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Miracle of MNREGA

A Study on the Best Practices of MNREGA in Andhra Pradesh

Written by

Parshuram Rai

Supported by

UUHHJIF

CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FOOD SECURITY

NEW DELHI

2014

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CONTENTS

Topic Page

1 Contents 2

2 Acknowledgement 3

3 Executive Summary 5

4 Best Practices of MNREGS in Andhra Pradesh 15

5 Findings of MNREGS Survey in Andhra Pradesh 33

6 Case Studies and Success Stories from Field

7 Case Studies from Ananthpuram 43

8 Case Studies from Chittoor 58

9 Case Studies from Vizianagaram 91

10 Case Studies from Vishakhapatnam 112

11 Case Studies from Srikakulam 122

12 Case Studies from Adilabad 140

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to put on record my highest appreciation and sincere thanks to Prakash Rao and

Ravi Shankar for their research assistance in this study . A special thank is due to Prakash

Rao for his hard work , patience and perseverence through out the field study in AP.

This Study would not have been possible without the support and cooperation of large

number of govt. officials and Gram Panchayat functionaries of Andhra Pradesh (AP-

UNITED), starting from the Chief Secretary of the State to Field Assistants of the GPs . First

and foremost , we are grateful to thousands of MNREGA beneficiaries and labourers from

across AP(UNITED) who spared time to talk to us and share with us their side of the story .

We are grateful to many officials of the State Govt. who helped us during this study ; to

name a few , Shri P K Mohanty ( Chief Secretary ) , Shri Shashi Bhushan Kumar

(Commissioner – Rural Development) , Ms Karuna Akela ( Director –MNREGA ) . A special

thank is due to Ms Karuna Akela for her diligence , sincerety , cooperation and support for

this study . A lot of credit for the success of MNREGA in AP goes to her .

We are also grateful to DMs of Srikakulam and Adilabad who took personal interest in this

study and also accompanied us in some villages during the study . A special thank is due to

Shri Saurabh Gaur ( DM- Srikakulam ) for all his support extended to us during this study .

His personal interest and involvement in the effective implementation of MNREGA and his

knowledge about the same was impressive and encouraging .

The Project Directors (PDs) of all six districts where we conducted our survey , research and

documentation deserve our special gratitude for their help, support and cooperation during

this study .We owe a special thank to Shri Kalyan Chakravarti ( PD – Srikakulam) for his

extraordinary diligence , support and cooperation during the study . I have never seen so

hard working , so simple , thoroughly honest and completely committed govt official like

him . A lot of credit for successful implementation of MNREGA in AP goes to officials like

Shri Chakravari , in whom I found a true KARMAYOGI of Bhagavad Gita variety . We are

grateful to Shri Ganapati Rao ( APD-M&E, Srikakulam) and all other officials of Srikakulam

who helped us in the study .

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We are grateful to Shri Sriram Naidu ( PD-Vishakhapatnam) and his colleagues, Shri Appala

Naidu (APD- Vizianagaram) and his colleagues , Shri Vinay Reddy ( PD-Adilabad) and his

colleagues, Shri C. Chandramauli ( PD- Chittoor) , Shri Gopi Chand ( APD- Chittoor) and their

other colleagues , Shri Sanjay Prabhakar ( PD-Anantpuram), Shri Vijay Kumar ( APD-

Anantpuram) and their other colleagues for their sincere support and help during the field

study . I am especially grateful to Shri Vijay Kumar and his colleagues for their kindness and

help when I fell sick in Ananthapuram . He and his colleagues took care of me so much that I

recovered back soon .

Last but not the least , We are grateful to Ms.Sowmya Kidambi (Director- Social Audit) ,

Andra Pradesh and her colleague Shri Chaitanya for their help and cooperation during the

study .

-Parshuram Rai ( Swami Vedanta )

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) has been working on MNREGS (Mahatma

Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ) since its inception in 2006 .During

last seven years , CEFS has conducted performance audit of MNREGS in the states of

Odisha , Madhya Pradesh , Uttar Pradesh and Bihar . We found massive corruption and

serious irregularities in the implementation of MNREGS in all these states . As a result , CEFS

filed a Writ Petition in the Supreme Court of India , seeking Orders for ensuring effective

and corruption-free implementation of MNREGS in all states .

During the course of 23 hearings in the Supreme Court (SC) , CEFS submitted repeatedly

that except the State of Andhra Pradesh (AP) , no state was implementing MNREGS in letter

and spirit . During the course of some hearings , the SC wondered if other states should

be asked to follow the Best Practices in the implementation of MNREGA adopted by AP .

Therefore , CEFS decided to undertake a systematic and detailed study on the Best Practices

of MNREGA adopted by AP ; so that we could file a detailed response in the Supreme Court

regarding the replicability of AP’s Best Practices in other states, especially Social Audit .

This study is not an academic exercise but an instrument of advocacy for improving

implementation of MNREGS in other states through the intervention of the Supreme Court

directing all the states to ensure independent , effective,credible and detailed social audit

of MNREGS , as done by Andhra Pradesh (AP-UNITED) .

AP has unleashed full potential of MNREGA by ensuring effective and corruption-free

implementation of the ACT, as revealed by CEFS Study .The secret of effective and

successful implementation of MNREGS in AP lies in independent , effective , detailed and

credible Social Audit. If other states also adopt these Best Practices and implement the ACT

in its letter and spirit , the MNREGA would definitely unleash its full potential and bring a

complete turnaround in the socio-economic-ecological profile of rural India .

This study has three components : (1) Introductory note on the Best Practices of MNREGS

adopted by AP , (2) Findings of CEFS Survey in two districts of AP , and (3) 40 case studies

and success stories from 6 districts of AP .

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Introductory Note of Best Practices of AP

The introductory note on the Best Practices of MNREGS in Andhra Pradesh is largely based

on the information provided by AP Govt.This note gives basic information on the various

Processes in the implementation of MNREGS in AP . These processes include :

Planning Process / Development Plan

Rural Standard Schedule of Rates

Use of ICT as a key tool in the implementation

RAGAS: (Rashtriya Grameena Abhivruddhi Samacharam)

MIS Reports

Electronic Fund Transfer System (eFMS)

Electronic Muster and Measurement System (eMMS)

Biometric Muster and Measurement System (B-EMMS)

Payment of wages through Smart Cards

Distribution of wage slips

Ensuring wage payments within fortnight

Delayed wage compensation

Shrama Shakthi Sanghas

Formation of Shrama Shakti Sanghalu Federations

Social Audit

Vigilance Cell

Mobile Court

Chenchu Primitive Tribal Groups

Empowering Rural Women

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Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities

Grievance Redressal

Quality Control Cell

Towards Securing Livelihoods of the rural poor

Findings of CEFS Survey

CEFS conducted sample survey in 40 sample villages from two districts to ascertain the

veracity of various claims regarding MNREGS made by AP . So, this section contains CEFS

survey findings . The survey was conducted in two sample districts- Srikakulam and

Adilabad during December 2013 and January 2014 .

Wage Employment

CEFS survey has revealed that about 90 per cent of the sample households had received

over 100 days of wage employment during previous 12 months ( from January 2013 –

December 2013) . About 10 percent of the sample households had worked for less than 100

days during the same period . But ,it was not because of unavailability of the wage

employment that these households worked for less than 100 days , it was on account of

their personal problems (busy in some other work) .

Wage Payment

About 95 per cent of respondents said that they had received their full wages . About 90

per cent of respondent households had received their wage payments within 15 days but

about 10 per cent of samples had received their wages within 30 days .

Transparency and Accountability

When asked if they had seen all the Muster Rolls , almost 100 per cent of respondents said

that they had seen all their muster rolls . In reply to the question if they had ever

participated in the Social Audit Forum , over 95 per cent of sample households said that

they had participated in every Social Audit Forum held in their GP.

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When asked if MNREGS was corruption-free in their village , all 1000 sample households

from Srikakulam and Adilabad districts emphatically said that there was no corruption or

leakage in the implementation of MNREGS in their villages . Villagers told us that since

there was proper and detailed social audit of every single rupee of expenditure under

MNREGS in all GPs , there was no question of misappropriation or leakage of MNREGS

funds .

When asked if they were satisfied with the Grievance Redressal System in MNREGS, 100 per

cent of sample households said that they were fully satisfied with the grievance redressal

system in their GP.

Food Security

Majority of sample households from both the sample districts were extremely deprived

dalits and adivasis , whose life was usually characterised by chronic hunger and food

insecurity , before the launch of MNREGS . However , the implementation of MNREGS in its

letter and spirit has resulted into significant improvement in the Food Security Index of all

sample households .

Every single respondent household said that the MNREGS had very substantially enhanced

their food security . 100 per cent of respondents from both the sample districts said that

MNREGS had succeeded in reducing hunger by 75-100 per cent . Almost all sample

households said that “the hunger is now a thing of the past, thanks to MNREGS”.

Distress Migration

The findings of CEFS survey in 40 sample villages of Srikakulam and Adilabad districts

suggest that the effective and corruption-free implementation MNREGS in AP has led to

drastic reduction in distress migration . Before the launch of MNREGS , there used to be

massive distress migration in all these villages . In most of the sample villages , before

MNREGS , about 50-75 per cent of working population used to migrate out to cities and

towns in search of wage employment . However , after the launch of MNREGS , in the case

of about 75 per cent of sample villages , distress migration is now a thing of the past ; and

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in the case of about 25 per cent of sample villages , some people still migrate but only for a

few months .

Indebtedness

In rural Andhra Pradesh , poverty and indebtedness are two sides of the same coin . From

time immemorial , indebtedness has been a constant companion of the poor . Before the

arrival of MNREGA in 2006 , it was almost impossible to find a single poor household free

from debt . However , the effective implementation of MNREGA has significantly reduced

indebtedness among poor households . 100 per cent of the sample households said that

MNREGS had significantly reduced indebtedness in their villages .

Case Studies and Success Stories from 6 districts

We have documented 40 case studies and success stories from the field . These case studies

are based on our first hand field visit and interview with beneficiaries from six districts

(Srikakulam , Vizianagaram , Vishakhapatnam , Adilabad , Anantpur and Chittoor) .

AP (UNITED) had identified 60 Lakh acres of land belonging to SC and ST as well as small and

marginal farmers for saturated development . Besides land development, the govt. also gives

handholding support to ensure these families grow the crops on the treated land. This

approach helps in bringing fallow and degraded cultivable lands into cultivation which

enhances the income levels of the rural poor.

Fallow Land Development: Works in 5.7 lakh acres are in progress and in 13.4 lakh acres

completed.

Degraded Cultivable Land: Works in 3.4 lakh acres is in progress and 11.2 lakh acres have

been completed.

Horticulture Programme under MNREGA:

The scheme envisages development of horticulture plantation, providing micro irrigation

like drip. List of works included are Mango, Cashew, Sweet orange, Sapota, Custard apple,

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Guava, Acid lime, Coconut, Oil Palm, Eucalyptus, Subabul, Casuarina, Rubber, Coffee. During

2013-14, horticulture was taken up in 1.2 lakh acres. Mostly mango, sweet lime, cashew and

coffee are taken up under horticulture plantations. Cumulatively, 6.8 lakh acres were taken

up benefitting SC/ST/Small & Marginal farmers.

Comprehensive restoration of M.I. Tanks under MNREGS:

In convergence with Irrigation Department, comprehensive restoration of M.I. tanks and the

command area under the tanks were taken up. List of works taken up for restoration of

tanks include- Bush clearance, Breech Closing, Repair of weir, Repair of sluice, Repair of

Channel, Repair of cross drainage & cross masonry works, Bund strengthening, Desilting and

silt application to lands of SC/ST/BPL families, Peripheral trench. 18,131 Minor Irrigation

tanks were restored including de-silting by incurring an expenditure of Rs. Rs. 3430 Cr. The

work resulted in stabilization of 8.5 lakh acres ayacut.

Our Case studies and success stories from 6 districts of AP are telling examples of

remarkable turnaround in the lives , livelihoods and lifestyles of rural poor of AP , as a

direct result of effective and successful implementation of MNREGA during last 7 years .

Following is one of the 40 case studies :

Village : Mandlipalli (Harijanawada)

Grampanchayat : Tanakal

Mandal : Tanakal

District : Ananthapuram

Total Households : 120 (Entirely Scheduled Caste)

MNREGA BECOMES DIVINE BOON FOR POOR DALITS OF MANDLIPALLI

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About 300 acres of land (Barren/ Unproductive) was assigned to dalits of this village

long ago, but entire land was lying barren. In 2010 -11, one Dry Land Horticulture

(Mango) Project under MNREGA began in this village under which about 177 acres of

the barren land has been developed ( Bush clearance, Boulder removal, Stone picking ,

Trenches construction , earthen bunds and mango plantation). During this 2-3 years of

gestation period most of the farmers have done inter-cropping. In this entire block of

mango plantation 1390 mango plants have been planted. Their intercrops have already

provided good income to many dalit farmers. Moreover, they receive Rs.1200 per

month per acre of mango plantation as maintenance cost under MNREGA for 3 years of

gestation period . This has brought very good and regular income to all mango

plantation beneficiaries .

Beneficiary: #1

Jelipigari Narayanappa has 7.5 acres of land , out of which about half is already under

mango plantation. From the intercrop in the 1st year, he earned Rs.36,000/- from

Tomato, from the second crop of Tomato he earned Rs.46,000/- and he is expecting

about Rs.60,000/- worth of tomato this year(2014). He purchased gold worth Rupees

One Lakh last year. He also purchased about Rs.15000 worth of furniture. He is building

a new Pucca house and in that he has invested about Rupees One Lakh from his

personal income. Two of his children are studying in Government School. He used to

work in the house of a landlord and used to get Rs.1000 - 1500/- per year. His wife also

used to work on daily wage of Rs.15 – 20 before MGNREGA.

However, his life took a turn with the arrival of MGNREGA. He is now very happy farmer

and lives a life of self confidence, self respect and self reliance. His livelihood is secured

through MGNREGA and horticulture plantation. When asked if he works anywhere

other than MGNREGA, this dalit farmer proudly quipped “Now, I myself can engage and

employ 1 – 2 labourers”.

Beneficiary #2

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Jelipigari Venkataramana has 4 acres of land , in which 2 acres is under mango

plantation. In 1st year of intercrop (Tomato), he earned Rs.50,000/- and this year too he

has grown Tomato and likely to get at least Rs.50,000/- income. With the income earned

from intercrops, he was able to repay Rs.35000/- of debt and invested some income in

agriculture. He has 10 shirts.

Beneficiary #3

J Tirupal has 4 acres of land with mango plantation in the entire plot. He has earned

Rs.60,000 from groundnut cultivation. He has purchased Rs.1.5 lakh worth of gold only

last year. He says that this entire gold purchase was done with direct and indirect

income from MGNREGA . He receives Rs.1200 per month per acre of mango plantation

as maintenance cost under MNREGA . In other words , he earns Rs.48,000 towards

watering charges/wages per year. So, during 3 years of gestation period of mango

plantation project, he received about Rs.1.44 lakh as maintenance cost from MNREGA .

Beneficiary #4

J Uthanna has 5 acres of land and in 3 acres he has taken up mango plantation.

From Intercrop (Tomato) he earned Rs.70,000/-

Beneficiary #5

J Venkataramana has 3.5 acres of land and in 3 acres he has taken up mango plantation.

From intercrop (Groundnut) he earned Rs.45,000/-.

During last 2 years, he has purchased Rs.15,000 worth of gold and a Mobile phone and

has deposited Rs.30,000 as savings in the State Bank of India. He has 10 sets of clothes

(he was wearing starched and ironed clothes and had very costly towel on his

shoulders). Before 2006, he was working with a landlord and leading miserable life.

Beneficiary # 6

J Ramachandra has 4 acres of land and has taken up mango plantation in the entire plot.

He earned Rs.50,000 from the intercrop of Tomato. He has 3 children. Eldest son has

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completed BA and is waiting for a Job. His other two children who are daughters are

both pursuing Nursing Courses.

Beneficiary #7

K Genganna has 3 acres of land and has mango plantation in all 3 acres of his land.

During last 3 years of intercrop, he has earned Rs.45,000/-. He has invested some of the

income he earned on the construction of the house and also purchased some cattle.

Beneficiary #8

V Narasimhulu has 7.5 acres of land. He has mango plantation in 5 acres of land. During

last 3 years, he has earned Rs.1.5 lakh from groundnut cultivation. He also purchased 3

acres of land worth Rs.2.1 lakh and says that this is all thanks to MGNREGA.

Beneficiary #9

M Gopal has 3.5 acres of land and in 2.5 acres he has taken up mango plantation . From

intercrops (Tomato, Chilly and Groundnut) he earned Rs.50,000/-

Beneficiary #10

J Adilaxmi has 4 acres of land and in 2.8 acres she has taken up mango plantation. She

has earned Rs.28,000/- from the groundnut intercrop alone. She purchased gold worth

Rs.52,000 . She says “Earlier I had only one pair of sarees and that too very cheap. But

now, I have 5 pairs of costly sarees”.

Beneficiary #11

J Venkataramana has 3.5 acres of land and has mango plantation in this entire plot. He

has earned Rs.60,000 from groundnut intercrop. He got his son educated till M.A, B.Ed

and other son till Graduation.

Before MGNREGA, these dalit farmers and labourers used to work as farm labourers at

daily wage of Rs.30-40 in the neighbouring villages. But now they don’t need to go out

for work in other villages . If at all they do go , they demand and get Rs.150-200/- as

daily wage. Villagers say that MGNREGA has become a “divine boon” and they are living

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a very happy, comfortable and dignified life. All of them are sending their children to

schools and most of them have invested incomes either in purchasing durables like gold

or some savings in the bank or invested towards agriculture. Seeing and realizing the

contribution and role of MGNREGA in their life, these farmers are strongly demanding

that there should be no limit on the number of days under MGNERGA.

J Gangadhar, who used to work in a Hotel in Puttaparthy and used to earn Rs.2000/-

(Husband and wife both put together) for working round the clock. It was a bone

breaking job and life was miserable. “I am so happy now with my MGNREGA job and I

am leading a happy, comfortable and dignified life in my own village. I am no more

dependent on anyone for my food security and I am also a proud citizen of India. For

poor people like me MGNREGA is not a scheme but a god sent boon. This divine blessing

(MGNREGA) is much more meaningful and important for poor people like me than the

Prasadam (Blessing) I used to enjoy in Puttaparthy (in Satya Sai Ashram)”.

Jelipigari Gangadhar is a SC beneficiary (Mate also) with 3 acres of mango cultivation .

He says, “MGNREGA is not just another project or welfare scheme but a divine blessing

for poor people like me”.

These dalits say that now they are going twice or thrice to Balaji temple(Tirupati). But

before 2006, they never went there. It is because of the income from MGNREGA.

Earlier they used to eat non-vegetarian food once in a while, but now they are eating

non-vegetarian food twice to thrice in a month.

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BEST PRACTICES OF MNREGA IN ANDHRA PRADESH

Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP- UNITED) launched MGNREGS ( Mahatma Gandhi

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ) on February 2, 2006 in 13 districts of the

state. The scheme was subsequently expanded to all the districts . For effective

implementation , greater transparency and complete accountability in the scheme, GoAP

has made necessary changes and introduced initiatives, based on its experiences, within the

purview of the MGNREGA .

Performance of MGNREGS (since inception) as on 23rd Oct 2013

1.9 Crore beneficiaries belonging to 93.7 lakh rural households have accessed the

scheme.

Rs. 27,988 Crore expenditure incurred. Out of total expenditure incurred, Rs.

20,114 Crore was paid as wages to the wage seekers.

209.7 Crore persondays were provided to rural households with an average wage

rate of Rs. 95.9.

Women participation has been 58%

SC participation – 25% & ST participation – 15% of persondays generated

1.4 lakh Persons with Disability have accessed the scheme.

Processes in the implementation of MGNREGS:

Planning Process – Development Plan:

The objective of the planning process is to ensure that the district is prepared well in

advance to offer productive employment on demand. The need to coordinate different

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levels in planning and to prepare a ‘shelf of projects’ to provide wage employment requires

preparation of an Annual Plan for the District. This is done before the commencement of the

financial year so that the shelf of works in each Gram Panchayat (GP) is sufficient to meet

the demand of wage seekers in the next financial year.

Labour Budget for the next financial year for each GP is prepared after discussion

with the Srama Shakti Sanghas (SSS) ie., fixed labour groups and after approval in the Gram

Sabha (GS). After the approval of labour budget by the GS, the Programme Officer and the

mandal technical team identifies works in each GP to meet the labour budget proposed

persondays. The Programme Officer, prepares a Mandal plan by consolidating proposals of

all the GPs in the mandal. Subsequently, the Mandal Plans prepared by the Programme

Officers of the Mandals get approval of the District Programme Coordinator by the December

end and thus labour budget for the district gets prepared.

The identification of works is being taken up with the involvement of the village

communities in the planning process for creation of productive and durable assets. After the

identification of works with the involvement of village communities in the Gram Sabha, the

input data sheets for various works are filled-in by the technical team and the GPS

coordinates and the photographs are captured for each and every work that is identified in the

planning process. The estimate gets generated through the online software, RAGAS, based on

the filled-in input data sheets and the GPS coordinates and photographs uploaded.

Rural Standard Schedule of Rates:

As per the provision under Schedule 1 Para 7 and 8 “When wages are directly linked with

the quantity of work, the wages shall be paid according to the schedule of rates fixed by the

State Government for different types of work every year, in consultation with the State

Council.

Based on the provisions of the Act, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh assigned ESCI Engineering Staff

College of India to conduct Work Time and Motion Studies so as to fix up the rates for

various types of works in such a way that labourers get notified minimum wages based on

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work output for 8 working hours. Based on the outcome of ESCI study, Department of Rural

Development,AP, brought out a Rural Standard Schedule of Rates for works taken up under

MGNREGS.

Preparation of Rural Schedule of Rates is a step taken by GoAP which paved the way for

earning wages by the labour based on the piece rate system rather than attendance. The

RSSR rates are revised based on the wage rate notified by the Govt. of India every year. The

notified wage rate during 2013-14 was Rs. 149.

Use of ICT as a key tool in the implementation:

The state of Andhra Pradesh has been the front runner in the use of technology in the

implementation of MGNREGS. Keeping in mind the degree of error that might occur in

various stages of the implementation and to ensure transparency in the execution of

MGNREGS , use of ICT becomes necessary especially in the registration of wage seekers,

estimation of works, disbursement of wages and maintenance of accounts. IT applications

also help in the social audit process, disclosure of information as per the Right to

Information Act as well as the generation of various reports, estimates and proceedings.

RAGAS: (Rashtriya Grameena Abhivruddhi Samacharam):

A highly comprehensive and end-to-end transaction based application that provides

convenience for the field staff and makes the work of the administrative officials easier at

the same time has been developed. RAGAS is capable of handling all key steps in the

implementation of MGNREGS , namely, registration of wage seekers, issue of job cards,

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preparation of work estimates, generation of pay order etc. As a result of this automation, a

lot of manual work and drudgery is reduced at the mandal level and handling of tasks has

become fast and efficient.

MIS Reports:

MGNREGS-IT initiative has developed a web based MIS portal to help in monitoring and for

reviewing the implementation of the Scheme. The MGNREGS portal www.nrega.ap.gov.in

provides detailed information of each and every transaction relating to every wage seeker

and work taken up under MGNREGS. The reports on the web have been organized in such a

way that, reports are easily accessible for monitoring the implementation of the scheme.

The reports are categorized as –

General Reports - Physical and Financial Performance Report.

Beneficiary details

Expenditure Reports

Works related reports – Status of works, expenditure on works etc.,

Biometric payments status reports

Status of demand for work, allocation of work, musters generated

Horticulture & related reports

Details of Srama Shakti Sanghas and registrations

Reports of convergence with various departments.

Reports of performance of PWDs, Chenchu etc.

Performance Exception reports

Consolidated muster rolls

Social Audit Reports

Reports of initiatives like electronic muster & measurements; electronic fund

management system, biometric payments, ITDAs, AP NGO Network, Grievance

Redressal etc.,

Analysis reports – Analysis of households reported; wages earned;

expenditure incurred; community wise; gender wise etc.,

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Electronic Fund Transfer System (eFMS):

Electronic Fund Transfer system (eFMS) has been established with the objective of putting

in place an efficient mechanism to generate transmission of funds through online money

transfers. This system helps in avoiding the parking of funds in some places and empowers

all blocks and Panchayats to access funds uninterrupted. By means of a central server, eFMS

enables all the Mandal Computer Centres (MCCs) and the District Computer Centres (DCCs)

to be networked to a Central fund in which all the MGNREGA funds are lodged.

The primary use of this system is to transfer funds to the disbursing accounts (Post Office,

Smart Card, Supplier’s Account or the Individual’s wage account) for timely and accurate

payment of wages. The work flow involves exchange of information between the Block

offices (MPDO), MGNREGS Server, Bank server and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) server.

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Electronic Muster and Measurement System (eMMS)

eMMS has been introduced across the State in MGNREGS with a view to improve the

transparency and efficiency in implementation of the programme. Muster and

Measurements are recorded electronically using mobile phones networked to the central

server. Check measurement of works is also done by using mobile phones. The eMMS

enables to capture the GPS coordinates and hence the field staff are forced to go to the

work site for recording and check measurement of works.

eMMS helps in arresting various distortions in the programme like Muster Fudging; Delays

in Payments; Benami Wage Seekers; Fake Measurements and Work Duplication. This has

ensured transparency in the system. In addition, it has brought synergy to the system

making information management efficient and dynamic reducing errors and human effort in

recording information.

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Biometric Muster and Measurement System (B-EMMS)

B-eMMS enables attendance of wage seekers through bio-metric authentication along with

GPS coordinates using Point-of-Sale (POS) devices. B-eMMS is used to achieve complete

transparency in implementation of MGNREGS by obtaining LIVE data from the Worksite to

the Website on day to day basis using biometric authentication. This helps in arresting

distortions in the programme like Muster Fudging; Delays in Payments; Benami

Wageseekers; Fake Measurements and Work Duplication. B-eMMS enables effective

program monitoring and improves efficiency in the implementation of MGNREGS.

Payment of wages through Smart Cards

Ensuring that the intended wage seekers receive the payments is a significant step towards

the success of Employment Guarantee Scheme. Payments through smartcards was initiated

to ensure that the intended wage seeker receives timely payments and also to ensure that

the right beneficiary receives the wage payments. The process of payments through smart

cards makes use of finger print technology to issue biometric smart cards to each

beneficiary at the village level. Fingerprint technology uses a person’s fingerprints to identify

him / her through fingerprint scanning. Since every individual has a unique set of

fingerprints, this technology is both foolproof as well as reliable.

Disbursement of wages is done at the pre-designated Government premises (usually the

Gram Panchayat building) by a Customer Service Provider (CSP). The enrolment is in

progress to cover all the gram panchayats in the State.

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Distribution of wage slips:

Wage slips are provided to the wage seekers for the work done and based on the payment

generated. Wage slips carry details like no. of days worked, wage amount, details of work

etc. Generation of Wage slips brought transparency in the payments of wages. Since

wage seekers know how much is credited to their account and for how many days, etc.

leakages in the payment system were minimized.

