4.4 International experience
4.4.2 India
Employment Guarantee Scheme of Maharashtra (EGS): Devereux and Solomon (2006) note that, the EGS was introduced in 1972/73 when the State of Maharashtra faced an acute drought. It was given statutory status in 1979. Any adult person in rural Maharashtra had the right to work as an unskilled manual labourer, provided they registered at the local level as a person seeking work. The state was obliged to provide work within 15 days of such registration. The approved works were rural and involved:
· Agricultural projects,
· infrastructure (including minor irrigation works),
· soil conservation,
· reforestation,
· de-silting of tanks,
· stone-cutting, and
· road construction and maintenance (EGS Act, 1979).
The Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme was the largest state-sponsored PWP to focus on poverty alleviation. It was conceived as a rights-based drought relief programme and emerged as one of the most important initiatives to provide mass supplementary income and thereby reduce vulnerability, especially among women (Vatsa, 2005).
Wages were paid at ‘piece rates’ and, while initially lower than market rates, in 1985 a Minimum Wage Act was passed to regulate EGS wages. Financing for the EGS was raised from additional taxes imposed on the citizens of Maharashtra by the state administration; these were mainly paid by the urban professional classes (Devereux and Solomon, 2006).
The EGS helped to provide income to the poorest during lean periods and to reduce seasonal migration, while the landed classes benefitted from the infrastructure created (www.odi.org.uk/publications/1072-maharastra-employment-guarantee- scheme-india).
Jawahar Rojgar Yojana (JRY): This programme was launched in 1989 by merging two operational programmes, the National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) and the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP). The JRY was the biggest employment programme ever sponsored by the Government of India.
The primary objective of the JRY was the generation of gainful employment for rural unemployed and underemployed men and women living below the poverty line. The secondary objective was to create a base for sustainable employment by improving rural economic infrastructure and creating direct community and social assets for the poor, particularly scheduled castes and scheduled tribes; 30% of employment opportunities were allocated to women. The JRY was initially implemented throughout India, without any specific focus on ‘backward areas’ until late 1993,
when it started to concentrate on such districts (www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307//2645644?uid=3739368&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&
uid=4&sid=211013378562773).
The JRY was subsequently renamed Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) and restructured; it is no longer an employment-creation programme, but a rural infrastructure development programme which focuses on citizens’ needs (http://www.kdsonline.org/images/Andaman-study-PRIs-JacobJohn.pdf).
The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) was broadly modelled on the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme and was launched in 1993/94 in 1,772 identified backward blocks located in drought-prone, desert, tribal and hilly areas.
The primary objective of this programme was the creation of additional wage employment in lean seasons. The secondary objective was the creation of durable economic and social assets. The expenditure was structured as reflected in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3: EAS Expenditure Structure
Expenditure on Percentage
Water-shed related activities 40%
Minor irrigation 20%
Rural roads 20%
Construction of school and pre-school buildings
20%
Source: Devereux and Solomon (2006:99).
The intensified JRY (IJRY) programme also succeeded the JRY. Based on criteria such as low agricultural productivity, commercial and industrial backwardness and a high concentration of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC/ST), 120 districts were identified as IJRY districts. In 1994/95, the JRY ‘umbrella’ scheme included special innovative projects aimed at addressing specific problems faced by the rural poor in each district (www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/i325321).
In 2005, under its National Common Minimum Programme, the Government of India made a commitment to enact a National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to
“provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the poor households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Employment shall, as far as possible, be provided within a radius of five kilometres of the household’s village. Each State Government will prepare an Employment Guarantee Programme, which will include the undertaking of productive works that contribute to the creation of durable assets”
(http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/1072-maharastra-employment-guarantee- scheme-india).
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme NREGS has its roots in the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme discussed earlier (Shah&Mehta, 2008:4). According to McCord (2007), India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) which was launched in 2006 is based on the constitutional obligation of the state to provide employment for its citizens. The programme:
· offers employment insurance on a massive scale; if a household is not provided with employment, unemployment insurance should be paid out;
· attempts to provide 100 days employment per annum to every rural household; and
· strives to provide an income for the poorest and most vulnerable.
The Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme is similar to South Africa’s EPWP in that both are based on the constitutional obligation to ensure employment provision to all citizens. The Indian NREGP offers key programmes and conceptual and design insights which are relevant to the South African context.