Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
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COVID-19 rural crisis: Why MGNREGA needs a harder push -Debmalya Nandy
-Down to Earth MGNREGA workers across the country on June 29 staged peaceful demonstration, raised demands for higher benefits and wages The nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) left Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA) workers in the lurch. Thousands such workers, facing an economic crisis, have demanded an increase in the annual guarantee of work to 200 days per person. The workers from across...
More »MGNREGA workers demand Rs. 600 as minimum daily wage rate, besides 200 days of employment and strict implementation of locally planned works
-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated June 29th, 2020 Today, workers in over sixty districts across eleven states of the country observed “NREGA Adhikar Diwas” by submitting a memorandum to the Prime Minister to demand an increase in the annual guarantee of work to 200 days per person, revision of the daily wage rate to Rs. 600 and strict implementation of schemes planned by the gram/ward sabha. The widespread disruptions to...
More »Dominant-caste panchayats in Punjab pass resolutions to reduce labour wages -Jatinder Kaur Tur
-CaravanMagazine.in On 30 May, the dominant caste landowners of Ghanauri Khurd village in Punjab’s Sangrur district organised a meeting of their panchayat. Under the supervision of Rajdeep Kaur, the sarpanch of the village, they passed a list of resolutions against the wages, welfare and freedom of the primarily Dalit daily-wage labourers of the village. The resolution capped the wages of workers at Rs 3,800 for sowing an acre of paddy and...
More »Lockdown Hit Migrant Workers' Savings, Forced Many to Take Loans: Gurugram Survey -Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar
-TheWire.in The study also showed that most of the workers from far away states wanted to leave at the earliest. New Delhi: A survey of migrant workers in Gurugram, Haryana has revealed that the prolonged lockdown has left most of them without any savings and forced many to take loans. Also, while most of those who hail from far-off states like Assam, Bihar and West Bengal are keen to return to their...
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