The half-acre land that the 55-year-old Lakshmi owns near Mel Malaiyanur in th Arani constituency has remained dry for a year now. The monsoon failure has depleted the groundwater, forcing the widow to give up on farming for the last two seasons.
Left without produce from her land, she sustained herself on ration rice. Another factor has helped her family pull on. “If not for the 100-day work I do, I will be out on the streets begging. It is a blessing,” she says.
Across constituencies in the northern region of the State, the goodwill for the Union government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is palpable. In fact, Congress candidates call it their trump card and have focussed on groups benefitting from it.
Maduramma of Paithambadi in Cuddalore disputes the often-repeated accusation that the scheme had dented agriculture by creating scarcity of labour.
“Only large farmers would complain. For so long, such people exploited us by giving pittance as wages. The MGNREGS changed this as it has given us the power to demand more wages. If they give us more, we work on the field. Otherwise, we go to MGNREGS work,” she points out.
The mother of three daughters scoffs at the criticism that the work under the scheme is easy. “Why don’t you take a shovel and come with me?” she challenged this correspondent.
The Cuddalore Congress candidate and incumbent MP, K.S. Alagiri, says it was only when he got down to campaigning that he understood the popularity of the scheme. “We did not realise the massive impact it has had on landless women labourers.”
In Arani, Congress candidate M.K. Vishnu Prasad spends much of his time campaigning at MGNREGS work spots. “While the women welcome the scheme, there is need to create awareness of who launched it,” he says.
“After we started canvassing votes from this group, regional parties have started visiting them, claiming the scheme to be their own. Our job is to tell them that the scheme was given by [Congress president] Sonia Gandhi,” he points out. The voters are also told that voting for another party may endanger the scheme.
Congress candidates also face tough questions, especially on corruption in wage disbursal. Most of the labourers never get the full wages as those in command take a share. There is also a delay in payments.
