Despite its seminal success in beginning a process of addressing issues of poverty, starvation and empowering the poor, the MGNREGA needed a general election to breathe life into it. However, the disproportionate influence of the middle class on social sector policy has led to the same set of pre-election prejudices resurfacing. "What use is the MGNREGA to the economy at large?" asks the businessman, one eye fixed apprehensively on the share...
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Sonia writes to Manmohan on MNREGS wages by Vidya Subrahmaniam
Calls for “suitable directions” on paying statutory minimum wages A follow-up to NAC meeting, which felt there should be no deviation from statutory wages Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat Chief Ministers have also made a strong plea for minimum wages Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging “suitable directions” on paying statutory minimum wages to workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). The November 11 letter is...
More »What is wrong with MG-NREGA?
Can we afford to leave MG-NREGA alone? Why is the civil society crying foul? Are the rural activists demanding too much? Is the UPA-II trying to take back what UPA-I gave before the elections? Let us face it, the MG-NREGA is in a big crisis. NAC members like Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze have alleged (See links below) that the present remuneration of rural workers is declining by the day and it...
More »Unfulfilled hopes by Aman Sethi
Bottlenecks at every stage in the implementation of MGNREGA in Atra village in Chhattisgarh are making the villagers disillusioned. “If payment is unreliable, the poorest and the most vulnerable opt out of the system...” On a rainy day in September, Bir Singh Malekar, 45, rues his decision to stay back in Atra village in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district this summer, instead of leaving in search of work. “I usually go to Chennai between...
More »For NREGA workers, it's a black Diwali this year
The Udyog Maidan near Statue Circle was witness to a different kind of Diwali celebrations' on Thursday. At the centre were two huge puppets carrying posters demanding minimum wages for NREGA workers while another one called for celebrating a black diwali. The protest got louder at the background where NREGA workers from various parts of the district help up posters on the issue. "It has been a unanimous decision from our side...
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