Certificate Course in Social Accountability and Social Audit

Sponsor: Ministry of Rural Development

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, entitles a rural households 100 days of wage employment in a year. The effective implementation of MGNREGS, enhanced capacities of the implementing agencies and accountability of the scheme would address the impediments in delivery of the scheme. The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) initiated the setting up of Social Audit Units (SAU) in every state, responsible for ensuring effective social audit of MGNREGA across all the blocks and villages. Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) found gaps in the social audit of the MGNREGS and impressed upon the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) to make available trained resource persons to conduct social audit of MGNREGS at the state, district, block and village levels.

The Ministry of Rural Development (GoI) approached TISS to develop the Certificate Course in Social Accountability and Social Audit for training and capacity building of district and block resource persons. The Centre for Community Organisation and Development Practice (CODP) in the School of Social Work developed a certificate course on Social Accountability and Social Audit in 2016. As part of the certificate course, a training manual on Social Accountability and Social Audit along with a tool kit has been developed by TISS to aid Master Trainers in conducting the 30-day course for functionaries of SAU. The manual served as the base for training of functionaries identified by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD, GoI) who are attached to Social Audit Unit that has been set up by the MoRD and are mandated to conduct social audit of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the states where they are located.

A multi-stakeholder process coordinated by TISS and approved by MoRD led to selection of 119 master trainers from 28 states who were jointly trained by NIRD&PR and TISS, from 6-16 September 2016 at NIRD&PR, Hyderabad. The master trainers comprised representatives of SAUs, SIRDs, and civil society professionals nominated from each state. The key roles and responsibilities of these master trainers according to category are as detailed in the MoRD/ letter L-11033/10/2015-RE-VII, July 14, 2016. Within the team of master trainers, those selected as the Lead Course Coordinators in each state were substantively involved with the implementation of the 30-day training programme and have worked closely with the designated SIRD, SAU representatives. The Certificate Course commenced in November 2016 in different states. Post the developing of the Certificate Course and training of master trainers, Social Audit team and faculty from TISS Mumbai, Hyderabad, Tuljapur, and Guwahati campuses visited the states to monitor the status of the programme. TISS was engaged in monitoring the delivery of the Certificate Course at the state level and undertook was the evaluation, grading and certification of the trained personel based on their performance. Till September 2018, training of 5039 participants has been completed in 24 states.

Objectives of project

• To develop a standardized training module (duration of 30 days) on Social Accountability and Social Audit of MGNREGS
• Training and certification of Master Trainers identified by the Ministry for conducting trainings on social audit
• Supervising the 30 day training that is taking place in the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) to train the State, District, and Block resource persons of Social Audit Units
• Assessment and certification of the trainees

Activities

Monitoring and Evaluation of the 30-day training programme which includes state visits for the preparatory meeting, monitoring during the training and evaluation at day 27 for the social audit practicum. Corrections of all the three assessments per batch, data entry of Baseline and Endline Survey, Course Feedback and Weekly Monitoring Reports.

Outcomes/Publications

Certificate Course in Social Accountability and Social Audit, 30-day training manual for District and Block Resource Persons. Training manual for Village Resource Persons.

Contact

Prof Mouleshri Vyas and Dr. Sohini Sengupta, School of Social Work, Centre for Community Organization and Development Practice, TISS, Mumbai.