Part 1 - Responses to questions raised from YIP's article in Civil Society magazine (2015).

Since 1983 YIP has been involved in mobilising rights struggles of the poor peasantry in Andhra, i.e. over 31 years. The successes of these struggles enabled YIP to take up the struggle on MGNREGA. Recently YIP wrote an article of our experiences to date regarding our work on MGNREGA, which was carried in the magazine Civil Society. A few of you had some important questions in response to this article. Over the next few weeks through our blog we will try to address these questions, anchoring the responses in the lessons we have learnt from the past struggles.

Your feedback and comments are very important to our continued work in this area and we welcome them. Please continue your engagement on this.

DO RIGHTS STRUGGLES START WITH CIVIL SOCIETY?

One of the central questions you asked was around the role of civil society initiating the struggle for a particular right. In response, it is first important to recognise that all rights struggles whether to demand a new right or to implement an existing right is area or country specific. Civil society in India took up the struggle of the right to work in 1986 and continued it to 2005 when MGNREGA was legislated; we had no idea if we would ever succeed. This struggle has only taken place in India, though there are unemployed in every country, why?

Civil society started this struggle, then Ms. Sonja Gandhi and the left parties put it to vote, placing the right to work on their agenda and got it legislated. Civil Society has played an important role in the legislation of MGNREGA and therefore it feels that it is responsible to ensure that MGNREGA is implemented in accordance with the rights given under the Act more so than the Government or the Congress party. In the context of rural India civil society is needed to demand the legislation of pro-poor acts (if the legislations do not exist), and ensure the rights based implementation of each such Act

This is a responsibility and not a choice.

For next week we will look at whether civil society has a mediation role between rural workers and the state government to help enforce this right.

Being Unique is better than Being Perfect - APNA a Unique Achievement

Andhra Pradesh NGO Alliance (APNA)

20 Years of Struggle  - 4 Years of Dialogue - 2 Years Sharing Knowledge - 3 Years scaling milestones

Our position on development of the poor and oppressed is not only theorical but based on years of experience. Since 1982, we have only taken up rights based struggles: for land, water, house sites on the name of women, freedom from bondage, child rights, struggles for justice under Atrocities Act. , participation in panchayat elections under Panchayat  Raj Act 

In 1986 we started the struggle for Right to Work 

The struggle lasted until 2005 when the Central Government legislated NREGA. In September 2006, the Government requested YIP to conduct the very first social audit in Andhra Pradesh with the help of Aruna Roy. The audit showed up quite a few problems, but the major issues were fraud in implementation of the act and the rural poor were uninformed about their rights. In 2007, the government decided to focus on frauds only and increased the usage of Digital Technology and made Social Audits mandatory every six months. In Feb of 2008, the Principal  Secretary  of Rural Development approached us and asked us to demonstrate to the Government. how to inform rural poor about their rights and organise them to demand their rights. We undertook training and organising of rural in 21 mandals  of Anantapur District for two years. 

On 22 nd. September 2009  600 MGNREGA union members met with Mr. Raju Principal Secretary along with all senior officials of Anantapur ,and stated that the Government will adopt the YIP approach to enable the workers to demand their rights.

Mr Raju was transferred to Delhi but his successor Mr Subramaniam called a meeting of fifty rights based organisation in Feb 2010 and asked how YIP had been organising  the rural poor.  We explained that we hold rights training sessions for the rural poor, organise them into village level federations, and hold monthly meetings of each village federation to discuss and solve their problems. Impressed by our work and taking into consideration our recommendations, Mr Subramaniam  passed  the Government Order No. 80 to form a State level Partnership between the  Government of Andhra Pradesh  and  NGOs. Thus APNA was born.  Its purpose was for NGOs to train rural poor, then organise them, and lastly conduct their monthly meetings.

340 NGOs joined APNA by January 2011, and in March YIP  demanded that the Government to pay the NGOs to conduct rights trainings. We succeeded in createing this unique partnership.  APNA became a permanent institution to help the working families to access their rights with the NGOs playing the major role but this is not happening in any other State except Andhra Pradesh. We believe that there can be no development except through rights.  I share with you my recent article in Civil Society Magazine published from Delhi on YIP role in creating APNA and the idea of a Government - NGO Partnership across the country for a better implementation of Rights.  Please review the article and post your suggestions.

The Success Story (click on this link)

Keep refreshing . . .  I will be back with more

Happy Reading!!  

In Search of a New Destination as the Journey continues....

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects . . . 

There's nothing as exciting as a comeback, remember this: classics never make a comeback. They wait for that perfect moment to take the spotlight from overdone, tired trends. I or YIP was just waiting for this perfect moment.  You will now see me often offering you food for thought but before I share about my recent work I thought it will be worthwhile to take a quick walk down the memory lane 

1976 Preparing the Ground

1990 - Cultural Action

1992 - Activities Meeting with the Minister Rural Development

1992 - Cultural Event Chitoor 17k people

1993 - Mudigubba RTW March

1994 - Educating on RTW

2006 - Training the Cardres

Dec 1990 - Meeting with Professor Dandawate Delhi

Relish this and start talking . . .  I will be back with update on the real work, we are doing.

