Click to play videoIs the tax payer's money actually reaching the rural poor? CNN-IBN assesses the NREGA in a special, week-long series Breaking New Ground. In the second installment, CNN-IBN travels to Jharkhand where NREGA hasn't worked.
Ranchi: If there is one state that puts a question mark on the government's flagship scheme, it is Jharkhand.
One of the poorest states in India, Jharkhand is caught in a web of political corruption and criminality and the same can be said about government’s flagship programme the National Rural Employement Guarantee Scheme.
Lakhi Ram Manjhi and his wife are landless adivasi labourers from Jharkhand and had high hopes from NREGA.
They have been listed below the poverty line but for three years they have not got an NREGA job card.
“We filled out the form, some people got it, we did not,” he says.
Ironically, while some have no job cards, others have cards but no jobs. But the NREGA job card does not guarantee 100 days of work in Jharkhand.
One needs clout and help from NREGA “brokers” to get even a day's work. Fullo Manhi has had his red card for three years and it is yet to fetch him a single day of work.
Local middlemen often corner the supply of cards. Jitendra Ram is mukhiya (head) of his panchayat. Without his signature, no one in the village can get a job. He charges for his signature and the cash is taken in advance. On camera he said he was not to blame.
"We help get unemployed people jobs. Anyway there aren't as many jobs as there are applicants. But we still try and help," he says.
Those fighting for job security face trouble. Bhukhan Singh, an NREGA activist, has had criminals cases slapped on him by the state administration. He has been jailed thrice in the last two years.
“We fight for labourers’ rights so they sent us to jail in a fabricated case,” says NREGA activist from Lathehar, Bhukhan Singh.
Jharkhand carries a stigma of being one of the worst performers on NREGA index and these people stand testimony.
Despite having the job cards, they have been running pillar to post for last three years and still, there's no hope for him in sight.
For states like Jharkhand, NREGA was to be a big boon but has failed where it’s needed most.
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