Ensuring wage payments within fortnight:

To ensure payment of wages within fortnight to all labourers, a fixed payment cycle is

adopted as shown below:

23

The fixed payment cycle begins with the opening of muster on Day-1, which is on a Monday

and Thursday to denote the starting of the week. Attendance of the wage seekers and the

work done by them is collected by the Field Assistants (FAs) and are reported to the

administrative authorities throughout the week. At the end of every week, the muster rolls

are closed.

The next phase in the payment cycle involves the measurements of the works with respect

to the muster rolls which is done by the Technical Assistants (TAs).

After the measurements are done, the Technical Assistants pass on the muster rolls to the

Engineering Consultants (ECs) who check the measurements to eliminate discrepancies, if

any.

Once the measurements are validated completely, the muster rolls are sent to the

Additional Project Officer (APO) for his/her perusal. The data is then entered into the system

at the Mandal Computer Centre (MCC) by the Computer Operator (CO) and the pay orders

and related Fund Transfer Orders (FTOs) are generated. All the FTOs and in turn the funds

are then transferred electronically to the paying agencies / banks in the following 3-4 days.

The wage seekers present their Smart Cards to the Customer Service Provider (CSP) to

establish their identity and the disbursement of wages is done.

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Delay wage compensation.

Compensation for delay payments is introduced with an objective to ensure that

wage payments are done within a week and in any case not later than fortnight from the

day the work was done (closure of muster) as mandated in the Act. Guidelines were issued

for payment of compensation to the wage seekers for the delay in wage payments, duly

recovering the amount from the functionaries / paying agency found responsible for the

delay.

The compensation is paid @ 0.1% per day of delay based on the approval and

recovery from the functionaries’ salary / paying agency’s commission. PD/DWMA is

authorized for approval or rejection of the recoveries duly mentioning the reasons for the

disapproval if any in an online mode. If Project Director has not disapproved the

compensation within 15 days, it will be presumed that the compensation has been

authorized for recovery and deduction shall be effected as per the guidelines issued. Based

on the approvals, the compensation is paid to the wage seekers with the next wage

payment to the wage seekers.

Srama Sakthi Sanghas

To ensure that all the demanding poor rural households are provided with

continuous assured employment of 100 days, labour groups were formed which helps in

providing work to the groups easily and also helps in effective monitoring. The labour

groups are formed with 20 labourers, who worked for more than 10 days in a financial year.

The mate, who is the literate person among the group takes the attendance every day using

manual muster-rolls and also updates the mate-book every day. The formation of labour

into a fixed group helps in worksite management and also for provision of worksite facilities

to the labourers.

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All serious labourers are grouped into Srama Sakthi Sanghas (SSS). Each SSS group is

assured 100 days of continuous work. 8.2 lakh SSSs are registered consisting of 1.3 crore

labourers so far.

Formation of Shrama Shakti Sanghalu Federations

The formation of Srama Shakti Sanghas federations in gram panchayats has been initiated to

strengthen the SSS groups and for ensuring that the wage-seekers access their rights and

entitlements which were laid down in the MGNREG Act, 2005. The SSS federations will help

in the effective implementation of the scheme at village level with higher level of labour

participation. The SSS federations formed at the village level will ensure higher level of

labour participation, build confidence among the wage seekers and also empower the SSS

groups.

Objectives:

Safeguarding the rights and entitlements as laid down in the MGNREG Act.

Strengthening of SSS groups with higher level of participation.

Build confidence among the wage seekers and also empower the SSS groups in

accessing the rights and entitlements.

Ensuring 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to all the registered rural

households in the Gram Panchayat.

Ensuring all the SSS groups submit the application for work and receipt of

acknowledgment from the FA / PO by the group.

Timely wage payments and ensuring that the wage seekers get the minimum

notified wage rate.

Monitor the payments by paying agency, coordinate with CSP/BPM in disbursing the

wage payments to the wage seekers.

Participate in the social audit process.

Identification of fallow , degraded ,cultivable lands belonging to the SSS wage

seekers and conversion to cultivable land by taking up land development works in

those identified lands.

26

Ensuring the quality output for the work done based on the mark outs given to the

groups.

Active participation in the conduct of Gram Sabha , in the identification of works and

building shelf of works and also during labour budget approval.

Resolving conflicts if any, among the wage seekers / SSS groups.

Status:

The process of SSS federations has been initiated with the support of APNA NGOs,

SERP CRPs and through resource pool.

2229 SSS federations have been formed with the support of APNA NGOs and Master

Trainers. 32,831 SSS groups were formed into federations.

Social Audit

Social audit is a process by which an attempt is made to find out whether the benefits of the

project/activities reach the people for whom it is meant. It is a democratic process in which

all stakeholders involved in a particular project take part. Social audit is not only an audit of

expenses or decisions but also covers the issues of equity and quality in programme

implementation. It is a verification of Government records with people and the

works/projects executed at the field level in great detail. Social Audits of the MGNREGS-AP

was taken up by the Department of Rural Development, since the inception of the Scheme to

ensure accountability in the implementation process.

The Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency (SSAAT) was formally

registered as an independent Society on the 15th of May, 2009.

Social Audits involve both the people as well as the administrative officers who come

together to verify the processes under the scheme right from planning to implementation .

It brings on board the perceptions and knowledge of the people, involves people in the task

of verification and also brings about much greater acceptability of the government. Any

programme under the scheme can be taken up for audit by the wage seekers and the

related expenses and details can be examined. The performance of the village can be

analyzed and the concerned authorities and Gram Panchayats can be made accountable.

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Public Hearing: All the issues and shortcomings found during the audit are brought under

scanner during the Public Hearing. This gathering acts as a platform for the wage seekers to

voice their opinion and air their grievances. In order to ensure active participation from the

community, facilitators explain the need and importance of social audits. Audit teams from

various villages in the mandal read out the SA report & disclose the findings. All the details

from a village are read out without any partiality. After all teams have finished reading their

reports, the labourers express their views on the performance of the administrative officials.

Facilitators and the Presiding Officer have an important role to play in ensuring that the

discussions do not turn violent and all the questions are properly answered by the

concerned authorities. All the discussions and the corresponding decisions made during the

meeting are recorded and immediate recovery actions are taken, wherever possible. A

report is prepared with the follow up actions and is distributed to the concerned officials.

Follow up of Social Audit: - Status:

Amount covered by financial deviations (Rs Cr) 165.1

Amount dropped as the financial deviation not held proved (Rs Cr) 18.52

Amount determined as misappropriated (Rs Cr) 75.59

Amount recovered (Rs Cr) 23.85

Balance to be recovered (Rs Cr) 51.73

Balance to be finalised (Rs Cr) 70.98

FTEs suspended (including FAs) 1383

FTEs removed (including FAs) 4578

FIRs booked 163

Other removals (BPMs, VOs, CSPs etc) 1044

No. of Cases filed in Mobile Courts 76

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Vigilance Cell

A vigilance cell has been established with an aim to take follow up action on complaints

having a vigilance angle and to ensure transparency and accountability under the

programme. A retired senior IAS officer has been appointed as Chief Vigilance Officer with

supporting staff.

Mobile Court

For trial of offences brought out in the Social Audits and speedy adjudication of justice, the

Government sanctioned (8) special Mobile Courts covering (15) districts initially and

established a special Mobile Court in Sanga Reddy, Medak district for Medak and

Karimnagar districts on 26-02-2012.

Chenchu Primitive Tribal Groups

A special strategy has been formulated exclusively for the ultra-poor Chenchu Primitive

Tribal Group living in Nallamala forest region. Under this strategy, every chenchu labourer is

provided with continuous wage employment throughout the year. Every chenchu labour is

paid advance and the work equivalent is get done by him during that month. At chenchu

gudem level convergence with village organizations has been taken up.

Empowering Rural Women

As per Act , priority shall be given in such a way that at least One-Third of the beneficiaries

shall be women who have registered and requested for work under this Act. Since inception

of NREGS, women participation in AP is more than 55%. Specific measures that enabled such

empowerment are

Payment of equal wages to Men and Women

Depositing the wage of Women in their individual postal savings accounts directly.

Provision of worksite facilities like Crèche, Shade for their children and enabling

them to perform their work properly.

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Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities

In MGNREGS-AP, a work-time-motion study was conducted with disabled persons to design

separate Rural SSR for persons with Disabilities. Based on the study, 30% additional rate is

provided for all the MGNREGS works in which persons with disabilities are working as a

group.

Since inception, Rs. 227 Cr has been paid as wages for 2.24 Crore persondays with an

average wage rate of Rs. 101.5 per day. 2 lakh PWDs( people with disability) have accessed the

scheme and 20776 Vikalangula SSS formed till date.

Grievance Redressal:

A 24x7 Call Centre with a toll free number 155321 and 1800 200 4455 has been established

to register and monitor complaints under the programme. The moment a complaint is

registered in the call centre, SMS is sent to the officer responsible to rectify and report. The

system automatically escalates the complaints to the higher levels if appropriate action

within the stipulated time is not taken at lower level.

Quality Control Cell

A Quality Control Cell has been established with a view to improve quality of works, to

review the plans monthly, computerization of field level observations, capacity building of the

field level functionaries and creation of durable assets under the programme. .

Towards Securing Livelihoods of the rural poor

Expenditure on Assets Created:

In Andhra Pradesh , NREGS funds have been consciously invested in augmenting land and

water resources in the rural areas to secure livelihoods of the poor. Several projects are

taken up to strengthen and stabilize minor irrigation sources, productivity of lands etc.,

some of the major initiatives in this direction are mentioned below:

Land Development: Land development in fallow lands and cultivable degraded lands in

rain-fed areas:

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Agriculture is an important source of livelihood for a majority of the rural households. Due

to the lack of investment by SC/ST poor for developing land assigned to them to make it

productive, most of the SC/ST lands are fallow. To bring these fallow lands into productive

use, GoAP under MGNREGS has given highest priority for the development of SC/ST lands.

The state has identified 60 Lakh acres

of land belonging to SC and ST as well

as small and marginal farmers for

saturated development in the

subsequent years. Besides land

development, the govt. also gives

handholding support to ensure these

families grow the crops on the treated

land. This approach helps in bringing

fallow and degraded cultivable lands

into cultivation which enhances the income levels of the rural poor.

Fallow Land Development: Works in 5.7 lakh acres are in progress and in 13.4 lakh acres

completed. Total expenditure incurred is Rs. 2757.5 Cr.

Degraded Cultivable Land: Works in 3.4 lakh acres is in progress and 11.2 lakh acres have

been completed. Rs. 1498 Cr has been incurred as expenditure.

Horticulture Programme:

The scheme envisages development

of horticulture plantation, providing

micro irrigation like drip. List of

works included are Mango, Cashew,

Sweet orange, Sapota, Custard

apple, Guava, Acid lime, Coconut, Oil

Palm, Eucalyptus, Subabul,

Casuarina, Rubber, Coffee. During

2013-14, horticulture taken up in 1.2

31

lakh acres. Mostly mango, sweet lime, cashew, coffee are taken up under horticulture

plantations. Cumulatively, 6.8 lakh acres taken up benefitting SC/ST/Small & Marginal

farmers.

Bund Plantation:

2.2 crore saplings planted on the

bunds during the year belonging to

2.5 lakh beneficiaries – mostly

SC/ST/small and marginal farmers.

Main plants are teak, neredu, chinta

etc. Cumulatively, 13.5 Crore

seedlings were planted in 10 lakh

acres belonging to 9.6 lakh

beneficiaries.

Convergence with other depts.

Inter-sectoral convergence of MGNREGS, makes the assets created under MGNREGS

productive and durable which in turn will lead to sustainable rural livelihood, if wage

employment opportunities are available for needy household in the villages through out the

year. Consequently, unskilled labour becomes skilled and opportunities for skilled labour

are created.

In order to create productive assets in rural areas, a strategy is developed to implement part

of MGNREGS programme through certain Departments like Panchayat Raj, Horticulture,

Tribal Welfare, Forest, Irrigation etc. Such an initiative is contemplated to bring synergy

between the technical strengths of the Departments and MGNREGA. The following are the

projects handled in convergence with the other line Departments

Irrigation Dept.:

Comprehensive restoration of M.I. Tanks:

32

In convergence with Irrigation Department, comprehensive restoration of M.I. tanks and the

command area under the tanks were taken up. List of works taken up for restoration of

tanks including Bush

clearance, Breech Closing,

Repair of weir, Repair of

sluice, Repair of Channel,

Repair of cross drainage &

cross masonry works, Bund

strengthening, Desilting

and silt application to lands

of SC/ST/BPL families,

Peripheral trench. 18,131

Minor Irrigation tanks

were restored including de-silting by incurring an expenditure of Rs. Rs. 3430 Cr. The work

resulted in stabilization of 8.5 lakh acres ayacut.

Convergence with Panchayat Raj & Tribal Welfare:

Rural Connectivity: 28881 kms of roads laid improving connectivity to 20,413 habitations

since inception of the scheme. Cumulatively, Rs. 2465 Cr incurred as expenditure.

BNRGSK - Mandal Buildings: 456 Mandal level buildings completed &573 buildings are in

progress by incurring an expenditure of Rs. 156 Cr.

GP Buildings: 2831 GP buildings completed &1811 buildings are in progress by incurring an

expenditure of Rs. 311.15 Cr.

Rural Water Sanitation:

Individual Household Latrines: 16 lakh proposed to be taken up. 2.3 lakh works are in

progress &1.77 lakh completed. Expenditure incurred Rs. 130 Cr.

33

Findings of MNREGS Survey in Andhra Pradesh

Delhi based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) has conducted a sample

survey on the performance of MNREGS ( Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee Scheme ) in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP- United). The survey was conducted

in two sample districts- Srikakulam and Adilabad ,during December 2013 and January 2014 .

From each sample district , we selected 20 best performing sample villages and from each

sample village we randomly selected 25 MNREGS beneficiary households to conduct

schedule-based survey to ascertain process performance on following counts :

# Transparency and pro-active disclosure of Information

# Social Audit

# Accountability

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# Grievance Redressal

# Durable Assets Creation

# Economic empowerment/ positive Impact on livelihood security/living standard

# Ecological regeneration

#Timely Wage Paytment

# Impact on Distress Migration

# Man-days of employment provided

# Best practices in the field of convergence

The total sample size of this survey was 1 state ( AP ),2 districts ( Srikakulam and Adilabad),

40 villages and 1,000 households .

Almost all sample villages selected for the survey were extremely deprived and majority of

1000 sample households were very poor dalits and adivasis , leading life of chronic hunger

,unemployment,distress migration and indebtedness , before the arrival of MNREGS .

Srikakulam and Adilabad are among the poorest and most backward districts of India .

Wage Employment

Findings of CEFS survey suggest that about 90 per cent of sample households in Andhra

Pradesh (AP-United) had received over 100 days of wage employment during previous 12

months ( from January 2013 – December 2013) . About 10 percent of the sample

households had worked for less than 100 days during the same period . But, it was not

because of unavailability of the wage employment that these households worked for less

than 100 days ,it was on account of their personal problems (busy in some other work) .

The disaggregated figures of wage employment suggest that almost 100 percent of sample

households from Srikakulam district had received over 100 days of MNREGS job during the

previous 12 months and only about 80 per cent of the sample households from Adilabad

district had received over 100 days of MNREGS job during previous 12 months . In fact ,

some labourers from 2 sample villages of Adilabad district complained about not being

provided full 100 days of job entitlement despite being in need of the same .

35

Wage Payment

During CEFS survey in AP , about 95 per cent of respondents said that they had received

their full wages . The disaggregated data about the wage payment suggests that 100 per

cent of sample households from Srikakulam district had received their full wages . Over 90

per cent of respondents from Adilabad too had received their full wages , but about 10 per

cent ( some labourers in a few villages ) respondents complained about not receiving their

wages even after 3 months of the work . We were informed by Commissioner , Rural

Development, Govt of AP (United) that the inordinate delay in payment of wages to some

labourers in some villages of Adilabad was because of the change in the payment agency .

About 90 per cent of respondent households had received their wage payments within 15

days but about 10 per cent of samples had received their wages within 30 days ( some

labourers in a couple of sample villages had not received even after 3 months) . While 100

per cent of the sample households from Srikakulam had received their payments within 15

days , only 80 per cent of the sample households from Adilabad had received their wages

within 15 days , about 10 per cent had received within one month and the remaining 10

per cent were still waiting for their wages even after 3 months of the work .

Transparency and Accountability

When asked if they had seen all the Muster Rolls , almost 100 per cent of respondents said

that they had seen all their muster rolls .

In reply to the question if they had ever participated in the Social Audit Forum , over 95 per

cent of sample households said that they had participated in every Social Audit Forum

held in their GP.

When asked as to how many Social Audits were conducted in the GP during previous 12

months , they replied that one social audit was conducted during the previous 12 months .

When asked if MNREGS was corruption-free in their village , all 1000 sample households

from Srikakulam and Adilabad districts emphatically said that there was no corruption or

leakage in the implementation of MNREGS in their villages . Villagers told us that since

there was proper and detailed social audit of every single rupee of expenditure under

36

MNREGS in all GPs , there was no question of misappropriation or leakage of MNREGS

funds .

When asked if they were satisfied with the Grievance Redressal System in MNREGS, 100 per

cent of sample households said that they were fully satisfied with the grievance redressal

system in their GP.

“We do not spare anyone who is found guilty of irregularity in the implementation of

MNREGA . Monitoring is done by officials from GP to district level , so , it is very difficult to

indulge in irregularities here,” said MNREGA beneficiaries ( belonging to SAVARA PGT-

primitive tribal group) of Manda colony , Manda GP , located in Seethampeta Mandal of

Srikakulam district .

Economic Impact of MNREGS

Food Security

Majority of sample households from both the sample districts were extremely deprived

dalits and adivasis , whose life was usually characterised by chronic hunger and food

insecurity , before the launch of MNREGS . However , the implementation of MNREGS in its

letter and spirit has resulted into significant improvement in the Food Security Index of all

sample households .

Every single respondent said that the MNREGS had very substantially enhanced their food

security . 100 per cent of respondents from both the sample districts said that MNREGS had

succeeded in reducing hunger by 75-100 per cent . Almost all sample households said that

“the hunger is now a thing of the past, thanks to MNREGS”.

Peda Bapadu, a SAVARA PGT labourer from Manda GP of Srikakulam district said , “ Before

the launch of MNREGA , most SAVARA tribals of this area used to take head loads of fire

wood in the market located 20 kms away and buy food items with the money earned by

37

selling fire woods . But after the launch of MNREGA , we have stopped doing so , because

our food security has now been ensured through MNREGS .”

Distress Migration

CEFS survey in 40 sample villages of Srikakulam and Adilabad districts suggest that the

effective and corruption-free implementation MNREGS in AP has led to drastic reduction in

distress migration . Before the launch of MNREGS , there used to be massive distress

migration in all these villages . In most of the sample villages , before MNREGS , about 50-

75 per cent of working population used to migrate out to cities and towns in search of wage

employment . However , after the launch of MNREGS , in the case of about 75 per cent of

sample villages , distress migration is now a thing of the past ; and in the case of about 25

per cent of sample villages , some people still migrate but only for a few months .

Indebtedness

In rural Andhra Pradesh , poverty and indebtedness are two sides of the same coin . From

time immemorial , indebtedness has been a constant companion of the poor . Before the

arrival of MNREGA in 2006 , it was almost impossible to find a single poor household free

from debt . However , the effective implementation of MNREGA has significantly reduced

indebtedness among poor households . 100 per cent of the sample households said that

MNREGS had significantly reduced indebtedness in their villages .

One of the sample respondents from Linguguda village of Pippaldari GP in Adilabad district

said, “ May God forbid even to our enemies the economic deprivation we used to suffer

before the launch of MNREGS in 2006 . Even if we were in need of 100 rupees for attending

the wedding of some relative in some village , we had no option but to borrow it from some

body .However , after the arrival of MNREGS , things have changed for the better .While the

credit worthiness of MNREGA workers has increased , the need for credit has decreased .”

Impact on Agricultural wage

38

It is not only MNREGA wages earned by labourers that has brought economic

empowerment and food security in the poor villages of AP . As a result of MNREGA , there

has been a corresponding increase in the private agricultural wage rates that has indirectly

enhanced food security and brought economic prosperity in the households who had been

subsisting on the margins of rural economy from the time immemorial .

CEFS survey in Srikakulam and Adilabad districts of AP revealed that there has been about

three fold rise in the current agricultural wage rates compared to the prevailing agricultural

wage rates before the launch of MNREGA . Before the launch of MNREGA in 2006 , the

agricultural wage rates were Rs.35 for female and Rs.50 for male labourers. The current

agricultural wage rate for female labourers is over Rs.100 and that for male labourers is

over Rs 150 . The increased agricultural wages have also played a significant role in

providing livelihood security and improving economic condition of labourers .

Expenditure pattern of MNREGS Income

CEFS survey in AP suggests that the income from MNREGS is mostly spent on two items , (1)

Food (2) Education of children . There is nothing new in the fact that labourers are spending

most of their income on food , but what was very interesting to find is that MNREGS

workers in AP are spending a very significant share of MNREGS earnings on education of

their children. Large number of MNREGS labourers are now sending their children to

private schools , paying Rs.5000-10,000/ as annual fee . Moreover , the assured MNREGS

earnings have also encouraged many households to send their children for higher

education ( B.Tech.- M.Tech.) . Andhra Pradesh is now producing over 60,000 dalit

Engineers every year , a significant proportion of them come of the families of MNREGA

workers .

Before the launch of MNREGS in 2006 , most of the sample households in Srikakulam and

Adilabad districts had only kucha house , but in last 3-4 years , large number of MNREGS

workers have gone for pucca house , thanks to MNREGS and housing subsidy under IAY (

39

Indira Awaas Yojana) . MNREGA workers in the sample villages categorically said that if

MNREGS was not there , it would not have been possible for them to build pucca house .

Pubbada is a SAVARA PGT village of Pubbada GP , located in Seethampeta Mandal (ITDA

area) of Srikakulam district . Before arrival of MNREGA , this used to be a hunger-prone area

. SAVARA (PGT) adivasis used to survive by eating mango-kernel , wild roots,wild leaves and

other forest produce . But thanks to MNREGS , these are now things of the past . Before

MNREGA , the daily wage in this area was as low as Rs.30 for male and Rs.20 for female

labourers . Villagers said, “ There was too much of indebtedness in SAVARA villages before

MNREGA . We used to borrow from the local money lender at the interest rate of 100 per

cent . But now , there is hardly any indebtedness as such . That exploitative borrowing has

come to an end and now we borrow money from SHGs.”

All households in Pubbada GP have been getting over 100 days of MNREGA job regularly .

Before the launch of MNREGA in 2006 , there was not a single Graduate in Pubbada .

Motaka Surja Rao ( savara PGT) , a MNREGA beneficiary , is the first Graduate of this PGT

village . Motaka Surja Rao is helping his younger brother to pursue B.Tech., that is another

first in this village . There are now seven Graduate boys in this village . There are now four

Graduate girls also and all of them have been working as MNREGA labourers during

Summer Vacation for last three years . “ It is only because of MNREGS that we have been

able to complete Graduation,” said SAVARA PGT boys and girls of Pubbada village .

Ponnada GP , located in Etcherla Mandal of Srikakulam district , is the Gram Panchayat

with distinction of being highest MNREGA spending GP in Andhra Pradesh .During 2013-14 ,

Ponnada GP spent over Rs.1.3 crore under MNREGA . All needy households of the GP have

been given over 100 days of job regularly . As a result , there is significant improvement in

the economic condition of poor people of Ponnada . “ Before MNREGA , we had no option

but to borrow money from exploitative money lenders at very high interest rates . But now

, there is no need at all for any kind of borrowing , thanks to effective implementation of

MNREGS in our GP”.

Female labourers of Guruvupeta Village in Ponnada GP said , “ Besides ensuring our food

security , MNREGA is very helpful in education too . Before the launch of MNREGS in 2006,

40

our economic condition did not allow us to send our children to schools . But now ,we are

sending our sons and daughters to schools and colleges , thanks to MNREGA wages .”

Garkampet village , located in Seethagundi GP of Gudihatnur Mandal in Adilabad district ,

is a classic example of the complete socio-economic transformation being unleashed by

MNREGS . T Laxmi Bali , a poor adivasi woman of Garkampet village said , “ Before the

launch of MNREGS in 2006 , we used to live a life of chronic hunger and extreme deprivation

. Every morning, we used to go to nearby forest and collect firewood , flowers, gums etc.

and used to go to Adilabad to sell the same . After selling the forest produce , we used to

buy cheapest available broken rice and somehow survive by eating that broken rice with

leafy vegetable collected from the forest . We never ate two full meals . But now , we are

able to eat three full meals with vegetables bought from the market . Before MNREGS, we

could hardly eat non-veg food , but now we are eating non-veg food every week . There

used to be massive distress migration , but now we do not need to go anywhere in search of

wage employment . Earlier , it was not possible for us to send our children to school , but

now we are sending them to schools and colleges . Income from MNREGS is also helping

construction of new pucca houses in our village”.

Geedipally is an extremely deprived and entirely GOND adivasi village , located in

Kamalapur GP of Gudihatnur Mandal in Adilabad district . MNREGA has brought complete

turn around in the lives, livelihoods and lifestyles of Gond adivasis of this village . They said,

“ Before MNREGS , we used to have very hard times and seer survival was a big problem

.But now , our life has improved a lot , thanks to MNREGS . Now we do not need to go any

where looking for wage employment , because we are getting employment right in the

village . Before MNREGS, we used to wear a single cloth for the whole week , but now we

change our clothes every day . Earlier , men used to wear a single worn out kurta for the

entire week , but now they change it daily . Earlier , adivasi women used to have just one

saree and they would cut the same into two pieces and wear it alternatively . But now ,

most women have 5-10 sarees each and change them daily .”

Kamalapur , located in Kamalapur GP of Gudihatnur Mandal in Adilabad district , is a

deprived and dalit dominant village . MNREGS has brought a new hope in the lives of dalits

of Kamalapur . They said that before MNREGA they used to survive just eating boiled

41

watery rice with chilly paste twice . But now , they are eating 3 square meals with

vegetables and eat non-veg food at least once a week . When asked as to how many times

they eat now , one dalit woman quipped , “As and when we feel hungry”.

It was a pleasant surprise to know that about 20 dalit MNREGA workers of Kamalapur are

sending their children to private and English medium schools . Navaneetha , aged 11 years ,

is studying in 4th class in an English medium school located in Adilabad district town . Her

father , Chityala Narasimhulu, is a dalit and works under MNREGS . Like Navanettha, there

are many children of MNREGA labourers who are studying in private English medium

schools . Villagers categorically said , “ It would not have been possible , if MNREGS was not

there .” Before MNREGS , there were only 10 Graduates in this village , but now there are

40 boys and girls who have either completed or pursuing Degree courses , and it is largely

because of their economic empowerment through MNREGA .

Dalit women of Kamalapur who work as MNREGA labourers said , “ Before MNREGA , we

had hardly 2 sarees and that too very cheap and ordinary , but now all of us have more than

6-7 good quality sarees , thanks to MNREGS wages .” Similarly , men are also having 5-6

sets of good quality clothes , whereas earlier they used to have hardly 2 sets of clothes .

