On April 8, the 14th day of the nationwide lockdown that was imposed on March 24 to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, the Union Ministry of Rural Development released an amount of Rs 6,834 crore under MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) for all states.
Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union Rural Development Minister, himself released the money and wrote that the funds have been released for payment of outstanding wages and material for MGNREGA workers in view of the coronavirus global pandemic.
The big question, however, is will it come as a respite for the 8-crore active labourers of rural India during the corona lockdown?
“The government forced the workers to sit at home during the lockdown and did not provide them any relief. The money that the government has released was already owed by the government and had to be released in April anyway, like every year, towards the beginning of new financial. So, what relief has been provided to the labourers during the corona lockdown?” asked social activist Nikhil Dey.
He is associated with the Majdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and NREGA Sangharsh Morcha. He has filed a petition in the Supreme Court pertaining to the impact of the lockdown on the labourers. He has requested for an immediate payment of wages to MGNREGA workers during the lockdown.
Dey said: “Each day of the lockdown is torturous for the labourers. We have demanded through a petition that all MGNREGA job card holders should be treated as active workers and paid wages at the earliest.”
The plea filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan on behalf of social activist Nikhil Dey and Aruna Roy seeks protection of fundamental rights to health and livelihood for all active job card holders in the country under Articles 14 and 21 of MGNREGA.
Earlier, Congress president and opposition leader Sonia Gandhi had sought 21 days of immediate advance wages in view of the crisis faced by over 8 crore MGNREGA workers in the country during lockdown from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is because in many states, these labourers are already owed wages for months and have no money with them at the time of lockdown.
Chhattisgarh and Odisha government Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Naveen Patnaik have also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide immediate help in view of the situation of MGNREGA workers.
Nikhil Shinoy, who is working for rights of MGNREGA workers, “The government had paid the pending MGNREGA wages from the new budget which was released for MGNREGA last year too. So, the entire budget was exhausted in October itself and it was only four months later that the workers received their payment.”
He added: “The government has released this amount out of the Rs 61,500 crore fund released for MGNREGA this year as well. This way payment of labourers will again be stopped months early. When millions of migrant labourers have returned to their villages following the lockdown, the government should have further increased the MGNREGA budget in view of such labourers and should have sent relief money to them during lockdown, but that did not happen.”
