LSM Network

LSM network based MNREGA Advocacy campaign

Recently, LSM with its wide network started a MNREGA campaign in 4 of its working area districts of Chhattisgarh. The main goal of the campaign is to improve uptake of entitlement related to MNREGA by marginalized and socially excluded communities.

The major objectives of the campaign are :-

Spread awareness among the target community on rights & provision related to MNREGA
Mobilize Community Institutions for entitlement access related to MNREGA
Development of Village level Micro Plans and advocacy with Government for its incorporation in Gram Panchyat Development Plan under MNREGA.
Through community institutions (CBOs) monitor implementation of MNREGA projects.

Target areas

LSM is targeting 5 major districts of Chhattisgarh for this particular campaign. Bilaspur, Sarguja, Dhamtari, Jashpur and Raipur districts were selected for the campaign. From the discussions in various districts network meetings, network organizations were asked to choose one panchyat each to implement activities of campaign.

General Profile of targeted area
The National Flagship programme NREGS(A), which has the potential of addressing issues like food security and empowering marginalized HHs to engage with livelihood improvement processes in a better way has been victim of poor implementation. The participation of the community especially socially marginalized groups (SC/ST & women) has not been very encouraging. Following are the major issues related to NREGA implementation in the targeted areas

As per the NREGA report for financial year 2008-09 & 2009-10, there is high enrollment of HHs with Jobs Cards. As per govt. records almost all the HHs of the GPs are in possession of Job Card. The demand for work as the government’s report is appreciably good. On an average more than 70% of the HHs possessing job cards in both the financial year have demanded for employment. But strikingly the MNREGA report fails to capture the extent of number of days of employment demanded by HHs. The report at www.nrega.nic.in only captures the days of employment offered to the demanding HHs

The type of work taken-up under MNREGA also needs to be critically reviewed. NREGA is not only a means to secure 100 days of employment for rural HHs but also a means to build rural assets and promote livelihood in general and most importantly GS needs to own these work. It has been seen in the targeted area that a large chunk of work was related to the road construction. These types of work are very convenient from the point of engaging labour. What needs to be critically reviewed here is that what has been role of Gram Sabha in deciding the composition of work as depicted
Information on Work-site facilities as laid down in NREGA guideline is not clearly available in any report and in actual work-site are generally absent. Monitoring of these facilities become very important when half of the labour at the work-site are women as they might be accompanied with children who would require care as described under NREGA guildines.
One more important issue that has emerged in context of NREGA is wage payment. Government has introduced the mechanism of wage payment through bank accounts or post office in order to check on payment corruptions. But this has actually resulted into another set of problem e.g. delayed payment or inability of entrusted banks or post-offices to process payment. This has negatively impacted on the interest of the HHs to demand for employment.
Another important issue which the NREGA report points out is towards unemployment allowance. For example a report of Nagri Block, Dhamtari mentioned that only 8% & 10% of HHs completed 100 days of employment in years 2008-09 & 2009-10 respectively (source: www.nrega.nic.in). But the report fails to give any description of the HHs which qualifies for unemployment allowances. This is also difficult to track as the Govt’s database does not track the numbers of days of employment demanded by the HHs.

Key Strategy

Work Demand Generation – Awareness & information dissemination activities will be carried out.
Mobilising CBO – CBOs will anchor all the ground level initiatives of the campaign. CBOs will exclusively deal with NREGA issues i.e. conduction of Gram Sabha & micro-plan formulation.
Formation of Micro-Plan – Micro-plan will be developed at GP level. These micro-plans will be developed with active participation of community, CBOs playing theconnect between campaign & community. The focus of the micro-plans would be asset creation at village level and capacity building marginalized families. The campaign will facilitate appropriate capacity building activities for CBOs & community members for engaging into micro-plan development. The Micro-plan will be converted into printed documents with endorsement (signature) of the community members.
Survey- Survey will be conducted in all selected panchayat regarding the information of every house hold basic details of Job card (registration), payment, work type and work place etc.
Advocacy – Advocacy with NREGA line department/authorities will be undertaken for incorporating the Micro-plans into the NREGA annual plan of the GP. These stakeholders will also be motivated to participate in the micro-planning processes.
Community Monitoring – One of the most important aspect of the strategy would be community monitoring of the implementation of NREGA projects in the targeted GPs. Here CBOs will take the lead role and will assist in ensuring women & PwD participation and implementation of the work-site facilities. The most important activity that will be conducted under monitoring is quarterly survey. This survey will systematically track issues like work demand, wage payment, unemployment allowance payment. The monitoring will eventually lead to following:

Challenge misappropriation and non-adherence to norms
Work site cases – These will be documented, printed & shared with media and other stakeholders
RTI applications – RTI applications will be mobilized in cases of irregularities related to wage payment, unemployment allowance payment.

The project will entail following activities

1. Information Dissemination: Information dissemination will be undertaken through:

a. Road Shows
b. Documentary Films
c. Village Meetings
d. Regular interface with community through CBOs.

2. Capacity building of CBOs & community members on Micro- plan Development

3. Development of Village level Micro Plans & its consolidation in GP annual development Plans.

4. Interface meeting with Government functionaries on NREGA.

5. Worksite Monitoring activities

a. Quarterly survey: Building a database at 14 GP level in context of total work application, no. of work days mobilized (with social as well as gender disaggregated data), no. of work commissioned, work-site facilities etc. This database would be fed through survey conducted on quarterly basis.
b. Case Report publication
c. RTI application filing & follow-up

6. Social Audit conduction

Project Area Details

Sarguja (Gram Adhikar Manch)

District	Block	Panchyat
Sarguja	Ambikapur	Podikala
		Karra
		Adachi
		Kuniyakala
		Navapara Kala
		Navanagar
		Karmaha
		Khumaharata
		Khajuri
		Pamapapur
		Saskala
		Kariyan
		Kaskala
		Libra
		Rakeli

Bilaspur Network

District	Organization	Block	Panchyat
Bilaspur	Khitij	Karhikachar	Karhikachar
			Kholipara
			Phatakpara
	Prakarti Seva Sansthan	Nagchunva	Nagchunva
			Bansajhal
	Shikhar Yuva manch	Banka	Banka
	Mskpp	Hirri	Hirri
	CG Mahila Vikas	Pandrapachra	Pandrapachara
			Jharna
			Darsagar
			Kupabandha
	Nari Kalyan samiti	Ratkhandi	Ratkhandi
			Chota Barar
			Bada Barar
	Mitwa	Pendarwa	Pendarwa
	Yuva Sasaktikaran	Jonki	Jonki

Dhamtari Network

District	Organizations	Block	Panchyat
Dhamtari	Sangwari	Nagri	Chanagaon
	Astha		Lilar
	Rachna manch		Dokal
			Jhuratalai
			Bazar Kurridiha
	Dhara jan Kalyan		Gattasilli
	Lok Manch Vikas samiti		Kodapar
	Maa Durga Samiti		Arod Duwan
	Maa jan Kalyan		Khadma

Raipur

District	Block	Panchyat
Raipur	Mainpur	Bhainsamuda
		Churki
		kodidadar