List of Sample Villages from Srikakulam District

NAME OF VILLAGE NAME OF GP NAME OF MANDAL

1 KUPPILI KUPPILI ETCHERLA

2 TALLAVALASA TALLAVALASA ETCHERLA

3 SUBHADRAPURAM TALLAVALASA LAVERU

4 MURAPAAKA MURAPAAKA LAVERU

5 GUNTUKUPETA MURAPAAKA LAVERU

6 SIGIRIKOTHAPALLY SIGIRIKATHAPALLY LAVERU

7 VENKATA RAO PETA SIGIRIKOTHAPALLY LAVERU

8 LACHARAYAPURAM LACHARAYAPURAM REGIDI

9 AMUDALAVALASA AMUDALAVALASA REGIDI

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10 ATTALI PALAKONDA PALAKONDA

11 APPAPURAM HABITATION APPAPURAM LAVERU

12 APPAPURAM APPAPURAM LAVERU

13 GURUGUBILLI HABITATION GURUGUBILLI LAVERU

14 GURUGUBILLI GURUGUBILLI LAVERU

15 MANDA COLONY MANDA SEETHAMPETA

16 PUBBADA PUBBADA SEETHAMPETA

17 PUBBADAGUDA PUBBADA SEETHAMPETA

18 MANDA MANDA SEETHAMPETA

19 GURUVUPETA PONNADA ETCHERLA

20 PONNADA SC COLONY PONNADA ETCHERLA

List of Sample Villages from Adilabad District

NAME OF VILLAGE NAME OF GP NAME OF MANDAL

1 ANKOLI ANKOLI ADILABAD

2 SIRIKONDA ANKOLI ADILABAD

3 CHINCHU GHAT CHINCHU GHAT ADILABAD

4 TEKDIGUDA CHINCHU GHAT ADILABAD

5 VAANMAT VAANMAT ADILABAD

6 MAMIDIGUDA VAANVAT ADILABAD

7 LINGUGUDA PIPPALDARI ADILABAD

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8 LOKARI LOKARI ADILABAD

9 CHITTELBORI KUCHKATI ADILABAD

10 SEETHAGONDI SEETHAGONDI GUDIHATNUR

11 GARKAMPET SEETHAMGONDI GUDIHATNUR

12 GEEDIPALLY KAMALAPUR GUDIHATNUR

13 KAMALAPUR KAMALAPUR GUDIHATNUR

14 MANNUR MANNUR GUDIHATNUR

15 SAMBUGUDA MANNUR GUDIHATNUR

16 NAGAPUR NAGAPUR UTNUR

17 TAKKUGUDA NAGAPUR UTNUR

18 GANGAPUR UTNUR UTNUR

19 UTNUR UTNUR UTNUR

20 PIPPALDHARI PIPPALDHARI ADILABAD

CASE STUDIES AND SUCCESS STORIES

ANANTPURAM DISTRICT

CASE STUDY -1

Village: Bandlapalli

Grampanchayat: Bandlapalli

44

Mandal: Narpala

District: Ananthapuram

MNREGA BRINGS ECOLOGICAL REVIVAL , LIVELIHOOD SECURITY & ECONOMIC

PROSPERITY

Before the launch of MGNREGA, there was massive distress migration from this village.

About 300 labourers from this village used to migrate out to cities like Bengaluru,

Hyderabad, Tirupathi etc. The children used to normally dropout from school and

people used to find it very difficult to get two meals a day. The daily wage was for

females - Rs.30/- and for males - Rs.50/-. There used to be water crisis in this village

and farmers used to get hardly any yield from their fields due to depletion in ground

water table and water scarcity. There used to be very severe livelihood crisis in this

village before 2006.

However, there has been a total transformation in the economic condition of this village

after the arrival of MGNREGA. All needy households have got 100 days of employment

and their due wages every year since 2006. As a result, the distress migration has

stopped. Moreover, as a result of various water harvesting projects implemented under

MGNREGA, most of the water bodies in the village have got recharged and farmers are

getting 2 – 3 times more crop yields compared to 3 – 4 years ago. In this village, there is

no irregularity in the implementation of MGNREGA ; most of the villagers attend social

audit forum and there has been no case of misappropriation of MGNREGA funds.

About 80 percent children of the village are going to private schools, spending at least

Rs. 10 -15 thousand per annum. Four school buses of different private schools located in

Ananathapuram come every day in this village to pick up students. Before 2006, no one

in this village went to any private school. In last 2 -3 years, about 50 boys and girls have

completed Graduation and about 15 have completed Post Graduation. Villagers say that

all this has become possible only because of effective implementation of MGNREGA in

this village. When asked as to what would have been their condition without MGNREGA,

villagers unanimously said “We would be back to distress migration, chronic hunger,

livelihood crisis , no education for children, miserable life and extreme deprivation.”

45

Before MGNREGA, there used to be very severe fights among these villagers. There were

20 murders within this village before 2006. Villagers (labourers) say that prior to

MGNREGA, they were solely dependent for their food security on two big landlords of

the village. These two landlords used to fight between themselves to get control over

larger number of labourers of the village. That used to lead to fight between them. The

poor labourers had no option but to work with one or the other landlord because

otherwise they would starve. These labourers used to suffer the worst consequences of

the fights between 2 big landlords. Some family members of the fighting landlords as

well as some labourers lost their lives in the fights.

However, with the arrival of MGNREGA, the labourers slowly and slowly became less

dependent on the landlords for their livelihood and this led to gradual decline and end

to the factional fights, because the labourers are no more dependent on the landlords

for their livelihood.

In last 2 – 3 years , about 400 – 500 new pucca houses have been constructed in

Bandlapalli village. Most households have Colour Televisions and all households have

cell phones. In last 2 – 3 years , more than 200 Colour Televisions were purchased.

BENEFICIARIES OF WATER HARVESTING & GROUND WATER RECHARGE

Beneficiary #1

Babu Reddy belongs to OC(other caste) and has 5 acres of land. 10 years ago he had

drilled a bore well, but after giving some water for one year, it failed to give any water.

He drilled another bore well 3 years ago. In the beginning, the bore well was giving

about 1 inch of water discharge but now the volume of water has increased to 2 inches

as a result of water harvesting structures, check dams, desiltation etc. recharging the

ground water level. As a result, this farmer got about Rupees One lakh worth of chilly,

Rs.40,000/- worth of groundnut and Rs.15,000/- worth of paddy from his field.

Before the second bore well was dug , he used to get hardly Rs.30,000 – 40,000 worth

of crop yield from his land.

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Beneficiary #2

Laxminarayana is a dalit farmer with 5 acres of land. He used to get hardly Rs.50,000

worth of crop yield (Groundnut) before 4 years, but now he has got about Rs. Two lakh

worth of chilly and tomato. It has happened because of the various water harvesting

projects implemented under MGNREGA. These projects have led to appreciable rise in

the ground water levels of the village. 4- 5 years ago , the ground water was available

below 450 feet which led to failure of many bore wells in the village. But now, due to

rise in the ground water table even at the depth of 250 – 300 feet, bore wells are

yielding sufficient water. In other words, due to various water harvesting structures

dug/built under MGNREGA in this Gram Panchayat , there is about 150 feet of rise in

the ground water table. This amazing ecological revival has remarkable economic

and livelihood implications for the farmers of this poor village. As a result of these

projects the farmers’crop yield and income has increased 2 – 3 times during the

last 3 years. If calculated in terms of income , this would throw up a very high

amount of annual income coming to this village as a result of the increase in crop

yield and income of the poor farmers directly as a result of ecological revivial and

restoration brought about by water harvesting projects implemented under

MGNREGA.

Laxminarayana is a living example of the ecological and economic turnaround brought

about by MGNREGA. He is now sending 2 of his children to school and college. His eldest

son Anil Kumar is studying in Nalanda Degree College, pursuing CEC(Commerce,

Economics and Civics) in Ananthapuram. And his younger son is studying in 5th class in

Little Flower High School in Ananthapuram and paying about Rs.10,000/- as school fees

and about Rs.5000/- towards transportation per annum. Moreover, with additional

income, he invested about Rs.30,000/- towards construction of a pucca house(partial)

in 2012 and he has purchased a Colour TV worth Rs.8000/- and a Mobile phone worth

Rs.3000/ during 2013. Before 2006 , he used to go to Bengaluru and work as daily wage

labour. But now, he does not need to go anywhere, thanks to MGNREGA.

Beneficiary #3

47

Akkamma belongs to OC(other caste) and has 4 acres of land. She got about Rs.1 lakh

worth of crop yield during 2013. Before 2009 , she hardly used to get 20 – 30 thousand

rupees of income from her land. Her younger son is now pursuing B. Pharmacy in

Ananthapuram. She has just begun to construct a new house and has 20 sarees. Before

2006, her family used to go to other cities and towns in search of wage employment. But

now they don’t go out anywhere.

Beneficiary #4

Yugandhar Reddy belongs to OC and has 5 acres of land. Though he had drilled one bore

well 15 years ago and another about 8 years ago, both these bore wells had been giving

very little water and 2 – 3 years ago he was able to get hardly Rs.1 lakh worth of crop

yield from the land. However, last year he harvested Rs.3 lakh worth of Chilly , thanks to

the sufficient water availability from the bore wells as a result of groundwater recharge

through MGNREGA projects. With additional income, this farmer has been able to drill

another bore well costing Rs.1.5 lakh . Moreover , he has purchased 2 buffaloes worth

Rs.50,000/- which are giving milk worth Rs.500/- per day. Realizing the importance of

MGNREGA in his livelihood security, this farmer says “If MGNREGA was not there , it

would be impossible for us to get income like this. It is simply because of the rise in

groundwater table due to implementation of MGNREGA projects that we are getting

this much of income. Our livelihood is now secure and we don’t need to go anywhere

to get our livelihood”.

Beneficiary #5

Parmeshwar Reddy belongs to OC and has 15 acres of land. Last year, he got income of

Rs.6 lakh whereas earlier he used to get only around Rs.1.5 lakh of income from his

land . He has one bore well. This increased income is solely on account of rise in the

groundwater level thanks to MNREGA projects.

Beneficiary #6

Ramchandra Reddy belongs to OC and has 10 acres of land. Pre- MGNREGA , he got

hardly Rs.1 lakh as income from his land ,but he is getting Rs.3 lakh post –MGNREGA,

due to sufficient availability of groundwater for irrigating his crops.

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CASE STUDY -2

Village: Cherlopalli

Grampanchayat: Balampalli

Mandal: Hindupuram

District: Ananthapuram

Total Households: 150 (SCs 70, BCs 60 and OCs 20)

BONDED LABOURERS LIBERATED BY MNREGA

Most dalit families of this extremely deprived village in Ananthapuram district were

leading life of bonded labour, distress migration, chronic hunger, servitude and

humiliation. These people used to work in the homes and farms of big Zamindars and

they used to get hardly anything as wages.

Anjinappa , aged 72 years , is a dalit labourer who worked as bonded labour for 15

years. His father had put him and seven of his brothers in the homes of various

Zamindars, because he could not take care of all his children. There were many other

dalits in the village who also worked as bonded labourers. They used to get only Rs12/-

per year as wage from Zamindars 30 years ago. But even before MGNREGA, they were

living life of semi-starvation and extreme deprivation. Their children never went to

schools because they used to tend cattle of land lords. All these dalits have got some

assigned lands but that is as good as barren because of drought and water scarcity. They

used to get very little produce from their assigned lands.

However, with the arrival of MGNREGA in 2006, a new ray of hope has dawned in the

lives of these poor dalits of Ananthapuram village. In about 115 acres of assigned land

belonging to 38 dalits, a Comprehensive Land Development Project has been

implemented in this village (Muddalapuram Anjaneyaswamy Block). During 2010 – 11,

bush clearance was done and thereafter some farm ponds and mini percolation tanks

have been dug.

49

Under the Land Development , activities undertaken were Bush Clearance and Land

levelling, Boulder removal, Deep ploughing, Drilling bore wells, Energization and Motor

fixing. In the entire block, mango plantation has been done and some of the farmers are

likely to get their 1st yield of mango this year(2014). Most of the farmers are getting

increased yield from the intercrops like Groundnuts, Horsegrams etc, compared to the

pre-development stage.

Most Households of this village, before MGNREGA , used to migrate out to big towns in

search of wage employment and they were unable to get 2 square meals, but after

MNREGA all of them are able to eat 3 square meals . They have now also been taking

regular Non-Vegetarian meals. Their children are going to schools, distress migration

has been drastically reduced and these dalits who used to live life of bonded labour are

now living life of dignity, self reliance and livelihood security.

Anjinappa, who once was a bonded labour, recalling his traumatic days says, “When I

was working as a bonded labour , my landlord would not allow me to go home or take

rest even if I was sick. But now, nobody can dictate me what to do and what not to do. I

am free now , as and when required I take rest and do work as per my wish. I am living

a liberated and dignified life”.

MANGO PLANTATION

M Ashwathappa is a dalit farmer who has 4 acres of assigned land with mango

plantation done under MNREGA. He hopes to get at least Rs.20,000/- of annual income

from his mango plantation after 2 years. Similarly , most of the mango farmers expect

after 2 -3 years Rs.5 – 6 thousand of annual income per acre of mango plantation. After

5 -6 years the annual per acre income is likely to be not less than Rs.10,000/- . In

monetary terms, after 5 – 6 years, this 115 acres of mango plantation block developed

under MNREGA is going to give an annual income of atleast Rs.10 lakh (all 38

beneficiaries put together) to these extremely deprived dalits.

50

In this Gram Panchayat, there are various water harvesting projects implemented under

MNREGA , which has resulted into increase in the ground water table and now many

farmers are getting increased yields from their fields.

CASE STUDY -3

Village: K K Thanda

Grampanchayat: Kamalapuram

Mandal: Garladinne

District: Ananthapuram

ORANGE PLANTATION UNDER MNREGA MAKES ADIVASI FARMERS PROSPEROUS

Beneficiary #1

Prasad Nayak belongs to Scheduled Tribe(ST) and has 5 acres of land which was

virtually unproductive and a loss making exercise. He used to sow groundnut. Many a

time, he used to incur losses upto Rs. 20 – 30 thousand because the land was not

levelled. But in 2006, a Land Development Project (pebble bunding, boulder removal)

was implemented under MGNREGA. Thereafter, in 2007 sweet orange plantation was

done in 5 acres of his land. The costs and investments for orange plantation came from

MGNREGA as in the case of mango plantations. During 2007 -2010, this ST Farmer got

about Rs.3 lakh from the intercrop of groundnut in the sweet orange plantation. In

2010, he got the 1st orange fruit yield worth Rs.70,000/-, in 2011 Rs.1.2 lakh and in

2012 he got Rs.1.5 lakh from the sweet orange fruits.

This adivasi farmer has purchased about 100 grams of gold from the income of sweet

orange plantation. He is now able to eat three wholesome meals with vegetables and

has bought costly clothes for his family, whereas in 2006, he used to eat food with

pickles and used to be always indebted. Now, he has also cleared Rs.2 lakh of debt taken

before 2006. Two of his daughters are studying in Residential School in Ananthapuram.

Beneficiary # 2

51

Laxmi Nayak belongs to Scheduled Tribe and has 5 acres of land under orange

plantation . During 3 years of intercrop, he earned Rs.50,000/- from them. The 1st

orange fruit gave him Rs.2 lakh, 2nd year – Rs.3 lakh and in 3rd year he got Rs.2.5 lakh

(due to fall in market prices).

With the income from his orange plants he purchased 3 acres of wet land for cultivating

paddy, spending Rs.4 lakh on that . This year in April (2013), he married his daughter

and spent Rs. 7 lakh in the marriage of his daughter. He had purchased about 120

grams of gold. In fact, he borrowed Rs.3 lakh for the marriage of his daughter thinking

that he would be able to repay back that loan from the income of orange, next season.

The same farmer before 2006 had spent less than Rs.1 lakh on the marriage of his sister

due to poor financial condition.

Beneficiary # 3

Anjaneyulu Nayak belongs to Scheduled Caste and has 5 acres of land under orange

plantation . From the intercrops during 3 years, he got about Rs.1.5 lakh of income. 1st

crop of orange gave him Rs.1.3 lakh, 2nd year he got Rs.1.8 lakh and in the 3rd year Rs.

2.4 lakh.

With the additional income of orange, he has cleared Rs.2 lakh of debts. The first child of

this adivasi farmer is daughter and doing M.Tech in Osmania University at Hyderabad.

The second child is pursuing B.Com in Government Arts College at Ananthapuram and

staying there in private hostel. The third child is pursuing 1st year B.Tech in Chaitanya

Bharathi Institute of Technology at Hyderabad.

He is spending over Rs.1.5 lakh per annum on the education on his 3 children. This

adivasi farmer proudly and emphatically says that “It would be impossible for us to

even dream of this kind of education without the incomes coming from MGNREGA

projects.”

Beneficiary # 4

Shivaiah Nayak is a ST farmer and has 5 acres of land under orange plantation done

through MNREGA. He earned about Rs.1.5 lakh from intercrops and 1st year sweet

orange fruit gave him Rs.80,000/-, 2nd year – Rs.2.5 lakh and in 3rd year also Rs.2.5 lakh.

52

He has got 3 children and on their education he is spending Rs.2 lakh per year . His 1st

son is doing Diploma in Mechanical and his second son is pursuing B.Tech in

Electronics. Third is a daughter studying in Intermediate (History,Economics and

Civics) .

Beneficiary of Land Development

Ruplu Bai ( a beneficiary of land development project under MNREGA) is a ST farmer

who says “We used to live a miserable life before 2006 and led a life of distress

migration, hunger and abject poverty. The children were unable to go to schools. We

used to have hardly one pair of sarees but thanks to MGNREGA we are now able to eat 3

wholesome meals with purchased vegetables. Our children are able to study in

government schools and most of the women have over 15 sarees”. About half of the

households have colour TVs and every house has a cell phone.

The MGNREGA has brought all round prosperity and revival in the village economy. All

labourers/farmers of the village are having a new confidence about their future life.

Most of the labourers/farmers are investing a lot of their MGNREGA income towards

giving good education/high education to their children. Many have bought cultivable

lands also. The new found confidence in the incomes from MGNREGA has led many

farmers/labourers to borrow money also. The credit worthiness of the villagers has

increased. A lot of their barren land has been made cultivable, thanks to Comprehensive

Land Development Projects taken under MGNREGA.

Villagers say that there is no complaint in this village regarding implementation of

MGNREGA. There is effective and corruption free implementation of MGNREGA in this

village. All labourers and MGNREGA beneficiaries participate in Social Audit Forum.

CASE STUDY -4

Village : Mandlipalli (Harijanawada)

Grampanchayat : Tanakal

Mandal : Tanakal

53

District : Ananthapuram

Total Households : 120 (Entirely Scheduled Caste)

MNREGA BECOMES DIVINE BOON FOR POOR DALITS OF MANDLIPALLI

About 300 acres of land (Barren/ Unproductive) was assigned to dalits of this village

long ago, but entire land was lying barren. In 2010 -11, one Dry Land Horticulture

(Mango) Project under MNREGA began in this village under which about 177 acres of

the barren land has been developed ( Bush clearance, Boulder removal, Stone picking ,

Trenches construction , earthen bunds and mango plantation). During this 2-3 years of

gestation period most of the farmers have done inter-cropping. In this entire block of

mango plantation 1390 mango plants have been planted. Their intercrops have already

provided good income to many dalit farmers. Moreover, they receive Rs.1200 per

month per acre of mango plantation as maintenance cost under MNREGA for 3 years of

gestation period . This has brought very good and regular income to all mango

plantation beneficiaries .

Beneficiary: #1

Jelipigari Narayanappa has 7.5 acres of land , out of which about half is already under

mango plantation. From the intercrop in the 1st year, he earned Rs.36,000/- from

Tomato, from the second crop of Tomato he earned Rs.46,000/- and he is expecting

about Rs.60,000/- worth of tomato this year(2014). He purchased gold worth Rupees

One Lakh last year. He also purchased about Rs.15000 worth of furniture. He is building

a new Pucca house and in that he has invested about Rupees One Lakh from his

personal income. Two of his children are studying in Government School. He used to

work in the house of a landlord and used to get Rs.1000 - 1500/- per year. His wife also

used to work on daily wage of Rs.15 – 20 before MGNREGA.

However, his life took a turn with the arrival of MGNREGA. He is now very happy farmer

and lives a life of self confidence, self respect and self reliance. His livelihood is secured

54

through MGNREGA and horticulture plantation. When asked if he works anywhere

other than MGNREGA, this dalit farmer proudly quipped “Now, I myself can engage and

employ 1 – 2 labourers”.

Beneficiary #2

Jelipigari Venkataramana has 4 acres of land , in which 2 acres is under mango

plantation. In 1st year of intercrop (Tomato), he earned Rs.50,000/- and this year too he

has grown Tomato and likely to get at least Rs.50,000/- income. With the income earned

from intercrops, he was able to repay Rs.35000/- of debt and invested some income in

agriculture. He has 10 shirts.

Beneficiary #3

J Tirupal has 4 acres of land with mango plantation in the entire plot. He has earned

Rs.60,000 from groundnut cultivation. He has purchased Rs.1.5 lakh worth of gold only

last year. He says that this entire gold purchase was done with direct and indirect

income from MGNREGA . He receives Rs.1200 per month per acre of mango plantation

as maintenance cost under MNREGA . In other words , he earns Rs.48,000 towards

watering charges/wages per year. So, during 3 years of gestation period of mango

plantation project, he received about Rs.1.44 lakh as maintenance cost from MNREGA .

Beneficiary #4

J Uthanna has 5 acres of land and in 3 acres he has taken up mango plantation.

From Intercrop (Tomato) he earned Rs.70,000/-

Beneficiary #5

J Venkataramana has 3.5 acres of land and in 3 acres he has taken up mango plantation.

From intercrop (Groundnut) he earned Rs.45,000/-.

During last 2 years, he has purchased Rs.15,000 worth of gold and a Mobile phone and

has deposited Rs.30,000 as savings in the State Bank of India. He has 10 sets of clothes

(he was wearing starched and ironed clothes and had very costly towel on his

shoulders). Before 2006, he was working with a landlord and leading miserable life.

55

Beneficiary # 6

J Ramachandra has 4 acres of land and has taken up mango plantation in the entire plot.

He earned Rs.50,000 from the intercrop of Tomato. He has 3 children. Eldest son has

completed BA and is waiting for a Job. His other two children who are daughters are

both pursuing Nursing Courses.

Beneficiary #7

K Genganna has 3 acres of land and has mango plantation in all 3 acres of his land.

During last 3 years of intercrop, he has earned Rs.45,000/-. He has invested some of the

income he earned on the construction of the house and also purchased some cattle.

Beneficiary #8

V Narasimhulu has 7.5 acres of land. He has mango plantation in 5 acres of land. During

last 3 years, he has earned Rs.1.5 lakh from groundnut cultivation. He also purchased 3

acres of land worth Rs.2.1 lakh and says that this is all thanks to MGNREGA.

Beneficiary #9

M Gopal has 3.5 acres of land and in 2.5 acres he has taken up mango plantation . From

intercrops (Tomato, Chilly and Groundnut) he earned Rs.50,000/-

Beneficiary #10

J Adilaxmi has 4 acres of land and in 2.8 acres she has taken up mango plantation. She

has earned Rs.28,000/- from the groundnut intercrop alone. She purchased gold worth

Rs.52,000 . She says “Earlier I had only one pair of sarees and that too very cheap. But

now, I have 5 pairs of costly sarees”.

Beneficiary #11

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J Venkataramana has 3.5 acres of land and has mango plantation in this entire plot. He

has earned Rs.60,000 from groundnut intercrop. He got his son educated till M.A, B.Ed

and other son till Graduation.

Before MGNREGA, these dalit farmers and labourers used to work as farm labourers at

daily wage of Rs.30-40 in the neighbouring villages. But now they don’t need to go out

for work in other villages . If at all they do go , they demand and get Rs.150-200/- as

daily wage. Villagers say that MGNREGA has become a “divine boon” and they are living

a very happy, comfortable and dignified life. All of them are sending their children to

schools and most of them have invested incomes either in purchasing durables like gold

or some savings in the bank or invested towards agriculture. Seeing and realizing the

contribution and role of MGNREGA in their life, these farmers are strongly demanding

that there should be no limit on the number of days under MGNERGA.

J Gangadhar, who used to work in a Hotel in Puttaparthy and used to earn Rs.2000/-

(Husband and wife both put together) for working round the clock. It was a bone

breaking job and life was miserable. “I am so happy now with my MGNREGA job and I

am leading a happy, comfortable and dignified life in my own village. I am no more

dependent on anyone for my food security and I am also a proud citizen of India. For

poor people like me MGNREGA is not a scheme but a god sent boon. This divine blessing

(MGNREGA) is much more meaningful and important for poor people like me than the

Prasadam (Blessing) I used to enjoy in Puttaparthy (in Satya Sai Ashram)”.

Jelipigari Gangadhar is a SC beneficiary (Mate also) with 3 acres of mango cultivation .

He says, “MGNREGA is not just another project or welfare scheme but a divine blessing

for poor people like me”.

These dalits say that now they are going twice or thrice to Balaji temple(Tirupati). But

before 2006, they never went there. It is because of the income from MGNREGA.

Earlier they used to eat non-vegetarian food once in a while, but now they are eating

non-vegetarian food twice to thrice in a month.

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CASE STUDY -5

Village: Venkatagari palli

Grampanchayat: Venkatagari palli

Mandal: Puttaparthy

District: Ananthapuram

Total Households: 222 (120- SCs, 150- BCs)

MNREGA RECHARGES GROUND WATER TABLE IN WATER-SCARCE VILLAGE

This village used to have distress migration up to 2/3rd and these poor people were

living life of extreme deprivation, chronic hunger and distress migration. Many days

they used to get no meals at all and their children would also go without food. Many a

time, they used to survive by eating just wild products like leaves of drumsticks etc.

None of these villagers had ever gone to Tirupathi before 2006. Women had hardly one

pair of sarees. Most of these people used to live in thatched houses.

However, with the arrival of MGNREGA there has been some remarkable change in the

lives and livelihoods of the poor people living in this village. Distress migration is now a

thing of the past. Every household is able to eat 3 full meals with vegetables bought

from the market. They are also eating Non-Vegetarian food once or twice in a month,

while earlier it was rare. Most women have 10 – 14 sarees against earlier having 1 -2

pairs. Most of them have now constructed pucca house and some expenses of the house

have also been met from MGNREGA income.

Ananthapuram is by-word for drought and crop failure. In this village too, farmers who

had land used to face and bear the brunt of water scarcity. The bore wells and open

wells of this village had become defunct/dried-up or giving very little water.But after

the arrival of MGNREGA, the implementing agencies realized the importance of water

harvesting structures and went for building the same in large numbers. As a result,

there has been appreciable increase in the ground water table of this village and now

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about 25 open wells and 35 bore wells have got recharged. Consequently, many of the

farmers whose lands are irrigated by these bore wells and open wells are getting

increased crop yields and more income .

