Needed: An Urban Employment Guarantee Act

There is increasing demand for an Urban Employment Guarantee Act (UEGA) now, given the job crisis and precarity of the urban informal sector, especially due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. But any employment guarantee scheme is criticised as money being given to one person to dig ditches and to another to fill them up! Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised the MGNREGA as a “monument to Congress’ failures”. However, his government is now relying on the same scheme to provide work in the villages to the lakhs of migrants who have returned to their native villages.

There are some who argue that rather than an Employment Guarantee Act (EGA), which has the twin objectives of creating assets and jobs, a simple cash transfer would fulfil the objective of poverty alleviation better. But, why should assets not be created while doling out money, given the large amount of work that needs to be done in our cities? Doing so will also enhance the dignity of the worker, who would feel that he is earning the money by doing honest work instead of subsisting on a dole.

Is the Covid-19 pandemic an opportunity and can the UEGA be used to put an end to our squalid slums next to the high-rises and flyovers, the heaps of stinking, loose garbage lining our roads, the tin-sheds at construction sites where malnourished toddlers play with stones and iron rods, the anganwadis run under staircases without toilets and playgrounds, the crumbling and leaky-roofed schools, the absent primary health centres? Can the UEGA also help to re-green our widened, tree-less roads, break the concrete in our road-side drains and let the water sink into the ground, rejuvenate our foaming and burning lakes on the one hand and end the desperate hunt for drinking water on the other? In effect, can we make the development of our cities inclusive and sustainable, that is, meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)?

How did we land in this poor condition of our cities in the first place? Though the 74th Constitutional Amendment of 1992 made “Planning for Economic Development and Social Justice” the chief function of municipalities, the big cities appear to have restricted themselves to “Planning for Economic Development” through mere GDP growth, and forgotten the second half – the “Social Justice” aspect of it.

The JNNURM and RAY initiated by the UPA government did have a seven-point agenda of making cities slum-free and ensuring access for the urban poor to anganwadis, schools and health centres, but the states failed to meet those goals as there was not much political will to give land to the poor and meet their basic needs. The ‘Smart Cities Mission’ initiated by the Modi government has ended up having projects, most of which had the limited objective of developing small areas of the city into islands of utopia amidst a sea of ugliness and squalor. These projects did not do much for the attainment of SDGs, although the stated aim of this Mission was to “improve the quality of life of urban residents”.

Many academicians are calling for an UEGA covering the small and medium towns only. This, to retain workers there itself and stem their migration to mega cities in search of livelihood, which results in congestion and poor living and working conditions there. Diverting investments to the small and medium towns through an UEGA is also a rational step considering that huge investments for mega infrastructure are being made only in the metros, while the smaller towns languish without development. This disincentivises investors from setting up enterprises and creating jobs in the smaller towns.

But there is also a great need to implement the UEGA in the big cities so as to alter their skewed priorities resulting in growing inequality and ecologically unsustainable development in them. By limiting employment under the UEGA in big cities to local residents only, one can prevent the influx of migrants to the metro cities just to take advantage of the better wages that are likely to be paid here.

Further, one needs to restrict the projects under the UEGA to those that fulfil the obligatory functions of municipalities, and contribute to the attainment of the SDGs, such as the setting up of local wet-garbage processing centres, the building of decent, affordable housing for the urban poor and day-care centres for children, upgradation of schools and health centres, restoration of water bodies, rain-water harvesting, greening of roads, etc. So, elevated corridor projects for private vehicles would not find a place under the UEGA.

Odisha, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh have already introduced UEGAs. Every city in Odisha is to have a Ward-Level Committee to prepare a suggested “List of Projects” to be finalized by a city-level committee. The Ward-Level Committees comprise officials as well as local self-help groups (SHG) and Slum Dwellers’ Associations, which also implement the works, if the project cost is less than Rs 1 lakh. Projects costing more than Rs 1 lakh are implemented by the municipality itself, with the help of workers registered under the UEGA. This ready supply of workers substitutes for the large number of vacancies of regular workers that exist in most municipalities.

Himachal Pradesh has a provision for paying unemployment allowance if work is not allotted within 15 days. All these states provide for the payment of state-fixed minimum wages, drinking water and child-care facilities at work spots, etc. Kerala has a provision for conducting social audits of the works at ward level. But experts point out that all this needs greater capacity building of municipalities and their enhanced funding.

Surely, an UEGA will provide livelihood with dignity to the urban poor and benefits to the city that go beyond the mere digging of ditches and filling them up?

(The writer is Executive Trustee, CIVIC Bangalore)