Harit Prayas and MNREGA @JCSS, Jhansi

One of the objectives of the Harit Prayas project is to make people aware of their due rights regarding MNREGA. For the rural India MNREGA is the biggest livelihood scheme. For millions of unskilled labors MNREGA is lifeline.

At the same time MNREGA workers face a number of problems. One of the problems is related with getting their due wages.

In village Khandi, one of the target villages of project Harit Prayas, workers are suffering from corruption rampant in MNREGA. The data of Baseline survey explicitly shows the actual picture. During the baseline survey people of Khandi village shared this problem with JCSS Harit Prayas team.

Capacity building of rural community on the Grievance Redressal Mechanism aims at empowerment of the community members and enable them to solve their problems.

At the same time the issue of corruption is very complex and sensitive in the Bundelkhand region. The whistleblowers are generally being victimized by the vested interest group who are involved in corruption. Taking note of this fact the Harit Prayas team has developed a methodology for tackling this problem.

·         Identification of the community members having grievances regarding MNREGA.

·         To discuss the issues with the community member individually.

·         To guide the individual for making use of government’s Grievance Redressal Mechanism.

·         The individual is being advised not to use the grievance redressal mechanism individually, but always in a group. It will ensure their safety and make the complaint effective.

·         The community members are requested not to make the name of cluster coordinators or the field coordinator public, who guided and motivated them to use grievance redressal mechanism. The safety of Harit Prayas field staff is of utmost importance. And the staffs should never become the party in this whole process.

The experienced Field Coordinator Mr. Kailash Narayan Gautam (Harit Prayas) followed the methodology and tried to solve the problems of MNREGA wage laborers. He guided the MNREGA job card holders, who did not receive their due wages for the last six months. As a result the MNREGA workers have complained to the appropriate authorities collectively. This has been covered by the leading news paper. And the issue of corruption in MNREGA at Khandi village has come into limelight. The process of empowerment of community members has begun. Hope the community members continue with the same zeal and fight for their rights regarding MNREGA. Slowly but steadily, project Harit Prayas started yielding results…..