CHITTOOR DISTRICT

CASE STUDY-1

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Village: PILLARI KONA

Grampanchayat: PULLAMANAIDU KANDRIGA

Mandal: RAMACHANDRAPURAM

District: CHITTOOR

No. of HHs: 47 (Entirely Adivasi village)

MNREGA UNLEASHES SOCIO-ECONOMIC REVOLUTION IN ADIVASI VILLAGE

Pillari Kona is an entirely adivasi village of Chittoor district . A Comprehensive Land

Development Project (CLDP) was implemented under MNREGA during 2007-10 in this

extremely deprived village. An area of 40.66 acres has been developed under this scheme

belonging to 34 adivasi beneficiaries of this village. Most of the area developed under

MGNREGA was essentially land assigned to STs & SCs of the Grampanchayat 20 years ago.

These adivasis (Yanadi) were leading very miserable life before MGNREGA and this was a

text book case of deprived adivasi village living always on the edge. They were surviving

primarily by collection of NTFP(non-timber forest produce) like firewood, honey , rat

trapping etc. Since the food was scarce and many times they didn’t get any food for 3 to 4

days , they used to survive only by eating rats. This in itself explains the kind of

dehumanising poverty and livelihood crisis these Yanadi adivasis had been facing from time

immemorial.

Some of the adivasis used to go to Tirupathi for wage employment. But most of them didn’t

, because it was 40 kilometers away and there was no link road. So, most of them used to

remain trapped in their village nestled in the foot hills. There were very little sources of food

and livelihood , therefore , these adivasis had no option but to lead a life of extreme

deprivation, chronic hunger, semi-starvation and perpetual misery.

Even the assigned land of these adivasis was substantially barren and unproductive ;

because very little area of that could give some dry land crops like millets which was

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absolutely insignificant for meeting their food requirements. This kind of miserable life

continued till 2006, when MGNREGA came in their life as a new ray of hope.

When MGNREGA came in 2006, officials of the implementing agencies (Mandal &

Grampanchayat functionaries) came to this adivasi village and explained to these poor

people about the role and relevance of MGNREGA and also succeeded in convincing these

adivasis to allow and undertake land development activities in their assigned lands. The

adivasis took it as a divine boon and they went for bush clearance in their lands as part of

land development activity in 2007. This was the beginning of a new chapter in the lives,

livelihood and lifestyle of these poor adivasis. Under MGNREGA, most of the adivasis have

got over 100 days of job since the beginning of the project and they have got their due

wages too.

It is heartenning to note that all 47 households of this adivasi village have already completed

100 days of job this year(2013 -14). Within one week of completion of the job, these

adivasis have been receiving their wage payment from post office through bio-metric

authentication without any hitch.

What is more interesting is the indirect benefits that have started coming to these adivasis

as a result of comprehensive land development undertaken in their assigned lands under

MGNREGA.

These poor adivasis who never had in their life seen or known any productive assets

belonging to them are now proud owners and beneficiaries of mango plantation done

under MGNREGA.

GUNDRAJU KUPPAM MAHALAXMI is a poor Yanadi adivasi woman and her family had been

living a life of extreme poverty and semi starvation till 2006. But with the arrival of

MGNREGA in her village , her family’s life and economic condition has taken new

turnaround. Not only that her household has completed 100 days of job every year but she

also got land development and mango plantation done in 2 acres of her assigned land. She

has 140 mango plants and these plants have already given one yield which gave about

Rs.18,000 of income to her. This year and for next three years she has given that mango

plantation on lease and the contractor will give her about Rs.20,000 per year .

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More importantly, the intercrops like groundnut, sunflower, vegetables (ladies finger,

beans, green chilies, coriander, bitter gourd and green leafy vegetables) have given her

Rs.30,000/- of income just in one year(2013).

In other words , this poor tribal family has earned about Rs.50,000/- of annual income from

the yields/crops of 2 acres of land developed under MGNREGA. This is over and above the

wage money earned from 100 days of job done under MGNREGA. In other words, this poor

adivasi household has earned about Rs.60,000/- to 65,000/- of direct and indirect income

from MGNREGA. That is inconceavable for anyone who doesn’t understand the far reaching

implications and impacts of a project like MGNREGA.

GUNDRAJU KUPPAM MAHALAXMI’s life has now become meaningful, dignified and

livelihoods secure . The future looks very bright. She has two daughters. Eldest daughter

Hima Priya is studying in 3rd year in Govt. Polytechnic in Palmaneru. Her second daughter G

Hema is studying in 10th class in Zilla Parishad High School, Nettukuppam. She emphatically

says , “It would have been impossible for her to educate her children if MGNREGA was not

there. She has tasted the fruits of MGNREGA and hence requesting forcefully that given the

importance and contribution of MGNREGA in livelihood security of STs and SCs, the

limitation of 100 days should be lifted and at least ST and SC households should be allowed

unlimited days of employment.”

She further says, “Before MGNREGA, I used to buy second hand clothes which were stiched

and worn out. But now thanks to MNGREGA, I have 35 sarees and most of them I bought

from branded saree stores located in Tirupati, like Chandana Brothers and Bommana

Brothers”.

This adivasi woman became emotional while narrating her story of hardships and misery

before arrival of MGNREGA and said in a chocking voice , “We used to live without food for

days together and there would be hardly any clothes on our bodies. Only mercy of God

saved our lives. I pray to god that long live MGNREGA and god bless the people who made

MGNREGA”.

While narrating her story in front of the Mandal Additional Program Officer, Smt. O Jyothi

Sree and other government officials, she couldn’t control her emotions and tears started

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rolling down from her eyes with a sense of deep gratitude towards the MGNREGA and the

officers who implemented it in her village .

She has purchased about 50 grams of gold in last 3 years , thanks to MGNREGA income. Two

years ago , she built a pucca house with a total cost of about Rs.2 laksh . Of this total cost ,

only Rs.45000/- came from Govt. subsidy in the form of Indira Awaas Yojana grant. The rest

was the income her family got from MGNREGA and other personal incomes. Earlier, they

were living in a thatched house only.

This is not the story of only one adivasi woman and her household alone, but of all 34

beneficiaries of this village who have got mango plants in their assigned lands and are getting

similar yields and income.

Four other beneficiaries’ children are pursuing various degree courses and it is heartenning

to note that one adivasi MGNREGA beneficiary’s daughter has become Engineer and now

working in Hyderabad. P Uma, d/o Pilliguntla Nagaraju, completed her B.Tech from

Tirupathi only last year and immediately got employed in some private company in

Hyderabad.

All adivasi households are sending their children to schools and nurturing dreams of making

their sons and daughters Engineers or Doctors. All these adivasis are now eating even non-

vegetarian food weekly and milk products also. Many of them have cows and other milch

animals.

It is gratifying to note that this poor adivasi village has utilized the full potential of

MGNREGA and has been able to provide not only 100 days of wage employment to all the

needy households, but also succeeded in creating and building productive assets (Mango

plantation). There is complete transparency and accountability in the implementation of

MGNREGA in this village. One does only wish that every village and Grampanchayat of

India had similar success story in the implementation of MNREGA. The full scale and

dimensions of socio- economic and ecological benefits of MGNREGA coming to a village

like this one is yet to be estimated, understood and told before the country. But , we can

say for sure that the indirect benefits of MGNREGA are many times more than the direct

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economic benefits coming in the form of wages. We are happy and proud to say that the

MNREGA in this adivasi village has been implemented in letter and spirit.

CASE STUDY-2

Village: CHANDRAMAKULAPALLIE HARIJANA WADA

Grampanchayat: CHANDRAMAKULAPALLE

Mandal: PUNGANUR

District: CHITTOOR

Total HHs: 70 (ENTIRELY SC HABITATION)

LAND DEVELOPMENT & MANGO PLANTATION UNDER MNREGA BRINGS LIVELIHOOD

SECURITY IN DALIT VILLAGE

The area of the mango plantation is spread in 159 acres and total number of beneficiaries (

all of them SC) are 53 , with each beneficiary having 3 acres of land. This land was assigned

in 2006. This entire land before 2006 was barren and full of jungle.

This land development and mango plantation project started in 2007 under MNREGA. All

the beneficiaries have already got 3 mango yields after land development and plantation of

DISABLED/LEPER WORKING AS MGNREGA LABOURER

GUNDRAJUKUPPAM CHALAMAIAH has got leprosy since he was 30 years old and has been

living as untouchable since then .His life was miserable. Besides sufferings and miseries of

an adivasi, he was suffering this trauma of being a leper. But MGNREGA has brought a ray

of hope in his life too. Every year since 2006 , he has worked for over 100 days. More over

,he also got 65 mango plants in his assigned plot.

Disabled persons in Andhra Pradesh are eligible for wage employment upto 150 days per

year.

42 new pucca houses have been either built or being built in this poor adivasi village

during last 2 – 3 years.

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mango . During three years of gestation period, these dalit farmers had cultivated intercrops

like tomato, chilly, brinjal and other vegetables and got good income from them.

Before 2006, these dalit farmers were absolutely landless and living life of chronic hunger,

extreme deprivation and distress migration. About half of the households used to migrate to

nearby towns like Bangalore in search of wage employment. Those who were left behind in

the village were eking out their livelihood through virtual bonded labour. These poor dalits

were made to work in the fields of landlords and they would get only food to eat and

Rs.300-400/- per year for bone- breaking labour work they used to do in the homes and

lands of landlords. They were unable to send their children to schools.

However, with the arrival of MGNREGA in 2006, these poor dalits got a ray of hope.

Moreover, during the same time each dalit household was assigned about 3 acres of land. In

2007, the implementing agencies identified this entire block to be developed

comprehensively and there after developed mango plantation. The MGNREGA employment

as well as the land development project and mango plantation have begun to give assured

and sustainable income to these poor dalits. Now, they have stopped going out to cities and

towns for wage employment and they are not at the mercy of big landlords for their

livelihood.

All these farmers are sending their children to schools and colleges. One daughter of a poor

dalit has already completed B.Ed and three others are pursuing various degree courses. Two

children have completed IIIT. About 20 are pursuing intermediate courses.

All dalits of this village say that without MGNREGA they would have been living the same

life of misery and chronic hunger. They look upon MGNREGA as a divine boon in their life.

Case Studies:

#1. VENKATAGIRI SURESH

Income from intercrop Rs.80,000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs.20000/-

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#2. V KOTA NAGAPPA

Income from intercrop Rs. 1.2 lakh

Income from mango plantation Rs. 20000/-

Spent Rs.50000/- in building pucca house and spending annually Rs.50000/- for eduction of

his 2 children who are studying in Residential colleges in Tirupathi.

#3. YELLARI BANDLU SHANKER

Income from intercrop Rs.30000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs.7500/-

#4. PACHE GANGULA PRASAD

Income from intercrop Rs.1.3 lakh ( tomato, mirchi, beans)

Income from mango plantation Rs.9500/-

Spent about 3 lakh on marriage of his daughter.

#5. C GANGULAPPA

Income from intercrop Rs.1.5 lakh (tomato)

Income from mango plantation Rs. 15000/-

One of his sons is doing IIIT for which he is paying Rs.25000/- annual fee . Other son is

studying in Intermediate. He has spent about Rs.50,000/- of MGNREGA income in building

pucca house.

#6. CHEKKALA GOPALA

Income from intercrop Rs. 55000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs.25000/-

#7 ALIVELAMMA

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Income from intercrop - nil-

Income from mango plantation Rs.7000/-

#8. YELLARIBAILU DHANAMMA

Income from intercrop Rs.50000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs.10000/-

#9. RAMALAXMI

Income from intercrop Rs.30000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs. 13000/-

#10. P RAVI

Income from intercrop Rs.30000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs.13000/-

#11. Y BABU

Income from intercrop Rs.50000/-

Income from mango plantation - nil –

#12. G SRINIVASULU

Income from intercrop Rs.1.1 lakh

Income from mango plantation Rs.30000/-

#13. Y GANGADHAR

Income from intercrop Rs. One lakh

Income from mango plantation Rs.10000/-

#14. V NAGAPPA

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Income from intercrop Rs.20000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs. One lakh

#15. V MUNIGATAPPA

Income from intercrop Rs.20000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs. One lakh

#16. C GANGULAPPA

Income from intercrop Rs.15000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs. One lakh

#17. G RAMARAJU

Income from intercrop Rs.25000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs. One lakh

#18. P GANGULAPPA

Income from intercrop Rs.15000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs.10000/-

#19. G SRINIVASULU

Income from intercrop Rs.30000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs.One lakh

#20. Y REDDAPPA

Income from intercrop Rs.30000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs.5000/-

#21. Y GANGAPPA

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Income from intercrop Rs.30000/-

Income from mango plantation Rs.10000/-

About 20 households have constructed new pucca houses recently and they have invested

Rs. 50-60 thousand from their MGNREGA income besides their standard Indira Awaas

Yogna amount of 45000/-

Distress migration from this village has now completely stopped. Earlier, they used to eat

only once in a while non-veg, but now they are eating every week. Before MGNREGA, these

poor dalit women found it difficult to have even 2 saree but now they have 10-50 sarees.

DHANAMMA has 50 sarees now and she loudly says that all this is thanks to MGNREGA.

Majority of the households have TV sets and all have mobile phones. Before 2006, these

dalits had not seen face of Balaji in Tirupathi nor had visited any famous temple, but now

thanks to MGNREGA, all of them have gone on pilgrimage to Tirupathi and seen Balaji.

YASHODAMMA, a poor dalit says with pride, “One of my son has completed M.Com and the

other is B.Com discontinued. It was all because of perfect implementation of MGNREGA”.

CASE STUDY-3

Village: HANUMAIAH KANDRIGA

Grampanchayat: KANDLURU

Mandal: KVB PURAM

District: CHITTOOR

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Total HHs: 150 (STs – 15, Rest all BCs)

TANK DESILTATION PROJECT GIVES 1.8 CRORE OF ADDITIONAL INCOME TO PADDY

FARMERS

One tank desiltation project was implemented in Hanumaiah Kandriga village of Kandluru

GP during 2007-2008. The total ayacut of the tank is 300 acres. Earlier, the tank had silted

up and there was very little water storage capacity in the tank. But, due to desiltation & silt

application project implemented under MGNREGA, the water holding capacity of the tank

has increased. As a result, about 300 acres of arable land is now getting adequate irrigation

water from this tank. This has resulted into increased yield of paddy of around 80-100%.

While before MGNREGA desiltation project, the per acre paddy yield was about 20 bags,

after desiltation of the tank, the per acre paddy yield has increased to around 35-40 bags.

In other words, the per acre paddy yield and income has almost doubled.

VOLUKURU VENKATA REDDY is a farmer belonging to BC(backward caste) with 4 acres of

paddy land in the command area of the desilted tank. Before desiltation, he used to get

about 20 bags of paddy per acre, but now he is getting about 35 bags per acre.

In economic terms, there is an additional income of at least Rs.12000/- per acre per annum

as a result of tank desiltation project. If Rs.12000 is multiplied by 300 acres, there is an

additional annual income of Rs.36 lakh coming to poor farmers of this village every year

due to MGNREGA desiltation project.

If that is multiplied with 5 years, the total additional income as a result of the tank

desiltation project that has come to these farmers so far is around Rs.180 lakh, i.e, Rs. 1.8

crore.

The beneficiary farmers said , “Now as a result of desiltation project, we are reaping good

harvest and farmers whose land is in the command area are feeling very happy. Had this

tank desiltation project not been implemented, our life would have become miserable and

have returned back to same life of indebtedness, hunger and livelihood crisis. But due to

this project, we are now living comfortable life and getting additional income.”

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GUNA CHENGAMMA, a BC farmer having 4 acres of land in the command area of tank says,

“There was menace of naxalism prevailing in this area 20 years ago. Even though naxalites

never came in our village , we always lived in fear. Police used to come and search our

houses.But that is now thing of the past”.

GUNA CHENGAMMA further says, “Before MGNREGA, we were living a miserable life of

unemployment, extreme poverty, chronic hunger and extremely low daily wage. But now

due to MGNREGA, our life has become much more comfortable. We are now able to eat 3

square meals , wear good clothes and sending our children to schools. Almost all households

of this backward deprived village of Chittoor are having TVs and Mobile phones. Almost all

households have got now pucca houses.” The life of poor farmers and labourers of this

village has taken a complete turnaround and now their livelihood is much more secured.

They don’t go around in search of wage employment.

CASE STUDY-4

Village: DIGUVAJUPALLI (Habitation)

Grampanchayat: GANUGACHINTHA

Mandal: ROMPICHERLA

District: CHITTOOR

A police encounter took place on the boarders of this GP and 7 naxalites were killed in 1996-97.

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Total HHs: 55( OC-45, BC-5,SC-5)

LAND DEVELOPMENT & MANGO PLANTATION BRING PROSPERITY IN THE VILLAGE

As per data provided by Mandal & GP authorities, land development under MNREGA has

been undertaken in about 180 acres and this entire land has been planted with Mango.

About 25 farm ponds have been also constructed as life saving irrigation source.

All the job card holders and households of this habitation are small and marginal farmers

with less than 5 acres of land. Before MGNREGA, this plot of 180 acres used to remain

fallow/barren and farmers did not get any income. However, with the arrival of MGNREGA,

these lands have become life line for these poor farmers of Chittoor district.

Immediatly after bush clearance taken up in their lands in 2007-08, beneficiary farmers

started cultivating intercrops like tomato, groundnut, red gram, horse gram etc. As a result,

they got good income from the intercrops.

At the same time, they also got maintenance expenses for watering and manuring of the

mango plantation from the MGNREGA wages. In other words, in the first 3 years of

gestation period of Mango Plantation, these lands which were lying unproductive became

source of good income from intercrops . Moreover , these beneficiaries also earned wages

under MGNREGA for working in their own fields. When the maintenance period of 3 years

came to an end, the mango plants have started giving good yields and income to these poor

farmers.

All farmers and households of this habitation are mango plantation beneficiaries and most

of them have got 2-3 yields, which brought them good income.

Case Study #1

JAI KONDAIAH is a small farmer with 3 acres of land under mango plantation, which was

lying barren. Besides getting MGNREGA wages towards maintenance cost of his own mango

plantation, he earned about Rs.30000/- from the intercrops he had grown during 3 years of

gestation period of mango plantation. Afterwards, he has already got about Rs.75000/-

worth of income from 3 mango yields. In the first year, he earned Rs.10000/-, in the 2nd year

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Rs.25000/- and during the last year(2013) he earned Rs.40000/-.

The direct and indirect benefits and income from MGNREGA has brought an unbelievable

transformation in the economic condition of this poor farmer of Chittoor. Before

MGNREGA, his economic condition was such that his parents could not afford his education

after 10th Class and it was very difficult to get 2 meals a day. They were living in thatched

houses and life was miserable.

But, with the arrival of MGNREGA, their life has taken a 180 degree turn and this poor

farmer is now not so poor. The income coming from MGNREGA wages and the land

development project implemented in his land , besides the mango garden income , have

brought substantial annual income and economic empowerment to this farmer. As a result,

this farmer has built a pucca house 3 years ago, investing about 40-50 thousand rupees from

MGNREGA incomes , besides the Indira Awaas Yogna grant of Rs25000/-. His eldest

daughter is pursuing B.Tech in a private college (MJR Engineering College) in Piler mandal.

His son is studying in intermediate (Sree Chaitanya College) in Tirupathi, where he is paying

Rs.40000/- annual fee for this residential college.

JAI KONDAIAH emphatically says, “If MGNREGA was not there, it wouldn’t have been

possible for me to give good education to my children and build a pucca house”.

The story of JAI KONDAIAH is not a stand alone story, but this is the story of the entire

village and almost every household. About 25 households are sending their children to

private schools. Over 10 boys and girls from this village are pursuing B.Tech degrees in

nearby Engineering college, one has already completed B.Tech and pursuing M.Tech.

During last 3-4 years, all households of the village have converted their thatched houses

into pucca houses , thanks to the additional income from MGNREGA as well as the IAY

grant.

Case Study #2

KALLAM KUMAR has 3 acres of land with mango plantation.

He got earnings from Inter crop worth Rs.90000/- to one lakh (majority crop is groundnut)

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He got income from mango worth Rs.30000/-

He has two children and he is sending both of them to private schools and paying

Rs.11000/- of fees towards the same. He converted his thatched house into a pucca house 3

years ago in which he spent Rs.50000/- from MGNREGA income.

Case Study #3

KALLA RAMANAIDU has 5 acres of land with mango plantation.

From intercrop he earned Rs.40000/- (Groudnut and Tomato)

His income from mango yield is Rs.1.5 lakh.

His eldest daughter is pursuing M.Tech and second pursuing B.Tech. He spent above

Rs.40000/-towards pucca house 3 years ago. When asked if he could have managed to give

higher education to his daughters without MGNREGA, this farmer emphatically said, “No, it

would not have been possible for us to educate our children and build pucca houses without

MGNREGA”.

Case Study #4

SRINIVASULU MALLEMMA has 4 acres of land with mango plantation.

From intercrop he earned Rs.10000/-(groundnut once only)

From mango yield he got Rs.50000/-

He has only one son who completed degree 3 years back. Now he is waiting for a job. He is

also working as wage seeker under MGNREGA and working on his own field too.

Case Study #5

UJJINI VENKATARAMANA NAYAK has 3 acres of land with mango plantation , has 210 mango

plants under land development. From intercrop he earned Rs.85000/-(groudnuts only) .His

income from mango yield was Rs.45000/-

Case Study #6

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KANIKURTHY ADANNA has 3 acres of land with mango plantation.

His income from intercrop was Rs.10000/-(Horsegram)

Case Study #7

ABBAREDDY CHENGAMMA has 3 acres of mango plantation.

Income from intercrop was Rs.40000/-

Income from mango yield Rs. 42000/-

Case Study #8

GOLI VENKATARAMANA has 3 acres of mango plantation.

His income from intercrop was Rs.40000/-

He had income from mango yield worth Rs. 54000/-

CASE STUDY-5

Village: MADDIPATLA SUGALAGUDEM

Grampanchayat: GANUGACHINTHA

Mandal: ROMPICHERLA

District: CHITTOOR

Total HHs: 12

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Total JobCards: 16

MNREGA’S LIBERATING IMPACT ON ADIVASIS

BUKKA CHANDRA NAYAK is an adivasi farmer with 2.5 acres of land. In this plot of land,

comprehensive land development was undertaken under MGNREGA during 2009-10.Under

this ,the activities undertaken were bush clearance, stone pickup, stump removal, stone

bunding, farm pond and silt application . The land which was lying barren since it was

assigned to these adivasis about 30 years ago has now become productive as a result of

land development activity done under MGNREGA. This poor adivasi farmer has got about

Rs.16000/- of additional income from various crops grown in this land (tomato, groundnut,

chilies) during last 2 years as a result of the land development project. Besides, he has been

doing 100 days of job every year and getting due wages for it.

This farmer says , “Our life was very miserable before MGNREGA. We used to work as farm

labourers and used to take cattle of landlords for grazing. We were unable to get 2 square

meals. It was a hand to mouth existence. We were unable to send our children to school.

But thanks to MGNREGA, we are now leading a comfortable life. Our livelihood is secured.

We are now sending our children to schools and colleges. My eldest daughter B MADHURI

completed B.Ed and now working as Teacher in a Govt. School. My second daughter B

BHAGYA LAXMI, completed M.Tech from Sri Venkateshwara University in Tirupathi last year

and she is working as a guest lecturer in Tirupathi Engineering College. My son B JAGDISH

NAYAK completed Graduation and working as Police Constable in Andhra Pradesh Police.

Had MGNREGA not been there all my children would have ended up as farm labourers and

dropouts. MGNREGA has arrived in our life as a divine blessing. MGNREGA is now life- line

for poor adivasis like us”.

There are 16 other adivasi households in this habitation and all of them are MGNREGA

beneficiaries. In this habitation, land development under MGNREGA has been done in about

17 acres and about 14 households are beneficiaries of the same. Water harvesting

structures (farm ponds) have been dug in the lands of 3 beneficiaries. Mango plantation has

been done in about 17 acres, benefitting 6 farmers.

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As result of MGNREGA and Land Development /Horticulture, these adivasi farmers are now

economically empowered and they are eating 3 square meals, sending their children to

schools and colleges, barren/unproductive lands have become productive and likely to give

good income from mango yields.

CASE STUDY-6

Village: KALANGI

Grampanchayat: KANDLURU

Mandal: KVB PURAM

District: CHITTOOR

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No. of Beneficiaries: 17 (All SCs)

Acreage of Plantation: 28.7

Year of Implementation: 2011 - 12

KALANGI MANGO PLANTATION BRINGS HAPPINESS IN LIVES OF DALIT FARMERS

This land was assigned to these dalits 10 years ago, but it was lying barren because it is hard

soil. But now thanks to MGNREGA , Mango Plantation has been done in this unproductive

land. Since it is the first year of intercrop, it is difficult to find out the amount of income and

the mango yields will come only after 4-5 years. But with this mango plantation, these dalits

have now become proud owners of mango plantation and they are getting wages under

MGNREGA for working in their own lands. This horticulture block has brought a new ray of

hope in the lives of these poor dalits.

# 1. SURYAPAKA VENKATAIAH, who is owner of 3 acres of mango plantation says, “Earlier

we were working as farm labourers and used to get very small amount as daily wages. Life

used to be very difficult and it was not enough for even food. But thanks to MGNREGA, we

are now proud owners of mango plantation and we don’t need to go begging at the doors of

big landlords asking for wage employment.”

#2. KOMMALA VENKATAMMA , who is a dalit beneficiary of mango plantation with 4.76

acres of land , says, “Before MGNREGA, we used to find it difficult to get even one square

meal. But thanks to MGNREGA, we are able to get three square meals and we have now

good clothes. Moreover, through MGNREGA we have got mango plants in our own fields

and we are getting wages for working in our own fields. I hope that in 4-5 years my mango

plants would give 20-25 thousand rupees of annual income. With this assured regular

income we hope to lead a comfortable life. We will be very happy if we are given MGNREGA

job for more than 150 days”.

CASE STUDY-7

Village: Sivagiri ST Colony

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Grampanchayat: Kandadu

Mandal: Yerpedu

District: Chittoor

MNREGA BRINGS SOCIAL & ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION IN LIVES OF DEPRIVED

ADIVASIS

This village is entirely Yanadi adivasis with 150 households. In this colony , 37 households

have been selected for land development under dry land horticulture scheme . As a result,

there were 3600 saplings @70 per acre. Prior to sanction of dry land horticulture , land

development activity, i.e,. bush clearance, land leveling, pebble bunding etc, were

sanctioned under MGNREGA with the cost of Rs.5.36 lakh. Subsequently , dry land

horticulture was sanctioned. Under this pitting, plantation, maintenance etc. worth

Rs.37.89 lakh was done from MGNREGA.

Under convergence with NABARD – RIDF XIII funds were dovetailed for sanction of bore

wells, energization and submersible pump sets. Since this land was covered with thick

jungle, an amount of Rs.86000/- was also utilized from NABARD fund to clear bush in an

extent of 18 acres. So totally , from MGNREGA Rs.37.89 lakh and from NABARD Rs. 9.80

lakh were spent to develop 50 acres of barren land benefitting 37 Yanadi households.

Before MGNREGA, these adivasis used to live a life of extreme deprivation, chronic hunger

and distress migration. They used to live existence of hand to mouth and always dependent

on NTFP (non-timber forest produce) like broomsticks, honey collection etc to eke out a

living ; and it was difficult to get even one meal for them. It was impossible for them to send

their children to school. The children also used to accompany their parents in the forest and

education was impossible.

