F14-Poverty

The Right to Food Campaign stands in solidarity with the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha’s national call for action across the country to revive the proper functioning of MGNREGA. The Right to Food Campaign is extremely concerned and anguished with the continued violation of MGNREGA across the country. MGNREGA is being implemented in a manner that is contrary to its spirit. Millions of workers have not been paid for the work they have done for several months, leading to a situation of bonded labour under a government programme. Due to the existence of systematic corruption within MGNREGA on a large scale, in states like West Bengal, both the union government and the state government have not been able to resolve the issues related to the release of payments which led to a severe burden on workers. Around 2700 crores of wages are pending since December 2021 alone in West Bengal.

https://countercurrents.org/2022/09/right-to-food-campaign-demands-proper-functioning-of-mgnrega/ 

MGNREGA which directly provides employment and also helps create rural assets has been short-shifted by this budget. Despite over ₹21,000 crores of pending liabilities, the allocation under MGNREGA is only 73,000 crore, while in 2020-21 the spending under the schemes was over 1.1 lakh crore. The negative impact of the economic crisis that began even before the pandemic led to disruption has fallen disproportionately on those at the bottom of the pyramid. Multiple reports and surveys capture the intense distress among the poor and marginalised sections of society exacerbated due to the pandemic and ensuing restrictions and further slowdown of the economy. In this context, spending on social protection schemes such as the MGNREGA became especially important to improve rural distress.

Press Release

22/09/2022

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MGNREGA ‘Under Attack’? Rural Workers Demand Increased Budgetary Allocations Ronak Chhabra | 02 Aug 2022 At the call of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, rural workers from over 15 states started a three-day protest at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday.  The morcha said in a press statement: "NREGA is under attack by the government. Consistently decreasing budgetary allocations, wage payments delayed for months, negligible compensation paid for delays, and woefully low wages plague NREGA. These issues are widespread across the country,”

Shankar Singh of Rajasthan-based Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) told Newsclick on Monday that the delay in payment of wages was the biggest issue being faced by rural workers associated with MGNREGA across the country. “It only gets worse in the second half of each year as “inadequate” funds for the scheme runs dry,”

the Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG), a coming together of researchers and activists, in its MGNREGA scheme tracker for July this year highlighted that the Central government had already exhausted two-thirds of its scheme’s budget. “With eight months remaining, the pending dues are expected to increase,”

On Tuesday, rural workers from various states also highlighted the distress that is being caused to them, owing to the recently introduced National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) app – it was launched in May 2021 to ensure monitoring of the scheme and taking real-time attendance of workers at worksite.

“But it has only caused us trouble and nothing else,” rued Pramila Devi, a 40-year-old rural worker, hailing from Bihar’s Vaishali district. “Many a times, it doesn’t record our attendance because of poor network due to which the workers lose their wages. There is no attendance app for the officers and ministers, then why it is for the workers?”

The advent of ‘app-solute’ chaos in NREGA by Chakradhar Buddha & Laavanya Tamang June 25, 2022 https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-advent-of-app-solute-chaos-in-nrega/article65561536.ece

Demand of record 30 million jobs for MGNREGS reflects rural distress Himanshu Nitnaware 07 July 202  https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/governance/demand-of-record-30-million-jobs-for-mgnregs-reflects-rural-distress-83603  Men outnumbered women for the 1st time in job demand

The scheme has not recorded such demand since its inception in 2006. A section of economy watchers related such demand to India’s ongoing rural distress, inflation and unemployment.

This year’s level was 43 per cent more than the pre-pandemic (2015-2019) levels month of May.

https://countercurrents.org/2022/08/why-nrega-implementation-problems-are-increasing/ 

This year at the time of the presentation of budget again a reduction relative to last year’s revised estimate was made by allocating only Rs. 73,000 crore. A calculation made by a monitoring group People’s Action for Employment Guarantee ( PAEG) revealed the very uncomfortable reality that if the same number of people apply for work as in the previous year , this allocation will be adequate to provide only 21 days work in a year, as compared to the legal entitlement of 100 days.

The result of the much lower than essential allocation has been that with actual expenditure of Rs. 36,112 crore in the first 4 months of the financial year ( up to July 31) and outstanding unpaid dues of Rs. 12,390 crore, the government is now left with only 24,498 crore or 33% of the allocation for the next 8 months! So if there are reports of inadequate work and delayed wages, there are reasons for this.

To give examples from only one state, recent reports indicate increasing problems in the implementation of MG-NREGA in Himachal Pradesh, the most disturbing aspect being the long delays in the payments of workers.

Clearly there is urgent need for setting up a proper system of timely wages in MG-NREGA and for ensuring a proper budget for this. Here it may also be pointed out that several NREGA monitoring organizations such as NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, PAEG and Right to Food Campaign have been giving advance warnings that reduction in the budgetary allocation for this year, compared to the revised estimate for the previous year, will lead to failure in providing adequate work and/or making timely wage payments. These organizations have in fact pleaded for making a significant increase in the budgetary allocation for NREGA compared to the previous year, and have backed their demand with detailed calculations of the actual need. This is a demand based program with entitlement assured by law, and so the government must take care to provide adequate budget for this.

by Bharat Dogra 

06/08/2022

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Engel’s Law and the pandemic’s impact on our food expenditure  https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/engels-law-and-the-pandemic-s-impact-on-our-food-expenditure-11644945106074.html 
Most households spent larger portions of their income on food but covid disruptions were particularly harsh on the poorest

The Engel curves for food, which show how household expenditure on it varies with household income, shifted upwards between January and April 2020. In urban areas, before-versus-after gaps in food-budget shares in this period were wider for higher-income deciles than for lower- income deciles. This may partly be attributed to higher expenses on food sourced from outside, ready-to-cook/eat meals and consumption of more expensive foods as people worked from home. In rural areas, the gap was widest for the lowest decile, with a narrowing for middle deciles and widening at higher deciles. That the poorest in rural areas were worst affected by the lockdown is not surprising. While the overall Engel curve shifted downward once lockdown restrictions were lifted, it remained above the pre-pandemic levels even after the fierce second wave subsided....

India’s finance ministry decided to cut the Centre’s food subsidy by about 28%, money for mid-day meals by 12% and funds for jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act by 25% in the budget for 2022-23 (compared to allocations for 2021-22). This  would reflect not just insensitivity to the needs of our poor, but also an ill-informed view that India’s growth was stalled by a deficiency of investment rather than demand.