People's Democracy

Prevent Any Dilution Of REGA

Brinda Karat

THE conditions of the rural workforce, the agricultural workers and landless households and their ever-increasing numbers have worsened in the background of the acute agrarian crisis. The number of the rural landless, according to an NSS report (No 493 for 2003) has increased from 22 percent of the rural population in 1992 to 33 percent in 2003, ie in a decade of liberalisation. The rural unemployment rate for males increased from 5.6 percent in 1993-94 to 8 percent in 2004-05 and for women it increased from 5.6 percent to 8.7 percent in the same period. The need for work is urgent and widespread. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), started in February 2006, provides the guarantee of 100 days work per family on demand, an important avenue for partial relief.

It started in 200 districts in the first phase; in 2007 it was increased to 330 districts and in April 2008 to all rural districts in the country. The difference between this scheme and other employment generation schemes is that it is mandated by law and the government is duty bound to pay unemployment allowance, if it fails to provide the work demanded. It thus recognises, in principle, the responsibility of the state to provide work to its citizens and in this sense is a step forward in the struggle to demand the right to work as a constitutional right. However, it is necessary to review the functioning of the act and on the basis of the experiences in different states to frame a set of issues and demands to ensure that the intended aim of the act is met.

NUMBER OF

WORKDAYS

According to a recent statement on the �Status of NREGA� given to parliament by the rural development minister, in 2007-2008, 3.37 crore households in 330 districts were provided employment for 141.62 crore person-days of work, that is, an average of 42 days during the year. In the previous year, ie during 2006-2007, 2.10 crore households were provided 90 crore person-days, that is, 43.06 days on an average per year.

Earlier employment generation schemes included the Jawahar Rojgar Yojana, the Employment Assurance Scheme and the Sampoorna Rojgar Yojana. A CAG report in 2000 assessed that, on an average, under the JRY/EAS scheme, 17 days of work were provided per year to those who applied for work. These programmes were merged in 2001 in the Sampoornana Grameen Rojgar Yojana. Under the SGRY the highest number of workdays provided in any year was 85.60 crores --- in 2003-2004, covering 588 districts. Although the number of districts covered was 44 percent higher, the number of workdays was 40 percent less than the workdays created under the REGA in its second year of operation. Thus there is no doubt that the work created under the REGA to help the rural poor is much more than the work created under any other scheme so far. This should answer the carping criticism of those �cut subsidy� lobbies who see nothing of any benefit in the REGA.

But the question arises: Why is the demand for work under the NREGA not commensurate with the growing need for work? If the guarantee is for 100 days, and on an average only 42 to 43 days are provided, what are the reasons for the low demand?

There are several problems which, if not addressed, will gravely limit the potential of the NREGA to bring full benefit of the act to the rural poor. Some are related to poor implementation of the scheme and the role of the state governments, while the rest --- which are in a sense more crucial to the functioning of the act --- are related to the provisions in the act itself and the role of the central government in financial allocations.

MINIMUM

WAGES ISSUE

The central government bears the full cost of wages under the NREGA. The act permits the payment of minimum wages, as decided by each state, till such time as the central government notifies a central wage, and this should not be below 60 rupees. As can be seen in the table given below, with the exception of Gujarat which has retained a dismally low minimum wage of 50 rupees, most states have a wage of either 60 rupees or above. Thus the present arrangement of validity of the state level minimum wage is beneficial to the workers. Recently, the central minister for rural development has �warned� the states not to raise wages further as he will then �have to invoke the relevant clause in the act to fix the central wage.� The background for this was possibly the action of the Uttar Pradesh government which has suddenly hiked the wage to 100 rupees, that is by 72.41 percent over the wages it paid under the SGRY, because the centre will be providing the funds. UP is also a state which has a very poor record of social auditing; the problem of false muster rolls is also serious here.

The minister has now sought to put a freeze on the wages for the REGA at the present level --- at a time when the government has failed to freeze the inflation rate. We have opposed such a wage freeze. Till now the fixation of the state minimum wages is in the jurisdiction of the state governments. Even for the limited purpose of REGA wages, state governments must be consulted if there is to be any change.

The minister has ignored the more crucial issue, which is that workers are unable to earn a full minimum wage in a large number of states because of the impossibly high work norms or that they have to work �overtime� for longer hours to earn a minimum wage. We have asked the central government to consult the states in this regard.

NATURE

OF WORK

The nature of work given in the REGA is one of the major reasons why the need for work does not match the demand under the act.

The act specifies that the REGA is open to any worker willing to do manual work. However, manual work offered is mainly earth digging and lifting work. According to the ministry�s report, of the 17.76 lakh projects started in the country, three fourths are connected with water conservation like digging of tanks, canal desilting or repair, or digging tree pits for afforestation, all earth work related. It is wrongly assumed that agricultural workers doing manual labour in the fields will be equally accustomed to earth work. This is not true. Women who do weeding work, transplantation or picking cotton or vegetables, are now doing heavy earth work as the only alternative to starvation without work. The national average share of women in workdays generated under the NREGA is 42.60 percent .This is higher than the one third share sought to be achieved by provisions in the act. However, studies of worksites where there are a larger number of women going up to even 82 percent, as in Tamilnadu, do show that NREGA work is not the preferred work for males and that women�s participation is related to acute economic vulnerability. During the early discussions on the NREGA, an important cabinet minister had commented that the NREGA is the last resort for employment, so the conditions need not be such as to encourage workers to demand work through the REGA. This was presumably to keep the costs down. It turned out after 2 years� experience that this is exactly what is happening. Moreover, in state after state, studies are showing that workers are not getting the full minimum wage. Although the rules permit for time rated work payments, all states have adopted task based wage rates. So far, only 6 states have conducted work, time and motion (WTM) studies to decide work norms. These states are West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamilnadu. Thus while a worker in Andhra Pradesh would have to complete a task of digging 65.71 cubic feet of soft soil to earn 80 rupees a day; a worker in Gujarat would have to dig 39.22 cubic feet to earn 50 rupees, while in Jharkhand where no WTM study has been done a worker would have to dig 109.88 cubic feet to earn 76.68 rupees. Clearly, with such a high SOR (schedule of rates), the Jharkhand worker would not be able to earn the minimum wage. In the large majority of states it is a similar scenario. This includes group-based work which is most common.

The other problem related to group work is the exclusion of older persons particularly women. Single women also find it difficult to join a group. Thus a most urgent task is to ensure that proper work, time motion studies are conducted which can provide a realistic SOR. This is an urgent demand that we should take up seriously. The NREGA cannot and should not be turned into a source of cheap labour.

RETROGRADE

CENTRAL MOVE

However, in a retrograde step, the rural development ministry has issued a circular increasing the work time to 9 hours in the name of linking the NREGA with the Minimum Wages Act which through a 45 years old amendment had stipulated the work day as 9 hours. When this was strongly objected to and the issue was raised in parliament, the minister was at pains to explain that the nine hour workday included a one hour break. However even then it is not in tune with the ILO convention which India has signed which stipulates an eight hour workday including a break time. Thus the extension of the workday to 9 hours must be withdrawn. These issues related to nature of work and payment of minimum wages, are reasons why workers are discouraged from applying for work and demand is low. For the REGA to fulfil its intention of providing relief for unemployment and to provide a choice for migrant workers to find work with a fair wage near their homes, these issues have to be addressed. We must initiate movements of the rural poor for a better, more just implementation of REGA.

* As mentioned against each column

*Includes lead upto 50 meters and lift upto 1.5 meters

** Includes lead upto 25 meters and lift upto 1.5 meters

(To be concluded)