However, thanks to MGNREGA, the economic condition of these poor adivasis has taken a

remarkable turnaround and there is a great sense of economic empowerment in the lives of

these poor adivasis.

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G. Nagamma , a poor adivasi and also MGNREGA worker & beneficiary says, “We used to

survive on millets like jowar, broken rice, ragi balls with salt and green chilly . We used to

have a single saree which would be washed and dried every day. But now thanks to

MGNREGA , we are able to eat 3 full meals and also buy regular vegetables from market. We

have also started taking non-veg food once or twice in a month. I have 15 sarees and a

Mobile also. We are also able to save some money in the SHG fund. Our life has become

much more comfortable and meaningful due to MGNREGA”.

Another adivasi woman N Sarojamma has also similar story to share. She has now 20 sarees

and mobile phone. She is eating 3 square meals and sending her son to school. In her 1.5

acre of assigned land (which used to be barren before MGNREGA) there are now 105 mango

plants . From these 105 mango plants, in 5th year (2014) she will get about Rs.4000/-, 6th

year Rs.6000/- and from 7th year over Rs. 8000 . For next 10 -25 years, she would get about

Rs.10000 of annual income from her mango plantation without any maintenance or

production cost.

This is not the story of only one or two adivasi women but 37 poor adivasi

laborers/beneficiaries of Sivagiri ST Colony. MGNREGA has changed their lives, livelihoods

and life style beyond imagination.

Moreover, these adivasi beneficiaries have done Mahatma Gandhi Bund Plantation under

MGNREGA on the boundaries of their individual mango fields. Under this, every individual

beneficiary has got 160 teak plants, which will be after 20 – 25 years worth Lakhs of rupees.

There can’t be a better investment for the future of these poor adivasis.

When asked as to what would be life without MGNREGA, these adivasis said in chorus,

“We would return back to the same miserable life of extreme deprivation, chronic hunger,

distress migration and perpetual livelihood insecurity. MGNREGA has brought complete

transformation in our economic and social condition and we would like this scheme to

continue for long in the future too”.

CASE STUDY-8

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Village: Yelakamitta ST Colony

Grampanchayat: Kandadu

Mandal: Yerpedu

District: Chittoor

Land Development Programme Brings Livelihood Security in Adivasi Village

In Yelakamitta ST Colony , a Comprehensive Land Development Programme and Mango

Plantation has been taken up in convergence with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural

Development (NABARD) , Rural Infrastructure Development Fund(RIDF) XV, MNREGA and

Tribal welfare. Till 2008 , the entire land belonging to Yenadi adivasis was bushy and barren

.The land was assigned to these poor adivasis 8 years ago. The number of beneficiaries of

this mango plantation is 33.

Under MGNREGA , the bush clearing, land levelling, pitting and mango plantation was done.

Under NABARD component, two bore wells were drilled. Energization component also

came from NABARD. ST corporation contributed cost of two submersible pumps.

In this mango plantation, inter cropping is also being facilitated , promoted and being paid

from MGNREGA. Jowar, Groundnuts and other Millets are also promoted as intercrops for 3

years .The maintenance cost for the mango plants is also paid from MGNREGA.

Before MGNREGA, these extremely poor adivasis used to live a life of perpetual misery in

the form of chronic hunger, extreme poverty, and massive distress migration. The wages

were Rs.10 -20/- and they used to go to Tirupati and other towns in search of wage

employment. It was impossible for them to send their children to school. They used to

collect forest produce like fire wood, gums, honey and broomsticks etc, and lived hand to

mouth existence. The life was so miserable and livelihood so insecure that they had to be

always worried about getting just one meal in a day.

But thanks to MGNREGA, those days are things of past and now the livelihood security of

these poor adivasis is being enhanced and ensured every year through MGNREGA.

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The land assigned to these poor adivasis and effective/corruption free implementation of

MGNREGA in this Grampanchayat has brought a complete turnaround in the lives, livelihood

and lifestyle of these poor adivasis. They are now eating 3 square meals and also weekly

non-veg food. All of them are sending their children to schools. Distress migration has

completely stopped.

The adivasi women used to have hardly 1- 2 sarees before MGNREGA, but now most of

them have 15 – 20 sarees.

Govindamma , a poor adivasi woman got 70 mango plants in 1 acre of this horticulture

block. She is happy and proud to say that “Now, we throw away our sarees and other

clothes the moment they are torn off and buy new sarees and clothes. We are in a position

to lend money to others on interest (as part of self help group’s savings). Some women are

saving Rs.100/- and others Rs.200/- per month in the self help group fund”.

The economic empowerment through MGNREGA has also increased credit worthiness of

these poor adivasis . Govindamma has three mobile phones and Chenchamma also has 3

mobile phones and 20 sarees. All these adivasi beneficiaries have at least 1 mobile phone

and the loan repayment to banks has also improved after introduction of MGNREGA.

The mango plantation block area used to be a deserted place 10 -15 years ago, because of

presence of naxalites in the nearby areas. But villagers say that they didn’t face any

problems on the part of the naxalites nor they ever interacted with them.

CASE STUDY-9

Village: KANDLURU (SC COLONY)

Grampanchayat: KANDLURU

Mandal: KVB PURAM

District: CHITTOOR

No. of HHs: 200

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Total Job Cards: 200

No. of Beneficiaries: 52 (All are SC beneficiaries)

Total area of horticulture block : 94.7 acres

Year of Implementation: 2011

Total number of Mango plants : 6580

Total number of Teak plants : 5000

MNREGA LIBERATES BONDED LABOURERS

95 acres of land was assigned to poor dalits of Kandluru village in 1995 , but this land was

lying barren till 2011. Under MNREGA , a horticulture plantation project was sanctioned in

2010 covering 94.7 acres of assigned land . Then bush clearance and other land

development works were taken up in 2011. 8 bore wells in convergence with NABARD have

been drilled and power supply is also being provided from NABARD component. 6 bore wells

succeeded and 1 bore well collapsed and motor erected to one bore well. Electrification was

done for 6 bore wells and 5 out of them are connected with motors. 5 bore well recharge

structures were constructed, which came from Indira Jala Prabha.

In 2011 itself , the beneficiaries started cultivating intercrops like black gram, green gram,

water melon and rainfed paddy was also grown. Vegetables like ladies finger, brinjal, leafy

vegetables, soya bean, horse gram etc are also being cultivated on the horticulture block.

Besides, as maintenance cost coming from MGNREGA, any farmer who has about 2 acres of

land in the mango plantation is likely to get more than 100 days of annual employment for

maintenance of his own plot itself.

All these dalit farmers have already got intercrops’ income for 2 years. The average annual

income per acre from intercrops is at least Rs.7000/-

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In other words, a farmer who has two acres of mango plantation has already got about

Rs.28000/- from intercrops alone. Over and above this, each beneficiary house hold is

entitled for 100 days of job which brings another Rs.14000 – 15000/- as annual wage

income. To put it differently , the direct and indirect benefits of MGNREGA to these dalit

farmers from this mango plantation during this gestation period/initial years is about

Rs.28000/- per year.

CHURU SRINIVASULU is a poor dalit farmer with 1.98 acres of assigned land which has been

brought under mango horticulture under MGNREGA. He has already earned about

Rs.28000/- from various intercrops harvested during last 2 years. This is over and above 100

days of wages that he gets for the works he does on his own mango plantation fields.

Pre-MGNREGA socio - economic condition of the farmers

This entire village of dalits was living as bonded labourers to big landlords of this GP and

they used to live in socio-economic conditions that are text book descriptions of bonded

labour in rural India. These poor dalits were absolutely landless and were wholly and solely

dependent on the mercy of their landlords. The untouchability was prevalent in its most

dehumanizing form. While working with the landlords, if they were thirsty, the landlords

would pour down water on their hand palms and these dalits used to work in the homes

and lands of big landlords from early morning to late in the evening. For their entire day’s

work they used to receive small ragi balls and some little quantity of boiled rice, and the

same used to be shared and eaten by rest of the family members. The children of these

dalits used to tend the milch animals and other cattles of the landlords and used to take

them to pasture lands for grazing.

These dalits used to poduce as many children as possible in order to serve as many

landlords as possible. The parents of these dalits became bonded labourers to the

landlords after borrowing small amounts of money for their survival needs. These

dehumanizing conditions continued till the arrival of MGNREGA. These dalits used to live

on just one meal a day. They didn’t send their children to school. These dalit labourers

were not allowed to wear shoes or trousers and could go to work in the homes of

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landlords wearing only lungies. They were living life of bondage, semi starvation, extreme

deprivation and dehumanizing social exclusion.

However, things have completely changed after the arrival of MGNREGA. Even before

MGNREGA, about 50% of dalit households had got some land assigned to them in 1995.

But, the stronghold of the landlords who were ruling over the life of these dalits was so

strong that even these assigned lands were under effective control of the landlords or these

lands were lying barren.

With the arrival of MGNREGA, the socio-economic condition of these poor dalits has taken

180 degrees turn , thanks to the wage employment and horticulture plantation done in the

fields of these poor dalits.

52 dalit beneficiaries of this mango horticulture block are not only getting 100 days of wage

employment for working on their own fields of mango but they are also getting about

Rs.7000/- of income per year from the intercrops.

After 3 – 4 years, these dalits who are now owners of mango plants would be getting 5 -10

thousand rupees from the mango yields per year. They are eating 3 full meals and most of

the women have 15 -20 sarees, males also have 10-15 pairs of clothes. This in itself gives

enough indications about the kind of economic empowerment that has come in the lives of

these poor dalit labourers turned mango orchard owners. They are all sending their children

to good schools and determined to give their children higher education also.

Earlier, when these dalits were living as bonded labourers , only landlords were in

commanding position , but now thanks to MGNREGA , these poor dalits are in a

commanding position at least in terms of the wage rates.

#1. PALETI MASTHAN RAO is a poor dalit beneficiary with 2 acres of mango plantation. He

says with pride “We tell landlords that we would work in your fields only if you give us

Rs.200/- as daily wage. If they don’t, we refuse to work in their fields”.

#2. MALLARAM BALAKRISHNAIAH is a poor dalit beneficiary with 2 acres of land under

mango plantation. When we asked him about his socio-economic condition before

MGNREGA, he started narrating the pain and trauma he had suffered as a bonded labourer

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for 10 years. “We were treated as untouchables and would suffer dehumanizing and

demeaning conditions. We used to get only little food for survival. We could not dare

speak anything before landlords. Our life was completely on the mercy of landlords. It is

difficult to believe that we are now owners of some mango plantation and earning our

livelihood with dignity and self respect”. This poor dalit said this in a chocking voice

overwhelmed by the past memories of a bonded labourer.

This is not the story of just one dalit but all dalits of this village. Dalits said that before

MGNREGA they used to eat non-veg only on festival times but now eating weekly.

#3. MALLARAPU VENKATA RAMANAIAH a poor dalit has 1 acre of land under plantation.

He studied upto B.com but failed in the final year. Both of his parents were working as

bonded labourers to the big landlord of the village. But now, thanks to MGNREGA, he and

his parents are MGNREGA beneficiaries and living a life of dignity and food security.

#4. GUDURU RAMANAMMA is a dalit woman with 1.53 acres of mango plantation.

Narrating her days of hardship and misery before MGNREGA, she says, “We used to get only

Rs.15/- as wage and the landlords would not allow us to return back to home till late in

the evening. Therefore, it was very difficult for us to do household chores and work in their

fields too. That low wage was not enough to feed us. But now thanks to MGNREGA, we

are working for just 6 hours and do get decent wage for the same. Moreover, through

MGNREGA, we have become proud owners of some mango plantation also. We request

that the number of working days for poor people like us should be raised or it should be

made available for unlimited number of days. MGNREGA has given a totally different

meaning to our lives. We are greatful to MGNREGA and the people behind it.”

Thanks to MGNREGA, all these dalits have TV sets, mobile phones and ornaments like ear

rings etc.

CASE STUDY-10

Village: LOTHATTU VENKATAPURAM (LV Puram) (Adivasi Habitation)

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Grampanchayat: NETHAKUPPAM

Mandal: RAMACHANDRAPURAM

District: CHITTOOR

MNREGA GIVES LAND DEVELOPMENT & MANGO PLANTATION TO ADIVASIS

In this Adivasi habitation of 11 ST households, a Comprehensive Land Development &

Mango Plantation Project has been undertaken in about 28 acres with 11 beneficiaries. This

project started in 2007 December and now the mango plants have already given two yields.

Along with the mango plantation, farmers are doing intercropping also(vegetables, turmeric,

horsegram, onions, coriander chilies, groundnut etc.)

GUNDRAJUKUPPAM CHENGAIAH, an adivasi farmer was assigned an extent of 3 acres of

land some 25 years back. At the time of assignment, the land was barren with full of thick

jungle and thorny bushes. Since the beneficiary was not financially sound to take up land

development , the land was lying idle. After introduction of MGNREGA, the field staff visited

his land and advised him to take up LDP(land development project) under MGNREGA.

Accordingly, bush clearance, land levelling, bund formation, farm ponds construction and

compost pits construction were executed with MGNREGA funds. Besides horticulture,

pitting and plantation was also sanctioned. Subsequently , in convergence with NABARD

funds and RIDF IX, 3 bore wells were drilled and energization of pump sets were installed.

Under Andhra Pradesh Micro Irrigation project, drip system was also installed. The

beneficiary has nurtured his mango plants regularly. Besides , he has taken up inter crops by

raising horse gram, red gram and water melons.

From 210 mango plants on his land, initially he used to get Rs.5000/- per acre from inter

crops. After 5 years his mango plants gave him annual income of Rs.16000/- in the first year,

Rs.25000/- in the second year. In the third year, he got an income of Rs.80000/-.

This year (2014) he has given the entire 3 acres of mango plantation on lease for Rs.1.5

lakh. Besides, this farmer is growing various vegetables (onion, chilly, coriander) in an extent

of 15 cents. He has also planted 300 banana plants.

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Pre MGNREGA, they used to live life of semi starvation and extreme poverty. Getting even

one meal was very difficult. They used to work as farm labourers in the nearby villages and

used to get Rs.75/- as daily wage.

However, the life and livelihood of these MGNREGA beneficiaries has completely changed.

They are eating 3 square meals and wear decent clothes. G ESHWARAMMA, daughter-in-

law of the beneficiary has 10 sarees now, whereas pre MGNREGA she had hardly 2 – 3

sarees.

This family has spent Rs. 2 lakh on drilling 3 bore wells in their fields. They wouldn’t have

even imagined to do this if MGNREGA was not there. Four years ago, they spent Rs. 1.5 lakh

on marriage of their daughter. The money that was borrowed for the marriage of their

daughter has now been repaid back , thanks to direct and indirect incomes from

MGNREGA.

VENKATRAMAIAH GULLURU is an Yanadi adivasi beneficiary with 3 acres of land. During

first 4 years of the plantation, inter crops were raised which brought him about Rs.15000 .

He has now already got 2 yields from mango and the 3rd is coming up. From the first mango

yield , he earned Rs.6000 and from the second Rs.15000 . This year(2014) he has leased

out for Rs.25000 . He has 200 mango plants on his plot . It is the mango variety which does

not give very good price. Hence only Rs.25000 .

The other nine beneficiaries of land development and mango plantation too shared similar

stories of economic empowerment and livelihood security through MNREGA

CASE STUDY-11

Village: NETHAKUPPAM HARIJANA WADA

Grampanchayat: NETHAKUPPAM

Mandal: RAMACHANDRAPURAM

District: CHITTOOR

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MNREGA BRINGS SOCIO-ECONOMIC REVOLUTION IN THE LIVES OF POOR DALITS

In about 47 acres of assigned land, Comprehensive Land Development project has been

implemented under MGNREGA and there are 32 beneficiaries in total, all of them Scheduled

Caste. Under the Comprehensive Land Development project, there is about 40 acres under

mango plantation.

This dalit village was extremely poor and backward before MGNREGA. These 32 dalit

families of the village had about 47 acres of assigned land. But, this was hardly giving any

yield or any income to these poor families. At best, if the weather God was happy, they

could get some dry land crops in some part of their land. They used to go for labour work in

the nearby villages and GPs to earn their living . That too was not easily available and wages

were very low. Therefore, these dalits had no option but to lead a life of extreme poverty,

chronic hunger and perpetual livelihood crisis. They used to find very difficult to get even

one square meal a day.

It is against this background that MGNREGA came in their life as a ray of hope. Under

MGNREGA, all these families have got 100 days of job and their due wages every year. But,

that was not the only benefit that MGNREGA brought in their lives. The comprehensive land

development project undertaken in their lands under MGNREGA has started giving much

more benefits per year to these poor dalits than the MGNREGA wages annually earned. This

has not only brought about a complete transformation in their economic condition but

there is remarkable change in their social status too.

From being a poor wage seeker to proud owner of horticulture block and getting assured

income is nothing short of socio-economic revolution in the lives of these poor dalits.

# 1. NELLEPALLI DORAISWAMY is a poor dalit with 4 acres of assigned land. Of these 4

acres he got, CLDP (comprehensive land development & plantation) was done in 2 acres

and he has 140 mango plants in his field.

NELLEPALLI DORAISWAMY says with a very strong and emotional sense of pride, “I was a

wretched dalit labourer leading a miserable life, but now I am so happy and proud to say

that I am owner of some land with horticulture plantation on that. I could not have even

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dreamt of this before arrival of MGNREGA. But MGNREGA has become a boon and a

miracle for poor dalits of my village”.

#2. NELLEPALLI CHINNAIAH has 4 acres of land under mango plantation with 270 mango

plants. He earned Rs.2000/- from 1st yield of mango and expecting to earn Rs.30000/- from

the next yield (2014).

#3. KIRUMANYAM MANIRATNAM has 200 mango plants in 4 acres of land. He earned

Rs.2000/- from 1st yield and expecting Rs.30000/- from second yield.

#4. TAIDALA VENKATASWAMY has 2.6 acres of land with 140 mango plants. He earned

during 1st yield Rs.2000/- and expecting Rs.20000/- in the next yield.

#5. MALAPATI LEELAVATHY is a dalit woman and has 1.1 acre of land with 100 mango

plants. During 1st yield she earned Rs.2000/- and expecting Rs.15000/- in the next yield.

CASE STUDY-12

Village: PULLAMANAIDU KANDRIGA

Grampanchayat: PULLAMANAIDU KANDRIGA

Mandal: RAMACHANDRAPURAM

District: CHITTOOR

No. of HHs: 62

MNREGA COMES TO THE RESCUE OF DISTRESSED UPPER CASTE FARMERS

Major works taken up in this village under MGNREGA are:

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1. Boundary Trenches

2. Bund plantation

3. Horticulture

4. Land Development (Bush clearance)

All households in this village are forward caste but are working under MGNREGA. 45

households have got land development project . 40 families are beneficiaries of dry land

horticulture (mango) and 20 families have been given bund plantation (teak plants). Jungle

clearance and stone bunding activities were also sanctioned under MGNREGA. Besides that,

under Integrated Water Management Program, 9 NADAP Compost pits have been

sanctioned. One beneficiary benefitted from fodder development project in convergence

with animal husbandry department. Land levelling , ploughing and skilled labour component

comes from MGNREGA. It is a 3 years project.

All the horticulture beneficiaries are certified small and marginal farmers , hence eligible for

land development and horticulture projects under MNREGA.

Even before MGNREGA, these forward caste (Khamma) farmers used to work as labourers in

the fields of other people , even in the fields of low caste SCs and STs, within the gram

panchayat. But they don’t go out in search of wage employment to other GPs. All of them

have some land , 2- 4 acres, but that is not sufficient to take care of their needs. It seems as

if Reverse Social Engineering is at work in this village of Chittoor district. Chittoor has been

reeling under drought for 20 years. Out of 20 years, for 17 years Chittoor has been declared

as drought affected district. Even those farmers who have 5 – 10 acres of land are willing to

work for MGNREGA because of livelihood crisis. So, these upper caste farmers are as much

in need of MGNREGA as low caste labourers. Upper caste farmers and MGNREGA workers

say that, “If MGNREGA was not there, our life would have become economically insecure

and we too are desperately in need of MGNREGA job for our survival”.

This year alone (2013-14) , 35 households from this village have completed 100 days of

work. Previous year, 45 households had completed their 100 days of job.

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LEKKALA VASANTHA is a Khamma woman farmer with one acre of land. She says, “We are

very poor even though we are from upper caste. We need MNGERGA work as much as

lower caste labourers, because without MGNREGA life is difficult for us. Earlier upper caste

women normally didn’t get out of their house. But now with the arrival of MGNREGA, we

have started going out for MGNREGA work and also work in the private fields of lower caste

people within our GP. Now there is a sense of egalitarianism and we , the women of upper

caste, don’t mind working in the lands of low caste people.” After talking to these villagers ,

one could only say that India’s journey towards egalitarianism has begun , even though at a

slow pace.

VIZIANAGARAM DISTRICT

CASE STUDY-1

Village: KORLAM

GP: KORLAM

Mandal: GANTYADA

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SHRAMA SHAKTHI SANGHA (SSS) SYSTEM MAKES EFFICIENT USE OF LABOUR FORCE

Total number of fixed labour groups in Korlam GP is 50 . 6 groups are headed by women

and rest by men. Total number of job cards in the GP is 592 . Total number of registered

labourers is 1012 (650 – Men, 362- Women) .

Before 2010, large number of labourers used to work on a single project. The number used

to be about 50-60 labourers and it was not harmonious, conducive and efficient way of

getting maximum output from the labourers working in the large groups. There was very

little sense of individual accountability and those people who were hard working had no

incentives . Therefore , most of the labourers were not able to give maximum output,

because there was no one who could closely monitor their work. Thus, their collective

output being lower because of inefficient labour group management, they were able to get

very small amount of wage ( on work measurement basis), even though, a particular

labourer or group of them might have worked very hard. It is this realization of inefficiency

inbuilt in that system which made the Government of Andhra Pradesh to come out with an

innovative idea of fixed labour groups locally known as Shrama Shakthi Sangham (SSS) and

each group is headed by a mate. The minimum number required for SSS is 10 and maximum

number can go up to 30 labourers. Since the number of labourers is relatively small and also

harmonious and manageable group which can be closely monitored by the mate, therefore,

the output per capita becomes higher and the small labour groups are easily and efficiently

managed. The SSS labourers try to give their best while at work and since the group is

relatively small, in fact each labourer becomes monitor and supervisor for the fellow

labourers too.

Therefore, since the introduction of SSS system in Korlam GP, the per capta output of the

labourers has increased and there is relatively higher participation by women labourers.

Another benefit of SSS system over the previous system is that, earlier these large groups of

50-60 labourers would necessarily mean requirement of big enough projects to absorb and

engage all of them. As a result , it became very difficult to take up small works like

construction of channels (water, drainage) etc , because they require only a few labourers .

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Whereas in the present system , there are groups with even 10-15 labourers and the same

could be engaged in even smaller projects as mentioned above.

Before 2010, entire MGNREGA implementation responsibility was vested with field

assistants and there was no system of mates. Therefore , it was very difficult for field

assistants to single handedly do all paper works (job card maintenance, attendance, filling

up of muster rolls, monitoring the work) as well as close monitoring of the labourers.

Therefore, it was a major managerial inefficiency which was a problem in the effective

implementation of MGNREGA. But , after introduction of SSS system , every fixed labour

group has a mate who mobilizes the labourers, monitors their work and also fills up muster

rolls. On the other hand, most of the paper work - job cards maintenance, work register

maintenance, record maintenance of GP, work demand application, timely handover of

muster rolls to APO and collection of wage slips from Mandal office is done by field

assistant. Therefore ,this system has provided required managerial man power at the GP

level and also created a system of close and efficient monitoring of the labourers, their

works and the work site conditions as well as timely and proper payment of wages to

labourers.

The system of labour groups has also facilitated larger participation of women in MGNREGA

projects implemented in this GP. Before the SSS system , women participation in MGNREGA

was lower and there was an inbuilt bias against female labourers’ participation in MGNREGA

projects. Earlier , majority of the labourers working in big projects would be men and very

few women would be allowed to work in the projects, because male labourers were

reluctant to come to terms with the fact that female labourers would also be paid wages

equal to male labourers. However, the introduction of SSS system has shattered that

traditional bias against female labourers and the SSS became a very powerful tool to attract

female labourers in MGNREGA projects. It slowly but surely started giving space to female

labourers to form conducive, harmonious and manageable fixed labour groups which are

either headed by women mates or by male mates. Majority of members are female

workers. In this process , women have created and captured their due share in the

MGNREGA and this process has enabled larger participation of women than men in this GP.

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In those families where female labourers are working under MGNREGA , male labourers

prefer to work for private jobs like construction labourers, jute mill labourers, khalasis etc ,

because in those jobs they get daily wage up to Rs.200/-.

The SSS system has facilitated more efficient management and better output from the

rural labour force . The benefits of the same can be seen by anybody by visiting rural areas

of Andhra Pradesh. It has given complete turnaround to the rural economy of AP.

CASE STUDY-2

Village: PEDA TADIVADA

GP: PEDA TADIVADA

Mandal: DENKADA

SHINING EXAMPLE OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT THROUGH MNREGA

Total number of SSS in GP 44 (4 temporary groups)

Total number of women headed labour groups 38

1. SIMHADRI APPANNA GROUP

A RADHA (MATE)

Male - 02

Female - 18

2. SRI SAI LAXMI GROUP

Y LAXMI (MATE)

Male - 02

Female - 14

3. ASHA JYOTHI GROUP

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Y ADI LAXMI

Male - 04

Female - 10

4. SRI RAMA (DISABLED)

G PAIDI RAJU

Male - 04

Female - 02

5. MARAMMA PERANTALU

P GOWRI

Male - 03

Female - 14

6. G PAIDI TALLI GROUP

G PAIDI RAJU

Male - 02

Female - 16

7. LALITHAMBA GROUP

CH. VNEKATA LAXMI

Male - 08

Female - 01

8. OM SAI RAM GROUP

M BANGARAMMA

Male - 03

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Female - 13

9. SIDDIVINAYAK GROUP

G LAXMI

Male - 04

Female - 09

MARIAMMA , a landless poor dalit labourer of PEDA TADIVADA village says, “Before 2010,

the system that was prevailing was inefficient, therefore, wage seekers used to get

relatively lesser amount of wages. There used to be 50-60 labourers working together and

there would be only one field assistant who had to single handedly do all paper works,

besides mobilizing the labourers, monitoring their work and disbursing wage payments to

them. It was practically impossible for any field assistant to monitor all the labourers closely

,therefore , many labourers would not work properly or even not work at all , but still they

would get the equal wages. Finally, we poor labourers were the sufferers due to average

daily wage coming very low.”

But the SSS system ( SHRAM SHAKTI SHANGHA- fixed labour groups) has made the labourers

much more efficient , because each labour group is being headed and monitored by a mate

and the present labour groups are small, therefore , monitoring them closely is easier for

mates. Moreover, since groups are small, each labourer effectively has vested interest in

monitoring and ensuring that other members of the group are also working as hard as they

themselves. Another important factor which makes SSS more efficient and manageable is

that most labourers of these groups are either from same street , same mohalla, same

community or same neighbourhood, therefore, all of them know each other very well and

functioning of the groups becomes smooth and trouble free.

