The space between the formal government institutions and the dominant economic institutions such as corporations or landed estates has been labeled civil society. This space includes kinship groups, voluntary organizations, trade unions, religious and communal groups, and similar associations.
Apart from asset creation, NREGA also provides for work under water conservation and technology oriented lab our. As most of the small Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working with the communities does not have the requisite expertise, organizations like Development Alternatives (DA) have a major role to play.
In order to be able to provide successful responses and solutions, DA has built up a strong capacity to identify the priority issues confronting the nation and devise effective ways to solve them.
The scheme provides a good opportunity for Development Alternatives, as it has worked on a broad array of complex development issues such as providing eco-friendly, technology-based low cost measures for sustainable development. It can take on an enabling role in assisting and providing handholding support at the village/district/state level.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Rural India’s infrastructure is crumbling and the poor continue to suffer from chronic and especially seasonal unemployment.
Re-vitalization of local self- government and effective delivery go together Development Alternatives can help in developing some good models of best practices which can further the advocacy initiatives as it has hands-on experience in managing a large network of Civil Society Organizations in the six states of Bihar, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and through the PACS (Poorest Areas Civil Society) programme.
Presently with a partner network of over 562 CSOs, working directly with the community, DA can facilitate processes for effective implementation. The PACS programme has addressed certain areas such as policy advocacy, governance and social cohesion.
The objective of the initiative is to provide for effective implementation of the NREGS and develop models of best practices to influence the policies for refinement of implementation guidelines of NREGA. Of the total 89 PACS districts, 70 have been brought under the NREG scheme.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The income-generation potential of the NREGS in the PACS Programme villages is enormous. Assuming an average of 50 households in the 9,000-odd programme villages is covered by the NREGS, the total number of households that could benefit from this scheme is over Rs. 4.5lakhs.
This implies a potential annual wage disbursement of over Rs. 270crore in the PACS Programme area, or around Rs. 3lakh per annum per programme village. Additionally, each village stands to gain from land, water and forest assets that are supposed to be created under the NREGS.