Workers from multiple states including West Bengal, Karnataka, among others, gathered at Ramleela Maidan on Sunday. Image clicked by Ronak Chhabra

New Delhi: The monthly wages of the industrial worker Komal Kant Prajapati, who has had to switch four jobs in the last ten years, are so low that he could never afford to call his wife and five-year-old son to live with him in Haryana’s auto hub Manesar.

Instead, Prajapati, 35, chose to share a room with four other workers and skips a meal on some days – all in an attempt to save some money, which can be sent back to his family living back in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district. “The tough fight to survive has only got tougher now,” he told NewsClick on Sunday. “I lost my job last month. With no work in hand, I have no other option but to leave the city,” he added.

The struggle of Prajapati illustrates how workers in the country continue to reel under the pressure of a weak economy which has failed to ensure an adequate income for its labourers over the years and is now failing even to create enough jobs. To register their protest against not just this, hundreds of them, led by one Delhi-based Mazdoor Adhikar Sangharsh Abhiyan (MASA), gathered here at Ramleela Maidan on Sunday.

MASA is the coming together of around 16 sectoral unions and federations across the country. As such, workers from different states including Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Haryana, among others, had gathered to press for a six-point common charter of demands.

Among their major demands include a declaration of Rs. 26,000 per month as minimum wage for all workers across the country, provision of Rs. 15,000 per month as a subsistence allowance to all the unemployed, and repeal of the four “anti-worker” Labour Codes.

Hare Krishna Mathur, 43, hailing from West Bengal’s Purulia district, shared Prajapati’s pain and frustration but is still refusing to throw in the towel even though ever since the pandemic erupted two years ago, woes of this agriculture worker have only compounded. “I think I will be working all my life, but won’t be able to save any money to live peacefully even in my old age,” he lamented while speaking to NewsClick.

Capturing this view, MASA in a memorandum submitted to President Droupadi Murmu on Sunday, underscored that “persistent inflation-unemployment-starvation” are pushing thousands of workers to “die by suicide”.

Moreover, “Workers’ legal right to unionisation is being criminalised. Scheme workers such as Bhojanmata, Anganwadi workers, and ASHA workers are being indiscriminately exploited by the government. Workers’ basic rights to ‘Permanent Jobs for Permanent Work’, and ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ have [also] been incessantly diluted in the recent past and are now being completely abolished,” the memorandum added.

The Central and the State governments are “shamelessly” providing their “unconditional support”  to corporates today, Shyambir of Inqlabi Mazdoor Kendra, one among the constituents of MASA, told NewsClick, on the sidelines of Sunday’s demonstration. “To highlight this, today’s protest was called in which workers from different sectors took part,” he said.

A “Mazdoor Aakrosh” rally to Rashtrapati Bhawan was also called, Shyambir added, but it was only barricaded by the Delhi Police after permission for the same was denied.

To be sure in the backdrop of the passage of four Labour Codes in 2020 and the recent surge in the prices of essential commodities, similar demands have been raised by multiple trade unions in the country over recent years. According to them, the new legislation, which is yet to be implemented, is aimed at diluting hard-won workers’ rights, and hence, could trigger unrest across industries.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, MASA also demanded the stopping of the privatisation of public sector enterprises, noting that these institutions, “which were built using public resources and taxes paid by common people, are now being handed over to these capitalists so that they can profit from them.”

Universalisation of the Public Distribution System (PDS), along with healthcare and education provisions for all workers was also demanded, as slogans against the Narendra Modi – led Central government were raised.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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New Delhi: The marginal increase in demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in September points towards a “much greater level of rural distress”, activists said on Tuesday. According to them, this is so since the rise in demand was recorded despite the Centre attempting to “artificially” suppress it.

Government data showed that household demand and individual categories under the said scheme were up more than 5% in September compared to August this year, The Economic Times reported on Monday.

As per the data, the September demand – which was 16.7 million under the household segment and 20.2 million for individuals – remained higher than the pre-COVID levels, even as the figures for the same month are lower than last year.

Activists said that the demand increment, observed after it fell for the past three consecutive months this year, is worrying, adding that the “real demand” could be much higher.

“Much of the demand under MGNREGA has been artificially suppressed as adequate funding is not allocated to the scheme at the start of the financial year, which eventually leads to a situation wherein the demand-driven nature of the scheme is not honoured,” Nikhil Dey, founder-member of the NGO Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan told NewsClick over the phone.

