1 An Act to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of Guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 Seminar on “ Government Flagship schemes: ICT: A key Enabler ” Using ICT for NREGA Dr. Rita Sharma Secretary, Government of India Ministry of Rural Development. 21 st, October, 2009

NREGA: Objectives Process Outcomes Strengthen grass root processes of democracy Infuse transparency and accountability in governance Auxiliary Regenerate natural resource base for sustainable rural livelihoods o Water conservation & water harvesting o Drought Proofing (afforestation & tree plantation) o Irrigation canals, micro & minor irrigation works o Works on individual land of SC/ST/BPL/IAY/ Land reform beneficiaries/ Small & Marginal farmers o Renovation of traditional water bodies o Land development o Flood control & protection, drainage o Rural connectivity Primary Supplement employment opportunities 2

(FY ) 615 Districts (FY ) upto Sep., Districts Employment provided to households: 4.49 Crore3.26 Crore Total: SCs: [29%]38.67 [30%] STs: [25%]27.86 [22%] Women: [48%]65.43 [51%] Others: [45%]61.71 [48%] Average personday per household 48 Days39 Days Budget Outlay (In Rs Crore): Central Release (In Rs Crore): Total available fund [including OB]: In Crore Expenditure (In Rs. Crore.) Average wage per day Rs. 84Rs. 88 Total works taken up (In Lakhs): Works completed: Water conservation: [46%]13.15 [52%] Rural Connectivity: 4.91 [18%]4.17 [17%] Land Development: 3.97 [15%]3.40 [13%] Any other activity: 0.25 [1 %]0.33 [1.3%] %] PERSONDAYS [in Crore] FINANCIAL DETAIL [41%]61.15 [43%] [25%]39.36 [27%] [36%]42.07 [29%] 2.10 Crore3.39 Crore (FY ) 200 Districts (FY ) 330 Districts [38%]62.16 [43%] Days42 Days Provision of Irrigation facility to land owned by SC/ST/ BPL and IAY benificiaries: 0.81 [10%]2.63 [15 %] [54%] 0.34 [4%]0.56 [3%] 8.73 [49 %] 1.80 [21%]3.08 [17 %] 5.56 [20%]4.15 [16%] Rs [11%] 2.88 [16%] , Rs. 65 WORKS DETAIL NREGA National Overview

NREGA: Positive Trends Increase in Agriculture Minimum Wages and wage earned per day and annual income. Bargaining power of labour has increased Earnings per HH has increased from Rs 2795 in 2006-’07 to Rs 4060 in 2008-’09 & estimated Rs in Financial Inclusion: 7.75 crore accounts opened Distress migration has reduced in many parts “Green Jobs” created as 70% works relate to water conservation, water-harvesting, restoration, renovation and desilting of water bodies, drought-proofing, plantation & afforestation Rural assets created led to Productivity-enhancing effects - Improvement in ground water - Improved agricultural productivity & cropping intensity - Livelihood diversification in rural areas. 44

ICT and NREGA 1.Implementation: Transparency & Accountability 2.Grievance Redressal 3.Financial Inclusion 4.Public Information 5.Employment generation effects 6.Income impact on telecom sector

ICT for Implementing NREGA  NREGA is Rights based. The basic premise for Rights is transparency.  ICT provides an opportunity for enabling transparency by placing all information in the public domain.  It includes separate pages for approximately 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats, 6458 Blocks, 615 Districts and 34 States & UTs.  8 crore Job Cards & 2 crore Muster Rolls in public domain  A transaction level, work-flow based, web enabled MIS has been developed for NREGA nrega.nic.in  The architecture of software is designed to follow all the legal and statutory provisions

Generate all Registers/documents and make them available to public, specially: Workers’ entitlements: oRegistration, oJob cards, oEmployment demanded and allocated, oDays worked, oMuster rolls, oUnemployment allowance, o Payments and compensations due. Work data: oSanctioned shelf of works, oWork progress, oMeasurement, oInventory of works/assets Financial data: oFinancial Proposals o Funds available/spent oAmount paid as wages, materials and administrative expenses oTrack transfer of fund to various implementing agencies. oOnline processing of Labour Budgets Grievances: oRegister grievances of workers and Track complaints and action taken Monitoring and Corrective Action: alerts for corrective action, Social Audit findings. MIS Functions

Use of ICT in Grievance Redressal Citizen can lodge complaints online through website can lodge complaints online through website National helpline now being upgraded to ICT based network of national helplineNational helpline now being upgraded to ICT based network of national helpline Toll free Helpline No. obtained which is Complaints received through Helplines has been sent to the State Govt through . State Governments have been requested to set up Helplines at the State and District levels. Report on establishment of helpline has been received from UP, Gujarat, Bihar, Goa

Use of ICT for Financial Transactions NREGA has given a big stimulus to ICT enabled financial transactions in rural areas: Rural ATM, hand held devices, smart cards, bio-metrics. ICT enabled business correspondence services that use Smart Card / Hand held devices / Biometrics

ICT for People’s Information Pilot initiative launched to enable direct worker access to log in and transact through a Point of transaction.Pilot initiative launched to enable direct worker access to log in and transact through a Point of transaction. Integration of following NREGA processes in Smart Cards or Hand held Devices with biometric identification:  Registration, Job cards, Demand and allocation of work  Recording of attendance at worksite  Payment of wages Areas of implementation as Pilot Project –Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala Geographic Information System (GIS): GIS for effective management and assessment of Natural Resources through GIS- based Asset Management System. GIS to evolve appropriate methodology for collection, collation, storage and processing of data on natural resources in a given region and in totality. Area of implementation – Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttarakhand Partnership with UIDA for including NREGA workers in the unique identity project.Partnership with UIDA for including NREGA workers in the unique identity project.

Employment generation impact on ICT 6907 computer assistants at block level6907 computer assistants at block level 745 IT manager and computer Assistants at District level745 IT manager and computer Assistants at District level

NREGA Income Impact on ICT Estimated 10% of wages earned expended on mobile phonesEstimated 10% of wages earned expended on mobile phones Computers and internet connectivityComputers and internet connectivity Under consideration NREGA labour for trench digging for laying fibre optic cables by BSNLUnder consideration NREGA labour for trench digging for laying fibre optic cables by BSNL