They are in it together

Of the 1,769 NREGA cardholders under the Chandapara gram panchayat,350 have found employment and 307 of them are women. In West Bengal,where just 30.5 per cent of NREGA workers—between April and December 2009—are women,and especially in North 24 Parganas,where women’s participation in the NREGA for the current year is 13.6 per cent,Chandapara is a rare exception. “Women’s participation is high here. This is because men migrate to cities in search of work,and the women are left behind,” says Monimala Das,the pradhan of Chandpara,located about 100 km away from Kolkata and 10 km from the Bangladesh border.

It hasn’t been easy for these women. For Lakhi,a grandmother at 46,the day starts early,with cooking for her mother-in-law and her grandchild—Lakhi’s husband Kalyan works in Pune and her two sons are also migrant labourers. The stipulated minimum wage under the NREGA may be Rs 100 a day,but it comes with a serious caveat.

“To get the minimum wage for the day,a woman worker has to dig or remove 75 cubic feet of soil—for men,the measure is 88 cubic feet—and throw it up five feet,” says Debasish De Das,nirman sahayak of the gram panchayat. It’s a target most women workers find hard to meet. The usual work hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.,but women like Lakhi make sure they start at 7 or 7.30 a.m.—just to be sure they dig enough to take home decent wages. “Judging by the way work is going now,I think I’ll get Rs 30 a day. The soil here is very hard. How can you dig 75 cubic feet,” asks Lakhi.

Chapala Das,35,who used to be employed at high-rise construction sites in Kolkata for Rs 70 a day before NREGA gave her an opportunity to work in her village,is adept at manual work,but she too is struggling to take home Rs 100 a day. Chapala says that the first time she worked for an NREGA project,in April 2008,she not only did not get minimum wages but had to work without pay for a few days. “I worked for 13 days and I got wages for eight days. Each day’s earning came to Rs 20-25,” she says. In the last two years of working under the NREGA,she has not earned more than Rs 2,000.

Chapala’s husband Jagadis Das is a cobbler in Salt Lake,Kolkata,and makes Rs 50-70 a day. Her two daughters,Purnima,20,and Namita,18,had to drop out of school after class V,but Chapala wants to make sure they don’t have to work. The family,which owns some land in the village,next to their hut,was struck off the BPL list despite its limited means. “My husband says I should go and work at the construction sites again. I wouldn’t like to go back to the city. What we are getting here is not enough,but we hope things will improve,” Chapala says. “Even if you cannot give us Rs 100,we’d be happy to work for Rs 80 or Rs 70 a day.”

The implementation of the NREGA project may be far from perfect,but among the women of Mondolpara,there is enthusiasm about the scheme that has helped many of them step out of their homes and stand for their rights. They now come together to discuss social and family problems,stand up against a number of issues—and recently,launched an effort to stop the sale of local liquor in the village.

“All this was possible only because of the unity among women here. Organisations like the Paschim Bangla Keth Majdur Samity have brought them together and they are now more confident and eager to work,” says Debasish De Das. The sense of togetherness among the women of Mondolpara was evident as hundreds of them assembled on January 26 this year and had a feast of khichdi with humble donations from each of them.