“This year is no different,” he claimed, adding, “the real demand could be much higher since funds to multiple States are also delayed.”

To be sure, in response to a question in August this year, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), which monitors the implementation of the jobs scheme in association with the state governments, informed the Rajya Sabha that West Bengal had received no funds from the Centre under MGNREGA for 2022-23. The reasons cited include the absence of social audits to ensure transparency in the implementation of the scheme.

However, West Bengal is not the only state where at the end of the second quarter of the financial year, funds under MGNREGA are delayed. Released by the Centre in four tranches, these funds were delayed in at least four other states, including Kerala, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, among others, as The Hindu reported last month.

Rural workers and social activists campaigning to press for increased budget allocation to MGNREGA have underlined in the past how lack of funds leads to wage delays which, subsequently, results in an “erosion of confidence” among the job-seekers under the scheme.

“Despite all of this, the month of September recorded an increase in demand, which only shows that there is a much greater level of rural distress within the country than what the Centre is ready to accept,” Dey said on Tuesday while further raising questions over the labour market stability.

Incidentally, the Union Finance Ministry cited the drop in month-on-month work demand under MGNREGA – the lowest in August in this fiscal – to claim that the unemployment rate in the rural areas was possibly reduced.

NewsClick had reported earlier on how this claim didn’t go well with the activists, who pointed to the figures published by the Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), which showed that rural unemployment in August had surged – registering 7.7% in the country.

Though the unemployment rate in rural areas has fallen to 5.84% in September due to increased labour participation, the latest data show.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Anuj Goyal, a researcher with Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG), demanded that the Centre announce additional budget allocation for MGNREGA to meet the work demand in the coming months. As per the scheme, at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year is provided to at least one member of every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

In their pre-budget note this year, the PAEG had calculated that the minimum required budget for MGNREGA for 2022-23 fiscal should be close to Rs 2.64 lakh crore, as against Rs 73,000 crore, which was announced by the Narendra Modi – led Central government.

“Despite soaring demand for employment, provisioning for MGNREGA remained significantly less over the past years,” Goyal said, adding, “rural workers continue to bear the brunt due to inadequacy of funds.”

Courtesy: Newsclick

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New Delhi: There is no distinction between the workers when it comes to forming a union, said the employees’ union of Manesar-situated Bellsonica Auto Components, an auto parts manufacturer, in its reply to Haryana Labour Department, while defending the grant of membership to a contractual worker.

Last year, the union, in a first-of-its-kind initiative in Gurugram’s automotive belt, had granted membership to a contract worker of the company, in a move that prompted the state’s Labour Commissioner-cum-Registrar of Trade Unions to seek an explanation from the former earlier this month.

The action, “prima-facie appears illegal” as it is a “contravention” of the Constitution of the union, read the commissioner’s letter dated September 5, addressed to the union.

The Constitution of the union, framed under relevant provisions of the Trade Union Act of 1926, however, does not make any distinction between a regular and a contract worker, the Bellsonica employees union has said in its reply, adding that forming a union is a fundamental right of every citizen.

“The Trade Union Act, 1926 does not make any distinction between a regular and contract worker when it comes to forming a union,” the reply dated September 28 read. “… the constitution/rules of the Union as framed under Section 6 of the Trade Union Act, 1926 also does not make any distinction between a regular and contract worker,” added the letter, a copy of which has been accessed by NewsClick.

The reply further added that the Constitution of the union has been duly approved by the office of the Labour Commissioner.

The matter pertaining to the grant of membership to one contract worker at Bellsonica, which is also a first-tier vendor of Maruti, was brought to the fore when the factory management of the said company’s Manesar unit flagged the action in August this year, demanding cancellation of the union’s registration, NewsClick has reported earlier.

Subsequently, the latest objection of the Haryana government to granting membership to a contract worker had also called for attention to the burning question faced by trade unions in the country: Can contract workers be unionised?

Labour law experts, with whom NewsClick spoke to earlier, are of the opinion that a union is within its rights to grant membership to the contract workers if its Constitution allows for the same. 

Likewise, other union leaders also extended their support to the move, underscoring that the unionisation of contract workers is a long-pending demand and must be achieved within the industrial quarters in the country.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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Kurukshetra: As many as 300 Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) delegates from 20 states across the country gathered here on Friday for a three-day conference that will see the formation of a first-of-its-kind national federation of all-female primary health workers, who have been on the frontline in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

The conference, which saw the participation of leaders of ASHA workers’ and facilitators’ unions, affiliated with the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), on its first day, commenced with the demand for ‘better health for all by strengthening the country’s public health infrastructure.’

