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Page 2 of 6 Key Observations on NREGA work in Andhra Pradesh In Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts of Andhra Pradesh, the government started NREGA work in 2008 in the month of April. In the critical months of summer (April – June), when there is no other work available, NREGA made a significant difference in terms of giving some source of income in 2008. For the first time many families got some payment in their hands (which is critically needed in those months) and did not migrate from April – June. In July 2008, however, the Andhra government halted NREGA work throughout the state. NREGA did not resume in Andhra Pradesh until February / March 2009. Why? The way it was done is that the government issued a circular with an order to stop 8 kinds of work out of a total of 32. In practice, however, this Circular was used to stop all NREG works. The main reason for this was because NREGA has succeeded in stemming migration to an extent and has impacted minimum wages in Andhra Pradesh. This success implied that farmers in Delta areas (such as the irrigated Godavari delta) were not receiving cheap migrant labor. The strong political farmers' lobby ensured that the government stop NREGA work during agricultural season (July – January), when migrant workforce is needed. The pressure of this lobby is so strong that the people will face the same challenge in future years. This implies that practically in Andhra Pradesh, NREGA would occur only in 5-6 months (between February - June) of the year. Strong action by some of our activists did lead to exceptions where people did get work in spite of the de facto halt in the NREGA program, but this was rare. Migration had stopped in April – June. But since in many cases, payments were not made / left pending, and by July work had also stopped, people once again started migrating from July-August onwards. Since as per NREGA act work needs to be given within 15 days of application, the mandal officers across Andhra Pradesh stopped accepting applications or stopped giving receipts for applications from July 2008 onwards. Demanding that the government resume giving work and pay for work already done, we mobilized on these issues with cultural programs, wall writings and rallies. From December 2008 – January 2009 we took cycle and motorcycle rallies, a padayatra in Visakhapatnam district, and cycle & motorcycle rally in Srikakulam district. Some of the demands put forward during the rallies included: · re-starting the NREGA work (that had stopped since July) · increase in daily wage from Rs. 80 / day to Rs. 120 / day · acceptance of applications with receipts issued to applicant · payment of unemployment compensation From February/March 2009 the government again started accepting applications for NREGA work. Consequently in February 2009 we have started filing applications for work by the end of the financial year, i.e. 31 March 2009. Considering all of the above, we need to use the critical months of April – June in 2009 to ensure that more families apply for work in this period for the 2009-10 financial year. |
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