Only enforcement of rights can control fraud.

Only enforcement of rights can control fraud:

Young India Project (YIP) has become convinced that by not enforcing their rights, the MGNREGA Job Card holders are allowing frauds to be committed by officials in the mandal implementing machinery.

In the MGNREGA Sameeksha presented on the 14^th of July by the Prime Minister, he pointed out that he was “surprised to hear from Jairam that concurrent evaluation processes are not in good shape”…and that he will “request Montek to apply his mind to making good the deficiencies…” The Government seems to have total faith in the top down evaluation/monitoring processes even when they are not producing results. Why can’t the Government also, alongside the top down approach, establish a grass roots bottom up evaluation/monitoring approach?

Mr. K. Raju, Joint Secretary, NAC, New Delhi, had a telephone talk with me on the 12^th of July after returning from his meeting with the PDs of Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad. He told me that in his opinion “APNA NGOs should focus on MGNREGA given rights for the next six months,” to ensure that the SSS groups access their rights.

Because of the formation of APNA, a GO-NGO partnership, A.P. is the only state in this country today which can implement a bottom up evaluation/monitoring process with the help of the APNA NGOs.

On the basis of this YIP has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Rural Development A.P., to appoint monitors nominated by APNA NGOs, in mandals where they are working to conduct rights monitoring and redressal meetings, every two months in each of their GPs/Habitations and submit reports to APNA. Enforcement of rights through these meetings will check fraud.

The time has come to try a bottom-up approach to monitor rights being accessed or not being accessed, in order to reduce frauds being committed by members of the Government implementation machinery.

After 6 years of Government top down monitoring approach, grass roots bottom-up approach to be operated by APNA NGOs at a far less cost deserves a chance. What is there to lose except frauds? 

NGOs should conduct Rights monitoring of MGNREGA every month.

On 29 May 2012,  NGOs requested the government of Andhra Pradesh, during APNA (Andhra Pradesh NGO's Alliance) monthly meeting, to appoint APNA/NGOs as monitors of MGNREGA Rights accessed or not honoured at G. P. levels. 


The monitoring is to be conducted every month in every G.P. where APNA/NGOs are working, and monthly reports to be submitted to APNA. 

The government requested 'Young India Project' and other NGOs to submit a concrete proposal. 'Young India Project' has submitted it's proposal.

Where are the Left Parties?

Our attempts to seek the co-operation of the left parties in taking up mass struggles on local issues and rights have met with failure, except for the Naxalites.

NAXALITES

The left group most willing to extend support to the non-violent rights based struggles we took up in the eighties and nineties in Anantapur and Chittoor districts in Andhra Pradesh were the Naxalites. They took up local issues like us but their strategy of struggle based on violence was not acceptable to us. Many of the supporters of the Naxalites accepted that the issues we were taking up were the same as theirs, but our differences lay in the method of struggle.

Most of the Naxalites were young, ill equipped, but full of commitment. All of them who continued in the movement were shot dead in so called encounters. They did not stand a chance against the State.

We were happy when YSR Reddy, agreed to discuss all the issues raised by the Naxalites. The meetings lasted 3 days, but the governments condition that the Naxalites surrender their arms prior to the agreement being accepted was rejected by the Naxal leaders. The leaders returned to the Nalamala forests and took up their arms again. We were very keen, that the Naxalites lay down their arms and organise rights based non violent mass struggles. We were disappointed.

From then on the State went after the leaders and dalams of the Naxals determined to wipe them out. Today we don’t have a Naxalite movement in Andhra any more. The losers are the poor peasants and agricultural labourers whose issues and rights were taken up by them.

My observations are that of an organiser and not that of a critic.

Narinder S. Bedi

                                       N G O ‘ s    R O L E    I N    M G N R E G A

 

1.     In February 1986 with the support of the late Mr. Smarajit Ray, 40 NGO’s of Andhra Pradesh started a campaign for the legislation of an employment guarantee Act. The campaign lasted 20 years. 

 

2.       We wanted an Act which would give rural workers the right to demand and receive work.

 

3.     Today we have that Act - it is called MGNREGA and it has given many rights to workers.

 

4.     The question I would like to raise and answer is what is our role in

MGNREGA ?

 

5.     We have 2 roles:

1.     To educate, mobilise and assist S S S groups at G P levels to demand their rights. This is a direct relationship between the S S S groups and the NGO’s, APNA is not involved in it.

2.     Our second role is to monitor every month, the success or failure of the 

S S S groups in getting their demands honoured by the Government in the GPs where we are working. In order to do this APNA must give us official permission and financial support to conduct S S S  groups meetings in every village of our GPs every month. The meetings will monitor the rights performance information updated and given to us every month. A rights performance report will be submitted to APNA every month.

 

6.           Will  the government give us the official responsibility of monitoring     MGNREGA rights accessed and rights denied every month in the GPs where we are working.

7.     Only if the government gives the NGO’s this responsibility will the NGO’s have a role in APNA with the purpose of fulfilling the Act.