Giridih, Nov. 22: Hard to buy, but true. Not a single woman of Giridih was provided job under the central government’s ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). At least the record posted on the official website of the Union rural development ministry— www.nrega.nic.in — suggests so.

According to the norms, 33 per cent participation of women in the 100 days’ work provided in a year under the NREGA is mandatory. But the record available on the site shows zero per cent participation of women in jobs under the act in the district. The number of women having job cards in the district does not figure in the record available on the site, though.

The fact that none of the women having job cards were provided with job in Giridih apparently reflects the apathy of the local administration. For, the website says 44.57 per cent women got job under the act in the national-level while it was 24.43 per cent in the state. The record of neighbouring Dhanbad district also shows that 26.37 per cent women got job under the act there.

“The information is shocking to us. When we had checked the muster rolls during the social audits we had found that women were given jobs according to the required ratio,” said Sushma Sharma, who was part of the team that conducted the social audit of NREGA in Giridih.

“Thus, either the records on the muster rolls were wrong or the records being shown on the website of the rural development ministry are wrong,” said Sushma.

Deputy development commissioner Gauri Shankar Minz claimed that jobs were being provided to women having job cards but the record was probably not being maintained.

“I will insure that from now on the record related to jobs provided to women under NREGA will be maintained,” Minz told The Telegraph.

The percentage of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes getting jobs under the act in Giridih is, however, healthy. It is 23 and 28, respectively. The district has maximum number (1,67,227 lakh) of job card holders in the state.