“Commitment to transparency and accountability runs through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). This commitment also flows from the Right to Information Act 2005. The Right to Information Act should be followed in both letter and spirit in all matters relating to NREGA. No request (for information) should be refused under any circumstances. All NREGA-related information is in the public domain.” From Chapter 10 of the NREGA Operational Guidelines

Immediate Challenges before the NREGA

Critics used two arguments repeatedly to oppose the enactment of an employment guarantee Act. First, India`s capacity to meet the huge financial obligations due to the law. Second, even if this law were passed and money made available, corruption would ensure that much of the money would go into the pockets of middlemen. Now that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been enacted and a political choice has been made, it is the obligation of the State that the financial requirements are complied with.

It is the second area of criticism that needs to be addressed by all of us. Corruption is a serious problem that could undermine all the objectives of this significant, radical, and hard-won entitlement for India`s rural poor. The question of leakages needs to be addressed not just to answer the critics, but also to ensure that the benefits of this legislation reach those it is supposed to. The NREGA can never meet its objectives without the active participation of people in its implementation. And it is here that another legislation - the Right to Information Act 2005 is an indispensable tool in the hands of the poor to fight leakages, claim entitlements and make the NREGA meaningful for themselves.

Basic Entitlements under NREGA

The NREGA guarantees every rural household 100 days a year of manual work at minimum wages within a five-kilometre radius. A failure to provide work gives the applicant a right to draw an unemployment allowance.

How will people be able to ensure implementation of this important entitlement? How will they stop leakages and fight corruption? Transparency provisions and the right to information are important means for workers and their organisations to exercise control over the delivery systems. Social audit measures and processes are important methods and platforms through which citizen control can be exercised.

Broadly, there are at least seven stages where workers need to monitor their entitlements.

1.       Registration as a worker and receiving a “job card”

2.       Applying for and receiving work

3.       Ensuring peoples participation and control over the planning process

4.       Organisation of the work site and measurement of work

5.       Payment of wages or payment of unemployment allowance

6.       Social audit after work is completed

7.                  Monitoring of the complaint and redressal machinery

Legally, the Right to Information Act provides citizens access to any records held by the government or its agencies. The NREGA also makes references to transparency and accountability, and citizens` access to copies of records and social audit. The guidelines detail proactive disclosure, getting copies of documents on demand and social audit. The guidelines of the NREGA are available on the Net at www.nrega.nic.in. However, it is worth highlighting some of the provisions that have been made.

Proactive Disclosure

The first stage of the Right to Information is proactive disclosure of information, where the government has a duty to inform people. The guidelines of the NREGA lay great emphasis on proactive disclosure, underscoring and strengthening certain provisions contained in the Right to Information Act. “Key documents related to the NREGA should be proactively disclosed to the public without waiting for anyone to `apply` for them. A list of such key documents should be prepared by the State Employment Guarantee Council, and updated from time to time. Section 4 of the (Right to Information) Act, which concerns the proactive disclosure of information, should be strictly complied with at all levels.”

Some of the areas of proactive disclosure that workers and their organisations should pay attention to include the following.

l         The display of information by painting on boards, the mandatory display

          of lists on notice boards, on websites, etc.

l         The requirement that information be read out aloud to people at crucial

          points

l         A detailed working out of the 17 aspects of the proactive disclosure

          obligations of government agencies under Section 4 of the Right to

          Information Act, as its implementation at every level would convert both

          the NREGA and its delivery agencies into an open information network

Access to Records and Obtaining Copies of Documents

Proactive disclosure policies generally work better in an atmosphere where citizens are vigilant, using the right to information to seek more detailed information, including a regular monitoring of the level and quality of information being disclosed. Open access to all records for inspection, and the right to receive certified copies of any documents on demand, are two essential right to information entitlements.

The NREGA guidelines state, “People should know who to apply to for information and for gaining access to records…. Fees charged for copies of NREGA-related documents should not exceed photocopying costs…. Requests for copies of REGS-related documents submitted under NREGA should be complied with within seven days.” It is noteworthy and encouraging that some of these provisions are stronger than the entitlements under the Right to Information Act.

Social Audit

The third pillar of the people`s Right to Information is the use of the platform for people`s participation facilitated by social audit. In this context it must be remembered that social audit or public audit is a continuous, ongoing process, through which a worker, or groups of workers can participate in the monitoring and implementation of the NREGA. It gives any citizen the legitimacy not just to seek information, but also to record complaints, suggestions, and demand answers in the public domain. It allows for collective evaluation and use of the non-written mode, and it mandates demystification of documents and procedures.

The NREGA guidelines dedicate an entire chapter (11) to compulsory social audit. The guidelines state, “An innovative feature of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is that it gives a central role to `social audits` as a means of continuous public vigilance (NREGA, Section 17). One simple form of social audit is a public assembly where all the details of a project are scrutinized. However, `social audit` can also be understood in a broader sense, as a continuous process of public vigilance.

The chapter lists eleven stages of the programme where an individual or group can intervene to ensure public vigilance. The last stage is the mandatory six-monthly social audit forum, where the gram sabha takes a look at a mandatory set of questions related to all the work carried out in the preceding period. These questions include, but are not restricted to, a set of sixty questions that citizens can ask about implementation of the programme at its various stages.

Need to Build Awareness and Mobilize People

Since the NREGA guidelines have been prepared on the basis of experience with public monitoring of employment programmes and after several rounds of public consultation, it is important to widely disseminate knowledge of these provisions so that workers and their organizations can use them to fight for their rights. However, guidelines can quite easily remain only on paper. As we all know, a law is only as good as its implementation. Both the NREGA and RTI Acts have opened up important spaces for citizens` action. These spaces need to be strengthened through specific efforts. The entitlements need to be translated into a worker- and village-level familiarity. For instance, one of the important lessons of the RTI movement has been the understanding that transparency operates at many levels. Each level has its particular usefulness and skill requirements. Not everyone can understand a measurement book. But most workers understand costs and measurements very well if they are converted into their language. Even in using open access to documents, work on demystification, dissemination and follow-up is crucial. The kinds of documents that should be proactively displayed have to be listed. Citizens groups need to be encouraged to procure copies of key documents at different levels. Finally the information has to be put to use in a diligent manner to ensure social audit is a live process. All this can only be done through active efforts of people`s organizations.

It will take a lot of effort from poor people`s organizations to get worker-friendly provisions effectively implemented. There is already an assault on various provisions of the Act from a set of policy makers who want to dilute its already limited provisions. It is only if we can establish the credibility of this Act that we can ensure that its huge number of potential supporters will fight for its organic growth. The best possible way of fighting the bogey of corruption as a means to attack the programme is by fighting corruption ourselves. We need to prevent that space from being occupied by those who only want to undermine the programme. We also need to use means of public vigilance as a tool to mobilise and procure entitlements. Fighting corruption through such struggles for people`s control can be part of a “political” rather than a ”managerial” process so that the NREGA truly grows to become a means to fight poverty, feudalism and exploitation in rural India.