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Rural help desks yield bumper crops, increase incomes

Nagarik Sahayta Kendras, a collaboration between civil society organisations and the government, were launched to help villagers get jobs under MGNREGA and access dues. Today, they have expanded beyond their brief to play an invaluable role in rural Jharkhand




Esha Roy



Shivlal Oraon at  his mango orchard, planted under a government horticulture scheme, in Janho village in Jharkhand. Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


LATEHAR, Jharkhand: Surrounded by undulating hills in a corner of Latehar district in Jharkhand state lies the village, Janho. It is sowing season, and most of the village’s 3,000 inhabitants rise with the sun to plough their fields, upturning the soil to reveal its dark velvet underbelly while scattering seeds into fresh furrows.


 Shivlal Oraon, 55, has not joined his neighbours. Instead, every morning during the summer months, he enthusiastically ventures into his new mango orchard to check on his ripening Amrapali mangoes. 


Shivlal planted his mango trees four years ago. Latehar’s rocky soil means that even at near-full growth, the trees appear stunted. Two years ago, Shivlal’s trees bore fruit for the first time. “I was so excited that I just gave them away to family and friends. This year as well, wherever I go, I take the mangoes as gifts. I have sold only some of the bigger ones,” he said.


The mango orchards first appeared in Janho in 2017 through the Jharkhand government’s ‘Birsa Munda Bagwaani Yojana’, a horticulture scheme that falls under the Centre’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) umbrella. Guided by the local Nagarik Sahayta Kendra (NSK), a citizen help desk found in 73 blocks across Jharkhand, a collective of nine families pooled their land to plant mango trees across eight acres of land, and in time bore the literal fruits of their efforts.


Inspired by the success of this plantation, Shivlal sought assistance from the NSK to replicate the model with his brothers on three acres of land. “I will soon sell mangoes on a larger scale,” he said, pointing to the nine families who now make Rs 40,000 each annually from the sale of mangoes, supplementing their income from MGNREGA jobs. 


 During the sowing season villagers rise with the sun to plough their fields in Janho village in Latehar district of Jharkhand. Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


THE NSK BOOST


Over the past decade, the residents of Janho village have benefited from various state and central government schemes that were previously inaccessible to them—from getting MGNREGA job cards and work to receiving ration and pension and horticultural schemes like Birsa Harik Gram Yojona (BHGY) that have provided additional sources of income and increased food security. At the heart of this lies the Nagarik Sahayta Kendra   programme, an institutional structure of facilitation that has been hailed as a successful collaboration between civil society organisations (CSOs), workers, farmers and the government.


 “I worked in brick kilns in Varanasi for four years when I was younger, as there was little income here,” said Shivlal. 


“At least one-third of the village used to work at brick kilns, and many others would migrate to Kerala and Gujarat for jobs. It was through the NSK that I first heard of MGNREGA and the 100 days of work per year guaranteed under the scheme. The NSK Saathis (paid volunteers employed by NSKs) helped me get a job card and MGNREGA work as well as open a bank account to receive wages. If wages are delayed, they help us get the money. The NSK advised me to start a fruit plantation under the BHGY scheme, and now government officials bring teams from all over to Janho to show off our orchards,” he smiled.



Shivlal added that while many residents of his village still migrated to other states for work, the number was dwindling every year. “When a person is financially weak, they don’t have a choice,” he said. “But when we get MGNREGA work, and there are farms to work on and even mango plantations now, why would we leave?”   


Haldar Mahato, director of the Social Audit Unit of the Jharkhand government which monitors MGNREGA in the state, said that despite there being a system in place, many people were still unable to access government schemes.

 

“The NSKs have facilitated this access for the people, including how grievances are to be raised, how a complaint is written and where to submit applications if concerns are not addressed,” he said. “Concerns are documented and reach the appropriate department. The NSKs have been very effective for people accessing welfare schemes and also support for the government.” 


Jharkhand NSK co-ordination committee member, James Herenj, visits Janho village to create awareness regarding schemes and ascertain issues faced by villagers. Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


A PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT 


Jharkhand’s Nagarik Sahayta Kendras, originally called NREGA Sahayta Kendras, are deeply rooted in the MGNREGA movement. The eminent Belgian-born Indian development economist, Jean Dreze, widely considered the architect of the Act, continues to play a central role in its implementation.


