In this 2009 drought, — before the late monsoon rains in September, the River Kosi in Kumaun, Uttarakhand, had been reduced to a muddy stream.  The women of the mahila mandals in the villages around decided that conservation measures like check dams, gully plugs, ponds were needed to increase infiltration of water into the sub-soil. This was so that the flow of water in the river could be enhanced, at least to the extent that this was within their control. 

 In the adjoining Gram Sabha, the ‘bahu pradhan’ (father-in-law of the pradhan), arranges for the check-dam along the stream flowing into the Kosi, with National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) funds. While we watched, the women were carrying heavy stones in the hot sun, while the men were constructing the dam. The stream was so swift that a farmer working there said,  “We need to use wire netting to hold the stones in place”. However the junior engineer told him, “The funds are not sufficient for wire netting for the four dams. But it does not really matter if the dams do not last, for after all the idea is to provide employment to people”.  And sure enough with the first downpour, all four dams were wrecked and washed away.

In a programme involving crores of rupees to be delivered to crores of people, there are bound to be problems before it ‘gets going’. From all accounts, NREGA has not worked well in some states and in others there have been massive frauds. But it has indeed worked well in some states. This just means that more serious efforts need to be made to make it work optimally, in every state, as the stakes are truly high for poor people in rural areas.

... contd.