The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) was introduced w.e.f. 2nd October, 1993 in the rural areas of 1778 blocks of 261 districts in which the Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS) was in operation.
The blocks selected were in the drought prone areas, desert areas, tribal areas and hill areas. During 1994-95 EAS was extended to 409 blocks under DPAP/DDP and Modified Area Development Approach (MADA) blocks having larger concentration of tribal.
In March, 1995 the scheme was further extended to 256 blocks out of which 233 blocks were flood prone in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and 23 blocks were of Jammu & Kashmir in view of the special conditions prevailing there.
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The Intensified Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (IJRY) merged with EAS on 1.1.1996. Consequently, 722 non-EAS blocks in 120 IJRY districts were also covered under the scheme. At present, the scheme is being implemented in all the rural blocks of the country.
Objective:
The primary objective of the Employment Assurance Scheme is to provide gainful employment during lean agricultural season in manual work to all able bodied adults in rural areas who are in need and desirous of work, but cannot find it.
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The secondary objective is the creation of economic infrastructure and community assets for sustained employment and development. Salient Features
(i) The scheme is operative in the all rural blocks of the country.
(ii) It is a demand driven scheme with no fixed earmarking of annual funds for any district or block.
(iii) Men and women over 18 years and below 60 years of age, normally residing in the villages are covered.
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(iv) A maximum of two adults per family are provided the assurance of 100 days’ employment.
(v) Works should be labour intensive which results in the creation of durable productive assets.
(vi) As an individual beneficiary oriented scheme, on the lands of BPL families, horticulture development is a permitted activity.
(vii) Implementing agencies are Block Development Officers, District officers of various line Departments, Block Samitis, Gram Panchayats and NGOs.
(viii) Expenditure is shared between the Centre and the States on 80 : 20 basis.
(ix) The desirous workers have to get themselves registered with village level workers or Gram Panchayats and are issued a family card.
(x) 50% of EAS funds shall be utilised for watershed development only in DPAP and DDP blocks.
(xi) When about 10 workers demand work, new projects can be started by the block level officer for providing employment.
Release of Funds:
The Central assistance under the scheme is directly released to DRDAs/ Zilla Parishads. The matching share of the States to DRDAs by the States is to be released within a fortnight of the release of the Central share.
Since EAS is a demand driven scheme, there is no fixed allocation for a district and no targets are fixed. A district can seek the next installment of EAS funds for those blocks which have utilised more than 50% of the available funds.
Central assistance is released on the basis of Utilisation Certificates and other Certificates to the effect that (i) lean season has been declared in respect of each block, (ii) monthly expenditure reported relates to the months in the lean season, (iii) Not more than two persons per family have been given employment, (iv) there was no major case of diversion of funds/embezzlement and (v) not more than 100 days of employment has been given to a person including employment under other schemes.
Apart from this, annual audit reports are also obtained from DRDAs. Any irregularity observed in the audit reports is conveyed to the State Government for compliance of the audit observations.
Monitoring:
The State Level Coordination Committee for the Rural Development programmes is responsible for the overall supervision, guidance and monitoring of EAS. The States are also required to constitute a District EAS Committee in every district and a Block EAS Committee in blocks covered under the EAS.
The membership of the Committee includes districts level officers of the implementing agencies, MPs, MLAs and NGOs. Similarly, at the block level, the membership of the Committee comprises block level officers of the implementing agencies, MPs, MLAs and NGOs etc.
These Committees are required to supervise the implementation of EAS within their jurisdiction in accordance with the EAS guidelines and suggest to the State Government steps which in their opinion are necessary for more effective implementation of the scheme.
At the Central level, the scheme is monitored through monthly, half yearly and annual progress reports. Apart from this, Senior Officers of the Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment, Department of Programme Implementation and Planning Commission also visit States and districts under the Area Officers Scheme.
Achievements:
Central assistance of Rs. 5577.22 crores has been released to the States/ U.Ts. The number of registered persons in various States/U.Ts. is 269.92 lakhs and the employment generated is 10953.33 lakh mandays upto May, 1997 since inception.