Power of the People: Political Movements, Groups and Guaranteed Employment 1

December 2003) Compared to other state led poverty alleviation programmes, there has been a greater degree of mobilization around the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in Maharashtra. Between early 1970s and late 1980s, a number of organizations emerged mobilizing rural workers in different parts of Maharashtra to get EGS enacted and implemented. Further, they used EGS as a platform to raise broader questions of discrimination affecting marginalized groups, issues of social reforms and poverty. In 1981, they came together forming an umbrella organization—the Maharashtra Rajya Shetmajoor and Employment Guarantee Scheme Workers Samanvaya Samiti (henceforth Samanvaya Samiti)—to collectively advocate for changes in state policy relating to rural workers in the context of EGS. Such a high degree of collective action warrants two related questions: First, what enabled activist organizations to collectively mobilize rural workers to advocate for changes in public policy? Second, what impact did the resultant programme—the EGS—have on sustaining activism? This paper delves deeper into these questions through a detailed examination of the role played by five activist groups in advocating for and later redefining the EGS. They are Maharashtra Rajya Shetmajoor Parishad, Yukrand, Shramik Sanghatana, Kashtakari Sanghatana, and Shramjeevi Sanghatana. We look specifically at the ways in which they contributed to the enactment and adoption of EGS and the ways EGS itself enabled activist organizations to translate their concerns into action. Subsequently, we examine the reasons behind the decline in activism among these organizations since the late 80s. The role of these groups in mobilizing for social change does not start or end with EGS. Those existing prior to EGS had worked on land reforms, rural poverty and employment. Groups that emerged post EGS ratification worked on other important questions such as bonded labour and mobilizing unorganized workers. The history of their mobilization related to EGS can be separated into two phases. In the first phase (up to 1978) activist groups mobilized so that the government adopted the principle of guaranteed employment and campaigned for the inclusion of certain worker friendly provisions within the EGS Act. In the second phase (after 1978) activist groups focused on proper implementation of the EGS Act and to change some provisions in view of the changing conditions. While the Maharashtra Rajya Shetmajoor Parishad, Yukrand and the Shramik Sanghatana were more active in the first phase, the Kashtakari Sanghatana and the Shramjeevi Sanghatana were more active in the latter. As we shall see, all of them used EGS in various ways in order to advance their own specific agendas. In light of the larger political context of the period, the late sixties witnessed the emergence of a flurry of activism. Scholars reflecting on the emergence of these new political actors termed them—‘Non Party Political Formations (NPPFs)’ (Kothari 1989),