After MGNREGA was introduced in 2005, Dreze, along with students, would visit Jharkhand every summer to conduct surveys and assess the effectiveness of the Act. 


“Accompanied by local volunteers, we would visit different districts and conduct surveys to check whether the Act was being implemented and hold jan sunwais (public hearings) to create awareness among workers,” said Dreze’s close associate James Herenj, who is the state convener of Jharkhand’s NREGA Watch and team leader at the Manika NSK in Latehar district. “One of the biggest activities in those early years was the registration of workers.”


In 2009, Dreze led a group of students and local volunteers to Khunti district in Jharkhand to study the delay in MGNREGA payments after payment of wages through banks was made compulsory. 


“Many people did not even have a bank account at the time,” he said. “Huge delays in wages had begun. People needed help in opening bank accounts.” 


Assisting in opening accounts and securing workers’ wages in Khunti as well as in Chhattarpur in Palamau district was just the beginning. Very soon, the volunteers were helping workers apply for MGNREGA jobs and teaching them about their rights and entitlements. 


“It was at this time that the concept of NSKs emerged quite organically,” said Dreze. “Local volunteers had understood the need workers had for such assistance and wanted to continue this work.” Funds were raised and the first two NSKs in Khunti and Chhatarpur, initially run out of abandoned buildings, became permanent, operating through the year.


 Dwelling on the challenges faced by the NSKs, Dreze, who now lives in Jharkand’s capital Ranchi, said that the main one was the “corrupt, and even criminalised, environment and the inertia, if not the hostility, of the local administration”. “The Employment Guarantee Act in particular is a pro-worker Act implemented by an anti-worker system,” he said. “People in the system, often though not always, are quite hostile to people’s empowerment. But we have also had experiences of local block development officers who are sympathetic, and that makes a huge difference.”


Eminent developmental economist Jean Dreze speaking at a July 2024 state level convention of NSK workers, government officials and CSO representatives in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


After the NSKs began work, cases of corruption by officials and contractors, non-payment for work and fraudulent worker muster rolls, started to tumble out, said Dreze.


Several people who blew the whistle on these were killed. Lalit Mehta, a Gram Swaraj Abhiyan activist and an associate of Dreze and Herenj, was brutally murdered in May 2008 in Palamau. Kameshwar Yadav, an MGNREGA activist in Giridih district, was shot dead by unidentified persons in June 2008. In 2011, Niyamat Ansari, working with the Manika NSK, was lynched by a group of Maoists for trying to expose NREGA corruption. The deaths marred the campaign but at the same time reiterated the need for NSKs in the state.


In 2017, the Right to Food campaign brought to light the starvation death of 11-year-old Santoshi Kumari in Simdega district after her family was struck off the welfare rolls for not seeding its Aadhar cards. 


“All these cases and the protests that happened thereafter put a lot of pressure on government officials,” said Herenj. There were also many officials in the rural development department and at the block and district level who have supported us a lot. It was then decided that NSK volunteers would conduct jan sunwais (public hearings) with the people and the district administration every fortnight.”


In the absence of panchayats in the newly formed state of Jharkhand (the first panchayat elections were held only in 2010) the NSKs filled the gap and became a vital lifeline for villagers looking to access government schemes. While conceptualised as centres to ensure the correct implementation of the MGNREGA Act, their role began expanding, with villagers bringing issues related to pension schemes, birth and death registrations, food security and even legal cases to the NSKs.


In 2022, the NSKs, till then called NREGA Sahayta Kendras, were renamed Nagarik Sahayta Kendras (citizen help centre) and began being run by a consortium of CSOs (civil society organisations) such as the Partnering Hope into Action Foundation, PRADAN, Samekit Jana Vikas Kendra (SJVK), and Multi Art Association (MAA), with support from the Germany-based Welthungerhilfe (WHH).


They operated from 73 of Jharkhand’s 260 blocks, across 18 districts, with each block housing one NSK. Having taken on board the targets of the National Food Security Act, 2013, WHH coined the concept of ‘zero hunger panchayats’, to increase food security in villages through proper access to the government’s social welfare schemes.


 According to WHH figures, over the past two and a half years, NSKs have received 1,58,000 grievances/ applications regarding various government schemes. Issues related to MGNREGA and social security pension remain the highest, comprising 24% and 28% of the applications. The CSOs said that the NSKs had notched up a redressal rate of 70%. 


