MGNREGA workers protest against low and delayed wages

By: Deepak Maggu

The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a countrywide network of organisations and people concerned with the employment guarantee act, has called for the demonstration. The march on Tuesday was attended by rural workers from more than 15 states, including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Telangana, among others.

As part of a three-day protest, hundreds of rural workers from all over the nation gathered at Jantar Mantar from Tuesday, August 02, 2022 to Thursday, August 04, 2022 to protest against low and delayed wages and also to demand more funding for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.

The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a countrywide network of organisations and people concerned with the employment guarantee act, has called for the demonstration. The march on Tuesday was attended by rural workers from more than 15 states, including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Telangana, among others.

The MGNREGA scheme, according to the morcha, played a key role in assisting the rural populace during the Covid-19 outbreak, with demand for jobs under it continuing to be "high" even two years afterwards. Despite that NREGA is plagued by steadily declining budgetary allotments, wage payments that are month’s late, inadequate compensation for delays, and appallingly low wages. These problems are widespread throughout the nation, the group claimed in a press release on Tuesday.

However, the daily wages in MGNREGA are decided by the state. If we look at the state-wise wage figures, then the lowest wage-paying states are Madhya Pradesh (Rs. 204), Chhattisgarh (Rs. 204), Jharkhand (Rs. 210), Bihar (Rs. 210) and Tripura (Rs. 212).

At the same time, the states paying more wages under MNREGA include Haryana (Rs, 331), Goa (Rs. 315), Kerala (Rs. 311), Karnataka (Rs. 309), and Punjab (Rs. 282).

Now there is an interesting and sad aspect involved in this. The interesting thing is that, according to the central government and various state governments, the average daily wage is between Rs 350 to Rs 550 according to skilled and unskilled labor.

The sad part is that MNREGA workers are made to work for less than the minimum daily wages fixed in each state. For example, in Kerala, the minimum wage has been fixed at Rs 490 but only Rs 311 is paid by the state government under MGNREGA. Similarly, Rs 150 is being given less than the fixed daily wage in Karnataka and Rs 80 less in Tamil Nadu. Although the Central and State governments agreed in many committees that the minimum wage should be Rs 350, but this is not visible in MNREGA.

According to the Supreme Court, if you are getting someone to work for less than the minimum wage, then it means that you are doing forced labor.