Land owners are main beneficiaries of NREGS

HYDERABAD: The main beneficiaries of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) are found to be landlords rather than farm labourers as assumed generally. A study by a British researcher says while participation in NREGS is largely from poor sections, there are many individual benefits, both intended and unintended.Laura Camfield, of the University of East Anglia, UK, and Prof Uma Vennam of Sri Padmavathi Mahila Visvavidyalayam, Tirupati, after studying NREGS implementation in one sample village each in Srikakulam, Anantapur and Mahbubnagar districts, say farmers, some even rich, are the main beneficiaries of the scheme, while workers got their daily wages and livelihood security, which is the main aim of NREGS. One positive effect of NREGS is that female labourers no longer accept a low wage. There may also be significant environmental benefits, which will be evident only after three to four years.The greatest benefits of NREGS are experienced by small and medium farmers whose land is targeted for development under the scheme. As the majority of NREGS work in Andhra Pradesh is land development (45 percent), there is resentment that the benefits accrue to landholders, not the landless. The scheme should focus on public works that increase the economic security of the whole community, the study says.  (As per official data, 46.39 lakh acres of fallow and unproductive land was targeted to be made productive during 2011-12  to benefit SC and ST, small and marginal farmers). NREGS was essentially based on the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme promoted by Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen. It is open to all rural households and acts as an informal social insurance. Once a household and its members have registered for a job card, NREGS guarantees up to 100 days unskilled manual labour for every adult available to work on that day at a rate of no less than Rs 100 per day . The wage was hiked to Rs 121 in January 2011. The same wage rate is applicable to everyone, irrespective of age or gender.As participants work in groups, slower or weaker individuals are not disadvantaged by their inability to complete their share of the work. Nonetheless, the physically demanding nature of the works taken up under NREGS makes it less appealing to people who are older or have disabilities or health problems, the researchers say.Though the scheme has some aspects that appeal to women, like good wages and work within 5 km of the household, many women are found to prefer regular daily wage labour as it can take up to one month to receive payment under NREGS.The NREGS working day is 7 am to 12 or 1 pm, which is less time than it would take to earn a similar amount as a daily labourer. Types of work include breaking/moving stones, levelling ground, checking and repairing dams and irrigation channels, desilting tanks, digging pits around saplings and providing piped water. If work is not made available within 15 days, the household is entitled to unemployment benefit, although this is rarely offered.NREGS objectives extend beyond  providing livelihood security in rural areas to include generating productive assets, protecting the environment etc, the researchers say quoting other studies. The government therefore expects the high initial costs of implementing NREGS are plateaued and then reduced  as land productivity increased from 2 percent to 4 percent due to the creation of productive assets. Finally, farmers will exit NREGS to work in their own lands, leaving the scheme entirely to landless poor.