A great relief for villagers in India, particularly the economically weaker sections, exists in the form of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Under this law villagers who need employment can obtain 100 days employment in a year at a fixed wage rate on various development works (such as water conservation works). 

When well-implemented this is very useful for earning enough to meet basic needs particularly in months when other employment is difficult to obtain. Rural women in particular have been very keen to make use of the provisions of this law in many places.

However a big problem that has come up in actual practice in many villages is that even when villagers follow proper procedures such as filling up forms, depositing them and collecting receipts they encounter problems. Hence in many villages the potential of NREGA to provide much-needed and timely relief to people is not realized. Such situations of disappointment have been seen in several villages.

A recent example is that of several women mobilized by an organization called Mahila Sangathen (MS) in Barmer district of Rajasthan. As they needed employment desperately recently but did not get any employment from April 2025 onwards, they have been repeatedly going to local officials with their forms for demanding work, but although all procedures have been followed by them (and they have past experience of demanding and obtaining work) they were not given proper receipts. When they went to somewhat higher officials they promised to take remedial actions as receipts must be given as per law. However today on June 10 when these women went again to local concerned officials they were not given receipts. If there is not even an acknowledgment of their demand for work in the form of a receipt, they do not have any hope of getting employment under NREGA at a time when they really need this. They have therefore announced that if this attitude persists then they’ll start a protest dharna (sit-in). 

This unhelpful attitude has been encountered despite these women and their organization having a lot of experience in the proper implementation of NREGA. In fact their effort attracted wide attention some time back in the context of receiving compensatory payment. NREGA has a provision that if after demanding employment as per procedure stated in the law, people demanding work cannot be provided employment by the local government authorities, then a compensatory payment must be given to them. In practice it has generally been very difficult to get this payment. However thanks to the efforts of the Mahila Sangathan, women of these villages could get compensatory payment not once but thrice and this led to MS and its members receiving much appreciation for their tireless efforts.

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However now a different question is being raised that when even rural women who are helped by such an experienced organization are being denied receipts for their forms demanding employment, then how much chance ordinary villagers will have of getting employment without the help of such experienced organizations.

Hence activists who work at a wider provincial or national level have been raising demands for improving the implementation of NREGA. These demands include improving the budgetary allocations for NREGA so that these come closer to the amounts that are actually needed, which can be estimated on the basis of the past experience. Other demands include implementing NREGA in more participative ways, particularly involving poorer sections and women, conducting proper social audits and curbing corruption. The tendency to use labor-displacing machinery for earth work should be avoided so that the real objective of generating employment for those who need this can be achieved. There should be better planning so that works taken under NREGA are those which are most needed by villagers.

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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Man over Machine, When the Two Streams Met and India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food. He is a regular contributor to Asia-Pacific Research.

All images in this article are from the author

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