Call to hike NREGA wage -Basant Kumar Mohanty

-The Telegraph

New Delhi: Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked the central government to increase wages under the national rural job scheme to at least Rs 300 a day to attract workers, a view apparently shared by many states as well as activists.

An official in the rural development ministry said many state governments had already written to the Centre citing difficulties in implementing the MGNREGA because of the low wages workers are paid under the scheme.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act provides for guaranteed unskilled work for up to 100 days a year to every rural household. It lists around 40 types of work, including afforestation, de-silting of water bodies and construction of check dams and water harvesting structures.

Badal last week wrote to rural development minister Birender Singh, saying the existing rate in Punjab - Rs 210 - was not being able to draw workers under the scheme. The prevailing daily wage for unskilled work in the state is nearly Rs 300.

Data published by the Labour Bureau, a wing of the labour ministry, on average wages paid in the last six months in rural India show the MGNREGA rates are much lower than the prevailing rates in states.

Under the Minimum Wage Act of 1948, state governments are entitled to notify the minimum wage for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour from time to time. The MGNREGA rate is even less than the minimum rate prescribed in many states.

The Odisha government, for example, revised its minimum wage in May from Rs 150 to Rs 200 a day for unskilled work. The MGNREGA wage is Rs 174 in the state.

Social activist and former National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy said the low rate of wages under the MGNREGA was a problem. Earlier, in a 1983 judgment, the Supreme Court had ruled that different wages couldn't be paid for the same type of work.

Minister Singh said wages under the MGNREGA are revised according to laid down procedures. "We follow the norms prescribed under the MGNREGA statute," he said.

Wages under the MGNREGA, which were the same as the minimum rates in respective states till 2008, are revised every year by linking them to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourer (CPIAL) for the state concerned. The procedure was to be reviewed once in five years.

However, states at times revise the rates more than once a year, leading to the difference between the MGNREGA rate and the minimum wage rate.

The ministry had set up a panel headed by economist S. Mahendra Dev to review the procedure for revising MGNREGA wages. The panel recommended that the baseline for MGNREGA wages could not be lower than the existing minimum wage for unskilled farm labourers in a state. Government sources said the finance ministry was examining the committee's report.

An official said if the MGNREGA wage is aligned to the prevailing minimum wage in a state, it would cost the Centre an additional Rs 10,000 crore a year.