DIWALI is not generally a special time for Dungarpur. Dominated by tribals, who constitute 65.14 per cent of the population, the Rajasthan district has grown used to living with the ‘underdeveloped’ and ‘most backward’ tags. Regular employment is hard to come by; migration is endemic, but does little to better long-term fortunes.

This year, though, Dungarpur’s Devilal Hujaji Ghoghra fulfilled his life-long hope of a pucca house. And Soma Amra, for the first time since he can remember, bought enough foodgrains for three months.

There’s no magic wand at work here. Just the implementation of a government scheme, along with the application of foresight, wisdom, patience, faith and any amount of hard work. Much of it comes from Manju Rajpal, the 30-something collector of the district, and it won her a state award in August this year. But the actual spin-offs of Rajpal’s successful leadership of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) are to be found all over the district.

Check out the figures: About 50 per cent of all the families in the district now have at least one member employed under the scheme, at least 25 per cent have two. While 10 of the 25 states to launch the scheme are still registering names, Dungarpur has not only launched several work projects but has actually completed a few of them. Till date, Rs 91.91 crore has been distributed as wages, while more than 50 per cent of the Rs 235 crore allotted for tribals under the project has been utilised between February and September.

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