Union budget: NREGA allocation grossly insufficient, funds will be "used" for making past payments, says civil society

By A Representative
Several civil society organizations, led by Anna Adhakaar Suraksha Andolan (AASA), have taken strong exception to the Government of India allocating just Rs 55,000 crore for the financial year 2018-19 towards the rural jobs scheme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the same as that of this year's. They had demanded allocation of Rs 80,000 crore.
Pointing out that the initial budget of Rs 48,000 crore was increased to Rs 55,000 crore in January for 2017-18, AASA, a right to food advocacy group, has expressed the apprehension that "given the trend of rising pending liabilities at the end of every year, a sizable part of the 2018-19 budget will be utilized for clearing previous years’ payments."
Noting that the new budget has not addressed several of the issues which have led to this situation, AASA says, this year, there have been "long and unpredictable delays in wage payments", with the Union Ministry of Rural Development releasing NREGA funds "only after states meet its requirements such as submission of various documents", thus "unfairly penalizing NREGA workers", who are often not paid for months Bihar and Jharkhand.
Ina statement, issued along with NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, it says, "Workers are not compensated for the delays in wage payments", adding, independent researchers have found that if in 2016-17, 43% of workers received "full compensation, while in 2017-18 year "this proportion fell to 14%".
It adds, things have not stopped here. "The Centre has, through arbitrary, illegal means like the Approved Labour Budged reduced the number of days of work. For 2017-18, the Projected Labour Budget was reduced by 25%, from 288 crore persondays to 215 crore persondays, resulting in a deficit of over Rs 17,500 crore in 2017-18."
Then, notes AASA, "Real NREGA wage rates have stagnated for several years now. In fact, currently the NREGA wage rates of 17 states are less than the corresponding minimum wages. The government has ignored the recommendations of successive committees to reconcile between MGNREGA wage rates and state minimum wages."
Agreeing, the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), apex body of tens of grassroots organizations across India, says that "the continued apathy of the NDA government towards NREGA was visible" with the Finance Minister refusing to even mention it in his speech, adding, on the other hand, "The Direct Benefit Transfer found mention", but there was no special focus on "poor malnutrition and food security."
Pointing out that the budget made a "big announcement on celebrating Gandhi’s 150th Birth Anniversary", even as "ignoring Gandhian economics", which encompasses self-sufficient village economy and idea of localisation and swadeshi, NAPM, which is led by well-known social activist Medha Patkar, regrets, there is a "50% cut in the allocation handloom sector", on which the unorganized sector depends.

Dalit allocation further reduced

In a separate statement, the Delhi Solidarity Group (DSG) laments that allocation for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) has been further reduce to 2.32% of the total budget from 2.44% and 2.38% in the previous two years. India's SC population is 16.2%. While the Scheduled Tribe (ST) allocation is slightly higher (1.60%) than what it was over the last two years, 1.49% and 1.47% of the total budget, DSG notes, even the meagre amount allocated for SCs and STs was never spent.
"In the year 2014-15, Rs 20,513 crore and in the year 2016-17 Rs 4,499 crore remains unspent from the welfare fund of SCs", DSG states, adding, "For STs Rs 12,466 crore remain unspent in the year 2014-15 and in the year 2016-17 it is Rs 2,195 crore."

Comments

Covishield controversy: How India ignored a warning voice during the pandemic

Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD * It is a matter of pride for us that a person of Indian origin, presently Director of National Institute of Health, USA, is poised to take over one of the most powerful roles in public health. Professor Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian origin physician and a health economist, from Stanford University, USA, will be assuming the appointment of acting head of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. Bhattacharya would be leading two apex institutions in the field of public health which not only shape American health policies but act as bellwether globally.

Growth without justice: The politics of wealth and the economics of hunger

By Vikas Meshram* In modern history, few periods have displayed such a grotesque and contradictory picture of wealth as the present. On one side, a handful of individuals accumulate in a single year more wealth than the annual income of entire nations. On the other, nearly every fourth person in the world goes to bed hungry or half-fed.

Thali, COVID and academic credibility: All about the 2020 'pseudoscientific' Galgotias paper

By Jag Jivan The first page image of the paper "Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis" published in the Journal of Molecular Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Affairs , Vol. 2, Issue 2 (2020), has gone viral on social media in the wake of the controversy surrounding a Chinese robot presented by the Galgotias University as its original product at the just-concluded AI summit in Delhi . The resurfacing of the 2020 publication, authored by Dharmendra Kumar , Galgotias University, has reignited debate over academic standards and scientific credibility.

The 'glass cliff' at Galgotias: How a university’s AI crisis became a gendered blame game

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan* “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information.” These were the words used in the official press release by Galgotias University following the controversy at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi. The statement came across as defensive, petty, and deeply insensitive.

'Serious violation of international law': US pressure on Mexico to stop oil shipments to Cuba

By Vijay Prashad In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United Nations Security Council—which permits sanctions under strict conditions—the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports oil to Cuba.

When grief becomes grace: Kerala's quiet revolution in organ donation

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Kerala is an important model for understanding India's diversity precisely because the religious and cultural plurality it has witnessed over centuries brought together traditions and good practices from across the world. Kerala had India's first communist government, was the first state where a duly elected government was dismissed, and remains the first state to achieve near-total literacy. It is also a land where Christianity and Islam took root before they spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Kerala has deep historic rationalist and secular traditions.

When a lake becomes real estate: The mismanagement of Hyderabad’s waterbodies

By Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava* Misunderstood, misinterpreted and misguided governance and management of urban lakes in India —illustrated here through Hyderabad —demands urgent attention from Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), the political establishment, the judiciary, the builder–developer lobby, and most importantly, the citizens of Hyderabad. Fundamental misconceptions about urban lakes have shaped policies and practices that systematically misuse, abuse and ultimately erase them—often in the name of urban development.

Activists warn of gendered impact of VB-GRAMG Act, seek return to MGNREGA framework

By A Representative The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA), along with the Agrarian Alliance and Workers’ Forum of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), has written to President Droupadi Murmu urging her to call upon Parliament to repeal the newly enacted Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025 (VB-GRAMG Act) and restore and strengthen the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Stray dogs, an epsilon (ϵ) problem: Of child labour, and the art of misplaced priorities

By Bhaskaran Raman The Greek alphabet ϵ (epsilon) is used in maths and science to denote a quantity which is not zero, but extremely small *** Since the Supreme Court's interim order on the issue of stray dogs came out on 07 Nov 2025, there have been a range of opinion pieces speaking for the voiceless. Most of them take the stance that there is a "problem" with stray dogs, but that we need a humane solution. I agree with this broadly, but I think we need new terminology to talk about this.

Search This Blog