ROZGAR EVUM SUCHNA KA ADHIKAR ABHIYAN

20,Narain Nagar,Badgaon,District Udaipur(Rajasthan),+fax : 0294-2451391 Email contact: srabhiyan@gmail.com

Banswara – Social Audit Exercise Dates 03-20th Dec 2007

Background As we know National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 is being implemented in 330 Districts in India and 12 districts of Rajasthan. The NREGA guarantees every rural household 100 days a year of manual work at minimum wages within a five kilometer radius. A failure to provide work gives the applicant a right to draw an unemployment allowance. While the poor in the country have received the law with much enthusiasm and hope, many have been skeptical about its actual implementation. There are mainly two arguments raised by the critics of the NREGA. The first is the quantum and capacity to meet the financial requirements of the law. The other is that even though now, this law has been passed and money has been made available, corruption would pervert the intent of the scheme. There is also an apprehension amongst many of us working with the rural poor, that instances of corruption might be used to decry, discredit, and eventually dismantle this hard won entitlement. Particularly as one section in the law states that wherever corruption is found, the work will be stopped!! The experience of implementation of the law over the last two years has shown that peoples involvement is crucial to the better implementation of the law and peoples ability to access their entitlements. Social Audit has become an important means through which people can get involved in the planning, execution monitoring of various aspects of the law. Despite it becoming a buzz word, the experience with social audit has been mixed. In some cases it has even been used by implementing agencies and vested interests, as a means of certifying substandard work by only paying lip service to social audit. In other cases however, peoples organizations have evolved innovative approaches to social audit, making it an effective means of peoples empowerment. It is important to ensure that remains a mode for peoples empowerment and does not get co-opted by vested interests. The Abhiyan has organized social audits in different districts of Rajasthan over the last two years beginning with the Mass social audit in Dungarpur in April 2005. The Abhiyan has now decided to hold another mass social audit in Banswara District where we will also conduct mini social audits of several other departments that provide services to rural people. Banswara has been chosen as the model social audit district by the government of Rajasthan so we are also going to ask the Government to extend its co-operation in the exercise.

 Invitation: We have been contacted by several groups and networks from across the country about receiving training for social audit processes based on our experiences in Rajasthan. One objective of this mass social audit in Banswara, is to provide this kind of learning experience while being organically connected, and contributing to an ongoing process at a grass root level.

For this purpose it is a requirement that volunteer participants come for the whole 17 day period from 3th to 20th December 2007 (in any case be there from the 11th to the 20th) . It would be helpful if the people who come have a working knowledge of Hindi. If there are larger numbers coming from non-hindi speaking areas, they must bring their own translators along. The whole activity will be carried out on a non-funded volunteer basis. It is expected that people will arrange for their own travel, and local hosting will be low cost and organized by the Abhiyan. Some local travel and incidental expenses will have to be catered for by participants. People coming should be prepared to work under very basic conditions as we will eat in local people’s homes and walk 8-10 kms per day. We would like to know as soon as possible how many people would like to come from your organization or group, so that we can plan for the activity. While we are not putting a limit on the numbers who might want to come from a particular organization or region, we would have to finally decide based on the numbers of requests we get. We would also like to know the composition of the group, and any special skills the members might have so that their talents could be used. Looking forward to seeing you in Banswara. Aruna Roy (On behalf of the Rozgar evum Suchna ke Adhikar ka Abhiyan, Rajasthan)

The Exercise

The ROZGAR EVUM SUCHNA KA ADHIKAR ABHIYAN has proposed that upto a thousand people will divide into 50 groups with approximately 10-15 people in each group. After a three day preparatory meeting and orientation in Banswara town, they will go out across the district to visit maximum village in the district. During this time, each group will visit villages ( as mapped out in the three day workshop) with primarily two objectives in mind. One would be spreading awareness about the NREGA through various modes; and the second would be daily reporting from each of the groups from worksites of the NREGA and from the villages visited, about actual implementation of the provisions as per the requirements in the NREGA Guidelines. The teams will carry a checklist of essential entitlements of workers, and it is hoped that there can be immediate redressal of grievances, by informing the district administration based on the daily reports. There will be one team in each block that will do an intensive social audit of one panchayat including one department other than NREGA.

 The following is the proposed programme :

Programmes Consolidation of the record 3-10 Dec Hostel of the govind Guru college, Dungarpur road Banswara

 Theatre and communication workshop 8-10TH Dec Hostel of the Guru govind college Dungarpur road Banswara

All participants to arrive in Banswara Workshop for Padyatra 10thDec till Night 11-13th Dec Hostel of the Guru govind college Dungarpur road Banswara

Padyatra in villages of Banswara District 14-17th Dec

Gram sabha’s in Panchayat head quarter 18th Dec

 Experience sharing 19th Dec Hostel of the Guru govind college Dungarpur road Banswara

 Concluding one day Sammelan 20th Dec Hostel of the Guru govind college Dungarpur road Banswara

How to reach Banswara ? : The people who are coming from Delhi and Jaipur can reach Udaipur or Ratlam by Bus or Train. Buses to Banswara are available from Udaypole Roadways Bus stand, Udaipur at an interval of one hour from 7:00am to 8:00pm. The distance between Udaipur and Banswara is 165 km. Those who are coming from Ahmadabad can come straight to Banswara by Bus. The distance between Ahmadabad and Banswara is 300 km.

For further information you can contact : Shankar Singh ( MKSS ) (M): 9414003247 , Bhanwar Singh ( Astha ) (M): 9414166348, R.D.Vyas (Astha) (M): 9413318044 , Hariom soni (9413831761) , Gireesh Bhugra : 09414335752

Email contact: srabhiyan@gmail.com, hrmsoni@gmail.com