Does only physical labour — digging pits, lifting stones, levelling the ground — qualify as work for food? As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the national Food for Work programme last Sunday, a debate is on over the issue, spurred by a growing demand to expand the definition of ‘‘work’’ to include unskilled labour in areas like health, education and sanitation too.Assisting in midday meal programmes, gathering children for immunisation programmes or even managing a creche is work, argue supporters of this new, wider definition. This is termed as ‘‘Food for Human Development’’ instead of ‘‘Food for Work’’.The debate is relevant as this Food for Work programme in 150 districts is only an interim programme till the Employment Guarantee Act comes into place. Since the Bill is in its final stages of preparation, efforts are on to keep the options open for the gram panchayats to broaden the ambit of ‘‘work’’.The Rural Development Ministry, in charge of implementing this programme, is actually on the side of the Finance Ministry this time: how does the ministry ‘‘audit’’ the work done unless it is some physical infrastructure?‘‘This is a problem of mindset where the Central government feels that you cannot audit unless there is physical verification,’’ said Abhijit Sen, a Planning Commission member who is in favour of expanding the definition of ‘‘work’’ to include human development.M S Swaminathan, chairman of the Farmers Commission, has also written to the PM in this regard. ‘‘There is a need to widen the scope, it will help women get the benefit of the programme more than they are doing right now,’’ he said.The World Food Programme has designed a concept called ‘‘Food for Work programme to strengthen human development’’. In their analysis, they have pointed out that the Sampoorna Gramin Rozgaar Yojana (SGRY) with 6 million metric tonnes of food is the largest programme of its kind. But only 60 per cent of the allotted foodgrain is consumed by various states, only 35 per cent of target villages are covered and a rural labour can find 32 days of employment per year through the SGRY progrmmes.The emphasis of SGRY on creating physical assets such as link roads, ponds and small buildings lead to limited use of food resources. There is often lack of adequate technical capacity at the village level for soil excavation work that can be undertaken.Agreeing that the women would be the biggest beneficiaries of a Food for Human Development programme, they point out that women form 50 per cent of the work force seeking employment through these schemes. Also, this would connect to other welfare schemes like midday meals and Sampoorna Gramin Swarozgaar Yojana where Self Help Groups could be trained to benefit from SGRY.Their list includes the following ‘‘work’’.• Assisting primary school at the village level in preparation of midday meals.• Assisting the anganwadi centre to help access children, provision of supplementary nutrition and non-formal education.• Assisting paramedical workers in health education, immunisation campaigns and safe deliveries.• Running of creches.• Repair and maintenance of water and sanitation facilities.The role of the gram panchayats would be important in setting these tasks and also reporting and monitoring them.Meanwhile, the Rural Development Ministry is not committing anything as yet. ‘‘There are other issues that need to be dealt with first. This may come up when there is a discussion with the Chief Ministers on the draft Bill soon,’’ said Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister for Rural Development.