The women also sloganeered to intensify the struggle to turn National Health Mission (NHM) into a sustainable programme.

Envisaged first under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), which was subsequently extended also to cover the urban areas in 2013, ASHAs are community health volunteers acting as a critical link between the government’s healthcare system and the community. 

Their tasks include, among others, mobilising the community and facilitating people’s access to health and related services, spreading awareness, and even acting as care providers to pregnant women and children requiring treatment.

Currently, there are nearly 10 lakh ASHAs in the country. Bereft of the ‘worker’ status, under the NHM, the all-women volunteers are entitled to task-based incentives for more than 60-odd activities, as listed by the Central government. In addition, they also receive an incentive worth Rs. 2000 for a set of routine activities from the Centre; over and above this, the different State governments are also allowed to fix a monthly payment for the ASHAs.

On Friday, the leaders gathered in Haryana’s Kurukshetra, rued that even as ASHAs have been playing a crucial role in strengthening the public health system and more so, played an important role in assisting the government machinery to restrict the spread of Covid-19 in the country since 2020 – for which, they were also recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) – the long-pending demands of the ASHAs remain unaddressed.

“ASHA workers fought a vigorous fight against Corona (Covid-19) in the country and also fought for their rights during this time. For many years, ASHAs have been pressing particularly for regularisation of their services with regular salaries and due respect in view of their tremendous work,” K Hemalata, national president, CITU said while addressing the congregation during the first session on Friday.    

K Hemlata, national president of CITU, said that it is time that the struggle of ASHAs is intensified. Image clicked by Ronak Chhabra.

She added that it is time that the struggle for the same is intensified, for which a national federation of the ASHAs will now be formed.

Dr O.P. Lathwal, former Director of Health Services in Haryana, who was the chairman of the opening session on Friday, extended his support for the demands of the ASHAs. He also highlighted that the social health activist movement in the country “owes its birth to the efforts and campaign” by organisations like Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) and Peoples Health Movement (PHM).

“Moving forward,” Lawal said, “we must now combine ASHAs’ demands with the demands for people’s health which is the only guarantee for the success of their struggle. The ASHAs’ struggle must also focus on the social determinants of health such as food security with the expansion of Public Distribution System (PDS), safe drinking, water supply, sanitation, hygiene, housing employment and others.”

Jagmati Sangwan of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) said that the fight of ASHAs is also the “fight of every other woman in the country for a respectable position in the society.” On Friday, other speakers at the conference included leaders of the All India State Government Employees Association, Sarv Karamchari Sangh – Haryana, and JSA, among others. During the first session, a resolution to oppose the privatisation of healthcare was also adopted.

Speaking to NewsClick on the sidelines of the conference, A R Sindhu of the existing All India Co-ordination Committee of ASHA Workers, said discussions will be held among the delegates for the next three days after which a joint demand charter will be adopted by the newly formed national federation, which is proposed to be named, ASHA Workers’ and Facilitators’ Federation of India (AWFFI).

“Currently, there is a national federation of anganwadi workers and mid-day meal workers. And now, a federation on similar lines for ASHAs is also going to be formed,” Surekha of Haryana ASHA Workers’ Union told NewsClick on Friday. Anganwadi workers are envisaged under Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 scheme (erstwhile, Integrated Child Development Scheme), while mid-day meal workers are part of the PM Poshan (earlier known as school Mid Day Meal scheme).

Asked about future programmes, Surekha said that a call for a joint national campaign of all the scheme workers in the country is expected to be given at the end of the three-day conference. “We will be fighting together for our legitimate demands,” she said.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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New Delhi: Land-owning agencies have come under fire for failing to design a uniform rehabilitation policy and finding a solution to the vexed issue of slum resettlement in the city even as unabated anti-encroachment drives are pushing the affected families to the margin.

Hundreds of people evicted in the recent demolition drives in the capital staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday  and rued that no serious efforts have been made to rehabilitate the aggrieved families months after their houses were razed.

The protesters, including from Gyaspur Basti, in Sarai Kale Khan, and Jahangirpuri, were joined by the inhabitants of other slums in the city who stare at a bleak future after receiving demolition notices ordering them to clear the land of any “unauthorised encroachment”.

