Working group pitches for MNREGS wage raise
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COMMENTS 
The Working Group on Wages, constituted under the auspices of the Central Employment Guarantee Council that governs the functioning of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, in a report, has expressed concern over what it described as a crisis of wage policy, and has suggested a hike
One of the six working groups set up by the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) to monitor and review the working of the nation’s pathbreaking rural employment guarantee scheme has made a case for a drastic review of the amount paid as wages. The group has painted a grim picture of the impact of price hikes on the wages paid to those employed under the scheme. It wants participants compensated for any erosion in money that the price rise has meant for them.
The Working Group on Wages, headed by Jean Dreze, activist, economist and member of the National Advisory Council (NAC), has made a case for making sure that real, not just nominal wages paid every day to workers are at least Rs 100 a day. The group has expressed its exasperation at rampant and prolonged delays in wage payments and non-payment of compensation in the event of delays in payment.
Taking into account the impact of inflation on the purchasing power of the rupee, Dreze’s group concluded: “NREGA wage levels should be immediately indexed to the price level using the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers with April 1, 2009 as the base…” It also recommends that the wages should be revised upwards annually, if not once every six months.
There are also some “emergency” recommendations in the report; one argues for a reduction in the number of man-hours of work done each day. The working group recommends that they be brought down from “nine hours to seven hours” a day. The group also urges that wages must under no circumstances be allowed to dip below the minimum wage in the state (something already stipulated by the Act).
Other recommendations include transparency in the way muster rolls are kept and in the way participants are paid. The group concludes that there is a need to set up a MNREGA Workers Compensation Fund at the district level, to enable financial compensation to participants if payments are delayed. It says that until bank payment systems are better regulated, “MNREGA workers should be paid an extra day of wages every two weeks to compensate for the time and money spent in collecting their wages from banks or post offices”.
The Central Employment Guarantee Council took stock of progress under the MNREGA at its meeting on Friday. High on the agenda were the reports of six working groups on different aspects that impact the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Meanwhile, a Supreme Court Bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justice Swatanter Kumar stated recently that there was need for a nodal agency at the Centre to ensure that guidelines on implementation of the rural employment scheme were adhered to.
The Bench also voiced the need for a social audit of the scheme as there have been allegations that job cards and wages are not being handed out properly.
Source: The Indian Express, August 28, 2010
The Economic Times, August 28, 2010
The Hindu, August 27, 2010
Press Information Bureau, August 27, 2010