People's Democracy

MGNREGA WAGES

Govt Displays Utter Callousness: AIAWU

IN a statement issued on January 9, the All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) has strongly criticised the central government’s move to delink the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) from the Minimum Wages Act. The union has termed it as a shocking display of utter callousness with which the prime minister has betrayed the interests of the toiling masses. The union also pointed out that this comes at a time when the Congress-led UPA government has totally failed to control the prices of essential commodities, when the rural poor as well as other common men are reeling under the spiralling prices and when many are in a situation of extreme hunger.

To the union, the prime minister’s move is a deliberate ploy to deny the MGNREGA workers of the possibility of the higher minimum wages statutorily fixed by several states. It violates the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the workers and threatens the minimum wage system which acts as a guarantee against arbitrary changes and against inflation. Notably, the minimum wages in 19 states are higher than the present MGNREGA wages of Rs 100 and reflect greater sensitivity to the high inflation. However, due to the centre’s refusal to adhere to the Minimum Wages Act, they are not payable to the MGNREGA workers.

Indexing the wage rate under the MGNREGA to the consumer price index for agricultural labour (CPIAL) will not raise the wages of the MGNREGA workers to the statutory minimum wages fixed in many states. The MGNREGA workers in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Karnataka and Mizoram will get paid less than the prevailing statutory minimum wages even after this decision. The UPA government claims that the wage rate would be indexed to inflation and it will protect the real wage of Rs 100 per day by indexing the wage rate to the CPIAL. However, this base wage of Rs 100 will be reset only in 2014. Hence, whatever increase will be there will be a pittance when compared to inflation in the prices of essential goods. Thus the state governments’ efforts to fix socially just wages will be diluted. The Kerala government as well as the AIAWU have demanded that the wages payable under the MGNREGA must be at least Rs 200 per day. The union has now reiterated this demand and asked that the government take immediate steps to revise the MGNREGA wage rate to at least Rs 200 per day.

According to the AIAWU, as in the case of the Food Security Act, the decision by the UPA government on the MGNREGA wages is an attempt to subvert the scheme and to shirk its responsibility of paying the higher minimum wages. The AIAWU has called upon the agricultural workers of the country and rural masses to rise in protest against this retrograde move and to safeguard their right to get just minimum wages.