COVID-19: Strengthen workers’ rights to enhance MGNREGA
Relevance: Mains: Governance: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Context
The implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been systematically crippled in the past six years
Thousands of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers have made several demands. These include an increase in annual guarantee of work to 200 days, increase in the daily wage rate to Rs 600 per day and for the rate to be commensurate with the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.
Workers across the country staged peaceful demonstrations at MGNREGA worksites under the banner of non-profit NREGA Sangharsh Morcha to convey their demands to the Prime Minister.
They also planned to submit a memorandum addressed to PM Narendra Modi through their respective block and district administrations.
Studies and research work by several independent agencies and universities showed the economic conditions of workers have become more vulnerable because of the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
This decision for the lockdown — taken unilaterally and without proper planning by the Union government — has driven the unorganised workforce to abject poverty and starvation.
Steps taken leave a lot to be desired
While the Union government has taken the timely step of allocating a supplementary budget of Rs 40,000 crore for the programme, the arrangement is inadequate to compensate for the loss of income faced by rural families.
The allocation is useful to run the programme without a cash crunch only for the next few months. It is, however, neither adequate to meet the current demands for work with migrants returning to their homes, nor does it solve the purpose of additional income. Wage rates and workdays guaranteed under the programme remain the same.
Schemes are to be implemented according to the recommendations of the Gram Panchayat, Gram Sabha and Ward Sabha, according to Section 16(1) of the MGNREGA law.
MGNREGA works have, instead, been executed according to the priorities of the Centre.
By getting MGNREGA workers to work in schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Swachh Bharat, the Centre gets assets such as houses and toilets constructed using workers as tools and denying them a minimum wage.
In context of the above, NREGA workers across the country June 29 raised demands for higher benefits and reserving the rights for local planning by Gram Sabha in MGNREGA.
Workers’ demands
The workers observed the day as ‘NREGA Adhikar Diwas’ (NREGA Rights Day) and staged peaceful demonstrations from their worksites to make their voices heard.
Thousands of workers from 108 districts in 12 states participated in the demonstrations with their demands to strengthen workers’ rights and honour local democratic processes in the implementation of the schemes.
The implementation of the programme was systematically crippled in the past six years. Inadequate budgetary allocations, long wage delays, non-payments and a centralised technology-linked implementing mechanism has wrecked local accountability and the participation of elected Gram Panchayat representatives in the programme.
Below are the demands asked by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha during the NREGA Adhikar Diwas:
Employment guarantee of 200 days: Workers demanded 200 days of employment guarantee per person, terming the current provision of 100 days per household inadequate in the current scenario when other employment opportunities are limited.
Increase wages to Rs 600 per day: The Seventh Pay Commission fixed a monthly minimum wage of Rs 18,000 per worker. Daily NREGA wages should, thus, be at least Rs 600 per worker.
Honor plans made by Local Gram Sabhas / Ward Sabhas: The administration should not dictate the kind of schemes to be taken up under the programme.
Local decentralised planning exercises should be valued and honoured for selection of works. The Centre should immediately direct officials to refer to plans made by the respective Gram Sabhas and prioritise those schemes.
The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha also demanded sufficient budget to be allotted to meet the demand of increased guarantee of work and revision of wages.
MGNREGA allocation
The allocation for MGNREGA in the past years was inadequate to meet actual demand at the ground level. Workers were treated like bonded labours and were denied a minimum wage, which is a right of the workers by law.
The Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Rozgaar Abhiyan, recently announced by the Centre, is expected to cover 116 districts in six states with no additional budgetary allocation.
It is simply a convergence of 12 line departments to execute existing asset generation programmes belonging to 25 public works categories.
It is derisive how the government is trying to project a convergence of existing schemes as a fresh scheme worth Rs 50,000 crore. It is also not clear why the Centre only focuses on 116 districts for the execution of the schemes. They need to be implemented in all rural areas across the country.
This indicates the real intentions of the government: To attract political mileage out of a severe economic crisis. This also goes to show the serious lack of intent to create real job opportunities in rural areas.
Decline in workdays generation
So, what are rural workers left with? The same old MGNREGA with no additional employment opportunities, wage rates far below minimum wages and an administrative system that has always failed to live up to expectations.
As a result, we already saw a decline in MGNREGA workdays generation in June. If the official website is to be believed, in May, 36.1 million households demanded work under the programme, compared to 24.9 million households in the same period last year.
The actual workdays generation in May this year was about 570 million, 200 million more than in the same month last year.
In June, however, the demand has increased significantly to 43.7 million families. The actual person days work generation was 380 million, far less than the last month and only 60 million more than June last year.
This implies that while the demand for MGNREGA work is only increasing, administrative arrangements are not being reciprocated adequately for the needs of the people.
Further, low benefits and uncertainties due to complex procedural glitches will soon create fatigue and hopelessness among workers.
The ministers and members of the ruling party have made valiant efforts to corroborate their altered stances on MGNREGA, once called a “monumental failure” on the floor of the Parliament by the current prime minister.
A time when MGNREGA is seen as the greatest safety net for rural workers, the government should strengthen their rights to boost rural job creation instead of leveraging political benefits from it.
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