‘Importance
of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in better management of MGNREGA’
Today ‘grass-roots’ actors
and concepts are intertwined in the theory and practice of the development
profession. Community development promotes human development by ‘empowering
communities and strengthening their capacity for self-sustaining development’.
While talking about different government welfare schemes for community development,
MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act) is a job guaranteed scheme in India, aims at enhancing the
livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of
wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members
volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The scheme launched on 2nd February
2006 as a momentous initiative towards pro-poor growth. For the first time,
rural communities have been given not just a development program but also a
regime of rights. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA)
guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year to any rural household
whose adult members are willing to do unskilled manual work. This work
guarantee also serve other objectives: generating productive assets and skills
thereby boosting the rural economy, protecting the environment, empowering
rural women, reducing rural urban migration and fostering social equity, among
others. The Act offers an opportunity to strengthen our democratic processes by
entrusting principle role to Panchayats at all levels in its implementation and
promises transparency through involvement of community at planning and
monitoring stages.
For
our purposes, ‘Importance of Community Based Organizations (CBOs)
in better management of MGNREGA’. Community-based organizations (CBOs) are defined as voluntary associations of community members that
reflect the interests of a broader constituency. Though (CBOs)
are small, informal organizations, indications are that they provide various
services towards the development of rural communities and can be used as
channels to route development information and other resources required to
improve living conditions in rural communities. CBOs are, however, constrained
from providing a more diverse range of services to their communities due to
certain basic weaknesses. Leadership development, networking with both local
and external organizations and registration with an official public agency are
identified and discussed as sustainable strategies to strengthen CBOs, improve
upon their service delivery standards and place them in a position to tap
available opportunities to develop the communities they are located in rural
areas.
For
the better management of the MGNREGA
scheme, CBOs, as they are
intricately connected to the communities and stakeholders around them, must be
viewed in their wholeness. They are key actors in their respective contexts,
and in actuality, they are the products of the very systems responsible for
community development at the local level. Recognizing the strengths and
capacities that already exist in CBOs is vital to supporting genuine,
demand-driven organizational development that can make grassroots groups an
even more vital link to the increased well-being of vulnerable community.
Many criticisms have been levelled at the MGNREGA, which has been argued to be no
more effective than other poverty reduction programs in India. The
program is overwhelmed with controversy about corrupt officials, deficit financing
as the source of funds for the program, poor implementation, and unintended
destructive effect on poverty, been built, no new homes, schools or hospitals
or any infrastructure to speak of has resulted from the program. In this
contrast CBOs can play an important role to minimize this entire problem and
have capacity to do better management of MGNREGA.
