Chapter 2 - Kerala Govt Logo

Chapter 2Policy, Legislation and RegulationIn Kerala, Local Governments have been given a central place in the planning andimplementation of NREGA. Compared to the earlier wage employment programmes there havebeen significant achievements under NREGS. They are:(i)A combination of transparent processes and procedures, local action and constantvigilance and totally corruption free implementation The contributing factors being:A clear policy decision to implement the scheme strictly according to the letter andspirit of the Act involving the Panchayats.The firm rejection of the opinion for implementing the scheme merely for publicworks and as an asset focused programmeIgnoring the arguments that the demand for unskilled labour is very limited inKerala and as the wages are much higher than the statutory minimum wages inmore than 90% of the StateOrganization of work through the Kudumbasree system and the poor have a stake inthe work right at the beginningMaking the technocratic power to accord Technical Sanction, measure works andrecommend payments more spread out and accountable through the Committeesystem and in case of difference of opinion the appellate systemMotivating a lot of social activists to keep constant vigil as a kind of continuousconcurrent social auditGiving special emphasis to the rights of workers and their awareness ofentitlements. In a state where workers are fairly well organized this has resulted intheir jealous guarding of their privileges.Ensuring all the payments only through individual bank accounts of workers(ii)Implementation of NREGA has contributed to very high levels of women empowerment,particularly in the following aspects.The gender perspective gets built in automatically, as the work is organized bywomen‟s groupsNearly 80% of the workers have been women, as they are comfortable working alongwith their neighborsEqual wages, for the first time, are paid which boosted the earnings of women.As the wages are paid into Bank accounts the habit of thrift, already inculcatedthrough the Kudumbasree activities, has been strengthened significantlyThe intra-household status of the woman has improved commensurately as shecontrols substantial cash resources and withdrawal from the increasing Bankdeposits on her own decision(iii)NREGS has given rise to a new work culture. Hitherto workers were controlled bycontractors and their middlemen who knew how to extract work. When NREGS beganthe out-turn was very poor as the workers could not be supervised properly. But soonthe workers themselves realized that they would be losing collectively and a newinternal dynamics evolved with peer pressure forcing workers to put in their maximumeffort. At the same time a kind of social responsibility also became evident as more