NREGA Implementation: Even The Minister Is Helpless In W.Bengal

With barely two months left for this financial year, the West Bengal Government has so far created only 15 person days of employment per job cardholder under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA). The Minister of Panchayat and Rural Development, Mr Subroto Mukherjee added to this dismal picture by telling a delegation of the PBKMS and the Shramajivi Mahila Samity (SMS) that he was helpless. His hands were tied on the one hand by the dictates of the Government of India, whose scheme MGNREGA was, and on the other hand, by the Panchayats, the implementing agencies, who were also not in his control. 

On February2, 2012, the sixth anniversary of the MGNREGA, while the UPA 2 Government organised a VIP-studded programme in Delhi to celebrate its achievements, MGNREGA workers in West Bengal protested to draw attention to non–implementation issues. The protests held were part of a national programme organised by the New Trade Union Initiative, a national centre of independent trade unions.

A hundred and fifty members of the PBKMS and the SMS blocked the offices of the Minister of Panchayat and Rural Development, Mr Subroto Mukherjee and his Principal Secretary, Mr Saurabh Das and demanded a meeting at Kolkata. Similarly, at Alipore, about 400 members, mainly women from the SMS, banging steel plates and shouting slogans, forced an absent District Magistrate to cancel his day’s leave to listen to their demands. Demonstrations were also organised at four places in Bankura district, including the district magistrate’s office. Workers in Saltora block in Bankura arrived at their block office with food and their tools, ready for a couple of days of stay at the block office if their demands were not met.

In all the meetings, the union members put forward their problems of Panchayats refusing to accept work applications, reluctance to issue work orders, late payment of wages, cheating in measurement of work and corruption in the scheme. The Minister assured the delegation that he had already given orders that work orders must be issued for at least 15 days of work at a stretch, instead of only 3-4 days at a time. He also said they were planning systems by which payment would be made within a day or two of work.

As far as measurement and tasks were concerned, the delegation brought up the issue that by new orders issued on January 1, 2012, men and women were required to do the same task. As women were unable to do as much work as the men, there was reluctance to employ them. The Minister claimed his hands were tied by Central Government guidelines which forced them to have equal tasks for men and women, but said they would take this issue up with the Central Government.

To the disappointment of the delegation, the Minister claimed that he was helpless to punish corrupt officials in NREGA cases, though the Department had identified almost 150 such cases. He said he also disagreed with the idea of an “unemployment allowance”, though he agreed it was their constitutional duty to set up systems for its payment.

At Alipore (Kolkata), the South 24 Parganas district magistrate promised to look into two specific complaints of corruption in Pathar Pratima block brought up by the delegation. He also promised to meet PBKMS and SMS members every month to look at specific complaints and to take action against Gram Panchayats that refused work applications or did not give work. As far as late payment of wages and unemployment allowance was concerned, he felt there were policy issues (such as ensuring banks and post offices functioned better for quick payment) which were beyond his capacity.

At Saltora in Bankura, PBKMS members were immediately promised work and told they would not have to stay for long to get work.

Members of the the Shramajivi Sammanvay Samity and Hosiery Workers Unity Centre and the Right to Food and Work Campaign South 24 Parganas, part of the Ashanghatit Khetra Shramik Sangrami Manch, extended solidarity support.

Right To Food Campaign Convention

Right to Food Campaign

All India Convention

18 February 2012, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

New Delhi

Venue: Gandhi Peace Foundation, 223, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg (opposite Gandharva Maha vidyalaya,

near ITO)

To discuss the critique of the National Food Security Bill 2011 tabled in the Parliament and plan strategy to force the Government to bring in a law that:

1. Ensures food security to all and the elimination of malnutrition and hunger in children and adults in the country
2. Addresses production, procurement and storage issues establishing the dignity of the farmers
3. Provisioning of a universal PDS, 
4. Provisioning of hot cooked meals with a ban on contractors and ready to eat meals for children
5. Provisioning of Maternal entitlements which at least subscribe to the wage rates of the State

A grievance redressal scheme that guarantees effective and immediate redressal at the panchayat and block level, with an independent appeal mechanism

Defending Rights of Midday Meal Cooks

Convention of Midday Meal Cooks on 28 December, 2011 at University Institute Hall Library

Our Demands:

·          Minimum Wage, Regular Payment And A Corruption Free Midday Meal Scheme

·          Teachers Get Back To Teaching, Women Must Manage The Midday Meal Scheme,

