On Voluntary Organisations

Mahendra Dev's faith in the verity and implementational accuracy of government rules and guidelines. His detailed excerpt from the government of Maharashtra, Planning Department, Employment Guarantee, Scheme document concerning the filling of form 1, registering with form 4, giving directions in form 7, and an undertaking from the beneficiary that s/he will work continuously for 30 days was quite intimidating. Nevertheless the fact remains that in all our experience in contemporary times the EGS beneficiaries do not have to fill in any forms other than put their mark on the muster roll. Obviously officials in the field today are not as 'bureau-crazy' as the government guidelines intend them to be. It seems they try to implement the spirit of the programme rather than the word. The next time that we are in the field we will look out for tehsildars, SDOs and collectors who keep track of all these forms and their respective proformas. However, we do agree with Mahendra Dev that the rules and guidelines could do with modifications to bring them in line with the actual practice in the field.