For example , the fixed labour group headed by A RADHA (mate) consists of 18 members.

All of them are BCs ( backward caste) and live in the same street.

EXCLUSIVELY SC LABOUR GROUPS

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There are 5 SSS groups in the village which consist exclusively of SCs

- The SSS group headed by S POTHU RAJU has 20 members.

- The SSS group headed by KOTHALA RAMU has 20 members

- The SSS group headed by M KUMARI has 20 members

- The SSS group headed by K NARSING RAO has 20 members.

- The SSS group headed by A YESU BABU has 20 members.

FOLLOWING ARE EXCLUSIVELY BC LABOUR GROUPS

- The SSS group headed by P GOWRI has 17 members

- The SSS group headed by G PAIDI RAJU has 06 members.

- The SSS group headed by Y PARVATHI has 13 members.

- The SSS group headed by Y ADI LAXMI has 14 members.

- The SSS group headed by Y LAXMI has 14 members.

THE SOCIO ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MGNREGA

MARIAMMA , a MNREGA wage seeker says, “MGNREGA has made great impact in the lives

of poor people. Before MGNREGA, we were unable to get even 2 square meals, but now we

are able to eat 3 wholesome meals a day. So, hunger and starvation have become a thing of

the past in our village , thanks to MGNREGA.”

She adds further , “Earlier, large number of labourers from our village would walk on foot

daily and go to Vizianagaram town, 10 Kms from here , stand there at coolie adda(labourers’

waiting point) and anxiously wait for somebody to come and offer them daily wage job for

the day. But now that too is a thing of the past. Labourers of the village now work under

MGNREGA or even in some private lands but very few go to coolie adda in the district

town.”

INDEBTEDNESS

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A RAMU (mate) says, “Before MGNREGA, most labourers and poor households were always

carrying some or the other burden of indebtedness. But now, they don’t need to take any

loans from exploitative local money lenders.”

IMPACT ON EDUCATION

MNREGA workers of the village said, “Earlier, it used to be very difficult to send our children

to schools. But thanks to MGNREGA , now we are sending our children to schools and we

hope to send them for higher studies also from the earnings of MGNREGA. MGNREGA has

brought a ray of hope in our lives and given a complete transformation to our livelihood

security and family economy. MGNREGA is definitely a divine blessing for poor people like

us.”

IMPACT ON WOMEN

All the women labourers who had gathered to talk to us , when asked if they had purchased

their sarees from MGNREGA wages or husband’s money, emphatically and unanimously

said, “We have purchased our sarees from the MGNREGA wages and we are now self

reliant. Earlier before MGNREGA, if we asked our husbands for sarees or other essential

items , they would tell us in stern voice to “ wait till the next festival”. But now we are happy

that we are no more dependent on them for these kind of basic needs.”

The poor women labourers working as MNREGA mates very confidently and proudly said,

“Our mate job has helped us develop some leadership qualities within us. We have now

learned financial management, communication skills and household economic

management also. Most importantly , it has given us a sense of self respect and self

confidence in our own abilities. Had we not worked as mates, we would not have the level

of self confidence , self respect and sense of responsibility as we have today. MGNREGA

has made us working human beings and made our lives meaningful. We are happy that as

labourers and mates we are also contributing to country’s formal economy as well as

bringing income to our household economy.”

IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO FIND A BETTER EXAMPLE OF WOMEN’S ECONOMIC

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH A GOVERNMENT SCHEME.

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CASE STUDY-3

GP : BUDATHANAPALLY

MANDAL : GANTYADA

MNREGA BRINGS SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION IN THE VILLAGE

PADMANABHA CHERUVU(TANK):

Padmanabha Cheruvu is a big traditional tank of Budathanapally village which provides

irrigation water to 238 acres of land belonging to 200 small and marginal farmers .The

desiltation and bund strengthening of the Tank was done under MNREGA during 2009-10

and 2011-12. As a result, there has been over 20% of increase in the water holding capacity

of the tank. This has resulted in over 50% of increase in the yield of paddy per acre. Tail end

area of the tank is about 60 acres . The farmers with land at the tail end of the tank were

worst sufferers due to water scarcity caused by drying up of the tank due to siltation.

Therefore , the tail end area and the dependent farmers are the biggest beneficiaries of this

desiltation project undertaken under MGNREGA.

Prior to MGNREGA, the water from tank was unable to reach to the farm lands at the tail

end , and due to this, farmers had fights between them. But after desiltation work , they are

getting sufficient water for their lands and there are no more fights between the farmers.

In other words , this MGNREGA project has brought not only water for irrigation but also

peace in the farming community of this village.

RONGALI SATYAM has half acre of land under the tank ayacut . Before desiltation of the

tank under MNREGA project , Rongali Satyam was getting less than 9 bags of paddy from

his half acre land , but after the desiltation work , this farmer is getting 15 bags of paddy

from the same plot , because of availability of adequate water for irrigation .

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RONGALI KRISHNA has 3 acres of land under the tank ayacut. Before desiltation of the tank ,

he was getting only 15 bags of paddy per acre , but now he is getting 25 bags of paddy per

acre . Rongali Krishna says, “Earlier, we were living a miserable life . Many times we would

have no option but to leave our lands fallow, because of water scarcity. I used to go out for

rice trading to earn my livelihood. But thank to MGNREGA, those things are matter of past. I

am getting about 25 bags/per acre of paddy yield. I and my wife both have been regularly

working in MGNREGA too. MNREGA wages along with the increased and assured paddy

yield in my fields has enabled me to have a sense of livelihood security and I have stopped

doing petty rice trading business. All this has become possible only because of MGNREGA ”.

Rongali Krishna has recently bought a cow (Rs.25000/-) from the earnings of MGREGA and

paddy. His son BALAJI NAIDU is pursuing 2nd year Engineering in KAKINADA. Due to the

turnaround in his economic condition , this poor labourer cum farmer has been able to send

his son to Engineering College and also got his daughter married recently very comfortably.

MGNREGA has brought about a holistic transformation in the socio-economic condition of

this farmer .

CHALLA SATYANARAYANA has 1.5 acres of land. Before desiltation of the tank , he was

getting only 15 bags of paddy per acre , but now he is getting 20-25 bags .

Challa Satyanarayana says , “Earlier we used to live a life of misery and penury, but after

MGNREGA , our economic condition has significantly improved. The wages earned from the

MGNREGA work and the increase in paddy yield due to desiltation of the tank has enabled

me to send my children to schools and college comfortably.”

From the MGNREGA wages and increased farm yield , he managed to buy 2 cows

(Rs.80,000/-) in 2011. MGNREGA has become a divine blessing for poor farmers and

labourers of this backward village of VIzianagaram district. His son CHANDRA SEKHAR is

pursuing B.Pharmacy 1 st year and daughter PURNIMA is studying in Inter 1st year.

BAMMIDIPATI VARI BANDHA (TANK)

This tank is part of a chain of link tanks of Budathanepally traditionally used for irrigation

.These are age-old tanks made during the era of Maharaja but upkeep of these link tanks

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has been taken care of by beneficiary farmers. When the tanks used to get breached and

damaged due to heavy rains , there was hardly any intervention or support from the Govt.

authorities . But , farmers used to look after these tanks because their livelihood security

and the entire village economy was inextricable linked to the healthy maintenance of these

tanks and water level in them.

After the MGNREGA work in the link tanks of Budathanepally village , there is no

overflowing of water or breach in the bunds. Therefore , all these tanks are now holding

sufficient water that is able to irrigate farm lands of this village. This has brought a

remarkable turnaround in the entire agricultural economy of this poor and backward village

of Vizianagaram , which was earlier characterized by massive distress migration and chronic

hunger .

B RAMBABU , a social activist and panchayat president , is a farmer with 2 acres of farm

land and 1.5 acres under horticulture. Earlier , the horticulture plantation land was giving

hardly any income , because it was bushy and fallow. But, 1.5 acre of land of this farmer was

brought under MGNREGA during 2008. Before this project , he tried to plant mango

saplings in this land twice, but due to scarcity of water the plants didn’t survive. Only after

MGNREGA came to his rescue , he went for mango plantation under MGNREGA and the

plants have mostly survived , thanks to open well and drip irrigation (2010) provided to his

land under MGNREGA.

COMMUNITY IRRIGATION WELL

A Community Irrigation Well was constructed in 2010-11 under MGNREGA . This well has

four beneficiary farmers . One of the beneficiaries is B RAMBABU , who has 40 cents of land

adjacent to the open well. This land was bushy, thorny , barren and hardly gave any yield to

him. But after construction of the open well , he had raised papaya and got income of

around 1.5 lakh rupees from papaya alone. He had grown marigold flower as intercrop

between papaya plants which brought another Rs.8000/-. After removing papaya plantation

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he had grown tomato which gave about Rs.20,000/-. So, this 40 cents of land with

available water from open well has so far brought about Rs.1.8 lakh of income to this

farmer , thanks to MGNREGA.

BVS GANDHI is another beneficiary of the open well , with 60 cents of farm land . That was

also only barren land before open well. But after the construction of the open well , he had

sown bitter gourd and got about Rs.35,000/- of income from that last year.At the same time

, he had sown ginger as intercrop which brought about another Rs10,000/-. After clearing

bitter guard , brinjal and tomato had been grown which brought another Rs.15000/ .

Another income of Rs.5000/- came from Kheera, sown in 5 cents of land.

Other open well beneficiaries have planted mango in their lands which would start giving

fruits and income very shortly.

MNREGA GIVES BIRTH TO A SARPANCH

B RAMBABU is a 45 year old social activist who has been engaged in grass roots issues

concerning poor labourers and farmers of his village . He is District President of Farmers

Association also. He very actively participated in raising awareness about MGNREGA in the

beginning of the scheme . He worked very hard to ensure that every needy labourer was

registered and provided job card for MGNREGA. A lot of credit for successful

implementation of MGNREGA in Budathanepally GP goes to this social activist and now he is

also one of the beneficiary of the MGNREGA too (open well).

His role in the MGNREGA implementation in GP was so powerful that he was put up as a

popular candidate for Panchayat President , even though he was not personally interested.

The farmers and labourers of Budathanepally GP forced him to fight the election and he was

elected comfortably without spending a single rupee from his own pocket. His opponent

(Telugu Desam Party candidate) spent about Rs. 15 lakh, but couldn’t stand the force and

popularity of this social activist unleashed through the effective implementation of

MGNREGA. In other words , MGNREGA has made him Panchayat President.

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Villagers said , “His role in successful implementation of the MGNREGA in our GP is

unquestionable and his MGNREGA activism made him Panchayat President even without his

desire for the same.”

This social activist turned Panchayat President (SARPANCH) said, “Successful

implementation of MGNREGA has brought such confidence in the villagers that they are not

concerned about their future livelihood any more. Because , that has been very effectively

ensured and demonstrated in this GP” .

Before MGNREGA, the poor labourers of this GP used to beg before the big landlords for

wage employment. But now the wheel of time has taken a full turn. The big landlords are

coming to labourers with folded hands and requesting them to work in their fields.

MGNREGA has brought social equity in this GP and caste discrimination has been now

significantly reduced. The labourers have now acquired a sense of dignity and self respect,

and can live and walk with their heads held high. This is a classic case of ‘Tagorean

Dream’ becoming a reality. The dignity of labour has been established and understood.

Desperation for food and livelihood is a matter of the past. Distress migration is optional.

There is much more to come in the near future if MGNREGA continues in this GP in the

same spirit.

Panchayat Sarpanch B Rambabu said, “The moment I come to know about any irregularity

or malpractice in the implementation of MGNREGA, I immediately report the same to

higher authorities of Mandal and District , and ensure that immediate action is taken

against the erring functionary.”

CASE STUDY-4

GP: NARSAPURAM

Mandal: RAMABHADRAPURAM

TANK PROJECTS UNDER MNREGA BRING SWEETNESS IN LIVES OF FARMERS & LABOURERS

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The major projects under MGNREGA in Narsapuram GP are-(1) desiltation of tanks &

strengthening of bunds, (2) Horticulture . Under tank project, they have desilted and

strengthened bunds of 6 tanks and thereby converted 60 acres of dry land into wet land ;

besides providing assured irrigation to the paddy farmers who had started facing severe

problems due to shortage of water in the tanks because of siltation . The first tank project

was undertaken in 2009 and it continued up to 2012. Due to this project, besides 60 acres

of added irrigated farm land in the GP , there is increase in the paddy yield due to assured

irrigation.

Before the tank desiltation project under MNREGA was implemented , per acre paddy yield

was only about 15 bags , but after desiltation of the tank , per acre paddy yield has

increased to about 25 bags. In other words , there is about 1400 bags of increased yield in

total ayacut. In monetary terms , it comes to about Rs.14 lakh of increased income to the

beneficiary farmers per year from just paddy.

Many of them have started growing second crop also. Some have sown sugarcane , others

have raised black gram, green gram, horse gram and ginger. These second crops are also

bringing added income to the farmers of Narsapuram GP , thanks to MGNREGA.

KOTA ACHIYAMMA ( BC) is a farmer of Narsapuram with 10 acres of land . She has 5 acres of

dry land and 5 acres of wet land. Pre- MGNREGA , she had only 3 acres of wet land .

Before the tank desiltation project under MNREGA , she was getting only 12 bags of paddy

yield per acre , but after desiltation of the tank , per acre paddy yield in her land has

increased to about 25-30 bags . From her entire wet land of 5 acres , she got about 125

bags of paddy . She is also growing black gram and groundnuts. Whereas pre -MGNREGA,

she used to get only about 36 bags of paddy yield from the entire 5 acres. In other words,

this MGNREGA project has brought about Rs.80,000/- of additional income to this poor

farmer of Narsapuram GP in just one year .

Besides this indirect income coming from MGNREGA , her family also got job under

MGNREGA . Moreover , she has got 1.67 acre of her dry land brought under Mango

horticulture through MGNREGA , which is likely to give after 5 years at least Rs.40,000/- of

annual income and after 8-10 years more than Rs.1 lakh of annual income to this poor

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farmer . KOTA ACHIYAMMA built a pucca house two years ago with investment of Rs.8

lakh. She said,“Had MGNREGA and this tank project not been implemented, it would not

have been possible for her to build the new house”.

So , this much of income and benefit is coming to just one family, imagine the kind of

economic transformation MNREGA has unleashed in the village economy, because more

than 200 farmers in the village have got similar benefits under MGNREGA ,even though the

land holdings in many cases are smaller.

Therefore, it won’t be wrong to say that successful implementation of MGNREGA in

Narsapuram GP has brought a complete turnaround in the village economy and the future

of the poor people seems much brighter. This is the scale and dimension of economic

empowerment and livelihood security MGNREGA has unleashed and is capable of

unleashing anywhere in the country , if the scheme is implemented in letter and spirit.

Tank project Beneficiaries - Yields:

1. KADI NARAYANA 2 ACRES

Pre MGNREGA 15 bags

Post MGNREGA 25 bags

Purchased a bike worth Rs.25000/-

2. DATTI SRI RAMULU 2.5 ACRES

Pre MGNREGA 24 bags

Post MGNREGA 48 bags

Purchased Bullock cart and 2 bulls worth Rs.55000/-

3. KOTA NARAYANA 2 ACRES

Pre MGNREGA 20 bags

Post MGNREGA 45 bags

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4. VENGALA APPALASWAMY 4 ACRES

Pre MGNREGA 50 bags

Post MGNREGA 90 bags

5. MARREPU SRINIVASA RAO 1.5 ACRES

Pre MGNREGA 25 bags

Post MGNREGA 34 bags

6. MARIPI APPALANAIDU 2 ACRES

Pre MGNREGA 20 bags

Post MGNREGA 40 bags

7. MARIPU ANANDAMMA 3 ACRES

Pre MGNREGA 30 bags

Post MGNREGA 60 bags

8. M KRISHNA MURTHY NAIDU 3 ACRES

Pre MGNREGA 18 bags

Post MGNREGA 25 bags

Purchased a bike one year ago , also sent his son for education in private boarding school.

MNREGA BRINGS SWEETNESS IN THE LIVES OF SUGARCANE FARMERS

1. KADI NARAYANA has 2 acres of arable land under sugarcane and 90 cents under paddy

crop. He is a MGNREGA worker and mate also. He says, “We are getting many more times

of economic returns and benefits from the tank desiltation work undertaken under

MGNREGA than the direct wages earned by us from 100 days of annual job entitlement.”

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No farmer was able to get enough water even for paddy crop , but after the Narsasagaram

tank desiltation project implemented under MGNREGA, large number of farmers have gone

for sugarcane crop , which will give about Rs.40,000/- of net income per acre per year to

these farmers.

Comparative figures of Income from Sugarcane and Paddy

After reducing all the investments made in one acre of sugarcane crop, about Rs.40,000/- is

the net income to the farmer , whereas net income from paddy crop per year is less than

Rs.10,000/-

The same cost- benefit analysis and economics apply to all beneficiaries of tank desiltation

project.

2. MARIPI SATYANARAYANA is another farmer whose land is irrigated by Narsasagaram

tank. Before MGNREGA project, he used to grow paddy and would hardly get Rs.10000/-of

net returns from the plot of 1.5 acre. But now , he not only hopes but is confident of getting

net annual return of Rs Rs.40,000/- from the same plot due to sugarcane .

3. DATTI SRI RAMULU is a farmer who has land that is irrigated by Narsasagaram tank.

Before MGNREGA project, he used to grow paddy and would hardly get Rs.10000/- of net

returns from this plot of 2 acres. But now, he is confident of getting about Rs.50000/- of

annual net returns from only 1.3 acre of sugarcane plot.

MGNREGA BRINGS MARBLED PUCCA HOUSE TO THE POOR FARMER

4. MARRI PARVATHAMMA, who is also a mate and has 0.5 acre of land says, “MGNREGA

has brought big benefits to poor labourers and farmers in my village. I built the pucca

house investing about Rs.5 lakh. The MGNREGA wages as well as increased paddy yield from

0.5 acre of land were very helpful in making this pucca house a reality. I couldn’t even

imagine about this kind of pucca house, had MGNREGA not been there. MGNREGA has

become a blessing for poor people like us”. Her two sons also work as labourers in towns

and that was also helpful in making this pucca house possible .

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CASE STUDY-5

GP: BILLALAVALASA

Mandal: BONDAPALLY

WOMEN MATES & LABOURERS SCRIPT BETTER SUCCESS STORY OF MNREGA

There are 36 Shrama Shakthi Sanghas (SSS) in this GP, 22 of them have women mates .

LENKA VENKATASATYANARAYANA, Sarpanch of Billalavalasa GP, said, “Due to successful

implementation of MGNREGA, large number of water bodies like tanks and open wells have

got recharged and there is a rise in ground water level of around 10 feet. As a result ,

farmers are now able to provide assured irrigation to their crops and thereby getting higher

yields from their fields. There has been appreciable increase in the paddy yield due to rise in

the storage capacity of the tanks because of desiltation of the same undertaken under

MGNREGA.”

According to C. H. RAMA RAO (additional project officer), BONDAPALLY Mandal , main

achievements of BILLALAVALASA GP ( with Women Mates in majority of SSSs) compared

to other GPs ( with Men Mates in majority of SSSs) are following :

1. Compared to other GPs of this Mandal , more job days have been created in

BILLALAVALASA GP because of women mates.

2. Compared to other GPs of the Mandal , very little irregularities were found during

the social audit of MGNREGA work in this GP. It is because of the fact that the

women mates are complying to every single norm of the MGNREGA and

implementing the same in letter and spirit of the Act.

3. Whenever there is any requirement of meeting of mates in the GP, women mates

very happily and enthusiastically gather together and facilitate discussion to resolve

any issue related to MGNREGA implementation. Their sincerity and commitment to

the work is of very high order.

4. 100% of the wage slips are being pasted/ attached to job cards by these women

mates. In other GPs , it is not so. This brings transparency in the implementation of

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MGNREGA and this instrument of transparency ensures that there is no possibility of

any irregularities or misappropriation of MGNREGA funds by implementing

authorities.

5. These women mates , whenever there is any job demand, ensure that the same is

met at the earliest by promptly taking up the issue with the concerned authorities

at the Mandal level. Mandal authorities find it difficult not to meet the demands of

the women mates, because of the sincerity and determination of the women

mates.

INDRAVATI (BC) comes from a poor coolie family . She passed 10th Standard in 2008 and

now she is working as a woman mate for last 3 years. After completion of 10th class in 2008,

she started working as MNREGA labourer. After working as labourer for 2 months , she was

made a mate and she doesn’t find it difficult to perform her duties as a mate . All members

of her SSS , whether men or women , follow her directions.

B SRIDEVI , a BC , could study only up to 7TH Class . She comes from a labourers’ family

and has been working as MNREGA mate for 3 years . She says, “Earlier, men were not

prepared to take the responsibility of mate because only Rs.3/- extra per labourer is given to

mate. So, they didn’t find it attractive enough to take the responsibility of mate. At that

period of time , we the women came forward to take the responsibility of mate , even if it is

only Rs.3/- as extra income . We worked with full devotion and dedication to the work

assignment to us as mate. We are now happy and proud that we have successfully carried

out this responsibility . Not only that we have matched up to the leadership role of men

mates, but in many respects , we have made our gram panchayat one of the best

performing GPs in respect of implementation of MGNREGA in this district. If we as women

mates are not competent and confident enough, that would not have been possible. Our

experience as women mate has given us confidence that women are now capable of taking

up those responsibilities which were till now regarded as exclusively men’s domain.”

When this SSS concept started in 2010, initially male labourers refused to join fixed labour

groups , because man or woman every member of the fixed labour group would get equal

wages. The male labourers refused to join the fixed labour groups saying that, “Why should

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we join a group in which men would be getting only as much of wage as women. Because

men work hard and their output is higher than women labourers.” It is under these

circumstances that women labourers of this GP mustered the courage and formed Shrama

Shakthi Sanghas of women only , headed by women mates. But slowly and slowly , male

labourers also began to join their labour groups . Now , men have accepted and come to

terms with the fact that women are not inferior to them in any respect and men are not

superior to women in any respect , and they have to work shoulder to shoulder with each

recognizing and respecting the other’s value. Now in SSS system of MNREGA , men and

women labourers are working together amicably and effectively under the leadership of

women mates.

BADDI BHAVANI is a woman mate of this GP . She says, “It gives us a sense of happiness

and satisfaction that men have come to terms with the fact that men and women are equal

and now there is no conflict visible or invisible on that count. It gives us a real sense of pride

and empowerment in true sense of the term”.

The SSSs with majority of members being women labourers appear to be giving per capita

output higher than those groups having male labourers as majority of members. This is the

biggest testimony to the fact that women are working with more sincerity and dedication,

therefore , their output is much more than the groups headed by men. RAJYALAXMI , a

woman who works as technical assistant , says that when she goes to measure the work of

various sanghas, she found that sanghas with majority of labourers as women were giving

higher labour output compared to those sanghas who had male labourers in majority.

THE SHRAM SHAKTI SANGHAS (SSS) HEADED BY WOMEN MATES IN VIZIANAGARAM

DISTRICT HAVE SHATTERED THE AGE OLD MYTH THAT WOMEN CAN’T BE AS HARD

WORKING AS MEN AND WOMEN ARE GOOD ONLY AT SOFT JOBS AND HOUSEHOLD

CHORES. IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO FIND A WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE ANYWHERE IN THE

WORLD WHICH HAS DEMONSTRATED SO POWERFULLY THAT WOMEN ARE NOT ONLY

EQUAL TO MEN BUT IN MANY RESPECTS THEY ARE FAR SUPERIOR TO MEN . TO USE A

MYTHOLOGICAL METAPHOR, IT SEEMS THAT THESE WOMEN MATES AND FEMALE

LABOURERS ARE ACTUALLY MANIFESTING THE QUALITIES AND ENERGIES OF DURGA,

LAXMI AND SARASWATHI, ALL THREE IN ONE .

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CASE STUDY-6

Village: BUDATHANEPALLE

GP: BUDATHANEPALLE

Mandal: GANTYADA

MNREGA BRINGS FOOD SECURITY IN THE HOMES OF YERUKALA ADIVASIS

In BUDATHANAPALLE Gram Panchayat , there are 70 Yerukala adivasi families who are

absolutely landless . Traditionally , they have been earning their livelihood from basket

weaving; but sale of the baskets would suffice to buy food hardly for 3 months in a year. For

the rest of about 9 months, they used to migrate out to big towns, cities and other districts

to earn just two ends meet. But thanks to MGNREGA, they have stopped migrating out of

the village and now they are able to meet their basic needs by the daily wages of

MGNREGA, besides the earnings from sell of baskets . For these traditional basket weavers,

distress migration has now become a matter of past.

Before MGNREGA, it was impossible for these poor tribals to send their children to school

for education, but thanks to MGNREGA, all of them are now sending their children to

schools and many of them are sending their children even to private schools. MGNREGA has

brought not only livelihood security but total socio-economic transformation in the lives

and livelihood of these poor adivasis (Yerukala).

In this village, about 30% of population used to migrate out of the village in search of

livelihood before MGNREGA. But now, there has been huge reduction in the rate of distress

migration . Labourers migrate out only after completing 100 days of MGNREGA jobs in the

village.

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VISHAKHAPATNAM DISTRICT

CASE STUDY-1

Village: PEDAGANGUDI

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GP: SUNKARA METTA

Mandal: ARAKU

District: VISHAKAPATNAM

COFFEE PLANTATION UNDER MNREGA TRANSFORMS LIFE OF KONDH ADIVASIS

BURIDI MANESSE RAO , an adivasi, has 3 acres of land under coffee plantation, of which , 2

acres have been brought under plantation through MGNREGA. The plantation was done in

2009-10. 2009 plantation is already bearing fruits. The protection stone-wall around the

coffee plantation has been constructed under MGNREGA.

This 2 acres plot before MGNREGA project was bushy and they used to do shifting

cultivation (Podu) which brought very little yield to the farmer. In the Podu , they used to

grow Ragi. By ragi farming the farmer used to get hardly Rs.1000/- worth of yield per year.

However, things have significantly changed after this plot was covered under MGNREGA.

To begin with , after identification of the land for coffee plantation, the adivasi farmer was

allowed to clear the bushy land and the labour cost for the same was paid from MGNREGA.

Next step was line marking and pitting for uniformity. 900 coffee plants were given for one

acre.

The Integrated Tribal Development Authority coffee nursery has been raised from the

MGNREGA fund and the same was supplied to beneficiary farmers free of cost. So, after

getting the plants, farmers begin to plant and labour cost of the same is borne by

MGNREGA.

The first year’s plantation cost comes from MGNREGA ; and the second, third and fourth

years’ MGNREGA funding towards maintenance takes care of pest management and

replacement of coffee plants.

Therefore, the entire cost of bringing one acre of land under coffee plantation comes to

about Rs.34000/- providing 207 man days of wage employment from MNREGA. This cost of

Rs.34000/- includes 207 days of wages and material costs for pesticides, fertilizers etc.

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After plantation, the plants start bearing fruits from 3rd year, but commercial yield comes

only from 5th year. In the 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th years, an average plantation gives not less than

50-70 Kgs of coffee yield per acre per year, which in monetary terms comes to about

Rs.5000 – 7000/-. But, as the plantation matures from the 9th /10th year, the yield comes

to about 100 Kgs per acre/per year, which in monetary terms comes to Rs.11 – 12

thousand per acre.

