Real
wages have barely risen in India since 2014-15, despite rapid GDP
growth. The country’s social security system has also stagnated in this
period. The lives of informal workers remain extremely precarious,
especially in states like Jharkhand where casual employment is the main
source of livelihood for millions. These are some of the findings presented by economists Jean Drèze and Reetika Khera at a press conference convened by the Loktantra Bachao 2024 campaign.
Evidence
of a virtual stagnation in real wages since 2014-15 is available from
five different sources, three of them official: Labour Bureau data, the
Periodic Labour Force Surveys, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Centre
for Monitoring the Indian Economy, and the Centre for Labour Research
and Action, they said.
The economists told media, as the Modi
government took charge in 2014, five flagship programmes had started
providing solid foundations for social security in the informal sector:
the public distribution system (PDS), the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (NREGA), maternity benefits, social security pensions, and
child nutrition schemes under ICDS and the midday-meal programme.
According
to them, all five have been undermined in one way or another by the
NDA. For instance, the central budget for ICDS and midday meals
declined by 40% in real terms in the last 10 years; maternity benefits
have been illegally restricted to one child per family; the central
contribution to social security pensions under NSAP has stagnated at a
measly Rs 200 per month; NREGA wages have stagnated in real terms and
are rarely paid on time; and more than 100 million persons have been
excluded from the PDS due to the continued use of 2011 population
figures.
In Jharkhand alone, 44 lakh people are excluded because of this.
Stating
that to some extent, the NDA government has compensated for this
decline by expanding schemes of its own liking, such as toilets, LPG
connections and housing, they asserted, the achievements of these
schemes are much smaller than the Modi government claims. For instance,
the NDA government declared India “open defecation free” in 2019, but
NFHS-5 data for 2019-21 reveal that about 20% of all households had no
toilet facility.
As
a percentage of GDP, the Central government expenditure on old and new
welfare schemes combined has stagnated under Modi, except for a brief
spike during the Covid-19 crisis, the economists pointed out.
Before
that, the Modi government was mainly substituting its own schemes for
earlier schemes, along with renaming earlier schemes after the Prime
Minister, they claimed. This pattern contrasts with the major expansion
of social security that occurred under the UPA government, especially
UPA-1. The NDA government has managed to build a reputation for generous
welfare spending, but this claim does not bear scrutiny.
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