Savita is a Community Correspondent and human rights activist from Raigarh, Chhattisgarh. It was in the year 1993, when she was only 16 years old, that she started engaging with social movements and issues. She had to face resistance from her family but she was determined to participate in the regional human rights movements. “My first engagement was with the…

Savita Rath

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Community Correspondent Savita Rath brings us a video from Raigarh district in Chhattisgarh where she finds that workers do not get the entitlements they are owed under the MGNREGA scheme.

Every morning Aghanmati brings her young daughter to work. With the lack of anything to do the young girl helps her mother clearing loads of debris. Aghanmati is forced to expose her to this dangerous environment because there is no play centre on the worksite.

This work site in Mahaloi village is a good example of how things function on the ground under the MGNREGA scheme five years after its new avatar was rolled out.

The empowerment of women as one of the main objectives listed out by the scheme. While women make up about a third of the workforce the absence of facilities like creches significantly hamper the ability of women to ask for jobs under the scheme.

Other workers point out that even something as basic as water is not given to them. Emergency and first aid kits are too far-fetched a facility to hope for. A large part of the problem is that people are often unaware of what they can ask for.

"Raigarh district that has one of the highest rates of migration in Chhattisgarh. The scheme was implemented to curb stress migration in months when not much farming activity happens. Facilities like water, first aid and child centres are promised under the scheme. Why is it then that no one has these yet?" asks Savita.

"Give each pair of hands work and give equal wages"- This was a demand that the scheme had envisioned. The idea is there but the implementation is not. Savita asks you to haul up those accountable.

Call to Action: Please call Mr Rishikesh Patel, the representative in Raigarh District on 09907911714