Delays, debt and distress in West Bengal
- The delay in payment of wages has pushed MGNREGA workers in West Bengal to the brink.
- There are allegations of corruption against the State government, the Centre’s reluctance in releasing payments, and the plight of the workers caught in this tussle.
MGNREGA
- The MGNREGA stands for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005.
- This is labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘Right to Work’.
- The act was first proposed in 1991 by P.V. Narasimha Rao.
What are the issues?
- Non-purposive spending and corruptions
- Workers penalised for administrative lapses
- Genuine job cards being deleted
- Too much centralization weakening local governance
- Local priorities being ignored
Some innovation in MGNREGA can address the challenges
- Looping in the skilled worker
- Used to meet the wage cost of their employment in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
- Including farm related works
- To allow farmers to employ MGNREGA workers in agricultural operations like land preparation, sowing, transplantation of paddy, plucking of cotton, intercultural operations and harvesting of crops etc. so as to reduce the cost of cultivation.
- The idea is to pay part of the wages of labour in agricultural operations from MGNREGA.
- Increasing the number of Work Schemes
- Currently, there are only 2-3 work schemes (say PMAY) running per panchayat, which is leading to the crowding of workers at worksites.
- To prevent this and to ensure that all willing households are able to access employment through NREGA, the number of schemes needs to be increased, and 6-8 schemes must be introduced in each village.
- Paying Workers Immediately
- Rural households urgently need cash-in-hand, and so the emerging demand is for immediate payment to workers.
- NREGA payments are frequently delayed by weeks or months.
- In remote areas, wage payments should be made in cash, and paid on the same day.
Conclusion
- Government and NGOs must study the impact of MGNREGA in rural areas so as to ensure that this massive anti-poverty scheme is not getting diluted from its actual path.