Alongside providing employment, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) generates substantial climate co-benefits, a recent study on Usharmukti, a river rejuvenation programme launched by the Government of West Bengal in the dry, western parts of the State, has revealed.
The study by Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), a research-based think tank, points to substantial climate co-benefits for the Usharmukti beneficiary households in four districts of West Bengal (Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, and Paschim Bardhaman). The findings from this assessment are reported for a total population of 228,431 Usharmukti beneficiary households in the four sampled districts. of West Bengal in 2022.
“These (climate co-benefits) include enabling former rainfed farmers to irrigate their lands, bringing barren and fallow lands under cultivation, and providing additional earnings from livestock and fisheries (worth ₹ 14,321 and ₹ 22,963 per annum per beneficiary, respectively) through construction of farm ponds and irrigation canals,” the study titled ‘A Framework for Quantifying the Climate Co-Benefits of MGNREGS Works’ states. The study shows a total sequestration of 9,367 tonnes of carbon across all the plantation works under social forestry and horticulture.
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Tashina Madappa, lead author of the study, said the overall income of beneficiaries increased by access to fishing and livestock rearing, and thus the standard of living of the people improved. Ms. Madappa added that there was evidence of fallow land being converted for agriculture and fruit orchards .
Usharmukti is a community-driven water security programme in West Bengal that has already brought almost 30,000 hectares of fallow land under plantation with over 1.5 crore new trees, as well as creating 138 billion litres of water potential through the treatment of 93,330 ha with water conservation.
Along with the West Bengal Government, the lead civic society organisation for Usharmukti is Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN). Ms. Mandappa said that based on the study, the researchers have developed a framework where climate co-benefits from MGNREGS can be ascertained for all States in the country. She added that the framework provides an additional layer of monitoring and evaluation, much like the social audits conducted for MGNREGS, and can go a long way in estimating and reporting on India’s commitment to combating climate change.
The study is available in the public domain at a time when the West Bengal Government and the Centre are locked in a tussle over the MGNREGS scheme in the State. Since December 2021, the Centre has refused to pay money for the MGNREGS to West Bengal invoking Article 27 of NREGA Act, which allows for stoppage of funds for violation of rules in the implementation of the scheme by the State. The Centre has also withheld funds for West Bengal for the financial year 2023-24. The imbroglio has brought the 100-day work guarantee to almost a complete halt in the State. Districts like Purulia, which are in the dry western parts of the State, are among the worst affected due to stoppage of work under MGNREGS.