Affordable housing for the poor has been on the agenda of almost all political parties—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre wants to make Delhi slum-free while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi runs one of its flagship policy to provide shelter to people under the name of ‘Jahan Jhuggi Wahin Makaan’.

Despite this, however, slum resettlement in the capital remains an elusive quest as social activists accuse both the Centre and the Delhi government of making half-hearted efforts at rehabilitating evicted families. 

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), an autonomous body under Union ministry of housing and urban affairs, owns 80% of land housing slums while the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), which is under the Delhi government’s control own the rest.

During the demonstration, jointly staged by the Mazdoor Awas Sangharsh Samiti (MWWS) and the All India Central Council of Trade Unions, the protestors slammed the DDA and the DUSIB for the “forced displacement” of thousands of families. 

In a press statement released after the demonstration, the protesting organisations demanded that there should be no eviction without complete rehabilitation and that legal action must be taken against “erring” officers. The statement condemned the “growing trend of dispensing justice using bulldozers rather than the procedure established by law”.

Nirmal Gorana of MWWS told Newsclick that “not even a single evicted family since the onset of the pandemic has been rehabilitated”. “There are different policies under which different land-owing agencies in the city operate. While all of them talk about rehabilitation, no serious efforts are made by to ensure resettlement of the evicted families,” he said.

Currently, slumdwellers are rehabilitated under land laws which deal with encroachment of public property, according to a report by the Hindustan Times. The rehabilitation exercise, initiated by the DDA, is guided by its ‘in-situ’ redevelopment scheme under its master plan. 

Similarly, eligible slum clusters—around 700—are also entitled for rehabilitation and relocation in accordance to DUSIB’s Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015.

These policies, however, don’t mean much for 55-year-old Surjit Kaur, whose life turned upside down after receiving a DDA demolition notice in July ordering her family and others in east Delhi’s Kasturba Nagar to remove “unauthorised encroachment”—which in this case means her house.

The said land is “required for public purpose for the construction of a proposed road”, as per the notice, viewed by Newsclick. The cluster, which houses more than 100-150 families, is not notified by DUSIB and hence, not entitled for rehabilitation, the notice added.

“My family has been residing in this house for the last several years. Where will we go after leaving this place?” a worried Kaur told Newsclick. Driven by similar concerns, several of the aggrieved residents staged a demonstration in the locality while others approached the Delhi High Court for relief. The next date of hearing is on September 13.

Gorana demanded that the DUSIB must carry out fresh surveys to identify eligible slums for rehabilitation under its 2015 policy. The multiple organisations that have come together under the slogan of “Housing for all” are also pressing for a uniform rehabilitation policy framed on the principle of “zero-eviction”.

Recently, anti-encroachment drives in Delhi have also taken a political and communal hue ever since the erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation carried out an anti-encroachment demolition drive in Jahangirpuri in April days after the locality witnessed communal violence following a Hanuman Jayanti procession.

The “Bulldozer raj band karo (Stop Bulldozer Raj) ” slogan echoed at Jantar Mantar as activists flayed the BJP for also creating an “environment of hate” in the name of encroachment and “breaking the unity of the working class”.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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New Delhi: Amidst the country’s economy and its manufacturing capacities, along with its democratic and federal political system, under “serious attack”, the fight to “Save India” will be jointly waged by workers, peasants and agricultural workers – the three “wealth-producing” classes.

This was the message that came out from a joint national convention– “Mazdoor-Kisan Adhikar Mahadhiveshan” –by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU), on Monday at New Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium.

The meeting, attended by thousands of delegates from across the country, was addressed by leaders of the three organisations and presidents of multiple employees’ federations in the country.

Addressing the convention, Tapan Sen, general secretary, CITU, said “today’s message” was to  “extend support and solidarity in all possible ways to each others’ independent struggle and building strong direct joint actions”, which must be spread by all the units, up to the lowest level, through extensive campaigns in the coming months.

Tapan Sen of CITU said on Monday that the convention’s message must be spread by all the units, up to the lowest level. Image clicked by Ronak Chhabra 

The  three organisations also gave a call to hold a ‘Mazdoor Sangharsh Rally 2.0’ during the 2023 Budget session of Parliament early next year.

Workers, farmers, and agricultural workers led by these organisations, came on the same platform for the first time in September 2018, when a march near Parliament was held to press for a joint charter of demands.

