Skip to main content

'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

TRENDING

'Enough evidence' in Indian tradition to support legal basis for same-sex marriage

By Iyce Malhotra, Joseph Mathai, Sandeep Chachra*  The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage provides space for much-needed conversations on issues that have hitherto remained “invisible” or engaged with patriarchal locker room humour. We must recognize that people with diverse sexualities and complex gender identities have faced discrimination, stigma and decades of oppression. Their issues have mainly remained buried in dominant social discourse, and many view them with deep insecurities.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Victim of communal violence, Christians in Manipur want Church leadership to speak up

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*  The first eleven days of May 2023 have, in many ways, been a defining period of Indian history! Plenty has happened in a rapid-fire stream of events. Ironically, each one of them are indicators of how crimes and the criminalisation of society has become the ‘new norm’; these include, the May Day rallies with a focus on the four labour codes which are patently against the rights of workers; the U S Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its Annual Report on 1 May stating that conditions for religious freedom in India “continued to worsen in 2022”; the continued protest by the Indian women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar for the expulsion of the chief of the Indian Wrestlers Federation on very serious allegations; the Elections in Karnataka on 10 May (with communalism and corruption as the mainstay); the release of the fake, derogative and insensitive film ‘The Kerala Story’; the release of World Free Press Index on 3 May which places India

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Unlike other revolutionaries, Hindutva icon wrote 5 mercy petitions to British masters

By Shamsul Islam*  The Hindutva icon VD Savarkar of the RSS-BJP rulers of India submitted not one, two,or three but five mercy petitions to the British masters! Savarkarites argue: “There are no evidences to prove that Savarkar collaborated with the British for his release from jail. In fact, his appeal for release was a ruse. He was well aware of the political developments outside and wanted to be part of it. So he kept requesting for his release. But the British authorities did not trust him a bit” (YD Phadke, ‘A complex Hero’, "The Indian Expres"s, August 31, 2004)

Polygamy in India "down" in 45 yrs: Muslims' from 5.7 to 2.55%, Hindus' 5.8 to 1.77%, "common" in SCs, STs

By Rajiv Shah Amidst All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) justifying polygamy, saying it “meets social and moral needs and the provision for it stems from concern and sympathy for women”, facts suggest the the practice is down from 5.7 per cent of Muslim families in 1961 to 2.55 per cent in 2006.

India joining US sponsored trade pillar to hurt Indian farmers, 'promote' GM seeds, food

Counterview Desk  As many as 32 civil society organisations (CSOs), in a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and India joining the trade pillar, have said that its provisions will allow the US to ensure a more favourable regulatory regime “for enhancing its exports of genetically modified (GM) seeds and GM food”, underlining, it will “significantly hurt the livelihoods of Indian farmers.”

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

Modi govt 'wholly untrustworthy' on Covid data, censored criticism on pandemic: Lancet

By Rajiv Shah*   One of the world’s most prestigious health journals, brought out from England, has sharply criticised the Narendra Modi government for being “wholly untrustworthy on Covid-19 health data”, stating, the “official government figures place deaths at more than 530 000, while WHO excess death estimates for 2020 and 2021 are near 4·7 million.”

Savarkar 'opposed' Bhagat Singh's, Netaji's dream of India, supported British war efforts

By Shamsul Islam* In a shocking development, the student wing of the RSS put the busts of martyrs Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose with Savarkar's on one pedestal at the University of Delhi late in the night on August 20, 2019. Bhagat Singh sacrificed his life for a socialist-democratic-secular republic and Netaji raised Azad Hind Fauj (INA) consisting of people of all religions and regions for armed liberation of India.