Let jobs under welfare schemes be nondiscriminatory

There are a number of welfare schemes for the rural poor and marginalised sections by the Government which have roped in a good number of service providers at panchayat and village levels, mostly drawn from the locality. They are paid out of public finance and they also enjoy benefits as employees of the Government. But are these jobs of any avail so far as the marginalised sections  are concerned?

The various posts such as Anganwadi worker and helper, ASHA, Gaon Sathi, Mid Day Meal cook  and helper, Grama Rojagar Sevak/multipurpose assistants, computer data entry operator, water supply operator, etc., are created out of Government schemes. One of the objectives of these schemes is to involve the marginalized sections in the development process through their direct participation in implementation of the schemes and by that way bring more inclusiveness in rural social life because the continual social issues are major reasons of our persistent structured economic backwardness in rural areas. It has been proved that mere the State charity is not enough without bringing a change in hierarchical and discriminatory social arrangement in villages.

The experience from rural Odisha shows that largely the marginalized sections are excluded from such employment opportunities in spite of= court guide lines. The provisions of the schemes speak more about the overall wellbeing of the marginalized not just as beneficiaries but also as service providers of the communities. But the State Government has no plan to promote human resources from the marginalized sections but to continue the charity. Unofficially, it is estimated that if a panchayat has about 40 such posts, there are about 6,800 panchayats in the State having about total of three lakh employment opportunities. Ideally 50 per cent of such employment should be availed by the marginalised sections in rural villages. But the Government data shows that the marginalised sections have very insignificant representation in such employment.

This limited scope of employment in own locality encourages distress migration and labour exploitation. Nowadays, the outsourcing of such service providers due to privatisation has further limited the scope of public employment. Privatization of welfare schemes is contradicting the basic objectives of benefit arrangements for the poor which is destabilising social justice agenda based on constitutional mandate of the country.

Take for example the employment under Anganwadi worker, helper and cook of mid day meal programme. The MDM is run in all Government schools for children where mostly women are employed as service providers. There are 75,000 Agnanwadi Centres in the State where about 1, 50,000 women are employed. These programmes are primarily targeted to address the nutritional deficiencies of the rural poor children and mothers and it is fact that a major chunk of women and children of the marginalised sections are in most vulnerable condition because they have very minimal income and lack dignified employment, productive resources, land, education and skill. Also continued social backwardness and social barriers prevent them from any gainful self-employment in villages. Therefore, it is expected that any public employment being created out of the State fund must adopt the affirmative action policy to ensure the employment of women of the marginalised sections. This can bring change in thousands of rural poor households of the marginalised sections and pave the way for social equality by breaking age old barriers of inequalities. Primarily, it is the continued practices of untouchability and caste systems in the village that prevent these women from access to gainful employment.

The guideline of the MDM says that the priority in appointment must be given to destitute women of STs and SCs and other communities, divorcees, poor unwed mothers having no means of livelihood. But this principle is not followed in many of the villages. Similarly, in case of Anganwadi Centres in scheduled areas, the STs and SCs should be given priority with educational relaxation and in other areas, preferential additional percentage will be given to SCs and STs and others.

The selection for the posts is done by the local Government officials with direct guidance of the elected representatives of ruling parties who are mostly guided by the dominant influential people of the locality. The selection process is not transparent and many of the petitions questioning the selection process have been brought to the notice of courts for justice. 

But no tangible impact has been created out of the court orders. With very minute exception, a majority of the trade unions never discuss the issues of employability of the marginalized section and discriminatory practice of the members of trade unions. Rather, they are more active in wage hike protests. Caste and gender barriers faced by grass root workers are very occasionally discussed in such forums who are supposed to be socially radical for social transformation of working class.

Social movements of the oppressed groups in the State have not visibly looked into the issues of employment in rural areas as vital to livelihood and more as a process of social assimilation with democratization of public institutions and programme.

In order to bring a desired social change in the rural village life to build social democracy, it is highly desirable to creatively engage the service providers who are not just employees but also agents of social change who are supposed to use the opportunities created out of State sponsored schemes for larger benefits beyond the limitation of the schemes. 

Our village level public institutions and public programmes must be free from all kinds of social and other barriers. Social change must be included in social welfare programmes without limiting the programme only as State charity. Human developments are largely linked to social freedom and free dignified social relations of human beings. In order to achieve the goal our public employment policy must be socially inclusive to ensure presence of all sections of people as active participants.

Odisha being a State with a vast majority of marginalized section needs to develop affirmative action policy to regulate social inclusiveness of public employment. The State Government must look into the issues to build an inclusive Odisha by brining necessary legislation and required social orientation to its officials.

(manasbbsr15@gmail.com)