Among the demands that the three organisations pressed on the fourth anniversary of the 2018 march was the withdrawal of the four Labour Codes, legalisation of minimum support prices at C2+50% for all farm produce with guaranteed procurement, minimum wages at Rs 26,000/month, along with the provision of 200 days under the rural employment guarantee scheme.

They also demanded that privatisation of public sector enterprises be stopped and the new military recruitment scheme, Agnipath, be scrapped.

Hannan Mollah, general secretary, AIKS, in his address, said that the Narendra Modi government was “destroying” whatever the people built “brick by brick through their labour” during the last 75 years.

“At the time of Independence, farmers and workers dreamt of a prosperous nation and look how it is now being destroyed through anti-people policies; students dreamt of a good education system, and look how it is being destroyed through NEP (New Education Policy); women dreamt of a safe environment but see how that is not available under the present government,” he said.

B Venkat, general secretary, AIAWU, while addressing the convention, highlighted the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), published earlier last month, which said 5,563 agricultural labourers died by suicide last year – the figure is more than that of farmers for the second consecutive year.

“The distress within the rural economy is acute today with high unemployment levels and major problems like lack of rural development fund and money for MGNREGA (rural employment guarantee scheme) further aggravating the situation,” said Venkat, adding that this is also giving rise to multiple social problems within villages.

Later in the day, in a press statement, the three organisations said that Monday’s convention unanimously decided to conduct extensive joint campaigns from October 2022 to February 2023 at state and district levels across the country.

“This convention asserts that the struggle today is not only for our immediate demands of livelihood and living and working conditions but also to save the country’s economy and the secular democratic character of our society from this communal and authoritarian BJP-RSS regime,” added the press statement.

Several delegates who attended the national convention said that a “united front” fighting against the “pro-corporate, communal” government of the BJP was the “only way to defeat” the latter.

“Prices are rising, and wages are decreasing. Work opportunities are drastically reduced in my area. How long can we expect workers like me to survive under such conditions?” asked Jaskaran Jeet, 42, while speaking to NewsClick.

Jeet, hailing from Punjab’s Jalandhar district, said he is an agricultural worker and will participate in union campaign programmes in the coming months.

Bhupal (who goes by a single name), state secretary, CITU-Telangana, told NewsClick on Monday that exactly when the majority of the country’s population is “burdened”, the Modi government is extending bonanzas to the “big monopoly companies”.

“This shows who the government represents. Therefore, we will jointly expose them,” he said.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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New Delhi: Leaders of the Central Trade Unions seek holding of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) — an apex tripartite consultative committee that advises the government on worker-related issues – as they accuse the central government of “deceiving the public” through the ongoing series of stakeholder discussions before the Labour Codes are rolled out.

The Centre is not serious about discussing the far-reaching implications of the four Labour Codes with trade unions, leaders of two national unions told Newsclick on Thursday. According to them, the so-called multi-stakeholder consultations planned by the former cannot replace ILC meetings, whose sessions have not taken place since 2015.

After facing stiff opposition from the farmers’ bodies over the agriculture reforms, which eventually had to be withdrawn, the Narendra Modi-led central government is keen on bringing all stakeholders on board before the roll-out of the controversial Labour Codes. The four codes are set to subsume 29 central legislations. In this backdrop, a series of meetings have been scheduled with different representatives of employers, employees, and state governments.

On Thursday, a two-day National Labour Conference comprising all states and Union Territories formally began at Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati. The conference, which will have a virtual address by the Prime Minister, is set to dwell upon “framing of rules under four Labour Codes and modalities for their implementation,” along with other labour-related issues.

Apart from this, the Centre has planned to hold “one-to-one” meetings with central trade union representatives, Newsclick has learnt. A meeting with the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh was already convened earlier this week, according to The Economic Times. Similar meetings are being held with the representatives of employers.

Tapan Sen, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), confirmed on Thursday that the central trade union has been invited by the Centre for a “one-to-one” meeting that is proposed to take place on August 31. “We haven’t yet received any confirmation on the meeting date. However, one thing must be said is that the unions are not happy with this format,” Sen said.

He demanded the Centre convenes a session of the ILC, 46th Session of which was last held in 2015. “No serious tripartite consultations, with trade unions’ participation, have taken place even before the passage of the Labour Codes. The government is now only deceiving the public by holding conferences with state governments and one-to-one meetings with the unions,” he said.

