Association for India’s Development (AID) MIT and Boston chapters organized a discussion and lecture by Ajay Kumar on how National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is creating social change in rural India on July 1st, 2015 in MIT with about 55 attendees. 

Ajay Kumar is a renowned activist and pioneer of NREGA. He shared his experiences and struggles he faced in the 25-year long journey that contributed to the birth and shape of NREGA. 

He began by emphasizing that “Right to Life” is a fundamental right in the Indian Constitution and  even criminals in jail get basic food and medical care, whereas in substantial parts of rural India people do not have enough money to survive. Hence, “Right to Life” is violated indirectly through the problem of unemployment. 

He clarified that the Act guarantees 100 days of employment in one year in total to an entire family (and not to each individual of the family) in rural areas. He also pointed out that currently the emphasis in NREGA is on unskilled labor (about 60%) because people with no skills  are the ones who need maximum support. He added that the Act provides certain safeguards to people by guaranteeing work to all those who register for it and ensuring time-bound payment for the work done.

He also shared his observations of a caste-based economic stratification in rural areas. He noted that 86% of NREGA beneficiaries belong to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and other backward classes (OBC). Also, 53% beneficiaries were women. Hence, NREGA benefits the bottom of the pyramid and also promotes gender equity. Another advantage of NREGA is in the fact that it supports sustainable infrastructure development in villages by providing works like construction of check dams, village roads, water harvesting structures, canal desilting etc, which have helped increase groundwater levels and also help agriculture thrive.

Despite the many successes of NREGA, the scheme continues to face number of challenges in its implementation. Historically, the penetration of NREGA within the targeted lower economic has been low. In 2014, out of 90 crore people below poverty line, NREGA reached to only 10% of rural population. Also, only 43% of the registered people actually got the employment and further, only 20% of them got the entire 100 days of guaranteed employment. Other than this, many workers did not get the promised minimum wage. Ajay Kumar concluded by emphasizing on 3 steps - Educate, Organize and Agitate as the path forward for a more stronger and effective implementation of NREGA welfare scheme. 

Finally he thanked AID for giving him the opportunity to visit US and to share his experience. The talk was followed by a brief session of discussion. “Thanks for such an inspirational talk. I have completely changed my view about NREGA” said a member of the MIT community, who used to believe the NREGA may not be an effective way to benefit the people in need. Others also praised the speaker for his passionate delivery of the talk. “I would be happy if some of you can financially support the awareness campaign we run to inform people about their right to get employment which is supported by AID” said Ajay Kumar when Ranjani Saigal asked how the Boston community can be part of the changes. Post discussion, dinner was served for the audience. The program ended with a vote of thanks to Ajay Kumar and AID volunteers. Graduate Student Council (GSC) sponsored food for the event.       

Mr. Ajay Kumar is in Boston till 7 July, if there is interest in meeting him or request him to address a small gathering, please contact president@aidboston.org.