Dreze said he was happy to see the NSK concept take off in many parts of Jharkhand, and wished to see it replicated in other states. “It has helped people learn about their entitlements and rights,” he said, adding that in many areas the NSKs had led to the formation of workers’ organisations.  


NSK saathis Dilip Rajak and Prema Tigga (sitting) scrutinise complaints and applications made by villagers at the Manika centre, in Jharkhand. Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


A GAMUT OF ISSUES


Set up in 2010, the Manika NSK—one of the first to come up in Jharkhand—operates out of a single-storeyed government building within the Block Development Office complex. While the government does not fund NSKs, it has provided 44 of the 73 NSKs across the state with buildings to work from. While most NSKs in Jharkhand have two saathis or fellows, the Manika NSK has five. 


The NSK is open to the public twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. “The rest of the week, we are in the field,” said Dilip Rajak, a saathi who belongs to the block in keeping with the NSK policy of choosing Fellows who are locals. 


The saathis attend Gram Sabha meetings at least once a month, workers’ meetings in villages at least once a week and any other meeting organised by village organisations and committees. Any number of subjects, from new government schemes, national campaigns and even local issues faced by villages, are discussed at these gatherings. When there is a particularly sensitive case, such as one of domestic or sexual violence, the team members make home visits to assess the situation.  


On a hot and humid Tuesday morning, a steady flow of visitors arrives at the Manika NSK. Herenj is assisted by saathi Prema Tigga, who had initially trained to join the Jharkhand police force. He sits and patiently listens to one concern after another while Tigga laboriously notes down complaints in a thick register while simultaneously feeding information into her laptop. Each complaint or application is sent to the concerned department, followed up by the NSK and brought to a conclusion. 


In its very first year of operation, the Manika NSK processed 3,000 applications, most of them related to MGNREGA. In 2022, out of 2,470 applications, 1,876 were MGNREGA job demands and 105 applications for NREGA job cards. Last year, the NSK processed 2,652 applications, including 592 MGNREGA job demands, 112 MGNREGA job card applications and 382 job card verifications. 


Today, Savita Oraon (32) from Jungur village has come to confirm her name on the MGNREGA muster. “I got my job card a year ago,” she said. “Our mukhiya (village head) told us that my name had been struck off the rolls. He also kept our ATM card and said that he would withdraw the MGNREGA payment and give it to us.” Tigga checks her computer and informs Oraon that her name is still on the roster and advises her to take back her ATM card.


NSK fellows or saathis attend a July 2024 state level convention to showcase their work over the past few years in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


Usha Devi (29) lives with her in-laws and has four children. With her husband possessing neither a bank account nor a ration card, the family is finding it difficult to make ends meet. She has come to the NSK to submit applications. Her friend, Reshmi Devi (24) has not received her husband’s death certificate for over a year, and consequently has not been getting her widow’s pension, making it difficult to support her family.  


In a large hall next to the NSK’s filing room, a group of villagers from Lanka, Sewdhara, Dasdih and Lukumkhar villages sit in a circle and hold discussions.  After amendments to the Forest Rights Act 2006, the villagers, who crop land inside the forest, had to file for title deeds. Their claims have been rejected by the administration. “We are now trying to figure out the next step,” says saathi Rajak.  


The NSK tackles a gamut of problems. “In 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown, a school in Badiyatu village suddenly withdrew eggs from the mid-day meal,” said Rajak. “The new principal was vegetarian and didn’t want eggs on the menu. We wrote to the state administration, the principal was pulled up, and the school started serving eggs once again.”


Criminal cases such as domestic violence, sexual abuse and human trafficking are also addressed by the NSK, which assists victims in approaching the police and following up their cases. “We also frequently make RTI applications and have also become active on social media, especially X,” said Rajak. “Whenever we want to grab an official’s attention, we tweet to him so that the job can get done quickly.”


HELPING REMOTE VILLAGES


While NSKs like the one in Manika have been effective in empowering their residents, it is the centres located in Jharkhand’s remotest blocks that have been life-altering. 


Two hundred kilometres from Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi, located on the southern side of the North Koel river and hugging the Palamau Tiger Reserve, is Garu block, surrounded by rings of hills and dense forests. This area is inhabited by one of Jharkhand’s eight PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups), the Birjias. 