Likewise, Amarjeet Kaur, general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), also argued that the ongoing multi-stakeholder consultations cannot replace ILC. She highlighted that India is a signatory to ILO convention 144, which calls for tripartite consultations among the government, employers and workers.

Last year, multiple rounds of tripartite consultation were held over the framing of rules for the four Codes, albeit in virtual format. Calling them a “farce”, ten CTUs had boycotted these meetings and instead proposed a face-to-face meeting. 

Asked about the proposed “one-to-one” meeting with the Centre, Kaur said that the ten CTUs have agreed to raise some “common points” in these meetings, including the withdrawal of the four Labour Codes and pressure to hold the ILC.

Meanwhile, the Union Labour Ministry is looking to take a final call on the timing of the implementation of the Labour Codes after the latest stakeholder discussions, according to media reports. Incidentally, since the passage of the three Codes – Industrial Relations Code; Code on Social Security; and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code – in 2020 and the Code on Wages in 2019, their implementation has been deferred multiple times over the past months.

Labour being a concurrent subject, it is required for both the Centre and the states to have framed laws and rules for the rollout of the Labour Codes. With most states having pre-published the draft rules for at least The Code on Wages and The Code on Social Security, there are indications that the Centre is setting the stage with the latest round of consultations for a staggered implementation with an initial rollout of two Codes.

Trade unions have warned the Centre that they will resort to protest actions in case the government moves ahead with the implementation of Codes. The unions fear that the four Codes, touted as reforms, will dilute workers’ rights.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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New Delhi: Hundreds of rural workers from across the country gathered here at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday, as part of a three-day protest to press for adequate funding for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.

The protest has been called by one NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a national-level network of organisations and individuals deals with the employment guarantee act. Rural workers from over 15 states including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Telangana, among others, participated in the demonstration on Tuesday.

The morcha argued that the crucial role played by MGNREGA scheme in supporting the rural population was highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic, with demand for work under it remaining “high” even after two years.

“And yet, 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,” the group said in a press statement, issued on Tuesday.

The first day of protest was marked by the singing of protest songs, among other activities. Image clicked by Ronak Chhabra

Aimed to guarantee the ‘right to work’ in rural areas, MGNREGA is a scheme under which at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year is provided to at least one member of every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

Women are guaranteed one third of the jobs made available under the MGNREGA.

Despite proving to be a “lifeline” for many rural poor, especially during times of economic distress, the scheme’s budget provisioning has been significantly less than required, despite soaring demand for employment in recent years, numerous experts have observed.

According to them, this leads to untimely payment of wages to workers, compounding the woes of the latter due to “rampant fudging” in determining wages itself, owing to “corruption prevailing in multiple states.” As per the Act, workers must be paid within 15 days upon completion of a muster roll of work.

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,” he added.

In 2022-23, the Narendra Modi –led Central government has kept the budgetary allocation for MGNREGA at Rs. 73,000 crore, which is 25% lower than the previous year’s revised estimates at Rs. 98,000 crore.

Multiple media reports flagged that the scheme’s financial statement for 2021-22 already shows a negative net balance – meaning that a portion of the new allocation will only be used to clear the pending liabilities from previous years.

Nor surprisingly, 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,” the group said in its report.

The fund crunch for the MGNREGA scheme has come at a time when demand for work under the scheme has “shot up to unprecedented levels,”  Apoorva, one among the coordinators of the morcha, told Newsclick on Tuesday. According to one report, nearly 31 million people sought work in June this year under the scheme, on the back of demand from 30 million people in May.

The same report added this year’s level was 43% more than the pre-pandemic (2015-2019) levels month of May.

Stagnating wages in real terms under the scheme – with them being lower than even the statutory minimum agricultural wages in 27 states and Union Territories – are another issue that was flagged by the rural workers through their demonstration on Tuesday.

Anuradha Talwar of Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samiti told Newsclick that the morcha is demanding that the wages under the rural employment guarantee scheme must be immediately be made at par with respective states’ statutory minimum agricultural wages and rapidly move towards raising it at Rs. 800 per day.

“Given the rural distress in the country, we are also demanding that work days under the scheme must be raised to 200 across the country,” Talwar said.

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?” she asked.

Meanwhile, solidarity from political leaders and farmer leaders was extended to the rural workers, with Rajya Sabha Member and Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Binoy Vishwan and All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader Hannan Mollah addressing the gathering   here on Tuesday.

