The bill seeking to guarantee employment in rural areas—a promise made in the Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance government—is likely to be soon passed under the nomenclature of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill after incorporating various recommendations to amend the legislation. The amended Bill seeks to provide 100 days of employment to each rural household instead of the earlier provision of providing employment to only below poverty line families in rural areas.
Not surprisingly, the Employment Guarantee Bill has turned out to be the most important piece of legislation for the UPA Government. Congress party managers may have taken into consideration the timing of this all important legislation coming, as it does at an auspicious period of Rajiv Gandhi’s birth anniversary on August 20. The Congress has also taken care to consider the recommendations made by the Group of Ministers, Standing Committee of Parliament and National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi. Other political parties may also want to derive political mileage out of it.
While the BJP is nursing its traditional urban constituency by demanding inclusion of urban poor, the Left Parties have successfully put forth its concern regarding its proper implementation. This is an important point in order to get proper assurance from the Government that, funds meant for implementation of the Employment Guarantee Act are released well in advance to the states, and that the states are not left to unnecessarily bear financial burden by paying to the unemployed youths in the event of non-implementation of the Act for lack of funds.
There is however the argument, that certain clauses in the proposed bill make it an inadequate exercise. It applies only to rural areas and does not cater to the urban poor; that there is no assurance of a definite unemployment allowance in case the government is unable to provide work; also rural households are treated as a unit, instead of considering each individual seeking work; and it is restricted to 150 ‘backward’ districts and is not applicable across India.
Noted economist and member of the National Advisory Council, Jean Dreze, meanwhile argues that the government was “sabotaging” the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill by diluting its provisions so that it is only implemented in notified areas and with no guarantee of a minimum wage”.
Besides all these arguments, most of which are well founded, it must be kept in mind that unemployment in India is not seasonal like in developed countries but rather it is chronic in nature arising as a result of deficiency in capital, which is manifested by large scale underemployment and disguised unemployment. Further the rate of employment has on an average been lower than the growth of labour.
While employment generation programs are one way to tackle the problem, there have been certain loopholes in their earlier manifestations. In most cases beneficiaries were not eligible for assistance; non-percolation to the targeted groups due to misuse of loans and leakage in the disbursal stage; system of brokerage and widespread corruption.
Experience with such programs would therefore call for proper identification of beneficiaries through well monitored grass root implementation. Another criticism is that such programs are self-terminating and not sustainable. It is akin to blood transfusion to remove some of the pain but basically incapable of curing the disease.
What is required therefore is to develop self-sustaining kind of employment that can take the country to the goal of full employment along with the goal of removing poverty. For this infrastructure in the form of productive assets, improving rural industrialization, transport and communications, marketing network, power and irrigation facilities and developing agro based industries need to be developed to make a simultaneous attack on problems of unemployment and poverty.
