Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Interviews | Jean Drèze, economist and honorary professor at the Delhi School of Economics, interviewed by Down to Earth
Jean Drèze, economist and honorary professor at the Delhi School of Economics, interviewed by Down to Earth

Jean Drèze, economist and honorary professor at the Delhi School of Economics, interviewed by Down to Earth

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jul 12, 2021   modified Modified on Jul 13, 2021

-Down to Earth

The Government of India amended the payment procedure for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) some time ago. Due to this, MGNREGA workers in the states and Union territories faced a delay in their wage payment. This delay came at a time when the second wave of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was wreaking havoc across the country.

MGNREGA was started in 2006. Economist and honorary professor at the Delhi School of Economics, Jean Drèze played a pivotal role in preparing the draft of the scheme. Down to Earth spoke in detail with Dreze. Edited excerpts: 

* Down To Earth: The government has brought in a new notification for MGNREGA, which classifies workers into Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward and general categories and gives them work and money accordingly. What problems arise and how may this hinder achieving MGNREGA's basic objective?

Jean Drèze: Currently, I am not informed about why the central government brought such a notification and what it wants to achieve from it. But it is certain that many people are getting affected. I am going to do a detailed study about this and will share all the information related to it with you very soon.

But as far as the basic objective of MGNREGA affirmative action is concerned, I feel work would be given on the basis of demand. Therefore, the objective will not be affected. However, the complaints relating to the kind of work people are getting and delay in wage payment may increase, which is problematic.

MGNREGA was created to benefit anybody from a poor or deprived section of society. Obviously, the poverty is more in the SC and ST sections and their number is also more. So, they were accustomed to more employment through this scheme. But the objective of MGNREGA has never been to categorise them on the basis of caste, discriminate between them or divide them. To do so is not in the interest of both MGNREGA and labour.

* DTE: In this era of COVID-19, a substantial number of MGNREGA workers have worked but have not received payment. That too, when the government claims to have put the money into their accounts.

JD: According to the government, four per cent of payments were turned down. This is a massive sum. There would be a large sum of workers whose payment would not be deposited into their accounts.

Here it is important to note that in MGNREGA payments, there are four categories of issues: Delayed payment, denied payment, misdirected payment and locked payment. According to what I was told by a top central government official in charge of MGNREGA, there could be more than 200 reasons why money isn’t being deposited.

However, there are several significant causes for this, including a mismatch of the account to which MGNREGA salary payment is tied, such as a non-bank account with the name given in the muster roll, non-Know Your Customer, incorrect data entry, the account being dead (dormant) and constantly changing payment methods.

When a person has multiple Aadhaar-linked accounts, they frequently have no idea where the money originated from. Aadhaar is also frequently connected to the wrong account or individual.

Please click here to read more. 

 

Image Courtesy: Down to Earth


Down to Earth, 12 July, 2021, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/interviews/governance/mgnrega-never-intended-to-categorise-workers-based-on-caste-jean-dreze-77901?fbclid=IwAR0PMpsPx7haKXy7n3lQM-y_PjnzBH6I7WE9A-KJklSyXwCTVFfljIzB5vg


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close