Jaipur station was heaving as we climbed onto the train, where the small but relatively empty compartments gave more space to move around than the crowded platform outside. Tata Motors, India’s largest car maker, advertises an affordable people carrier with the slogan “Now space is a luxury you can afford”. In a country of over a billion people, space is an aspiration for India’s urban middle class. As the train eases off, rolling through the cramped city centre before moving on to slums and sprawling rubbish heaps, you can see why...

An hour later the sun is sliding towards the horizon and we leave the city behind. Slums diminish in size and density; houses get more and more separated. Space becomes less and less precious until there’s almost too much of it, spreading out in all directions under the dusk. The track click clacks hypnotically beneath passengers gazing through the open doorway at the timeless scene before them, hot air whipping their faces. Paddy fields, dry desolate patches, untended land, and neat irrigated green squares dot the Rajasthani landscape. It is estimated that 70% of India’s population live in rural areas like this.

The image of India as an emerging economy is gaining momentum, with growth figures consistently nosing around the 8% mark. But even as India’s nanotechnology industry takes off, a large proportion of Indians burn cow dung to cook their dinner. Three quarters of the population, over 750 million people, live on less than $2 a day . Using a multi-dimensional measure of poverty, there are more poor people in eight north Indian states than in the 26 poorest countries in Africa .

'An hour later the sun is sliding towards the horizon and we leave the city behind. Slums diminish in size and density; houses get more and more separated. Space becomes less and less precious until there’s almost too much of it, spreading out in all directions under the dusk'

A rumour spread that further up the train there was a Cabinet Minister on board, who was greeted at stations by crowds of people bearing gifts of ice cream and garlands of flowers. My friend, sitting further up the train, visited me with the news that he was sitting opposite the popular politician and his 'henchmen'. It was no less than the Minister for Rural Development, Dr. CP Joshi - the man responsible for the vast bucolic vision sweeping by outside the window. I followed my friend back to his seat, and Dr Joshi kindly agreed to answer a few questions.

Back in Jaipur we had been regaled with stories of obscene corruption by my friend’s hyperbolic uncle. He assured us that 85 per cent of all government spending is wasted, and that only 50 per cent is audited. His pet hate was the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which he berated for pursuing the poor vote and lining the pockets of corrupt officials. Through the fog of his rhetoric, the glimmer of a groundbreaking policy was visible. It turned out to be the flagship legislation of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government, overseen by Dr. Joshi, who was all too happy to talk about it on the train.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, passed in 2005, was an ambitious piece of legislation attempting to safeguard the elusive right to work by assuring a hundred days of paid work to rural households every year. The scarcity of employment opportunities in rural areas has been a source of dissatisfaction among voters for years, compounded by neoliberal economic reforms which failed to improve the productivity or profitability of agriculture. The scheme which followed the act differed from many previous rural employment generation initiatives, which mostly focused on increasing self employment, by being based on public works programmes. It is not without precedent though, bearing similarities to Roosevelt’s 1930s New Deal in the USA, and closer to home Maharashtra State’s own Employment Guarantee Scheme, piloted in 1965.

Dr Joshi mentioned the multiple benefits of the public works methodology; as well as giving households a reliable income, the construction and maintenance of roads, irrigation and communications infrastructure improves the long term prospects of the rural economy. If successive governments commit to the NREGS it will amount to a colossal investment in the countryside.

'Corruption, intimidation and embezzlement is rife, with workers having to pay bribes to get job cards and often receiving less than the due salary. Innovatively, social audits are being used to counter these problems, with villagers gathering regularly to review work reports, payment records, and other official documents'

Dr Joshi was keen to emphasise the importance of Panchayati Raj Institutions in implementing the scheme. These are village level governance structures, with leaders elected to represent the village in higher forums. Village chiefs have the final say in the types of public works to be built and verify people’s eligibility to work. It is hoped that involving community based institutions in the running of the scheme will lessen the chance for capture by bureaucrats, and will also support a parallel government initiative to decentralise power and decision making.

The uncle’s grumblings were not without reason. Corruption, intimidation and embezzlement is rife in many parts of India, with workers having to pay bribes to get job cards and often receiving less than the due salary. Innovatively, social audits are being used to counter these problems, with villagers gathering regularly to review work reports, payment records, and other official documents. This is helped by the unprecedented transparency around the scheme - all information is made available on the internet, easily accessible by community organisations.

Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (Keep the Promise Campaign) is a network of 3000 civil society organisations working to hold the government accountable for its guarantee of livelihoods to the rural poor. Its members praise NREGS for increasing the bargaining power of the rural poor over work and wages, and encouraging extensive social and political mobilisation. This is another step in the long process of breaking down entrenched patterns of patronage and indebtedness which keep landless peasants working for higher caste villagers.

The power to claim rights might be the greatest benefit initiatives like NREGS can bring to the poor. That continued empowerment is vital in making India’s mushrooming growth work for everyone, and can ensure that a train ride across India in one hundred years does not reveal the inequalities in wealth and opportunity it does today.

To learn more about Christian Aid's work in India, click here

Words: Julian Boys

Photos: Flickr user - PnP