Government starves NREGA of funds for second year in a row

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 1^st 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)

Individual Representatives: Harsh Mander, Manas Ranjan, Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Ankita Aggarwal, Swati Narayan, Ritu Priya and Aditya Shrivastava

Tea Workers: Court Orders Alternative Dispute Resolution

A division bench of the Kolkata High Court headed by the Chief Justice today ordered Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity (PBKMS) to seek the intervention of the State Legal Services Authority through Lok Adalats to mitigate the problems of tea workers.

PBKMS had filed a writ petition (WP-4225W/2016) before the High Court highlighting the problems of tea garden worker , arising from the present crisis in the industry as well as long term issues. Shri Bikash Bhattacharya, senior advocate , intervened on behalf of PBKMS.

The petition focused on the non-compliance by employers, State and Central Governments of the provisions of the Tea Act, Plantation Labour Act , Employees Provident Fund Act and Minimum Wages Act. It asked the court to ensure that conditions are created to ensure each tea worker gets a food intake of at least 2400 calories per day. It also asked for immediate relief for tea garden population in the form of Antodaya Anna Yojana, MGNREGA work and wages, health facilities, drinking water and electricity. Respondents were State and Central Governments, the Tea Board and employers such as Duncans India Limited.

The Chief Justice has given a time of two weeks for the petitioner to seek and receive help from the Lok Adalat process. If such relief is not received, the case will be heard once again by the division bench at the end of the month.

PBKMS is hopeful that the Lok Adalats will give some immediate relief to the tea garden population, but it is of the view that some of the problems, such as ignoring of the minimum wage issue by employers and the State Gsssovernment will require further serious intervention by the Court.

  

Uttam Gaine 

General Secretary

Armed Attack on Brickfield Workers

Ashanghatit Khetra Shramik Sangrami Manch (AKSSM) strongly condemns the armed attack on the struggling workers of brickfields in Hasnabad of Basirhat Sub-Division in District 24 Parganas (N) and subsequent police inaction.

On Monday morning (22nd February 2016) at 8.30 a.m. a peaceful rally of the workers was attacked by the hired goons of the owners of many brick-fields with firearms and country made bombs, leading to injuries to several of the agitating workers. Across the state, brick-field owners are systematically violating all existing labour laws, including that of minimum wage. Workers are being forced to live in sub-human conditions. To protest against this, workers of eleven brick-fields under the banner of Shramajibi Samanwaya Committee (SSC), a federation of workers in different micro and small scale industries of Basirhat sub-division, and an active member of AKSSM, unitedly intensified their movement recently to achieve their demand of minimum wage, as per the law of the land.

Backing the assault was Shahanur Mondal, a brickfield owner, who is also a cattle smuggler and a feared local mafia. He is also an Upapradhan from the TMC. Also present were owners of various brickfields, who financed the attack. Chief among these was Ashu Mondal, a brickfield owner and a BJP councillor.

The attack, where bombs and guns were used to intimidate and injure the workers, was fought off by the workers. They also managed to grab once of the attackers and hand him over to the police. Despite this and despite an FIR, the administration has been inactive. It has once again been exposed that the police and the administration are in unholy alliance with the defaulting industry owners.  In response to the inaction on part of police and administration, the workers held protest marches in the morning and evening.

In the meantime, the SDO had already scheduled a tripartite meeting on 24th February 2016 for a settlement of wages in the brick fields in the subdivision. In Shramajibi Samanwaya Committee's experience, all such meetings in the past have ended in the shameful capitulation by the administration, including the Labour Department, and some unions to the owner's demand to pay much less than the minimum wage. SSC's movement has been aimed at condemning such compromises on the part of the Government, where the authority responsible for enforcing minimum wages never enforces the same , but instead actively allows agreements below the minimum wage.

Shramajibi Samanwaya Committee has given the police 24 hours to arrest the attackers, failing which they will begin their protest from noon on 23rd February 2016, starting with blocking of train movements tomorrow morning at Hasnabad railway station for an indefinite period. They will also put forward their demand for minimum wages.