Besides this income, the coffee plantation has many inter crops like black pepper,

pineapple, guava, lemon, jackfruit and sweet-oranges etc.

KORRA RAMANNA is a coffee growing adivasi farmer who got 75 Kgs of dried black pepper

from one acre of coffee plantation and he sold the same at the rate of Rs.350/- per Kg. But,

actual market price would be many times more. In monetary terms, this comes to

Rs.30,000/- of annual income per acre from black pepper alone. From other intercrop fruits

they normally get at least Rs.5000/- per year per acre.

To put all the yields per acre of coffee plantation in monetary terms, one acre of

plantation is giving about Rs.45000/- of income to the tribal coffee farmer. After the plant

starts bearing fruits, no other costs except protection of the plantation are involved in

coffee plantation.

In other words , MNREGA IMPLEMENTATION IN THIS AREA OF VISAKHAPATNAM HAS

FACILITATED THESE POOR KONDH TRIBALS TO GET ATLEAST 40 TIMES OF NET INCOME

FROM THIS COFFEE PLANTATION COMPARED TO WHAT THEY WERE GETTING BEFORE

MNREGA - JUST Rs.1000/- AS INCOME FROM RAGI CULTIVATION UNDER PODU.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MGNREGA ON KONDH TRIBALS

The MGNREGA has brought complete transformation in the socio-economic condition of

these poor tribals. Pre-MNREGA, about half population in this village used to migrate out in

search of livelihood , but now very few of them migrate . They used to find very difficult to

get two ends meals and would many times suffer hunger. But now, they are getting full

meals and also their livelihood security is ensured. There would be hardly any clothes on

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their bodies earlier, but all of them are now wearing decent clothes. They have also started

giving education to their children.

While Pre- MGNREGA daily wages ( for private work) were Rs.25 -35 , Post - MGNREGA

wages for males and females both have gone up to Rs. 100 .

KORRA RAMANNA, a tribal farmer and coffee plantation beneficiary got 2 acres of his land

under coffee plantation through MGNREGA in 2009-10 . For developing his coffee

plantation , he worked as labourer and he earned about Rs.10,000/- from MGNREGA wages

per year for working on his own field. That alone was a great help for this poor tribal farmer.

He has been able to educate one of his daughters up to B.Sc. Horticulture and the other one

is pursuing Diploma in Horticulture . He is very happy with the coffee plantation project

implemented under MGNREGA and says , “This project has come as a blessing for poor

adivasi farmers like us.”

Within 2/3 years , all these coffee plantation farmers are likely to get about Rs.40-50

thousand per acre per annum of net income which is mind boggling figure for these

extremely poor Kondh adivasis.

CASE STUDY-2

Habitation: KEDARIVANIPALEM

Village & GP : SOWBHAGYARAYAPURAM

Mandal: PENDURTHI

District: VISHAKAPATNAM

WOMENS EMPOWERMENT THROUGH MNREGA

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Most of the households in KEDARIVANIPALEM habitation are BCs and depend on wage

labour for their livelihood . In this habitation only 30 families are residing. Total job cards in

the habitation are 70 . All job card holders of this habitation got 100 days of job during

2012-13. The MGNREGA started in this village in 2008-09 and during 2009-10, 29 families

completed their 100 days.

In SOWBHAGYARAYAPURAM GP, 90 acres of assigned land has been allotted to poorest of

the poor for the development. Bund plantation with teak wood was taken up in 20 acres

under Indira Jala Prabha for SC beneficiaries.

KARRI DEVUDAMMA is a landless BC beneficiary. Before the arrival of MGNREGA, her

family used to earn their livelihood from doing labour work in some quarry nearby .In fact,

the work was not available to one and all willing to undertake hard work, but available only

in rotation due to higher demand and lower availability of job. So, one family used to earn

under this rotation system not more than Rs.1500/- to 2000/- per month , out of which,

about half of the amount used to be wasted on liquor by male members of the families. In

this way, the entire family had to make do with just Rs.500/- to 1000/- per month for their

livelihood. This amount was not sufficient to give them even sufficient food, nor was it

possible to give education to their children. However, thanks to MGNREGA, they are now

able to eat 3 full meals and now they do take non-veg food every week , whereas earlier it

used to be very difficult to get non-veg food even once in a month. And now they are

sending their children to school also.

It is not only the direct wages of 100 days (about Rs.15000/-) that has brought economic

empowerment in the lives of these poor people, but the indirect impact of MNREGA being

huge increase in the wage rates of even private works. Before MNREGA, they used to get

Rs.35 – 50/- as daily wage , but now they are getting Rs.150/- as daily wage even for

private works.The working hours earlier used to be very long but now they don’t work for

more than 6 hours.

There are 9 Shrama Shakthi Sanghas (SSS) in the GP, all headed by women mates.

All the women wage seekers and female mates who had gathered to share with us their

stories of economic empowerment and social transformation told us , “Whereas pre-

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MGNREGA, we depended on the goodwill and generosity of our husbands/fathers for sarees

and other clothes; now thanks to MGNREGA, we have bought sarees and other clothes for

us from the money earned under MGNREGA. We are now self reliant and economically

empowered. We don’t have to depend on the merciful eyes and attitude of our men folk.”

AKKIREDDY PARVATHY (BC) is totally landless and entirely dependent on wage labour for

her livelihood. When asked if there has been any change in the attitude of men towards

them, she quipped, “Post- MGNREGA, there has been a huge shift in the approach and

treatment meted out to women by their men folk. Now, since we are also earning and

contributing to household economy, our men folk are much more sensitive, careful and

respectful to us. Moreover, earlier we couldn’t dare ask our husbands as to how much

money they had earned and where the same had been spent on. But now, we have started

questioning our men folk about their earnings and its expenditure details. This has become

possible only because we have also started earning almost as much as men folk and this has

given us a sense of self respect and self confidence to question our men folk too.”

More importantly , now men folk have realized that they cannot take unilateral decisions

on family matters and they have to consult and take into consideration the views of their

women folk too. There can’t be a more credible and direct process of women’s

empowerment than the economic empowerment of these women through MNREGA job.

Woman mate (disabled), Y KANANAKA LAXMI, a 28 years old landless BC has been able to

complete 100 days of job every year since the launch of MGNREGA here , even though one

of her legs is struck by polio. Her father died when she was 12 years old. She has a younger

brother and her mother is now too old to do anything. She alone was the bread earning

member in the family, despite being disabled . Before MGNREGA , it was very difficult for

her family to get two ends meet because people would not allow her to work in their fields.

She would go out and beg for labour work but bluntly turned away by people. She used to

return back to home and cry out of pain and misery.

She says in a chocking voice , “When my mother was able to get some work, she would take

care of me and my brother. But many times we wouldn’t have any thing to eat or make do

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with whatever small amount of food was available. Our entire life was a living story of

deprivation, humiliation, sense of helplessness and despondency.”

It is against this background that MGNREGA came to her as a divine blessing and she was

allowed to work as a wage seeker and she has completed 100 days of job every year. Since

2010, she is working as mate also. When asked as to what would have she done , had

MGNREGA not come into her life, she replied with a sense of deep sadness on her face, “I

would have no option but to commit suicide, had MNGREGA not come to my rescue.

MGNREGA to me is another name of GOD.” Not only that she has been able to take care of

the needs of her family but ,since she started working in MGNREGA , she has been saving

Rs.100/- per month. This means that MGNREGA is not only taking care of her present

needs, but also given some savings for her future needs.

The women mates say “Our role as women mates has enabled us to learn a lot of

management skills. Because , we have the responsibility to manage the fixed labour groups -

from mobilization to monitoring of the work to filling up muster rolls. We are supposed to

do a lot of things. This has brought out many leadership qualities hidden in us.”

All six women mates who talked to us said unanimously , “Had we continued to work only

as labourer , we wouldn’t have learnt many things which we learned as a mate and we

wouldn’t have same sense of self confidence and self respect ” .

When asked if they are already dreaming of any other leadership responsibility in the GP,

they unanimously said that they were now confident to fulfill their responsibilities even if

they were given opportunity to become Sarpanch or any leadership role. They have now

definitely greater sense of self confidence, thanks to their work as female mates for

MNREGA.

TADI APPALANAIDU, a landless BC, extremely poor in his 60s , when asked if he has got 100

days of job and due wages, he said, “Yes. I have got 100 days job and the due wages.

Please give me more days of job, because MGNREGA is my life line.”

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CASE STUDY-3

Village: GULLEPALLY

Mandal: K.KOTAPADU

District: VISHAKAPATNAM

MNREGA TRANSFORMS THE VILLAGE ECONOMY

Major Achievements of MNREGA in this Gram Panchayat are :

1. Land development undertaken in 300 acres

2. Ground water recharging structures

3. Minor irrigation tanks

4. Reduced migration up to 75%

BHURATHI APPA RAO is a poor farmer and he had dug an open well 10 years ago for

irrigation purpose . But, hardly within one year, the open well dried up and it was lying

defunct and useless for last 9 years. The farmer had stopped taking care of the well and the

walls had started falling down. But during 2008-09, ground water recharge structures were

constructed under MGNREGA in the nearby water catchment areas. As a result , this open

well got recharged .There is about 30 feet of water in the well at present due to recharge

of groundwater. There are another 3 open wells in this GP which have got recharged and

are now full of water after being defunct for a long period, thanks to MNREGA.

The farmers , realising the uselessness of the open wells, had started thinking of filling

them up. But fortunately, without any individual effort or investment on their part , the

open wells have become alive and full of water due to ground water recharge structures

built under MGNREGA project.

In this village, there is remarkable rise in the ground water table due to various projects

undertaken under MGNREGA , particularly desiltation of tanks, water absorption trenches,

MI tanks, field and feeder channels and many more. The direct benefit of this ecological

revival in this GP is yet to be understood and estimated. But, we can say for sure that all

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these projects implemented under MGNREGA have brought huge socio-economic-

ecological benefits to the village and household economy of the farmers dependent on

them. If the monetary figures of the benefits of MNREGA projects are worked out, they are

most likely to give mind boggling figures of economic return to farmers and labourers of this

village.

30 farm ponds have been constructed under MNREGA, with objective to recharge ground

water of this village . Now , amazing results are there on the ground. There is rise of about 6

feet of ground water level in the areas of these farm ponds. As a result, the surrounding

horticulture plants (Mango) gave higher and better yields last year. Seeing this, those

farmers who earlier were reluctant to give their farm lands for construction of farm ponds

are now lining up before the implementing authorities requesting them to construct farm

ponds in their fields too . The ecological revival is bound to give huge economic

returns/benefits to farmers and entire village economy . The imaginative and need- based

project planning under MGNREGA has made this miraculous turnaround in the village

economy possible. The water stored in the farm ponds is sometimes also used for life

saving irrigation for many crops (Vegetables).

Due to successful implementation of MNGREGA in this village, there is amazing turnaround

in the village economy and large number of labourers and farmers are now building pucca

houses. 18 households with whom we talked to were building new house. All of them have

been regularly working in MGNREGA. The new house costs around Rs.2 lakh . About

Rs.70,000/- comes from Indira Awaas Yojna subsidy. The rest amount comes from loans

from private money lenders at interest rate of 24%. The biggest contribution of MGNREGA

is that it has given credit-worthiness to these poor labourers . They have now got

confidence that at least Rs.15000/- of annual income from MGNREGA wages is assured. This

confidence has made them to go for pucca houses.

Large number of labourers of this village have started sending their sons and daughters for

higher education. There are dozens of boys and girls who have completed degree courses,

even though they come from labour families. Most of these boys and girls holding high

degrees have themselves worked as MGNREGA workers during summer vacations.

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The story of RALLAPALLY PEDARAMAMURTHY is very inspiring . He is a vey poor farmer with

only 1.5 acres of farm land . He and his wife have been regularly working under MGNREGA.

Thanks to MGNREGA , he has sent his son for Engineering Degree in an Engineering College

in Visakhapatnam. He had to spend about Rs.50,000/- on his admission and about

Rs.30,000/- per year for boarding and lodging. Another of his son is studying in 10th Class in

Govt. School. He said, “Had MGNREGA not been there, both of my children would have

been grazing cattle and sitting idle at home. It is the turnaround in the family income due to

assured income from MGNREGA that has enabled me to send my children for higher

education. Before MNGREGA, we were unable to get even 2 square meals; many times we

had to skip meals. But now, we are able to get 3 full meals and our livelihood is secured.

MGNREGA has made our lives meaningful and productive.”

RONGALI RAMA DEVI is daughter of APPALA NAIDU and ARJUNAMMA . She belongs to BC

and has only 0.25 acre of land . She , along with her parents, has been earning her livelihood

as a daily wager and has been regularly working under MGNREGA. RONGALI RAMA DEVI’s

elder sister could complete only 10th class because of economic poverty , but she has

completed M.Sc. in Zoology recently. She and her mother say that it would not have been

possible for her to complete M.Sc , had MGNREGA not been there. Her mother Arjunamma

says, “If MGNREGA was not there, she would be either working as labourer with me or

sitting idle at home.” Rongali was very sad that even after completing M.Sc she was not

getting any job . She was asking for job in a chocking voice .

MARRIREDDY DEMUDU BABU S/o MARRIREDDY ESWAR RAO has only half acre of land and

earns his livelihood from daily wages. His son is now studying C.A. (1st yr) in Guntur. At the

time of admission he paid Rs.60,000/- and another Rs.30,000/- he was yet to pay .The total

annual fee is Rs.90,000/-. He has been regularly working as MGNREGA worker. He has half

acre of land and another half acre he has taken on lease . He is growing paddy and

sugarcane. So, the income from the paddy and sugarcane as well as MGNREGA wages have

enabled him to send his son to pursue C.A. course.

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SRIKAKULAM DISTRICT

CASE STUDY-1

GP : RUSHIKUNDA

MANDAL : SOMPETA

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MNREGA PROJECT COSTING RS.45 LAKH GIVES RS. 10 CRORE OF RETURN IN ONE YEAR

The 18 KMs -long BEELA BATTI CHANNEL passes through many villages of Srikakulam

district .The seasonal flooding caused by this channel had been regularly wrecking havoc

to the standing crops of paddy belonging to the farmers of Rushikunda Gram Panchayat in

Sompeta Mandal . After repeated request by the affected farmers of Rushikunda GP,

desiltation work under MNREGA was taken up in 2.5 KMs of the channel during 2011-12

and Rs.45 lakh from MNREGA fund was spent on the same . Due to desiltation of the Beela

Batti Channel , there was no flooding by the channel during 2012. As a result , the standing

crops of paddy in Rushikunda GP did not face the fury of flooding and farmers got a

bumper paddy harvest that year .

KARRI KAMESHWARA RAO is Gram Panchayat President of Rushikunda and a farmer too .

Three acres of his paddy land used to get affected due to flooding caused by over flowing of

the channel . Before desiltation of the channel , he used to get hardly 5 bags of paddy per

acre but now he is getting over 16 bags per acre.

GIRI BABU is another farmer with 5 acres of paddy land dependent on the channel. Before

desiltation, he would get hardly 25-30 bags in the entire 5 acres of plot. But in 2012, he got

over 70 bags from this plot after desiltation of the channel.

The same kind of benefit has accrued to all farmers of the GP . There is 5000 acres of paddy

land in Rushikunda GP and paddy crops used to get damaged by flooding in Beela Batti

Channel.

Before desiltation, the farmers dependent on this channel were in a miserable state ,

because the kind of yield they were getting was very little and most of them were living a

life of poverty and misery. They were finding it very difficult to get even 2 ends meet and

had got steeped into debt. But after the desiltation work done under MNREGA, there is a

new hope in the lives of these farmers. It has brought prosperity in the lives of these

farmers and they feel indebted to MGNREGA project , because without this their life had

become unbearable.

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The farmers strongly feel that desiltation of the channel should be undertaken in the entire

length of the channel (18 Kms) and also at regular intervals as per the requirement. This

MGNREGA work has brought about a remarkable turnaround in the lives, livelihood and life

styles of the farmers of this coastal region of Andhra Pradesh. The cost benefit analysis of

this project gives mind boggling figures

Farmers said, “Before the desiltation, entire village and its adjoining farm lands used to get

inundated by the flood water of the channel. But thanks to MGNREGA desiltation work ,

that flooding is now a thing of the past. And we can have some sense of relief due to this

work.”

The beneficiary farmers told us that per acre benefit accruing due to this project is at least

Rs.20,000/- from just one paddy crop. To put it in perspective , the entire 5000 acres of

paddy land that used to be adversely affected by flooding of channel is now giving

Rs.20,000/ of additional income per acre from only one paddy crop . If 5000 is multiplied by

20,000 , the figure comes to 10 Crore. In other words , during 2012 alone , paddy farmers

of Rushikunda got about Rs.10 Crore of additional income directly as a result of the

MGNREGA desiltation project costing just Rs.45 lakh.

In last 20 years, these farmers had made representations to all the Chief Ministers of AP

and three of them visited this place (YS Rajasekhar Reddy, N. ChandraBabu Naidu and

Rosaiah), but did nothing. Farmers said, “Only after MGNREGA intervention our problem has

been solved. Venkat Ram Reddy, District Magistrate of Srikakulam was most helpful and

instrumental in making this project possible . We feel deeply indebted to him .”

Some of the Beneficiary farmers

1. S MOHAN RAO 5 ACRES BC

2. V RAMA RAO 5 ACRES BC

3. B PUNNAIAH 3 ACRES BC

4. V RAJA RAO 3 ACRES BC

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5. V RADHAMMA 5 ACRES BC

6. V BHARATHI 2 ACRES BC

7. TUMMANADHAM 6 ACRES BC

CASE STUDY-2

Village: BORRAMPET

GP: BORRAMPET

Mandal: LAXMINARSUPET

TANK RENOVATION UNDER MNREGA BRINGS HAPPINESS IN LIVES OF FARMERS

There are many traditional tanks in Borrampet GP . These tanks are life line for farmers and

villagers . But , due to lack of proper maintenance and siltation , these tanks had become

dry and defunct . Gollapally Vani Cheruvu is one such tank located in Borrampet village.

Before MGNREGA, Gollapally Vani tank had become almost dry and defunct due to siltation

and growth of thick bush in the tank. There were no proper bunds , therefore , most of the

water would flow away and very little water would be stored in the tank. But, after

desiltation and deepening of the tank bed and strengthening of the tank bunds taken up

under MNREGA , now there is sufficient water to irrigate nearby farm lands and the water

quality has improved so much that villagers are regularly using this tank for bath. The bund

of tank has also been used for plantation. Under IPT (Indiramma Panchatoranam Project),

90 mango plants on the bunds of this tank have been planted and the ownership has been

given to a ‘poorest of poor’ landless dalit labourer , Smt. GODDU SIMHACHALAM .

SRHI S RAMULU, SARPANCH OF BORRAMPET GP said, “Before renovation of the tank

under MNREGA , the farmers in tank ayacut area were getting hardly 11-12 bags of paddy

per acre ,but after the renovation, the per acre yield is likely to go up to 25 bags . 30 acres

of farm land is the command area of this tank and about 60 farmers have benefitted from

this tank renovation project .”

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YERRAMSHETTY APPANNA has 1.5 acre of land in the command area of this tank . He says,

“There has been two-fold increase in the per acre paddy yield and we are also getting a

second crop of green gram and other pulses. Earlier, we were getting only one crop that is

paddy. This tank renovation under MGNREGA has brought prosperity in our households. The

flooding due to overflowing of tank during rainy season used to inundate our farm fields.

Therefore , we were unable to cultivate any crop during kharif . But , after the renovation of

the tank , we are getting the second crop also. This renovated tank is likely to prove a boon

for this village , especially for farmers .”

As in the case of Gollapally Vani Tank where a landless dalit labour has been given 90

mango plants on the bunds of the tank under the IPT of MNREGA , there are another five

‘poorest of poor’ IPT beneficiaries in the GP who have been given ownership of mango

plantations done on the bunds of various tanks in the GP under MNREGA .

OTHER IPT BENEFICIARIES OF BORRAMPET GP

NAME NO.OF PLANTS TANK NAME

1. GANESH KUPPILI 81 MANGO PLANTS TADIBANDA CHERUVU

2. GODDU POTAIAH 67 MANGO PLANTS PATHA KONERU

3. LOKONDA RAJU 15 MANGO PLANTS KOTTA CHERUVU

4. KALINGAPATNAM 42 MANGO PLANTS EETHALAKARRA CHERUVU

5. PEDDA RAMANNA 67 MANGO PLANTS NAIDU CHERUVU

CASE STUDY-3

Village: PODUGUPADU

GP: SRIJAGANNADHAPURAM

Mandal: KOTABOMMALI

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CASHEW & MANGO PLANTATION UNDER MNREGA BRINGS NEW HOPES IN LIVES OF

POOR FARMERS

Podugupadu is a small and backward village located in SRIJAGANNADHAPURAM GP of

Kotabommali Mandal . In Podugupadu village , a Cashew plantation done under MNREGA

during 2007-8 has brought new hopes in the lives of 47 beneficiaries , all of them belonging

to BC( backward caste) . This cashew plantation is spread in an area of 22.5 acres with 2000

cashew plants in total . The total cost of cashew plantation project was Rs. 1,57,909/, out of

which Rs. 1,56,650/ was wage component expenditure . In other words , almost 100% of

the project cost went towards payment of wages to labourers .

Similarly , there is a Mango Plantation in the village done under MNREGA during 2007-8. All

42 beneficiaries of Mango Plantation are BC . This mango plantation is spread in an area of

7.5 acres with 300 mango plants in total . The total cost of mango plantation project was

Rs. 96,154/ . In this case too almost 100% of the project cost went towards payment of

wages to labourers .

SEEPANA MADHAVA RAO (BC) is a very poor farmer of Podugupadu village , who is a

beneficiary of cashew plantation . He has 80 cashew plants in the cashew horticulture Block

developed under MNREGA . Before planting cashew under MGNREGA, he had planted

mango plants on that plot , which later stopped giving any yield. But , from the cashew

plantation done under MGNREGA, he earned an amount of Rs.15000/- last year and he

says that this income was very helpful for his family.

ENNI BHASKER RAO (BC) is another cashew plantation beneficiary. He says, “this

horticulture plantation under MGNREGA has started giving some additional income to us

which is very useful for poor farmers like us .”

GUNTA SIMHACHALAM (BC) , one of the cashew plantation beneficiaries , has got 60

cashew plants under the project. From this plantation he earned Rs.3000/- during 2011.

During 2012, he earned Rs.4000/- and during 2013, he earned Rs.6000/- from the cashew

plantation.

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Mrs . YENDA LAXMINARAYANA (BC) is one of the beneficiary of Horticulture Plantation

Project . This poor BC woman farmer says, “The MGNREGA in general and plantation

project in particular have been very helpful in managing our family economy. It was also

helpful during wedding of my daughter”.

All the beneficiaries of the horticulture plantation( cashew & mango) have started getting

annual income of Rs.20,000/- to 30,000/- to even 60,000/- per annum from the plantations

done under MNREGA . Very soon that is going to increase.

Before the launch of MGNREGA, about 100 labourers from the village used to migrate out

in search of wage employment. But thanks to MGNREGA, now hardly 25 are migrating out.

MGNREGA has proved very effective in checking distress migration from the village.

Before MGNREGA, most farmers and labourers of the village were forced to take loans

from local money lenders at exorbitant and exploitative interest rates. But now thanks to

MGNREGA income , they are not under any obligation to take loans at exorbitant interest

rates. Therefore , MGNREGA has helped them to break free from bondage of money

lenders.

CASE STUDY-4

Village: MUNGENNAPADU

GP: MUNGENNAPADU

Mandal: L.N. PETA

TANK RENOVATION UNDER MNREGA BRINGS DRINKING WATER IN THE VILLAGE

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OPEN WELL RECHARGE

After the desiltation of the fresh water tank of the village under MNREGA, there has been

an increase of 10 feet in the water table of the open well of the village. This open well is a

drinking water source for many villagers from time immemorial. So, the renovation of fresh

water tank has directly provided drinking water to many households of the village too.

BORE WELL RECHARGE

There is one bore well in the village that was drilled 20 years ago. This was the major source

of drinking water for these villagers . Before desiltation of the adjoining tank , it was yielding

very little water. Water table had gone down . But after desiltation of the tank, this bore

well has got recharged and is now supplying abundant water throughout the year. Thus,

the renovation of tank under MGNREGA has provided drinking water to this village through

recharge of the water table in the village.

Before MGNREGA, about 150 labourers of this village used to migrate out in search of

livelihood. But now thanks to MGNREGA, no body from this village is going out in search of

wage employment.

The potable water availability in the village has obvious health implications for the

population of this backward village. Earlier, when drinking water used to get scarce due to

depletion of water table in the open well and tube well, they were left with no option but to

drink unsafe and unhygienic water from the open tank.

YERABATI RAMBABU, Sarpanch of the GP says,“Earlier we used to get very little water from

the bore well and open well, but now we are getting sufficient supply of drinking water,

thanks to desiltation of the tank under MGNREGA.”

RUNKU RAMANA, a resident of this village says,“Earlier , when we used to take bath in the

tank, we used to get boils and blisters on our body due to dirty water. But after desiltation

of the tank ,the water quality in the tank has significantly improved and hence even if we

take bath in the tank, we don’t get any boils and blisters on our body”.

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LOKALAKU PENTAIAH is a poor farmer of Mungennapadu village . This person from the

backward caste has recently built a new pucca house with expenditure of about Rs.3 lakh.

The earnings from MGNREGA were very helpful in completing this house. He got Rs.70,000/-

from Government under IAY and the rest of the expenses came from agricultural income

and savings from MGNREGA. Interestingly, the foundation stone of the house was laid with

the amount of Rs.3000/- which came as MGNREGA wages to this household.

INDIRAMMA PACHCHA TORANAM (CHETTU – PATTA) BENEFICIARIES

There are four ‘poorest of poor’ households from this village who are IPT beneficiary :

1. BATTILI PENTAIAH is a landless dalit who has been given 100 coconut plants on

tank bund under IPT scheme of MNREGA .

2. POLIAH CHAVIDANI is a landless dalit who has 150 mango plants on the tank bund.

3. BATTILI PARSAIAH is landless dalit and has 200 mango plants on the road side.

4. KETA NEELAMMA is another landless dalit having 200 mango plants on the road

side.

These IPT beneficiaries are now effectively owners of more than 2 acres of horticulture land

with productive plantation of coconut and mango . The IPT scheme under MNREGA has

provided not only wage employment to the most needy households but ensured long term

livelihood security of the poorest of poor households

ABOUT 15 BOYS AND GIRLS BELONGING TO THE POOREST COMMUNITY OF

MUNGENNAPADU VILLAGE HAVE RECENTLY COMPLETED DEGREE COURSES, THANKS TO

MGNREGA EARNINGS.

