The last
financial year came to an end with 24 states facing a total of Rs 12,483 crore
worth of pending payments in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(NREGA). The pending payments amount to over a quarter of the total expenditure
incurred on the programme in these states in 2015-16. This situation has arisen
due to insufficient transfer of funds from the central government to these
states. The shortage of funds in these states – which include all the nine
states reeling under drought - has led to millions of workers facing tremendous
economic hardships due to long delays in wage payments. As per official
calculations – which are a gross underestimation – 58 per cent of the total
wages were not paid on time in 2015-16. Even when the workers do get paid, they
will not get the compensation which is to be paid in cases of delays in wages.
The
insufficiency of funds also makes a mockery of the central government’s
decision to increase the guarantee of work to 150 days a household in 2015-16
in the drought-affected states. Again as per official records, only 7 per cent
of the total rural households registered in NREGA in the drought affected
states got work for more than 100 days.
Apart
from starving the programme of funds, the government is also not fulfilling its
promises and making false claims. The Finance Ministry released only Rs 2,000
crore of the additional Rs 5,000 crore it agreed to spend on NREGA if the
expenditure on the programme exceeded the allocated budget of Rs 34,699 crore
in 2015-16. While announcing an allocation of Rs 38,500 crore for MGNREGA for
2016-17, the Finance Minister claimed that “if it is spent, will be the highest
ever expenditure on MGNREA”. But twice in the past the expenditure on the
programme has exceeded the allocation for 2016-17; Rs 39,377 crore in 2010-11
and Rs 38,552 crore in 2013-14.
2015-16
was the second year in a row in which the NDA government capped expenditure on
NREGA. By the end of 2014-15 also, nine states were left with pending wages
worth Rs 1,203 crore which were made only after these states received funds for
2015-16. The same will happen this year as well; a whopping 30 per cent of the
allocation for 2016-17 will be spent just in clearing pending payments from
last year. With no commitment of providing additional resources if the
expenditure on the programme exceeds Rs 38,500 crore in 2016-7, the
under-funding of NREGA is likely to continue this year as well. These facts
expose the hollowness of the central government’s claim of delivering a
“pro-poor” budget for 2016-17.
The
NREGA is also being undermined by the stagnation of its wages, which are
revised by the central government every year. State-wide increase in NREGA
wages for 2016-17 range between 0 to 11 per cent, compared with last year’s
wages (it is interesting to note that the wage increase of all the eight North
Eastern states is less than 4 per cent). In many states, the NREGA wage is even
lower than the minimum agricultural wage, thus failing to provide adequate
economic security to rural households. For example, the NREGA wage rate of
Jharkhand is Rs 45 less than its minimum agricultural wage. The central
government has provided no justification for the nominal and differential rates
of increase across the country. As payment of wages are now linked with the
quantum of work done by them, many workers are paid even less than the paltry
NREGA wages; either due to their inability to do the stipulated amount of work
or due to errors in the measurement of work done by them.
The NDA
government is killing a programme whose decade-long achievements were recently
hailed as a cause for “national pride and celebration” by the Union Minister of
Rural Development. By failing to ensure timely work and payment and other
entitlements to rural workers (such as unemployment allowance in case of
non-availability of work, compensation for delayed wages, worksite facilities
and timely redress of grievances), the central government is legally violating
the employment guarantee act. It is contributing to the suffering of rural
workers and forcing them to either migrate in distress or engage in
exploitative employment.
The
Right to Food Campaign demands the following:
- Immediate payment of all pending NREGA payments.
- Compensation for delayed payments to be paid automatically along with wages.
- As stated in the Ministry of Rural Development’s Master Circular on NREGA, the 1st tranche of funds (half of the total person days agreed to in the labour budget) should be released in the month of April.
- A separate allocation to be made for the additional 50 days of employment per household approved for drought-affected states.
- Increase in the NREGA wage rate to a minimum of Rs 250, indexing the wage rate to inflation and transparency in wage revisions
- Time-bound punishment to all persons violating any entitlement of the employment guarantee act through institutionalization of social audits and other grievance redress mechanisms.
We are,
Kavita Srivastava and Dipa Sinha,
Convenors, Steering Committee of Right to Food Campaign
National Networks: Annie Raja, (National Federation for Indian Women),
Colin Gonsalves , (Human Right Law Network), Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Anjali
Bhardwaj, (National Campaign for People's Right to Information), Madhuresh,
Arundhati Dhuru and Ulka Mahajan (National Alliance of People’s Movements),
Asha Mishra and Kashinath Chatterjee (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti), Ashok Bharti
(National Conference of Dalit Organizations), Anuradha Talwar, Gautam Modi and
Madhuri Krishnaswamy (New Trade Union Initiative), Binayak Sen (People’s Union
for Civil Liberties), Subhash Bhatnagar (National Campaign Committee for
Unorganized Sector workers), Paul Divakar and Asha Kowtal (National Campaign
for Dalit Human Rights), Mira Shiva, Radha Holla and Vandana Prasad (Jan
Swasthya Abhiyan), Ranjeet Kumar Verma, Prahlad Ray, Praveen Kumar, Anand
Malakar (Rashtriya Viklang Manch), Lali Dhakar, Sarawasti Singh, Shilpa Dey and
Radha Raghwal (National Forum for Single Women’s Rights), G V Ramanjaneyulu,
Kavita Kuruganthi (Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture),
Jashodhara (National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights), Ilango
(National Fishworkers Federation), Zasia, Sonam, and Noor Jehan (Bhartiya
Muslim Mahila Andolan)
State Representatives: M Kodandram, Rama Melkape, Veena Shatrughana (Andhra
Pradesh), Gangabhai and Samir Garg (Chhattisgarh), Abhay Kumar (Karnataka),
Suresh Sawant, Mukta Srivastava (Maharashtra), Balram and James Herenj, Gurjeet
Singh, Dheeraj (Jharkhand), Ashok Khandelwal, Shyam and Vijay Lakshmi
(Rajasthan), Sachin Jain (Madhya Pradesh), Joseph Patelia, Sejal Dand, Neeta
Hardikar and (Gujarat), Saito Basumaatary, Raju Narzari, Bondita Acharya and
Sunil Kaul (Assam), Rupesh, (Bihar), V Suresh (Tamil Nadu), Bidyut Mohanty Raj
Kishore Mishra, (Orissa), Ranjeet Kumar Varma, Bindu Singh, Sabina and Richa
(Uttar Pradesh), Amrita Johri, Abdul Shakeel, Vimla, Koninika Ray and Rajender
Kumar (Delhi), Fr Jothi SJ and Mr. Saradindu (West Bengal)
