THE central government has announced new wage rates for the people working under MNREGA for the year 2021-22. According to the revised rates announced by the Ministry of Rural Development on March 15, the enhancement is from Rs 0 to Rs 23 in different states.  At the national level, the hike is than four per cent which is unfair towards the poor rural workers, majority of whom are dalits, tribals and poor rural women. While the prices of essentials are skyrocketing, the government is reluctant to increase the wages. According to many reports, the prices of pulses, vegetables and edible oils have gone up by 18 per cent, particularly during the pandemic. For example, Fortune brand sunflower oil owned by Adani group, which was sold at Rs119 per litre in February 2020, has gone up to Rs175 by March 2021.The central government has once again proved itself to be serving corporates like Adani and not working people,  particularly the rural workers who are creating assets in the countryside.

  
While the overall national level increase in MNREGA wage rate is pitiful, for some states, it was even worse. There was absolutely no increase for Kerala and while the wages for Rajasthan increased by Rs 1, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh by Rs 3 and Jharkhand by Rs 4.  In contrast, for Meghalaya and Tamilnadu – two states going for elections soon, the wage rate was raised by Rs 23 and Rs 17, respectively.

    
The wage rates under MNREGA have been consistently fixed 30 per cent to 40 per cent lower than the minimum wages fixed for agricultural workers, by various state governments. For example, for the years 2019-20, the minimum wage for agricultural work fixed by the state governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, was Rs 312, for a 5-6 hour working day – where as in the same year the wage rate for MNREGA work was fixed at Rs 211, for an eight hour work day.

The workers have been demanding that the MNREGA wage rate should be fixed at Rs 600 per day with a guaranteed employment of 200 days. According to some reports, a committee appointed by the government recommended in 2019 that minimum wages should be fixed at Rs 375. But, there has been no movement towards this.

Even though workers are supposed to be paid a daily wage, it is a fact that MNREGA workers are being paid for work on a piece rate basis. The guidelines given by the concerned department for the calculation of wages are faulty. Due to the faulty calculations, workers are not getting even the paltry wage fixed by the government. After such calculations the wages are so low, sometimes the workers daily wage does not cross double digits.

Majority works under MNREGA comprise construction of check dams, desilting of irrigation canals, tanks, drinking water tanks etc. All these works fall under the category of construction activity. The wage rate in construction activity is usually Rs 500 to Rs 700 depending on the availability of work and the bargaining capacity of the worker. But, for similar activity MNREGA wage is less than half.

During the pandemic, lakhs of migrant workers returned to the villages and struggled for livelihood. In this situation, instead of increasing the budget for MNREGA, the budget allocation has been decreased. Budget allocation for the implementation of MNREGA for the year 2021-22 is Rs 73,000 crores which is                Rs 38,000 crores less than that spent in 2020-21.

Lakhs of people are migrating from one place to another place leaving their native villages, leaving behind elderly people and few assets which they own, in search of work .With unemployment high even in urban areas and among educated young people, even college educated youth and students are applying for job cards under MNREGA. In this background, the present wages fixed for MNREGA work is nothing but an attack on workers’ livelihood and their right to a dignified life.