Even though the Central Government agreed to link the wages paid under MG-NREGA to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL), it shied away from paying statutory minimum wages in various states of India. Their logic for this: Lack of clarity on who will bear the extra financial burden—the Centre or the states? A letter from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to UPA and NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi dated 31...

The Union government is reneging on its legal obligation to pay minimum wages, even to the most deprived sections of the population, in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. If anyone wants to study the capacity of India's policymakers to turn a progressive piece of legislation upside down, the wage policy under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a good place to...

Seventy-year-old Dau Singh is dancing to the tune of a parody music being belted out in the background by a group of people sitting on the pavement. The song urges people to write letters to their brethren and come there to join the fight. "Come on mazdoors, get into the act to get what you deserve," urges the song. The venue is the Statue Circle in Jaipur, where hundreds of...

This is with reference to the report “Centre to step in Rajasthan MNREGS wage row” (Oct. 10) which cites the Union Rural Development Ministry Secretary Mr. B.K. Sinha as stating that the State Government of Rajasthan will have to pay the prescribed wage rate under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act/Scheme (MGNREGA) to workers under MGNREGA. This has not communicated the Union Secretary's point of view correctly. The...

With the state government finally increasing the minimum wages by 35% from January 1, 2011, the focus of the on-going Mazdoor Haq Yatra in the state is now on increasing the wages under MGNREGA from the current freeze at Rs 100 to meet the minimum wages. Not only activists of the Yatra plan to rake up this issue nationally, but with their prime demands from the state met, the entire focus...