London Varsity Professor lauds job guarantee scheme

''Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the most powerful transparent mechanism than anything in the history of the world. There is nothing like this scheme that matches more people,'' stated Prof James Manor of Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.

He was speaking at a special lecture on ‘Empowering the unemployed: New perspectives on MGNREGA’ organised jointly by Institute for Development and Empowerment and Indian Institute of Public Administration at the Dr B R Ambedkar Research and Extension Centre here on Saturday.

Describing the advantages of the scheme, Prof Manor said that the scheme gives any poor person the right to take advantage of wages. It also attempts to strengthen the political capacity of the poor, he added.

Exclaiming it to be the most massive injection of money to reach the poor, he said that it has helped increase political awareness, confidence and more importantly paved the way for decentralisation.

While noting that poverty was not just the severe shortage of money, he said it also means the lack of liberty and opportunities to exercise influence in the public sphere.
The MGNREGA aims to breaks this legacy.

Criticising the State Governments, bureaucrats and panchayat leaders, Prof Manor pointed out  that the strong incentive to steal money had forced them to refrain from improving awareness among the people.

“They are reluctant because the programme is demand driven,” he added.

During his research in Madhya Pradesh, Prof Manor said that a Sarpanch had confessed to securing ` six  lakh in stealing wages of workers every year.

However, the implementation of payments through bank accounts for every worker had reduced corruption, he said.

Observing the need for the civil society to become more active, he said that most of the people are optimistic as they believe that they finally have a chance to send their children to school.

“People sense an opportunity to create local projects to meet local needs. Ordinary people become more active and the local civil society becomes more active,” he said enthusiastically.

Commending the measures taken to tackle corruption in MGNREGA, Prof Manor said that there are still 12 different ways through which money can be stolen from the scheme.