UIDAI and NREGA: The Face-off

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is one of those acts which is taken very seriously by the central government. For the financial year 2010-11, finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee has proposed to allocate `40,100 crore and in the union budget for the financial year 2011-12, the existing wage rates will be linked with the consumer price index, and this calls for a hike in the existing wage rate of `100 per day.

One of the reasons for the re-election of the UPA government in 2009 has been credited to the promise made by the central government to take MGNREGA forward. Linking MGNREGA with Aadhar, the Unique Identification (UID) number has created a lot of discrepancies between the UID, and the social activists who are associated with the implementation of MGNREGA.

It has been 5 years since MGNREGA has been launched, and the Ministry of Rural Development has decided to create a biometric database of MGNREGA workers. The database will be shared by UIDAI for the Aadhar project. Here the entire issue has cropped up, where the social activists are against linking UID with MGNREGA. Till this decision was taken, the MGNREGA workers got themselves enrolled for various employment opportunities through the job cards issued to them. Now when the job cards are about to expire by the end of this year, its renewal under biometric system would be a time consuming process, and till then there would be no job guaranteed to them for minimum 100 days.

Who will Benefit?

Lets first analyze how the entire structure is working out currently. In the present scenario, if an individual is willing to do manual labor under MGNREGA, he or she has to fill up a form, and get his or her address scrutinized by the authorities at the panchayat level. Now, UID has been made mandatory for every MGNREGA worker, to seek employment opportunities under the provision.

It will be a very time consuming process. UID is linked with MGNREGA for UIDs convenience, and not for the convenience of MGNREGA workers. It will be a benefit for UIDAI to get better enrollment, says Nikhil Dey, member of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). He argues that the job card system is working well with the NREGA workers, and they carry the necessary data required.

Though most of the government officials are favoring the decision of the Ministry of Rural Development to take this initiative forward, but the activists working closely with MGNREGA are obstinately protesting against the move.

UK has scrapped their 5 bn pounds national identity card scheme as they found it ineffective, and most importantly they had to address the concerns related to civil liberties. When asked about the implementation of UID in India, Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt, chair, UK India Business Council (UKIBC) says, India is transforming itself, and emerging in the world. Considering the huge population, UID will transform the lives of the people residing in rural India. Rt Hon Hewitt referred to the usage of electronic voting machines (EVMs) for conducting elections across the country, and she is quite hopeful that if electronic voting machines could work, then UID will definitely help India.

Citizens across various nationalities have strongly opposed the implemetation of national ID schemes in their countries, as it will restrict them to avail their civil liberties. UIDAI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with various state governments, and union territories to provide Aadhar aka the UID to its citizens. According to the details shared by UIDAI, the following states and partners have signed a MoU with the nation-wide identity program.

The table deciphers the fact that the central government is taking the UID program very seriously, and the MoU signed by various states have agreed to implement UID on a pilot basis, and link the various government projects to it. One of them being MGNREGA.

The Face-off

Both MGNREGA and UID are the flagship programs of the UPA government, and both these programs would be credited to their achievements during their tenure at the centre. But at the same time, these 2 national programs are clashing with each other. The imbroglio over this issue forces us to review the development in this initiative of linking UID with MGNREGA. Quite positive about the success of UID, Dr Ajay Kumar, IAS, joint secretary, Department of Information Technology, government of India says, Technology is the fundamental building block of a whole lot of applications that we will see running on the e-governance sector as we go on, and MGNREGA is one of them.

On the other hand, Nikhil Dey from MKSS questions the need for linking UID with MGNREGA, when the existing system of issuing job cards to MGNREGA workers is already on a smooth track. The biggest concern is that the implementation of UID in enrolling the biometric database of MGNREGA workers would lead to the job losses of many MGNREGA workers, as they would take a lot of time to get themselves enrolled under UIDAI. UIDAI claims that it aims for getting the poor, and the underprevileged enrolled under this scheme. It seems to be the prime reason why it has planned to partner with government projects like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY), and Public Distribution System (PDS).

Now it has to be seen that if the national ID project of the UK was scrapped because of breach to civil liberties, if US citizens strongly protest against the implementation of any such programmes in their country, will the worlds largest democracy, which has lower level of literacy and a huge population, be able to serve the purpose of its citizens through the UID program?

Possible Solutions

The discord between the social activists, and the UIDAI is becoming critical. Each one has a vaild point to support their point of argument. UIDAI promises that linking Aadhar with MGNREGA will be effective in the long run, whereas the social activists argue that the existing system of issuing job cards is sufficient, and is ensuring that the entire process is carried out hassle free. But in this debate, the entire issue is not coming to closure, and possible solutions are not chalked out.

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Dr N Seshagiri, former director general, NIC and former special secretary to the government of India says, The implementers of MGNREGA have to ensure, that the solutions do not amount to throwing the baby along with the bath water. Judging both the sides of the argument, Dr Seshagiri has suggested some of the possible solutions which could help a lot to resolve this issue.

Conclusion

This initiative of linking UID with MGNREGA is drawing mixed reactions. It seems there are some loopholes but if they are addressed, the future of this idea seems rewarding. Real-time data on MGNREGA processes will reduce delays in measurement, and wage payments. From this data, post facto, UIDAI can generate UID numbers for its own purposes. There are well tested softwares already available for minimizing bogus muster rolls adds Dr Seshagiri. Now, its time to see whether UIDAI can address these issues by action, if not by words.

Pragyan Acharya
pragyana@cybermedia.co.in