·          Keep Corporates And NGOs Out Of The Midday Meal Scheme

·          To Maintain Nutritional Value, Increase The Cooking Costs With Inflation

·          Provide Self Help Group Members With More Jobs And Bank Loans At Low Interest

Our Government has once again shown its ability to turn women into slave labour.  With 1 crore 21 lakh children being covered under the Midday Meal Scheme (MDMS) in West Bengal, it has become a large provider of new jobs for poor women in rural and urban areas. It has thus provided more than 1.5 lakh women with work in their own villages and communities and at their own skill levels. In a labour surplus market, where poor women are desperately looking for work, the Government breaks its own Minimum Wages Act to give a subsistence wage of Rs 1,000 per month to cooks. Most often, even this is not paid regularly and women (for example from Uttar Dinajpur district) have reported non-payment for 6-8 months.

With increasing costs of cooking, groups of women who have formed self-help groups and are given the responsibility for the cooking and purchasing find themselves unable to give good food to children. On top of this is the boss-ism of school teachers, many of whom, despite clear orders otherwise, have kept the management of the MDMS to themselves, with many finding in it an easy way of making money. Some cooks have also become involved in this, willy-nilly.

A statement by the West Bengal Education Secretary a few weeks ago showed that the Government was thinking of taking away even this meagrely paid work from self-help groups, and of handing these over to mainly male-controlled NGOs, clubs etc. The new Food Security Bill by the Central Government goes a step further and is paving the way for the entry of large corporate companies by allowing for ready-to-eat meals or packaged food instead of cooked meals.

Women from self-help groups, who are responsible for the Midday Meal Scheme, are also charged exorbitant interest rates for funds provided to them as bank loans, despite many of them being BPL cardholders. They are deprived of suitable jobs (such as supervision of NREGA, supply of food to ICDS centres, cooking in hospitals etc.), many of which have been reserved for them by court orders and Government policy for self-help groups.

At the initiative of Shramajivi Mahila Samity, women from all over West Bengal are coming together in a Convention of Midday Meal Cooks on 28 December 2011 to protest against all such malpractices and to unite for their rights.

Time:  11 a.m. to 4 p.m., 28 December 2012

Venue:  University Institute Hall Library (2^nd Floor)

Open Session at 3 PM

Mamata Regime's Dismal Record With Unorganised Sector Workers

The Ashanghatit Kshetra Shramik Sangrami Manch (Platform of Struggle for Unorganised Sector Workers), made up of 12 unions working for the rights of the unorganized sector workers, released a report on December 8, 2011, at Kolkata Press Club on the first 200 days of Trinamool Congress government's progress on issues and demands raised by the workers of the state.

The press conference, which was attended by various leading newspapers and news channels, addressed a number of issues like the progress of the MNREGA (100 days of work), the public distribution system for cheap food, minimum wages, state of contract workers and Forest Rights.

The Manch released a booklet containing data and information related to all the issues presented at the conference and, along with it, a mark sheet on the government's performance in four areas where it was assessed (MGNREGA, minimum wages, protection of contract workers and forest rights). The government barely passed in one (public distribution system for cheap food).

The organisers also pointed that fighting for better wages for unorganized sector workers was a dangerous pursuit, with death threats being received by Prithvish Bose, adviser of Shramjivi Sammanvay Committee, one of the constituents of the Manch, because of their demands to raise the wages of brick kiln workers. They said that brickfield owners, cutting across party lines, had held a secret meeting in Akash brickfield and it is suspected they have hired professionals to kill Prithvish Bose.

The PHE Water Supply Employees Union (West Bengal), another constituent whose members operate drinking water pumps of the State Government, claimed both the present and the past governments had cheated them. Pump operators receive a daily wage of Rs169. Payment is irregular, with some workers having dues for 12-15 months. The work, which is of a perennial nature, continues to be contractual in violation of the law. The union said it would start a dharna in front of their Minister’s office from December 12, which would be then converted to a hunger strike if their demands for timely payments, permanent status and minimum wages were not met. It said that all pump operators would also resort to mass casual leave from December 26 if the government persisted in ignoring them.

The unions, who are part of the Manch, are far from happy with the performance of the government on issues related to the deprived classes and the unorganized sector. There was enough evidence to believe that the government was not doing what it could do and that it had diverged from the pre-election promises.

Summary In English
Report Bangla
Summary of Report in Bangla