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 third installment, CNN-IBN travels to Rajasthan where NREGA has worked effectively.
Rajsamand (Rajasthan): NREGA’s effective implementation in many villages of Rajasthan has brought down migration to Gujarat and Mumbai to less than half of what it used to be.
Two years ago Girdhari was a migrant laborer in Gujarat, when his wife fell seriously ill. She died during the 10-hour journey to hospital but nmow work under NREGA is available at home in Vijayoura through which Girdhari is able to earn enough to send his children to school.
“It is important for me to be with my kids. With NREGA in our village I get my daily Rs 100 here. I can be with my children now,” says NREGA worker Vijaypura Girdhari Singh.
A transparent system ensures that Girdhari and his co-workers are paid what they are owed. The Vijaypura sarpanch, Kaluram, a Dalit who won his seat promising transparency, makes sure the panchayat records are accessible to all.
“The worker will question it. He'll ask the panchayat I didn't get that much money, neither have I worked for that many days. So why have you written this here. The more the transparency more the people will connect,” says Vijaypura sarpanch Kaluram Salvi.
The villagers call it the Janata Information System. All records, name of person, number of days worked and the amount paid are painted on the walls of the village, for everyone to see.
“The idea is not to get disheartened by corruption. Corruption too will stop if people make a noise about it wherever they are it is working smoothly,” says social activist Shankar Singh.
With inputs from Sushil Kumar for CNN-IBN
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