http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Job_scheme_not_helping_Dalits/rssarticleshow/2918414.cms
'Job scheme not helping Dalits' 2 Apr 2008, 0307 hrs IST,TNN NEW DELHI: Tribals have consistently outnumbered Dalits in rural job guarantee programme despite being half in number, prompting concerns that the scheme might not be benefiting SCs to the optimum. A community-wise analysis of workers since the inception of scheme two years ago has led social justice ministry to conclude that participation ratio of SCs/STs was a "matter of concern". Social justice minister Meira Kumar has written to the rural development ministry, urging it to address the "anomalies". The job scheme, promising 100 days of work annually to every rural family, was expanded countrywide on Tuesday, in what marks a landmark for the Congress, which has projected NREGA as a flagship scheme to woo rural poor to its fold. The scheme, revolving around hard manual labour, is seen as a key employment window in distress situations with high demand among under-privileged communities like Dalits and tribals. Dalits are nearly double the number of STs, with the 2001 census putting them at 16.66 crore against 8.43 crore tribals. More pertinently, from NREGA's point of view, SCs make up 13.30% of the population in rural areas compared to 7.73% STs. What has attracted the social justice ministry's attention is that between 2006-07, with the scheme operational in 200 districts, SCs availed 25.36% of total mandays while STs took 36.45%. The figure narrowed in the second year when NREGA was expanded to 330 districts, with 27.04% mandays going to SCs and 30% to STs. Kumar's letter to rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said, "Despite the SC population double that of STs, mandays for SCs are much less in comparison to STs. This is an issue of concern." However, the RD ministry feels social realities were reflected in the manday numbers. Sources said tribals were more strongly linked to "jal, jungle, zameen" and were more inclined to hard labour. An official said the districts chosen in the first phase had a higher tribal population and this was reflected in the figures. Still, officials said tribals were expected to remain higher or at par with SCs even when the scheme was expanded nationally. They attribute this to a change in work profile of SCs in well-off societies like Punjab, arguing that a strong section of Dalits were part of regions where hard labour did not have much demand. The argument is buttressed by ever-growing migrant labour in Punjab despite the state having the highest SC population in the country. With NREGA expanded countrywide to 604 districts, Raghuvansh Singh said a major step in transparency had been taken by directing states to ensure that accounts were opened for workers in banks and post offices for payment of wages. The expansion will take the Centre's annual financial demand for NREGA to Rs 60,000 crore. It has given employment to 3.08 crore households while 15.61 lakh projects have been taken up. Singh said works related to water conservation and harvesting had been given top priority and had accounted for 48% of total projects. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