Emphasising the need to come together, the leaders demanded greater accountability from the government, while pressing for having discussions on the scheme during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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New Delhi: Following a call by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) to observe ‘Protest Against Betrayal’, the two-week campaign ended, with farmers blocking roads and rail tracks for four hours in several states, on Sunday. 

Under the campaign, public meetings were organised in 500 districts across the country to demonstrate against the Centre for “reneging on the written promises,” on the basis of which the year-long agitation was withdrawn last year. The SKM warned that unless the promised demands of the farmers are not fulfilled, the farm movement will only “be intensified in the coming months.”

The farmers are demanding a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for all produce based on the C2+50% formula, among others, added the umbrella group that had spearheaded the movement for the withdrawal of the three contentious farm legislations.

In a statement, the SKM said that “widespread protest demonstrations and Chakka Jam” were held on Sunday in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Tripura, among other states.

“Tens of thousands of farmers came together to protest against the betrayal by the Union Government,” the morcha added.

In Punjab, farmers squatted down on rail tracks from 11 am to 3 pm at over 40 locations across the state, along with staging road blockades at other protest spots, NewsClick was told. Across the country, according to farmer leaders, Sunday’s demonstration was staged at over 1200 different locations.

The SKM, in its statement, noted that the Narendra Modi-led central government has not fulfilled any of the promises made to the farmers’ organisation in its letter dated December 9, 2021.

“The government is still not ready to discuss the legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP). The Cabinet is reported to have approved the Electricity Amendment Bill for placing in Parliament. Nor have the false cases registered against the farmers been withdrawn. Ajay Mishra Teni remains in the Union Council of Ministers even today,” the morcha remarked.

It further reiterated its “six demands” which include, a legal guarantee of MSP, withdrawal of draft Electricity Amendment Bill, removal of the penal provisions on farmers over burning of crops, withdrawal of false cases against the farmers over the course of last year’s agitation, dismissal and arrest of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni, and compensation and rehabilitation of the families whose members died during the protests along with an allocation of land to build a memorial at Delhi’s Singhu border.

“Farmers in the country are very angry with the Union government for not fulfilling its promises even after nine months have passed,” SKM member and All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah told NewsClick in a telephone interview on Sunday. He added that the SKM will continue to oppose the recently formed committee on MSP as its terms of reference do not mention one of the farmers’ organisation’s key demands.

Earlier this month, the Centre had notified the formation of a 29-member panel to make MSP more “effective and transparent.” Along with naming a former agriculture secretary, NITI Aayog member, economists, and representatives of farmers’ unions in the country, to be members of the committee, the Centre had also invited three members from SKM.

Questioning the composition of the committee, the latter, however, had decided not to join the panel.

“What’s the point of joining such a panel, whose chairman is someone who drafted all the three farm laws? He is then accompanied by all those who supported such reforms,” Mollah argued, adding, “Even the terms of reference are very clear in the sense that it doesn’t mention legal guarantee on MSP, which is our key demand”.

All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) member Avik Saha on Sunday underscored that the farmers will continue with their agitation across the country. 

“Since July 18, public meetings were held at about 500 districts in the country to revive the memory of the last year’s farmer agitation and the result of the campaign was that today road blockades were staged at about 1200 locations across the country,” he said, highlighting that the next action programme of SKM will be organised in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri, where a 75-hour long “permanent morcha” will be set up from August 18. 

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Dakaunda general secretary Jagmohan Singh Patiala, while speaking from Patiala, said, “People came out on streets in large numbers from across Punjab to observe Chakka Jam including in Amritsar, Mansa, Ferozpur and Sangrur districts. It shows that the farmers’ movement has not dissipated as yet.”

“All the major trains arriving in Punjab from Delhi were affected on Sunday as farmers blocked railway tracks for four hours at over 40 locations,” Shingara Mann Singh, BKU Ekta Ugrahan leader, informed Newsclick while speaking from Bathinda.

In Haryana, AIKS leader Inderjit Singh said that even as roads were not blocked on large scale, due to Teej celebrations, public meetings were held at numerous sites on Sunday. 

He added that the farmers’ organisations, along with ex-servicemen committees and students’ organisations, will now hold ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ conventions across the country including in Haryana between August 7 and August 14 to expose the Agnipath scheme.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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