Why The MGNREGA Wage Rise Won't Offer Any Real Respite

Most States have notified a wage rate far above the ₹202/day announced by the Finance Minister last week

- Radhika Merwin

Sangaralingam Ramanujam, director of the Jayankondam Collective Farming Producer Company in Tamil Nadu’s Kundaveli village in Ariyalur district, played a key role in opening Jan Dhan accounts for people in his village.

However, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), he says, has been a disappointment. The scheme, which promises 100 days of work a year to each rural household at a pre-determined minimum wage rate, has seen poor activity over the past few years in his village.

The lockdown to stem the Covid-19 outbreak has brought even the minimal work to a complete halt, he says.

How, then, can the Centre’s announcement of a ₹20 per day in crease in the average wage under MGNREGA (as part of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana) amount to any significant relief if other States are facing similar challenges?

What’s more, the wage increase announced recently was already notified by the Ministry of Rural Development earlier, on March 23, as part of the annual revision exercise for each State under MGNREGA.