Phool Kumari from Katihar in Bihar gave the instance of her her village, where 76 people demanded work, but hardly 7 got work. Bholu Pando and Sevak Lakra from Chhattisgarh said that the introduction of NREGA brought revolutionary changes in their lives, but due to continuous budget cuts and the introduction of digital attendance, it is becoming very difficult to work under NREGA.

The Jan Sunwai (public hearing) on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), where NREGA workers from various non-party trade unions and mass organisations from Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh participated, saw Congress leaders and Jairam Ramesh and Kanhaiya Kumar as chief guests accusing the Government of India of creating unnecessary technical complexity into NREGA in the name of transparency.

Others participating in the event were Rameshwar Oraon, Alamgir Alam , Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan leder Nikhil Dey, “Chaupal” editor Gangaram and James Herenj and Balram from the Jharkhand NREGA Watch.

Kanhaiya Kumar said that this country was built by the workers and without workers the country will not prosper. He added that, if the current Union government can waive off the loan of capitalists amounting to Rs 14 lakh crores, then it should also guarantee the rightful work and wages of crores of NREGA workers.

Senior leader and former Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam said that the Jharkhand State Government wrote several letters to the Union Government questioning the logic in paying NREGA workers less than the statutory agricultural wage rate and promised that the State would put pressure on the Union Government to withdraw digital attendance.

Jairam Ramesh recalled the struggle behind the NREGA Act and outlined its objectives, adding that the current Union Government is bringing unnecessary technical complexity into NREGA in the name of transparency, which is in violation of the people’s right to work. He stressed that the main objective of the Union Government is to end NREGA.

He also suggested that after Rajasthan, Jharkhand could be the second state where urban employment guarantee should be implemented. He urged that it is the duty of public representatives to participate in such public hearings and take collective decisions, keeping in mind the ground reality.

Economist Jean Dreze, while showing a fish from the pond built by NREGA workers, said that NREGA is an investment that has brought prosperity among the rural poor. On behalf of NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and Jharkhand NREGA Watch, Gangaram Paikra, Balram and James Herenj presented a Charter of Demands:

Guarantee 100 days work per adult (vyask) person in a family.

NREGA wage rate should be Rs 800.

Pressure should be put on the central government to pay wages within 15 days as per NREGA law.

The Union Government should follow the order of the Supreme Court in the Swaraj Abhiyan case and pay the pending compensation.

Do not make Aadhar Based Payment System (ABPS) mandatory for payments.

Digital attendance in NREGA should be stopped immediately.

Adequate budget should be allocated for social audit and the autonomy of the social audit department should be maintained. In the social audit of every work, it should be done as per the rules of CAG, keeping all the information before the Gram Sabha.

In the name of Section 27 of the NREGA Act, the injustice being done to NREGA workers of West Bengal should be stopped. Section 27 should be amended so that such injustice does not happen to other states.

There is a provision of unemployment allowance in the NREGA Act if work is not found within 15 days, but it is not followed. The central government should take responsibility that the workers get unemployment allowance.

Every person in every family should get 100 days of work in a year.

For the empowerment of the Gram Sabha, it is necessary that the decisions of the Gram Sabha be given priority in the determination and implementation of schemes.

Urban Employment Guarantee Act should be brought in the entire country so that every hand actually gets work and gets full wages for the work.

Courtesy: CounterView

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The central government allocated Rs. 90,594 crore for children in Budget 2019, a meagre 0.01-percentage-point increase to 3.25 per cent of the overall Budget compared to last year, according to a report by the non-government organisation Child Rights and You (CRY).
 
Children constitute nearly 40 per cent of India’s population, yet the funds allocated for their education, development, health and protection remained almost constant, the analysis noted.
 
The largest chunk (68 per cent) went towards education, followed by development (26 per cent), health (3 per cent) and protection (2 per cent). While allocation for education fell 1.1 percentage points, the allocation for protection increased 0.6 percentage points from last year.
 
The nation in 2011 had 10.1 million child labourers aged 5-14, according to census records. The estimate now is that there are 12.7 million toiling without access to a proper education.
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in a budget handed down earlier this month reduced funding to help stem child labour to US$14 million from last year’s US$17 million.
 
This will adversely impact the federal National Child Labour Project that aims to offer free education, meals and health care to these children, according to church leaders and rights activists.
 
“Is there any other problem greater than this in India at present?” asked Bishop Alex Vadakumthala, who heads the Indian bishops’ office for labour.
 
Just because children cannot vote should not mean they don’t deserve to be able to have a decent existence, Bishop Vadakumthala said, adding that there was no clue as to why the budget allocation was reduced.
 
India has a law that prohibits employing children below the age of 18. But with lax enforcement, children continue to work in roadside restaurants and small-scale industries, the bishop said.
 
“There have been no steps to seriously implement the law,” Bishop Vadakumthala said. “The problem is that the government isn’t taking the issue seriously.”
 
The law has provisions to punish those who employ children with jail terms of up to two years and a fine or US$715 or both.
 
Puja Marwaha, chief executive of the non-government organisation Child Rights and You (CRY), told ucanews.com that the government’s 2030 Vision goal to make India a developed nation had failed to adopt a comprehensive response to combat child labour.

Just because children don’t vote, it doesn’t mean that their welfare doesn’t matter.
 
The February budget was the last one before national elections due in April-May, but it had no specific scheme for the welfare of children who constitute some 40 per cent India’s 1.2 billion people, she said.
 
Balbir Singh, also a child rights activist, said the actual number of child labourers in India could be double the official estimate.
 
Fear of punishment or of being stopped from going to workforce parents and even children to lie about their actual age and employment, Singh said.
 
“You can find children working everywhere in the country; be it in construction, vehicle repair, domestic work, carpet making, selling cigarettes on the roadside,” Singh said. “But, ironically, the government isn’t acting to end this.”
 
J.P. Dutta, a social activist based in Jammu, said government alone cannot address the issue effectively and that social mobilization and community participation remain vital for the eradication of child labour.
 
“There has to be a public interest,” he said. “An extensive awareness campaign is needed, and budgetary provisions must be made for it.”
 
Father Jaison Vadassery, secretary of the Indian bishops’ labour office, told ucanews.com that church people in India are already conducting awareness campaigns to educate people against tolerating child labour.
 
However, he believes that a more effective government system is needed to eradicate the social evil. “Until steps are taken to strictly implement the ban on child labour, the situation will not change for the better,” Father Vadassery said.
 
With inputs from IndiaSpends and Ucanews.com
 

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