'Abysmally low NREGA wages': Advocacy groups accuse Govt of India of forced labour

Counterview Desk
Advocacy groups NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM) and People’s Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) have accused the Modi government of continuing its “assault”, citing “abysmal wage rates” for the workers engaged in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in FY 2022-23.
In a joint statement, they said, “The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld minimum wages as a fundamental right and equated payment of anything less to the status of “forced labour”. Derisively low budget allocation, unremunerative NREGA wages, coupled with long delays in wage payments – even non-payment of wages in many cases – has turned many rural workers away from the employment guarantee programme.”

Text:

The wage rates for NREGA workers for FY 2022-23 were noticed on March 28, 2022. The notification of the wage rate has been extremely late, with only 3 days remaining for the beginning of the next financial year. Such a delay prevents any discussion or debate regarding the wage rates or their adequacy. This is a continuation of the government’s assault on NREGA and has once again exposed the central government’s lack of commitment for NREGA workers’ rights.
The hike ranges from a meagre Re 4 to utmost Rs 21 for various States and Union Territories (UTs). And workers of 3 States (Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura) will have to be content with no hike at all. The average increase in NREGA wage rate across the country is measly 4.25%. Whereas, Central government employees and pensioners get a dearness allowance ( DA), of 31%, costing Rs 9,544.50 crore to the exchequer each year. While the government revises DA twice a year and pays out thousands of crores for it, it systematically ignores NREGA workers.
An increase in NREGA wages, since it is a base wage, will also lead to upward pressure on rural and subsequently urban industrial wages. In times of the current economic distress, it will also increase rural expenditure, leading to an increase in aggregate demand in the economy, which is crucial for its recovery.
For 27 States and Union Territories the NREGA wage rate is less than the corresponding minimum wage for agriculture, condemning the workers to another year of bonded labour. The difference is greatest in Karnataka (despite having the highest percent increase in wage rate) where the NREGA wage rate is only 70 per cent of the state minimum wage for agriculture.

This ratio is around 70 percent for a number of States such as Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh. The total average difference between NREGA wage rates and minimum wage rate for the country comes out to be around 20 percent.
At a time when the country is going through the worst employment crisis in decades, this meagre hike in NREGA wages is nothing less than a much-touted “surgical strike” on the poor. In the past few years, unemployment rates have touched historical high and have consistently remained a concern. The poor are still recovering from rural distress caused by the pandemic that led to job-loss for millions across the country.
In such a scenario, MGNREGA has been a lifeline for the rural workers -- one that provides work and cash -- in times of need and distress. It is ironic that while the country is traversing through a path of economic recovery, rural wages have remained stagnant in the same period. And by severe rationing of funds, the state is systematically undermining the programme.
Despite recommendations from government-appointed committees to link NREGA wages with state minimum wages (by Mahendra Dev Committee) and to index the wage rate to Consumer Price Index - Rural Labourers (CPI-RL) instead of Consumer Price Index – Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL) (by Nagesh Singh Committee), or Rs 375 per day as recommended by the Anoop Satpathy Committee, the government has not implemented these recommendations.

For 27 States and Union Territories the NREGA wage rate is less than the corresponding minimum wage for agriculture

Additionally, the Parliamentary Standing Committee Report of the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj had also recommended that the NREGA wage rate be indexed to the CPI (R). Despite these recommendations, the meagre increase in NREGA wage rates has not been proportional to the increase in inflation and the cost of living in the past few years.
The government does not put in public domain the methodology it uses to calculate the NREGA wage rate every year. This not only curbs discussion on the wage rates, but is also against the transparent and accountable spirit of the Act. A few States like Jharkhand (Rs 225 from Rs 198) have added from their own budgets to enhance the MGNREGA wage from the existing amount xed by the Centre.

However, on the whole, State governments would rather spend on populist schemes and doles rather than enhance a programme that can positively affect the labour market and wage rates in favour of the poor. It is nothing less than a joke that governments are not able to ensure even minimum wages to workers.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld minimum wages as a fundamental right and equated payment of anything less to the status of “forced labour”. Derisively low budget allocation, unremunerative NREGA wages, coupled with long delays in wage payments – even non-payment of wages in many cases – has turned many rural workers away from the employment guarantee programme.

The programme must run as the demand-driven programme it was envisaged to be, with the true spirit of employment guarantee to rural citizens. NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and People's Action for Employment Guarantee strongly condemn this anti-workers decision and demand that wages are paid in a timely manner along with an increase in the NREGA wage rate to Rs 600 a day.

This follows the Seventh Pay Commission recommendation of Rs 18,000 as the minimum monthly salary six years ago in October 2016 , after which huge increases in prices have taken place.

---

Click here for tables

Comments

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857 By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi* This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman* Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Counterview

Search This Blog