SEWA welcomes rural EGA

Dear friends:

The following press note was issued by SEWA after the Budget was presented in Parliament.

SEWA Welcomes Rural Employment Guarantee Act

Ela Bhatt, Founder SEWA, has welcomed the Finance Minister’s announcement of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act. This Act will be the social safety net required by the poorest in the rural areas. The problem faced by a large number of people in the rural areas is the lack of employment especially during dry times of the year. In dry and drought-prone areas, many communities have to habitually migrate seasonally to other parts of the country in search of work, which is a painful and disruptive process—it destroys the fabric of the community, the family lives of the migrants, the possibility for education of the children and perhaps worst of all, the possibility for development of their own area. These forced migrants are subject to some of the worst exploitative conditions of work and living conditions. Those left behind do not have enough to eat or the barest money for other basic necessities, and although there may be no famine, there is surely a slow malnutrition and starvation.

Even when communities do not migrate they suffer a great amount of distress at such times. Their food intake is reduced, the children are withdrawn from schools, they go into debt, they are unable to attend to their health problems. At such times there is no safety net, no social security system which would help to relieve their distress.

The Rural Employment Guarantee Act will act as a safety net and provide employment at a time of distress. So far, as women have been predominantly toiling on worksites, they will benefit the most.

However, the Guarantee Act has a limited approach: The employment must not be seen as mere manual labour. The Act must include works other than only digging and carrying mud and stones. Even the poorest in rural areas have some skills by which they are earning their livelihoods and survive. Therefore, the Act can include the skilled work so that the employment generated is not only temporary for the 100 days but could become of a sustained nature. This could include: agro-processing and on-farm processing, artisanal work such as embroidery, appliqué, weaving, printing, leatherwork, carpentery, food processing. plumbing. Services such as teaching, health work, child-care, old-age care, that have a growing demand and can be included. Works of public interest such as environmental work like nursery raising tree-plantation, sanitation, recycling, water harvesting.

The implementation of the Act is crucial to its success. The best way in our experience is to include the people in implementation. In India there have been many experiences where people’s organizations have successfully implemented government schemes. We therefore recommend that the implementation of the REGA be decentralized and as far as possible carried out through local organizations which would include Panchayati Raj Institutions, Self-Help Groups, Co-operatives, Producers Associations and many other member-ship based organizations.

We at SEWA look forward to the Government detailing out the mechanism and delivery system, based on organizations’ actual work experience at village level so as to translate the Act into meaningful employment guarantee.