The waters of the North Koel river cuts through some of the remotest areas in Jharkhand where the state’s Particularly Vulnerable Tribal groups live. Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


In an area where food security is tenuous, Ranjit Birjia (35) from Lohargara village said that earlier this year, seven families, including his, stopped receiving rations. “The ration dealer had changed and we were told that we would no longer receive rations,” he said. 


“We didn’t get any for three months and had to buy rice from the market every week, spending Rs 1,000 for 25 kg. We then made a complaint through the NSK.” Things turned around promptly after that, said Birjia. “The dealer landed up at our house, asking us why we had complained. He even took me to town at his own expense, and made sure I got my rations,” he laughed. 


With few employment opportunities in this far-flung area, and most villagers migrating to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and other states to work in construction or the cement industry for part of the year, MGNREGA work is a major issue in Garu.


Somwati Devi, who has been an NSK saathi at the block for the past three months, pointed out that because the villages were in the middle of the forest, every harvesting season in November, elephants would venture into the agricultural fields and eat up and destroy the crops. “We consume whatever little is left of the maize or paddy, but this is not enough,” she said. “The contractors here used to give Rs 100 per day for work and sometimes not even pay on time. We have been helping people apply for MGNREGA work, and got 150 villagers work this year.”


 Vijay and Urmila Birjiya, for example, approached the Garu NSK, as they were not getting MGNREGA jobs—and even on the rare occasions that they did, would not be paid in full, with the village mukhiya often creaming off the money due to them. Somwati took the couple’s job cards, Aadhaar cards and bank account details and filled in the MGNREGA application forms. She then took them, along with other applications, to the Block Development Office (BDO) and submitted them to the Block Programme Officer, who oversees MGNREGA.


Within 10 days, the BDO’s office not only informed Somwati on the phone that work had been assigned but also sent the Panchayat Rozgar officer to Birjiya to confirm this. Birjiya and his wife worked on digging a well in their village, Lohargara, and were paid Rs 1,632 each for the job. “If work is not assigned within 15 days, we apply for compensation in lieu of the work as mandated by MGNREGA,” said Somwati, adding that stemming out-migration from the area has been one of the Garu NSK’s major goals.


A large group from Chirodih village has come to the NSK to make a complaint—they have been paid for only two of the seven weeks they worked to build a football field under MGNREGA. “Sometimes the money does not come into our accounts; it goes to the account of the mukhiya (gram panchayat chief) or contractor, who then give it out,” said village pradhan Kameshwar Singh (61). Gulab Singh (36) had an additional problem: when he failed to receive payment for work he had done under MGNREGA, an official told him it was because he did not mark his attendance online. “How would we know what online attendance is?” he asked.


 Herenj said it was constant technological changes and upgrades such as these that villagers needed assistance with. “Sometimes there are policy changes as well that call for technological help, such as bank payments for MGNREGA, linking Aadhar cards to ration cards and digitisation,” he said.


 THE DIDIS: EMPOWERING WOMEN


Standing at five foot nothing, Saira Bano (28) is an unimposing figure. In the heart of Bokaro district, amid bustling towns and sprawling coal mines, she lives with her husband and in-laws in Tand Balidih village, a mixed community with members from scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, other backward communities and Muslims. For the past four years, she has garnered respect within the village and beyond working as an NSK saathi—one of the 95 women among the 148 saathis—and is commonly called an NSK ‘Didi’ (elder sister). 


Saira Bano works as a NSK saathi in Jaridih in the heart of coal-rich Bokaro district in Jharkhand.

Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


 Married off when she was pursuing her first year of a Bachelor of Science degree, Saira not only completed her education but, with the encouragement of her husband, also undertook a computer course. Passionate and enterprising, she quickly got involved in the activities of women self-help groups (SHGs) and her local panchayat, and with her skills in computers and maths, became a master book-keeper and later the panchayat auditor. It wasn’t long before her name was suggested for the Bokaro’s Jaridih block NSK. 


 “I had to face an interview for the post and talk about various government schemes, what Gram Panchayats and Gram Sabhas are and the importance of these,” said Saira who visits the NSK nearly every day, sometimes with her toddler in tow. Today, she sits in the NSK office, poring over the latest records to verify which applicants have had their issues resolved. 