AKSSM calls upon the police administration to immediately arrest the culprits. It also demands that the long-standing issue of minimum wages for brick-field workers be resolved once and for all, with strict punitive action against all owners who do not pay the minimum wage.

AKSSM further calls upon all right thinking people to extend their support to the legitimate struggle of the SSC workers in all ways possible.

Swapan Ganguly, Somnath Ghosh (Convenors)

'Implement Maternity Benefit In Rationing System'

105 representatives from all districts of West Bengal belonging to 35 people’s organisations, NGOs and unions of the Right to Food and Work Campaign West Bengal met on 22^nd and 23^rd February 2016 at Barasat to discuss the issue of food security and the steps taken by the State Government recently to implement and supplement the National Food Security Act. The following is the statement that they have all agreed to release from this meeting.

Responding to the escalating violence and tensions around the issue of the new digital ration cards, the Chief Minister and the Food Minister have stated that everyone will be given rations. While welcoming such a statement, we would like them to now back it up with sufficient funds, food grains and administrative action to ensure that everyone does get cheap rice and wheat.

In a country where reports of hunger and malnutrition are an everyday occurrence, the universal right to food is the only way forward. From our discussions over two days, it is clear that the poorest have either got no rations or have been made part of the RKSY II which provides only 2 kg of food grains per head at the hugest cost, while many rich people have been declared Antodaya or the poorest of poor and are getting the largest amount of rations. Nepotism and faithfulness to the ruling party have put many non-deserving people on the lists while many beggars, homeless people, Adivasis and other deserving categories have been left out. In addition, things have been complicated with 5 categories of cards each of which has different entitlements.

In addition, we have also found that the National Food Security Act (NFSA) remains only partially implemented. Most importantly, the maternity benefit entitlement of Rs.6000 for all pregnant women that has been given under Section 4(b) of the Act has not been implemented at all so far. To stop leakages, the Act has provisions for vigilance committees, social audit, District Grievance Redressal Officers and efficient systems of complaints through help lines, web sites etcetera. None of these are properly in place in the State as yet.    Moreover, in order to actually have food security, this meeting feels that there is the need to go far beyond the NFSA. Therefore we demand

·         Immediate implementation of “Food for All” with only one category of at least 7 kgs of food grains per head at Rs. 2 for the entire population of the State ( by our calculations this involves only an additional amount of Rs. 2896 crores or  2.6% of the total funds available with the State Government)

·         Exclusion of the very rich as per exclusion criteria that are already there in SECC or as per the their voluntary declaration for exclusion

·         Immediate implementation of the maternity benefit entitlements given in NFSA

·         Immediate and effective implementation of all grievance redressal and transparency mechanisms provided for in the Act

·         Ensuring that tea garden management continues to provide rations to the tea garden workers, which is their accepted right as workers, and does not replace these with the Government’s rations under NFSA, which is the right of the tea garden population as citizens of the country

·         Ration shops must be handed over to SHGs and cooperatives , with the stoppage of corrupt ration dealers

·         Gradual expansions of the rationing system to provide other nutritional essentials like pulses and oil at subsidised rates, along with increasing the food grains allocation to the full nutritional requirement of 14 kgs per head.

·         Emphasis on local procurement and local storage of food grains, with such facilities in every GP

·         Emphasis on revival and support for safe and organic agriculture , so that agriculture and development is for food first

The meeting also declares the following as its future programme:-

·         On March 8^th, International Women’s Day, a programme with local meetings and signature campaign centred on immediate implementation of maternity benefits in NFSA.

·         Lobbying by village Right to Food groups and at all other levels in the State to get all parties to include our demands in their manifestos.

·         A people’s convention of Right to Food village groups in July to put forward our demands on the Right to Food to the new Government, preceded by trainings, conventions and meetings in all districts.

Anuradha Talwar              Debojyoti Chakraborty                        Father Jyoti S J