The participation of women, scheduled caste communities besides the differently-abled people in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is comparatively lower than the national average.

“In the coastal State, only 32.2% of the registered Scheduled Caste households participated in NREGA while the national average stands at 38.5%. Similarly, women’s participation in the labour-intensive wage entitlement programme is also on the lower side. In Odisha, the women’s toiling out in the center’s flagship programme stands at 46% against the national average of 54%. The convergence of MGNREGA with Self Help Groups will boost women’s participation in MGNREGA”, Sameet Panda, Co-Convener- Odisha Khadya Adhikar Abhijan stated in a letter to the State’s Panchayatraj minister.

The disabled or the differently-abled people’s participation is also equally low in Odisha with 0.3% while the national average is 0.4%. Close to 3% of Odisha’s population is disabled while only 0.3% of NGNREGA’s registered workers are disabled, he said.

Differently-abled persons who could potentially benefit from MGNREGA should be made aware of the program. Job cards and demands should be registered for willing persons with disabilities. Works appropriate for differently-abled persons must be sanctioned and opened up, he suggested.

Delay in payment processing by the Centre is also depriving workers of a timely wage. 48.5% of payments took more than 7 days to be processed by the Centre. This is not considered as an official delay on the online Management Information System (MIS), resulting in the lack of compensation to workers.

Natural Resource Management (NRM) expenditure in Odisha is also on the lower side. 69% of expenditure in Odisha is on NRM assets while the national average stands at 70%.

The state government needs to encourage building of natural resource management assets for soil and water conservation, improving biodiversity, resilience to climate change, and increasing productivity of rural areas, he felt.

The Foundation of Ecological Security has developed CLART (Composite Landscape Assessment & Restoration Tool) which enables better planning of water conservation structures. The MGNREGA functionaries can be trained and mandated to use this tool to build productive NREGA assets.

There is a very high demand for work in the state which is not being met. Work was demanded by 34.9 lakh households while only 29.2 lakh could be provided with work.

It is essential that a campaign must be taken up for registering work demand in all districts in collaboration with Civil Supplies Officers. Rozgaar Diwas should be rejuvenated and ought to be observed at each Gram Panchayat to regularly capture demand. It is also vital that demand registration is also done through electronic means such as WhatsApp (RDD, labour forum). Work demand receipts should be provided to each worker and this should be mandated and strengthened at each GP, the civil society group concluded.