated the local people’s institutions and generation drives, called Kaam implementation of MGNREGA collectives as change agents and Maango Abhiyan, from time to for a long time, thereby creating monitors are the way forward. time in villages to regularize space for the middleman- Whereas physical and financial work-demand and to ensure contractor nexus to control the power devolution to the GPs a system of demand-based should be a key focus area, the show. In the absence of a strong allocation, there are hardly any integration between the local local governance and effective spontaneous work- demands. collectives and the PRIs for people’s monitoring, the poorest The workers usually wait for planning and monitoring of remained unattended and supervisors and frontline schemes and ensuring smooth exploited because there was lack functionaries to come to them and transparent service delivery of accountability in the system and ask them to work and, to the last person is also and the demand side, too, was not thereafter, create a demand for important. properly developed. Institutional work. The general notion among linkages between the GSs and Rojgar Diwas: A first step towards the workers is that work is only the GPs are not well-established activating Panchayat Secretariats allocated if the schemes are and the block office has been the sanctioned and opened. centre of all key developmental — activities. The dependence on The Ministry of Rural Rojgar Diwas was supposed to the block administration for Development (MoRD) came change this set idea of work- implementation of schemes and up with a guideline to organize demand and allocation, and supply of social welfare benefits a Rojgar Diwas in the GPs in instead create a formal space has been very high and, thus, the 2013, to improve work-demand at local levels to facilitate system of delivery has been weak generation in MGNREGS. people to demand for work and non-transparent. In such a However, MGNREGS is a as and when they require it. context, a handful of influential demand-based employment An institutionalized platform people become so powerful that guarantee programme and its for constant demand for work JOURNEY ACTIVATING PANCHAYATS THROUGH MGNREGA 37 In Jharkhand, the idea of Rojgar Diwas was seen as an opportunity to activate the GP secretariats through MGNREGA transactions at the local level was the idea however, the functionaries at the It has been a long struggle to behind Rojgar Diwas. Although panchayat level are operating from regularize the weekly Rojgar the original guideline from the the Panchayat Bhawan, ensuring Diwas. The success of the Rojgar Ministry was that the Rojgar services and benefits to the Diwas is subject to participation Diwas should take place at least citizens. The infrastructure of the of the citizens in the forum. once a month, Jharkhand has GPs are also getting utilized. The panchayats and the local further added a lot of value to administration were not very make it a more effective platform The Rojgar Diwas has been keen on activating the forum but at the level of the GPs. designed in such a way that all through constant engagement kinds of MGNREGS transactions, with the local administration In Jharkhand, the idea of Rojgar for example, job-card application, and the Panchayati Raj Diwas was seen as an opportunity work-demand, work-sanctioning, representatives, it was ensured and preparation of documents to activate GP secretariats that Panchayat Bhawans open translation are done on that day. through MGNREGA transactions. and the functionaries attend the PRADAN has been particularly Both, the state as well as Civil event every week. The people focussed on establishing this Society Organizations (CSOs), were also reluctant to visit the forum, with a long-term goal engaged in the CFT programme, panchayat offices with their of activating the panchayat have considered this as an applications and issues because secretariat