For the last five years, rains have eluded Udaipur. Yet, there appears to be no shortage of grain in the district. In fact, most private shops are overflowing with wheat.
The abundant wheat in the market, district officials will tell you, is thanks to the National Food for Work Programme launched in November last year.
Wages fail to come in time
Not all poor get work here
"The structure of the wage paid to people under the scheme has, in fact, created a sort of black market for grain in Udaipur," says KL Sisodia, the chief finance officer of the District Rural Development Agency in Udaipur.
According to the guidelines of the programme, 75 per cent of the wage paid are in form of wheat and 25 per cent in cash.
"On an average, in Udaipur, we have calculated that the wage amounts to Rs 57 per person per day. Therefore, a labourer will get around 9.13 kilos of wheat every day and around Rs 14.25 in cash," says Sisodia.
The cash component of the wage is so small that most beneficiaries sell the wheat in the market for cash. Jeewan Lal of Chadakhedi Panchayat of Udaipur has been running from pillar to post, asking the district administration itself to buy back the wheat, or at least convert the compensation into cash.
"What will I eat the wheat with? I need to buy oil, spices, clothes or even a packet of bidi. How can Rs 14.25 be enough for all that?" he asks.
According to Sisodia, however, the real tragedy of the situation is not that the labourers are selling the wheat in the market, but that the government, in the process, is losing at least Rs 6 on every kg of wheat sold.
"The government buys grain at the rate of Rs 10 per kilo from the Food Corporation of India to be distributed through this programme. While disbursing it to below-the-poverty-line families, it is valued at Rs 4.60 per kg. The labourer, who needs ready cash, then sells it to a private grain merchant, who pays only Rs 4 per kg, since the labourer's need to sell is greater," says Sisodia.
Udaipur got a sanction of 11,271 metric tonnes of wheat under this programme. If one-third of this makes to private shops, the economy of the district is in for big trouble.
Food-for-work III
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Most beneficiaries are selling wheat allocated to them under the project in the market for cash
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With labourers selling wheat in the market, the government is losing at least Rs 6 on every kg of wheat sold
- Udaipur district's economy will be in a mess if even one-third of the wheat makes it to private shops
