The Centre for Politics and Governance at the Observer Research Foundation, organised a roundtable discussion on ‘NREGA for Water Management”’ on Friday, October 30, 2009 at the ORF campus which was inaugurated by Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Dr Rita Sharma.

In her inaugural address at the roundtable discussion, Dr Sharma expressed a hope that the National Rural Employment Scheme and its work in the areas of water management and crop enhancement would result in a second Green Revolution.
 
“It may be a wild thought now. But the first Green Revolution came about as a result of very high water guzzling cropping systems from the irrigated regions of the country. But the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) holds the trigger for a second Green Revolution from the rain-fed areas, by using water conserving technologies  and working with the smaller and poorer farmers,” Dr. Sharma said and pointed out that the first Green Revolution had largely driven by the big farmers and benefited them to a large extent.
 
Explaining the role and scope of NREGA in water management, Dr. Sharma said the SRI (System of Rice Intensification) technique, being popularized by NREGA, helps in crops enhancement while reducing the usage of water by one-third.
 
Dr. Sharma said now SRI technique is being used in the cultivation of wheat and other crops as well by the farmers themselves. And the significant productivity increases could be stimulated by NREGA on the holdings of small and poor farmers leading to another food revolution.
 
She said the Government provides highest priority to water conservation in the choice of works under NREGA and the nature of works undertaken is such that it leads to creation of ‘green jobs’. Over 50 percent of the work undertaken under the NREGA relates to water, the Secretary pointed out saying that jobs of water conservation, water harvesting, micro and minor irrigation works, providing irrigation facilities, desilting of tanks, renovation of traditional water bodies, flood control and mitigation works are being undertaken.
      
Dr. Sharma said the expenditure on the NREGA is estimated to go up to Rs. 50,000 crore in 2009-10, giving employment to 5.5 crore rural people out of which 52 per cent are women. She said the average wage rate would also increase from the present Rs. 84 per day in the previous financial year to Rs. 89 in the current financial year.
 
In 2008-09, the NREGA had generated 48 days of employment per household; she said and added that employment is expected to rise to 65 days in the current financial year. While the earning per household was Rs 2795 in 2006-07, it is expected to rise to Rs 5500 in the current year, the Secretary said. Dr Sharma stressed that resilience was in-built in NREGA as its activities lead to food, livelihood, water and ecological securities along with reduction of flood risks   

The NREGA provides income during non-agriculture season, she said and pointed out
that this has also resulted in reduction of distress and seasonal migration. There are reports of reduction in migration from Eastern UP and Bihar to states like Punjab. Also, there is feedback emerging from the ground that the scheme has increased the bargaining power of the rural people in the employment market. But a section has started saying that it has led to distortion in the wage market. The NREGA has also partly fuelled the rural demand in telecom sector, she said 
 
The NREGA has clearly resulted in financial inclusion, as over 8 crore bank and post office accounts have been opened in the name of the beneficiaries, she said. It is also strengthening grassroots democratic processes as it is infusing transparency and accountability in rural governance, the Secretary said. Dr. Sharma underlined the need for better convergence among the implementing agencies of the government and also the supply and demand side to achieve better impact. She said there is a need to make it more scientific and the optimal utilization of the funds.

Highlighting another interesting aspect of the NREGA, the Secretary said the poverty alleviation feature of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is also yielding co-benefits of Adaptation to and Mitigation of climate change. There is an urgent need to study the positive impact of the NREGA on Climate Change as poor are most vulnerable to global warming. “Poor are first and worst affected though they have least contributed to it”, she said. Studies are being undertaken to quantify the value of carbon credits generated through various activities of the NREGA like afforestation and soil conservation so that funds could flow to the rural economy, she said.        

In the ensuing discussion session, chaired by Professor Ramaswamy R. Iyer of Centre for Policy Research, analysts and activists critically appreciated the NREGA’s water related programmes presenting a picture of lack of proper planning, lack of training, lack of assessment of the quality of work done, lack of supervision, lack of proper knowledge leading to ill-conceived, haphazard planning which hinder proper water management under the scheme.

Presenting a paper, Mr. K J Anand, of National Institute of Disaster Management, said that there has been a big decline in ground water levels and programmes like NREGA can help in arresting the problem through proper planning and better water management. In states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the NREGA is not being implemented properly as works of rain water harvesting are not being undertaken, Mr. Anand said.

Mr. Nitin Bassi, Research Consultant at Institute for Resource Analysis and Policy, lamented that completion ratio of water related work has declined. There has been very little information about the quality of assets being created by the NREGA, he said.  In order to optimize the output of the NREGA’s water management programme, he suggested that there was a need to draw a region specific strategy which could take hydrological and economic considerations into account.     
 
Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni, senior journalist and a Media Advisor to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee pointed out to the lack of attention to grassroots democratic processes and   stressed upon the need of empowering Panchayati Raj institutions to make the NREGA more effective. There is a conceptual flaw that one seize would fit all in highly diversified conditions in India, Mr. Kulkarni said. That is why; the institution of Panchayat should be given highest priority in implementing the NREGA so that place and region specific strategies could be followed, he said.

Though there is a provision in the NREGA that regular gram sabha meeting should be held but situation on the ground speaks a different story as meetings are hardly held, he pointed out adding that the Central government and State governments have very little trust in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). At the same time, traditional knowledge system and traditional water bodies should also be given due consideration, he stressed saying that resurrection of traditional knowledge and technologies with due modification to meet today’s requirement should be given importance.

Dr. Jayshree Sengupta, Visiting Fellow at ORF, lauded the NREGA programme saying that it has added dignity to labour. There are deficiencies like corruption and lack of transparency in NREGA like in other public work programme, she pointed out. Dr. Sengupta stressed upon the need for evaluating the quality of work undertaken under the NREGA and said that proper planning should accompany while implementing various water related schemes of the NREGA.

Dr Rohan D’Souza of Centre for Studies in Science Policy at JNU, Mr. Neelesh Kulkarni, Director PriMove, Ms Vani Tripathi, Secretary BJP’s youth wing, also participated in the discussion.
 
Earlier, Mr. Surendra Singh, former Cabinet Secretary and President of Centre for Politics and Governance, chaired the inaugural session. He drew the Government attention to better audit, proper training and capacity building to achieve better results. Noting that the demand for water in India would increase by 2.3 by 2025, he stressed at the need for better management of water resources. He said ORF will do an in-depth study to help enhance the effectiveness of the scheme.
 
Moving a vote of thanks, Mr. Sunjoy Joshi, ORF’s Distinguished Fellow, said today’s discussions has helped in flagging out one of the most important aspects of NREGA and Water Management. Laying out a roadmap on what the ORF has in mind on these important issues related with water, Mr. Joshi said that   any “Development Intervention” is not a purely apolitical or technical process. He said that it is a deeply and inherently a political process and these processes itself create spin-offs. People participate in these interventions for their own multi-various reasons.

Reasons may have to do with resource generation or have to do for short term wage generation or issues like that. The crux of the matter is that any intervention like this has to be seen and analyzed in term of the ramifications and wider implications.
 
Presentation: Dr. Rita Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development