CASE STUDY-5

Village : SEETHAMPETA

GP : SEETHAMPETA

Mandal : SEETHAMPETA

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RAVIKELA BANDA TANK RENOVATION BRINGS PROSPERITY IN ADIVASI VILLAGE

RAVIKELA BANDA , located at Seethampeta village of Seethanpeta Mandal , is a very old

naturally formed tank . This tank is spread in 2 acres and it is supposed to provide irrigation

for 2 crops in 100 acres of tribal land . Unfortunately , due to lack of proper maintenance

and negligence , about 2.5 meters of siltation got formed in the tank , hence , it stopped to

store and provide sufficient water for even one crop. Moreover, 15 Bore Wells and 8 Open

Wells located around the tank began to get dry during the summer season . It became

difficult to provide drinking water for cattle too .

It is against this background that under MNREGA Special Stream Project , a Tank

Restoration Project costing Rs. 30 lakh was sanctioned and implemented during 2012 . This

Ravikela Banda Tank restoration project started in April 2012 and was completed by

October 2012 .

As a result of tank desiltation project , the water storage capacity of the tank has increased

to 2800 Cubic Meters . Now , this tank is providing assured irrigation for 2 crops in 200

acres directly and for another 100 acres indirectly (by recharging water table of Bore wells

and Open wells) . About 300 cattle are also getting drinking water . Coconut plantation and

vegetables are also being grown around the tank bund .

The successful execution of tank restoration project has brought a complete turnaround in

the lives, livelihood and lifestyle of adivasi farmers of Seethampeta village .

P SIMHACHALAM,an adivasi farmer , is direct beneficiary of the Tank Renovation Project.

Before tank desiltation in 2012 , he used to get maximum yield up to 10 bags of paddy per

acre if there was good rainfall. And only one crop was possible during the year. But, after

the restoration of the tank under MGNREGA , they are harvesting 2 crops , which comes to

around 35 bags of paddy per acre/per year. In other words, this tank renovation has started

giving about 3 times more returns to these poor adivasi farmers , that too in an assured

manner.

JANARDHAN is a tank beneficiary with 2 acres of land . He says proudly , “Earlier, it was very

difficult for us to take care of basic needs , but thanks to the renovation of the tank , now

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we are getting 2 very good and assured paddy crops , and now we can afford to send our

children to very good private schools and get treatment even at Corporate Hospitals.”

Some other adivasi beneficiaries

1. INTI JAGANNADHAM 3 ACRES

2. ARIKA BHARATHI 2 ACRES (SARPANCH)

3. T KURMA RAO 50 CENTS

4. UDIBA TELLIAH 2 ACRES

5. PALAKA APPALA SWAMY 1.5 ACRE

6. NIMMAKA APPANNA 3 ACRES

7. B MOHANA MURALI 1 ACRE

8. POLAKA APPA RAO 3 ACRES

9. PATRUNI SANJEEVA RAO 1.5 ACRE

10. TEMALA KRISHNA RAO 3 ACRES

11. KONDURU RAMULAMMA 3 ACRES

CASE STUDY-6

Village: MANDA (Primitive Tribal Group, SAVARA)

GP: MANDA

Mandal: SEETHAMPETA

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MNREGA FACILITATES ALL ROUND DEVELOPMENT IN PRIMITIVE TRIBAL VILLAGE

Manda is a backward village of Seethampeta Mandal , inhabited by primitive tribe called

SAVARA . Before the arrival of MNREGA , the socio-economic condition of the tribals living

in this village was pathetic . But , with the arrival of MNREGA , this village has witnessed

remarkable rejuvenation and revival of natural resource base , leading to development in

every sphere of life.

RAYAMANUGUDA TANK is an old tank of the village and it used to be life line of tribals in

the past . However , due to negligence and lack of proper upkeep , this important tank of

the village got silted up and became absolutely dry and useless in recent years .

But, a tank desiltation project under MNREGA was implemented during 2010-11 . As a

result , the desilted and renovated tank is now storing and supplying sufficient irrigation

water to adjoining farm lands . 15 acres of land , which was lying barren from time

immemorial , has now become productive and the tribal farmers are getting very good

paddy (rabi) crop from these 15 acres . In other words, just desiltation of the tank under

MGNREGA has brought irrigated farming in the lands of 10 farmers. To put in monetary

terms , now per acre paddy yield is about 10 quintals which brings about Rs.9000/- of

income to farmers belonging to primitive tribe SAVARA .

CASHEW REJUVENATION PROJECT UNDER MNREGA

Activities undertaken under cashew rejuvenation project in this village are:

- Cut bushes around trees

- Created basins to store water

- Ploughing between trees

- Cut unproductive branches of trees

- Chemical application to cut branches to stop infestation.

- Applying fertilizers to roots.

As a result of cashew rejuvenation project , tribal farmers are now expecting about 5 kgs of

cashew nuts per tree on an average .

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Pre - MGNREGA, there was not a single lady Graduate in Manda GP. But thanks to

MGNREGA , now there are 15 SAVARA girls who have either completed or pursuing various

Degree Courses.

SAVARA JYOTHI and SAVARA THUMPAMMA, both have now secured B.A Degrees this year

(2013) . They categorically say , “without MGNREGA, it would not have been possible for us

to get these degrees.” So, MGNREGA has also brought higher education in the poor and

backward tribal villages of Srikakulam.

Pre –MGNREGA , there were not even Under Graduates in the GP, but now there are 15

who have already completed degrees and many more who are pursuing the same. So, in this

Manda GP, there is very strong and direct linkage between MGNREGA and education in the

tribal families.

SAVARA MOHANA RAO, an Indiramma Pachcha Toranam beneficiary under MNREGA , has

got 200 mango plants. He has completed 648 workdays on the mango plantation. His

watch,ward and watering monthly income comes to around Rs.3000/-. He has also got very

innovative drip irrigation system for his mango plants - water collected in polythene bag

and hung over the plant , which would continue to provide water to plants for 3 days . All

this development has become possible only because of MNREGA.

CASE STUDY-7

Village: TALLAVALASA

GP: TALLAVALASA

Mandal: LAVERU

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MNREGA HELPS POOR DALIT GIRLS TO BECOME ENGINEERS

NETHALA SWATHI, daughter of a poor dalit, is pursuing B.Tech (ECE) in local college and she

commutes daily to the college and pursuing her studies staying back in the poor dalit colony

of TALLAVALASA village itself. Her father expired 4 years ago but her mother has been

working in MGNREGA. She says that MGNREGA wage and her sister’s regular job both put

together have enabled her to pursue B.Tech (ECE). She says that she wouldn’t have been

able to pursue her dream of becoming an Engineer, had MGNREGA not been there.

Other MNREGA beneficiaries’ children pursuing higher studies

1. PEYYALA TRIVENI D/O RAJA RAO

2. YENDA PADMA D/O LATE APPA RAO

Both these girls are daughters of landless dalits but they are pursuing B A , thanks to

MNREGA .

P TRIVENI is another landless dalit and MNREGA worker of this village . His brother recently

completed B.Sc, but has no job ,therefore , he is working as a MGNREGA labourer to earn

his livelihood .

In recent years , the rural Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a silent revolution , the scale and

dimensions of which are yet to be known outside AP . Andhra Pradesh ( AP) is churning out

over Sixty Thousand dalit (SC) boys and girls as Engineers every year . There is a fee

reimbursement scheme of AP Govt . which is largely responsible for this education

revolution among dalits . However , MNREGA is also playing a very significant role in

unleashing the educational potential of dalit boys and girls . Had MNREGA not been there ,

it would not have been possible for such a large number of dalit boys and girls to pursue

B.Tech ; because in the condition of extreme deprivation , chronic hunger and livelihood

crises , it used to be very difficult for dalit parents to think of sending their children even

for primary education and normal schooling . During our field study in six districts of AP ,

we came across dozens of villages where extremely deprived dalits and adivasis were

spending a very significant share of MNREGA incomes on education for their children .

Large number of dalits and adivasis who are MNREGA workers across AP are sending their

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children to private schools , many of them to boarding schools . These people seemed

determined to give their children good education and make them Engineers . We were told

very categorically by these dalits and adivasis that they could not dream of making their

children even clerks or peons , in the absence of MNREGA . They said , “ empty stomachs

dream only about food and not about education .”

Since MNREGA has ensured food security of these poor dalits and now they are not always

worried as from where the next meal would come , they have begun to dream big and give

best possible education to their sons and daughters , so that they would lead a dignified life

unlike their parents by becoming engineers , doctors and teachers .

CASE STUDY-8

VILLAGE : SAVARAPETA

GP: KIDIMI

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Mandal: SARAVAKOTA

WATER RECHARGE STRUCTURES UNDER MNREGA HELP FARMERS OF KIDIMI

There is rise of 9 feet of water table in Savarapeta village of Kidimi GP , as a direct result of

2 tanks being deepened and strengthened as well as construction of 1 new tank under

Indira Jala Prabha and MGNREGA.

Due to renovation of the tanks under MNREGA, there has been rise of 10 feet water in

BODHARA BANDA . Before this tank rejuvenation ,there was no water at all in the tank

during the summer and during other seasons too there was very little water in the tank.

But after the rejuvenation, there has been appreciable rise in the water table and even

during summer there is about 3-4 feet of water in the tank.

VANGARA CHINRANJEEVULU (ST) , is a tank beneficiary farmer of Savarapeta village with

3.6 acres of land - 1.8 acre of wet land and 1.8 acre of rain fed land .

Earlier , he used to grow chilly, horsegram and jowar, but thanks to sufficient water

availability in the tank , now he has started growing vegetables like tomato and earning

good income. Half acre of his land is under tomato and now he is likely to get an income of

about Rs. 20-22 thousand from tomato. Where as from the same plot earlier , he used to

get groundnut crop hardly worth Rs.10,000/-. Similar is the story of many other tank

beneficiary farmers of this village .

OPEN WELLS UNDER MNREGA GIVE BETTER YIELD AND HIGHER INCOME TO FARMERS

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Under MNREGA , many Open Wells have been constructed in the lands of poor farmers of

KIDIMI GP .

DASARI VENKATESHWAR (OC) is a poor farmers of KIDIMI with 2 acres of land , who is also

open well beneficiary. In 1.5 acre of land , he has sown paddy and in 0.5 acre brinjal has

been grown. From brinjal alone he has earned Rs.15000/-. From the paddy crop in 1.5 acre ,

he is likely to get about 40 bags of paddy and that too because of some damage caused by

storm. If there was no cyclone effect , he could have got more yield .

BORRA MANMADHA RAO (OC) has only 0.7 acre of land and got an open well under

MNREGA. Before this open well , he used to sow some vegetables but very little income was

coming through that. After the open well, he grew sugarcane crop, from which he earned

Rs.35000/-. And now he has grown a second crop of sugarcane.

DASARI RAMANA (OC) has only 0.3 acre of land and he is a beneficiary of open well .Before

the open well was dug , he used to sow vegetables and used to get an income of around

Rs.5000/-. But now he is getting an income of above Rs.10,000/- from the vegetables he has

sown.

DASARI GOVINDAM (OC) is another beneficiary of open well and he has 1 acre of land .

Before this open well , he was growing vegetables like cabbage, tomato etc, from which he

used to get an income of Rs.7000/-. But after the open well has been dug , he is earning

Rs.15-16 thousand from vegetables.

There are many more open well beneficiaries in KIDIMI GP who are getting better yield

and higher incomes due to construction of open wells under MNREGA .

CASE STUDY-9

GP : GARA CHEEPURUPALLI

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Mandal : RAJAM

INDIRAMMA PANCH TORANAM EMPOWERS POOREST OF THE POOR

KUNDA NARSAMMA is a landless and “poorest of the poor” beneficiary of the IPT

scheme(INDIRAMMA PANCHA TORANAM) implemented under MNREGA . She is a widow

with 2 children. Her son has completed Intermediate and is sitting idle. Her daughter is

studying in 10th class. Her husband died 9 years ago. Since she is a landless dalit widow , she

has been given 200 coconut plants on the bund of Kotta Cheruvu (Tank) of Gara

Cheepurupalli Gram Panchayat under the IPT scheme of MNREGA. She has also raised some

vegetables on the bund of the tank.

To put it in perspective , 200 coconut plants on bund are equal to 5 acres of coconut

plantation on plain land. Under the IPT scheme of MNREGA , this landless dalit widow has

now become legal owner of 200 coconut plants and gets cost for watering the plants too

from MNREGA. Under the IPT , she gets Rs.69200/- per year for watch and ward of coconut

plants, and she gets Rs.15000/- towards MGNREGA wages for working on her bund

plantation. In other words , MGNREGA is giving her Rs.85000/- per year . After 5 years , she

is likely to earn about Rs.1.5 lakh per year from the yield of coconut plantation on the tank

bund .

Before Kunda Narsamma became an IPT beneficiary, she was earning about Rs.-6000/ per

year from daily wages. But after becoming an IPT beneficiary from Sep 2013 , she is getting

a monthly income and farm inputs like fertilizers and fencing are also provided to her.

Additionally , she is also going to get income from vegetables she has grown on the tank

bund. The IPT project under MNREGA has really provided short term as well as long term

livelihood security to this landless dalit widow .

THIS IS A VERY POWERFUL AND SHINING EXAMPLE OF ECONOMIC SECURITY AND

lIVELIHOOD SECURITY OF AN EXTREMELY DEPRIVED FAMILY , A LANDLESS DALIT WIDOW ,

BEING ENSURED THROUGH MNREGA . KUNDA NARSAMMA IS THE PROVERBIAL “LAST

MAN IN THE ROW” THAT MAHATMA GANDHI REFERRED TO IN HIS CONCEPT OF

ANTYODAYA. THE SOUL OF GANDHI MUST BE FEELING HAPPY AND RELIEVED THAT

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ATLEAST SOMEWHERE IN SOME REMOTE VILLAGE OF INDIA SOME POOREST OF THE POOR

HOUSEHOLD HAS REALLY BEEN EMPOWERED IN TRUE SENSE OF THE TERM .

ADILABAD DISTRICT

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CASE STUDY-1

Village: PITTABONGARAM

GP : DASNAPUR

Mandal: INDERVELLY

MNREGA MAKES ADIVASI FARMERS PROSPEROUS

A Comprehensive Land Development Project ( CLDP) implemented under MNREGA has

brought a new dawn in the benighted lives of adivasi farmers of Pittabongaram ( this

village was hot-bed of naxalism 3 decades ago) . Land development has been done in 216

acres in this extremely deprived adivasi village of Adilabad district. Under land development

the following activities were taken up:

1. Farm ponds

2. Boundary trenches

3. Stone bunds

4. Pebble bunds

5. Compost pits

6. Earthen bunds

7. Diversion drains

8. Contiguous contour trenches.(CCT)

VITTI RAJESHWAR, an adivasi farmer, had 10 acres of fallow and rocky land which was giving

only 6 quintals of cotton earlier. But various land development activities under MNREGA

were taken up during 2006 in his entire land. Under this, activities like boundary trenches

for soil moisture conservation and stone bunding to control the soil erosion were taken up.

As a result, he is now getting annual yield of 15 quintals cotton per year. In monetary terms

,it implies about Rs.35000/- of additional income to this poor adivasi farmer dependent on

dry land farming.

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ERMA LAXMAN, an adivasi with 6 acres of fallow land , is also a beneficiary of the land

development project. Soil erosion has been controlled with stone bunding on his land.

After land development, this farmer got 12 quintals of cotton, 8 quintals of soya beans, 3

quintals of red gram and 1.5 quintals of black gram. In monetary terms , this adivasi farmer

is now getting Rs. One lakh of annual income as a result of land development activity with

total investment cost of Rs.80000 from MNREGA

SAINADH N is an adivasi farmer and has 4 acres of land. Before land development done

under MNREGA , he used to get hardly 3 quintals of cotton from this field . But now he has

got 11 quintals of cotton and above 2 quintals of Chana dal(red gram). In monetary terms, it

implies about Rs.40,000 of additional annual income to this poor adivasi farmer.

The other beneficiaries of land development project in this village are also getting increased

crop yields and corresponding higher annual incomes from their lands . The indirect

benefits of MNREGA project (increased land productivity) and direct income from wage

employment have brought happiness and prosperity in the lives of adivasi farmers of

Pittabongaram .

CASE STUDY-2

Village: NAGAPUR

GP : NAGAPUR

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Mandal: KHANPUR

MNREGA BRINGS EDUCATION & PUCCA HOUSE IN THIS DEPRIVED VILLAGE

BHOSLE SHANKER, aged 65 years, is a farmer and his entire 5 acres of land has been

developed under MNREGA. Under the land development, land levelling, silt application and

boundary trenches were done. As a result, he is getting at least twice of the crop yield from

his land. Like him , there are other farmer beneficiaries whose lands have been developed

under MGNREGA, and they are getting 2-3 times more crop yield. Wheat, soya, cotton,

jowar and vegetables are main crops grown in this village.

PADMA (BC) is a MGNREGA labourer. She and her husband both earn their livelihood only

through wage employment. She is absolutely landless. But, both of them are working hard

as labourers and sending their daughter Harshitha to a private school located in Utnoor,

that is 7 Kms away from this village. She pays about Rs.15000/- as annual fee for her

daughter. She categorically says that had MGNREGA not been there, it wouldn’t have been

possible for them to send their daughter to private school. She is nurturing the dream of

making her daughter an Engineer.

VASANTH SAVDE, a MGNREGA labourer, has two sons and both are studying in 3rd Standard

in a private school. He pays about Rs.10000/- fee for each of his sons. He says that most

households of this village are determined to send their children to private schools, even if it

means very hard labour. He very clearly says that “All this is possible only because of the

180 degrees turnaround in the village economy brought about by effective and corruption

free implementation of MGNREGA.

BHARATHI , aged 25 years, and her husband both are MGNREGA workers . They are sending

two of their children in a private school and paying Rs.30000/- of annual fees for both the

children put together.

RENUKA BAI, 55 years old , is sending two of her sons to private college. One is in 1st year

Degree and other is in final year Degree course . The annual expenditure on the education

of these two boys is about Rs.40000/-. Renuka Bai very categorically says that this

turnaround is possible only due to MGNREGA. She narrated her economic condition before

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MGNREGA and said that she earlier used to send children with a gunny bag and a roti of

bajra and worn out clothes. But today, all children have good clothes, bags, water bottles

and food in their school bags. There can’t be a better evidence of the turnaround in

household economy of these MGNREGA labourers.

SUNITHA PUDARI( 27 years ) and her husband both are MGNREGA labourers. They are

absolutely landless . They are sending both of their children to private school for education

and the annual expenditure is Rs.20000/-.

There were another 15 female labourers who told us that their sons and daughters were

studying in private schools and each spending Rs.20-30 thousand per year on their

education. It has become possible only after the launch of MNREGA .

PADMA is a landless labourer and she and her husband both work as MGNREGA labourers.

Two years ago they constructed a pucca house and MGNREGA wages played a very

important role in that. In last 2-3 years, about 50 households in the village have

constructed pucca houses and MGNREGA has a lot to do with that.

CASE STUDY-3

Village: CHIMMANGUDA

GP : VAIPET

Mandal: INDERVELLI

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LAND DEVELOPMENT UNDER MNREGA MAKES ADIVASI FARMERS PROSPEROUS

JADHAV PHAKIRA is an adivasi farmer . He has 10 acres of land, of which 3 acres have been

developed under MGNREGA. Before land development project, he used to get hardly 2.5

quintals of paddy per acre; but now he is getting about 10 quintals. In other words, about 4

times of income from the same plot of land. In monetary terms , while he was getting about

Rs.15000/- per acre earlier , now he is getting Rs.60000/-. In other words, a net increased

income of Rs.45000/- compared to the previous income when land was not developed.

Now , two of his grand children are studying in a residential private school at Indervelli, and

spending about Rs.40000/- on education of these two children. This adivasi farmer very

categorically says, “Had MGNREGA not been there, we couldn’t even dream of sending our

children to private schools . We are grateful to this scheme, because it has brought huge

economic benefits to our household and village economy.”

Under the land development project , following activities were undertaken in the farmers’

lands:

1. Farm ponds

2. Diversion drains

3. Boundary trenches

4. Stone bunding

Through these activities, with diversion drains the excess of water was drained out. Farm

ponds are used as source of irrigation. With stone bunding , soil erosion was controlled.

With boundary trenches, soil moisture conservation was ensured. In some of the land

development activities, the stone boulder removal was also done with manual labour.

PREM SINGH is another adivasi farmer who has 10 acres of land , of which 5 acres have

been developed under MNREGS project. He used to get hardly 2-3 quintals of cotton from

his entire land, but now he is getting about 50 quintals of cotton from the same land. In

monetary terms, this adivasi farmer is getting an additional annual income of over Rs.1.8

lakh , thanks to land development project implemented under MNREGA.

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RATHOD UTTAM is an adivasi farmer and has 8 acres of land , out of which 2.5 acres of land

was brought under land development project implemented under MNREGA. His crop yield

of jowar has doubled due to land development.

DINESH, an adivasi farmer, has 8 acres of land, from which he used to get hardly 4 quintals

of cotton. But after NREGS works, he is getting over 40 quintals of cotton. In other words, it

is 900 % increase in the yield . And in monetary terms , about Rs 1.4 lakh of annual

additional income from the same plot of land, thanks to NREGA land development

project.

BABU JADHAV is another adivasi farmer whose 10 acres of land was developed under

MNREGA projects . Before this work, he used to get 2 quintals of cotton and another 2

quintals of Arhar dal(pigeon pea). But now, he has got 11 quintals of cotton and 1 quintal of

arhar dal. In monetary terms, this land development work done in his land under MNREGS is

bringing an additional annual income of Rs.30000/- to this poor adivasi farmer.

RUPLA POWAR has 8 acres of land. This entire land was almost fallow and barren before

MNREGS works. But now, he has got about 30 quintals of cotton and 10 quintals of paddy

from the same land. In monetary terms, about 1.4 lakh of annual income has come to this

adivasi farmer,thanks to land development done under MNREGA project.

CASE STUDY-4

Village : GANGAPUR

GP: UTNUR

Mandal : UTNUR

MNREGA BRINGS ALL ROUND DEVELOPMENT IN ADIVASI VILLAGE

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Gangapur , located in Utnur GP of Utnur Mandal in Adilabad district , is an extremely

deprived and backward village . Before the launch of MNREGA in 2006 , Gangapur was

notorious as a naxalite infested village . However , the effective implementation of MNREGS

has completely changed the socio-economic profile of this village .

Before the arrival of MNREGS , there was extreme poverty , chronic hunger and massive

distress migration in this village . Very few children used to go to school . Tonti Ranjana , an

enderly woman and MNREGS labourers, says , “ Before MNREGA , there was very limited

food available here . We used to eat only jowar and maize with garlic chutney . Only once

in a while we used to get non-veg food . But now things have completely changed .Now ,

we are able to eat 3 full meals including pulses , vegetables and milk products too . We are

also eating non-veg food on weekly basis . All children are now going to school . There was

more than 90 per cent of distress migration earlier , but now there is no distress migration

at all . MNREGA wages have also helped many households in building new houses or

improving the old houses. Earlier , women of this village had hardly 2 sarees but now more

than 4-6 sarees . Earlier , it was difficult to give even Rs.20,000 as dowry but now we are

giving more than Rs. one lakh in dowry .”

Land Development under MNREGA

About 120 acres of land in the village used to be virtually barren and fallow . But , the Land

Development taken up under MNREGA has made this entire land cultivable and productive

. Now , farmers are growing various crops in this land .

C . Ganganne, an adivasi farmer and MNREGA labourer , has 5 acres of forest patta land

which was almost barren and he was getting hardly Rs. 2000-3000 of annual income from

the crop yield in this entire plot of 5 acres . But , after levelling of the land under MNREGA

project , this entire plot of 5 acres has become productive and this adivasi farmer got Rs

30,000/ from the cotton crop in his land last year (2013) .

Naide Laxman is another adivasi farmer of Gangapur village who has 5 acres of land which

was giving very little produce . He used to get hardly Rs. 10,000/ worth of cotton from this

field .But now , after levelling of the land under MNREGA , he got about Rs.40,000/ worth

of cotton last year alone (2013) . Moreover , he got about Rs. 20,000/ worth of paddy also .

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Naithan Jungu is also adivasi farmer with 9 acres of land ; of which 4 acre was developed

under MNREGA . Before the land development under MNREGA , he used to get only 15

quintals of cotton ( Rs.60,000) . But after the land development , he got 40 quintals of

cotton ( Rs. 1.6 lakh) from the same land during 2013 . Naithan Jungu says, “ This has

brought economic prosperity in my family .”

Naithan Chitro has 6.5 acres of land which was developed under MNREGA . Earlier , he

used to get not more than 8 quintals of cotton from this land . But after development of the

land , he got 35 quintals of cotton from this plot ( Rs. 1.4 lakh) during 2013 .

The benefits of Land Development Project under MNREGS are not confined only to these

few farmers . There are 25 adivasi farmers of Gangapur who have got similar benefits from

the land development project under MNREGS . All the adivasi beneficiaries of land

development work as MNREGA labourers too . So , MNREGA has given double benefits to

adivasi farmers and brought all round development in this backward adivasi village .

CASE STUDY-5

Village : UTNUR

GP: UTNUR

Mandal : UTNUR

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MNREGA INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH LAND DEVELOPMENT

UTNUR is a deprived village of Adilabad district . Before the launch of MNREGS in 2006 ,

there was usual poverty and chronic hunger in this village too . There were very few

means of livelihood in the village . Therefore ,the distress migration was over 90 per

cent . The usual food would consist of coarse cereals like maize and jowar with garlic

chutney . But after the arrival of MNREGS , there has been significant improvement in

the food security of the poor villagers . Now , they are eating 3 full meals of rice ,

pulses, vegetables and milk products too . Earlier , they used to eat non-veg food only

once in a while , but now they are eating non-veg food every week .

Thanks to MNREGS , distress migration is now a thing of the past . Children are getting

good education . About 60 per cent of the households in this village are sending their

children to private schools , paying Rs.5000-10,000 as annual fee . MNREGS wages have

also helped many households to go for new pucca houses . Earlier, women had hardly

2-3 sarees , but now most of them have dozens of good quality sarees , thanks to

MNREGA wages .

Land Development Project under MNREGA

Pochana is a poor farmer of Utnur village . He has 5 acres of land , of which 4 acre was

lying fallow and barren . From one acre of his land , he was getting some pulses worth

Rs. 5-6 thousand . But thanks to MNREGS , after land development in his plot , he got

12 quintals of cotton worth Rs. 50,000.

Sumitra C. has 2 acres of land which used to give about 10 quintals of paddy earlier .

But after land development under MNREGA , she is getting 15 quintals of paddy from

the same plot .

Ashanna is another poor farmer of Utnur who has benefitted from land development

taken up under MNREGS . He has 4 acres of land which hardly gave any produce . But

after land development , he got soyabean worth Rs.10,000 from that plot .

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G Rajanna is another beneficiary of land development . He has 7 acres of land which

was lying fallow for many years . But after land development under MNREGA , he was

able to get 15 quintals of paddy from his land .

P Narsaiah , a poor farmer of Utnur, has 5 acres of land . Earlier , he was getting only

some pulses for family consumption from this land . But , after the land development

under MNREGA , he got cotton worth Rs.20,000 during 2013 .

There are many more poor farmers of Utnur village who have got double benefits from

MNREGA . MNREGA has not only provided wage employment to these poor farmers ,

but also made their fallow lands productive and remunerative through land

development .