Having provided a job security to the rural people, at least for a few stipulated days, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has made a strong impact in rural India. According to the information available from the NREGA fact sheet, this scheme has assured 100 days of employment yearly to the households employed in the NREGA. The share of the marginalized groups in total NREGA employment gives a happy picture. It says that 40% of woman folk, 36% of Scheduled Tribes, 26% of the Scheduled Tribes have been benefited by the NREGA. But don’t be allured by what has been said so far, in fact what we have seen is the bright side of the moon. Let’s take our rocket on the other side and land on a dark ground. One such dark ground is Orissa. Here a survey was conducted by Social Science Institute of Allahabad in October 2007. This study brought to light the foul play going on in the name of NREGA. The results of the study shows that only 60% of the days of employment recorded in the Muster Role (MR) were confirmed, with the rest 40% unaccounted. The flawed Job Card (JC) adds to the woes of the poor people. No where in the cards are written what amount of wage is to be paid to the labour. In some cases it has also been seen that the worker himself does not fill the JC, in most of the cases it is filled by the Village Level Leader (VLL) in the presence of the worker. Also, the name of the worker is entered in the code format, and in English. So, mostly it is impossible for the illiterate workers to read the document. Further, the VLLs become the master of the manipulation game. There are two kinds of MRs maintained by the state- ‘kaccha’ (unofficial) and ‘pucca’ (official). But, in fact, more importance is laid on the ‘kaccha’ MRs and the ‘pucca’ MRs have been pushed to backstage and have been rendered to be redundant. The VLLs assign more importance on the ‘kaccha’ MRs and conduct the official work in them .They later enter the names in the official documents. Not only that, most of the people involved in this racket gets their own share. The study reveals that the BDO claims two to three percent, the block chairman has three percent, junior engineer has five percent, auditor has one percent, cashier has one percent, and above all the Panchayat Officer has and the executive officer has 20-22 percent. Imagine how much the poor man gets after a hard days work. More than that the Zilla Parishad wants their people to get into some job because they can get more shares from that. Moreover, fictitious names are enrolled in the muster role and are shown to be paid from the fund. Lack of vigilance and lack of enforcement of laws has enhanced the problem. The Social Audit and Muster Roll Verification by the Gram Sabha are not carried out in the proper way; they are only done to follow the direction of the Government and that also in a very casual manner. The Civil Society Organization has been kept out of the Social Audit, in spite of earlier decision to include them.
However, the National Institute of Rural Development has come forward to help them in conducting the social audit which in turn may keep the transparency of NREGA and pave the way for a fair play.