IndiaSpend On a sweltering April afternoon, Hari Oraon, 51, was sitting outside his home in Latehar’s Ahirpur village of Mahuadanr block, nearly 200 km northwest of Ranchi. He was worried. Owing to pending wages--he had not been paid for seven days--Hari Oraon had not gone to work for the last two days. “I do not know why this happened, and I am not sure if I will receive it,” said Hari, a...
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NREGA sangharsh morcha asks for withdrawal of NMMS app for marking compulsory worker attendance
In the recent week, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has dealt three major, concerted blows to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA): (1) The Budget allocation for NREGA was reduced to just Rs 60,000 crore in 2023-24 (less than Rs 50,000 crore if we deduct wage arrears from 2022-23). This makes this year’s allocation the lowest as a proportion of GDP (0.2%) in the history of the programme. (2) The...
More »Budget Briefs: FY 2022-23 MGNREGS allocation 9% lower, expenditure outstrips funds - Ria Kasliwal, Mridusmita Bordoloi, Avani Kapur
Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research Budget 2023-24 will be unveiled on February 1. This brief examines the Government of India’s flagship rural employment programme. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). It was launched in 2006 and is the largest scheme of the Department of Rural Development (DoRD) under the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). It aims to provide 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to every rural...
More »Mandatory digital attendance for MGNREGA will destroy scheme -Himanshu Nitnaware
-Down to Earth The central government has mandated digitally capturing the attendance of all workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGnregs). Labourers and activist groups have opposed this and pointed out several loopholes in the move. The National Mobile Monitoring System, which came into effect on January 1, 2023, was launched with claims of bringing transparency and eliminating corruption at the ground level. Pilot tests began in May 2021 at...
More »Laboured wages: On MGNREGS payments to States
-The Hindu Any delay in funds to be paid to States for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme payments is unethical A testy exchange in the Rajya Sabha between the Minister of State for Rural Development, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, and the Trinamool Congress MP, Jawhar Sircar, on the withholding of funds for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in West Bengal laid bare a key implementation issue —...
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