MGNREGA wage rates have not risen for 9 states including Bihar, Jharkhand & U.P.

-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 1 April, 2018

Hours after NREGA Sangharsh Morcha wrote an open letter (please click here to access) to the Rural Development Minister demanding notification of revised MGNREGA wage rates for 2018-19, the Ministry issued the employment guarantee act wage rates for the new financial year.

 

Wage rates have not increased for some of the poorest states of the country – Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. For 27 states and Union Territories the NREGA wage rate is less than the corresponding minimum wage for agriculture, condemning its employment guarantee act workers to another year of bonded labour. The difference is greatest in Tripura, where the MGNREGA wage rate is only 58 per cent of the state minimum wage for agriculture. This ratio is 59 per cent for Sikkim, 65 per cent for Gujarat and 68 per cent for Andhra Pradesh (see table).

After amendment of labour laws and demonetisation, the 2018-19 NREGA wage rates is the latest blow to India’s rural workers. Fixing pittance as the NREGA wage rate exposes Modi government’s cruel apathy towards growing income inequality and the mass unemployment in the country. It also lays bare the government’s hollow claim of presenting a pro-poor budget for 2018-19. The decision to stagnate the wage rate of NREGA workers comes close at heels to the doubling of the basic monthly salary of Members of Parliament – from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

NREGA Sangharsh Morcha strongly condemns this anti-workers decision and demands an increase in the NREGA wage rate to Rs 600 a day. This follows the Seventh Pay Commission recommendation of Rs 18,000 as the minimum monthly salary.

For further information, please write at nrega.sangharsh.morcha@gmail.com or contact Abhay Kumar (9845371493), Ankita Aggarwal (9818603009), Anuradha Talwar (9433002064), Arundhati Dhuru (9919664444), Gangaram Paikra (9977462084), Kamayani Swami (9771950248), Mukesh Nirvasat (9468862200), Neeta Hardikar (9825412387), Nirmala Tammineni (9848930031) or Richa Singh (9452232663).