Agar desh ka sarkar hai, toh panchayat bhi apne aap me ek chhoti sarkar hai (If the country has a government, then the panchayat is also a mini-government of sorts),” she said. “Over the years, we women—the 50 to 150 of us who work in the SHGs—realised that if all of us unite and tackle an issue, then any problem can be resolved and even our husbands will realise how much power we actually have.” 


Saira regularly deals with various mukhiyas and pradhans, informing them of new schemes and apprising them of the latest number of pensioners or ration card holders in their area. 


 In her training for the role, Saira was taught the Indian Constitution and about local governance. “Is kaam ne meri zindagi ko badal diya (this work has completely changed my life),” she said. “Earlier, I would need permission even to leave the house or take any decision. But when I got my father-in-law’s pension and the ration card for my family, my stature in the household grew. Often people land up at my house to get their problems solved. Now whenever I say something, my in-laws take it seriously.”


 FROM SAATHI TO PANCHAYAT HEAD


 As Jean Dreze pointed out, apart from a more efficient access to services, a major achievement of the NSKs has been the emergence of new empowered leaders who made the journey from NSK volunteers to Gram Panchayat heads. 


Mana Devi, mukhiya of Tand Balidih, learnt about local governance and entitlements of villagers during her training at a NSK. Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


Mana Devi, the mukhiya of Tand Balidih, is one such. “I used to go around the Gram Panchayat office with the NSK Didis, meeting people and finding out about their pension, Aadhar cards and verifying what else they needed,” she said. “I used to help them file applications. When we went for SHG training, we were taught the importance of women’s participation in the Gram Sabha.”


 Mana Devi said that it dawned on her then that though gram sabhas were also meant for women, they were never included. “When I understood this, I felt I should stand for panchayat elections,” she said. “Now in Gram Sabhas here, the participation of women is higher than that of men. The Didis take decisions regarding issues in the Gram Sabha far more than men.”


 Women’s participation in local governance and through NSKs can be seen across Jharkhand. Rita Khalko, an NSK volunteer, is now the mukhiya of Parhatoli Gram Panchayat in Latehar, while the remote Rengai village in Mahuadanr has Kamala Kindo (29) as the mukhiya. 


Kamala has taken the day off from her panchayat duties to help her family till its field. Her feet caked with soil, she plonks down on the field and says that when she stood for the post of mukhiya in 2022, she already knew she was going to win.


“That was because everyone in the villages knew me,” Kamala said. “For one and a half years before the elections, I was a volunteer with the NSK and would go door to door giving out forms for various schemes and collecting them. I would conduct surveys for the NSK. I would help villagers fill forms for MGNREGA job cards and assist them in applying for pension.” 


The high school graduate has since helped many villagers get solar plates for electricity in this remote Latehar village, nestled amid the forested hills of the Chhota Nagpur plateau. 


Kamala Kindo takes a day off from her panchayat duties as the Rengai Panchayat mukhiya to help her family plough their fields in Latehar district, Jharkhand. Esha Roy/The Migration Story.


Taramani Sahu, the state co-convener for NREGA Watch in Jharkhand, points out why NSK female workers often rise to lead Gram Panchayats. “They become experts in their areas, and because of their efficacy, they start to earn the trust of the people,” she said. “Villagers recognise the honesty with which the women work, a quality they look for in a leader. They then start requesting the NSK volunteers to stand for elections since the others who contest the polls are usually not trustworthy.


The NSK volunteers get the opportunity to become mukhiyas or zilla parishad members, and could even fight the assembly elections in the near future.”


Mana Devi and other women leaders stand testimony to the qualities mentioned by Taramani. “During our SHG training, we are often taken to other parts of the state to see model panchayats and best governance practices,” said Mana Devi. 


“I have also decided that after my term, mukhiyas from across the state will be brought to my panchayat to show how a model panchayat should be run,” she added, underlining the fact that NSKs have thrown up competent leaders, mostly women, who are slowly changing the governance landscape in Jharkhand.


(Edited by Radha Rajadhyaksha)


Esha Roy is an independent journalist writing on issues of climate change, social development and government policy


(This is the second in a three-part series that will spotlight local democratic practices from across the country that demonstrate innovation, effectiveness and good governance. The author has researched the subject for a documentation project undertaken by The Centre for Local Democracy at the Azim Premji University.)




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