Jharkhand and Bihar NREGA workers get a hike of Re 1

At a time when everyone is awaiting a job appraisal, workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGA) received the lowest wage hike according to a report in the Indian Express. As against an overall wage increase of 5.7 per cent last year, this year’s average wage increase is 2.7 per cent. 

States like Bihar and Jharkhand have the lowest revisions where workers have received a hike of Rs 1 per day bringing their daily income to Rs 168 from Rs 167 starting from April 1. This was despite an expert committee’s report on recommendations for a fair revision of wages under MGNREGA. The seven-member committee headed by S Mahendra Dev, Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research- recommended that the wages in MGNREGA brought at par with the minimum wages fixed by the state for unskilled agricultural labourers. Besides that, the committee also sought to change the basis for the revision of MGNREGA wages from Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Agricultural Labourers- which is based on consumption pattern of 1983- to CPI for Rural which is the current consumption pattern for rural households.  

However, the ministry rejected the recommendations and said that “the proposal for change in the base wage rate is not advisable at this stage”. “Moreover, nowhere does the MGNREGA legislation mandate that minimum wages have to be paid; the government can fix the wage rate. Also, if the MGNREGA wages are increased steeply, people will move towards MGNREGA and there won’t be enough labourers willing to do agricultural work,” the finance ministry official told Indian Express. But the ministry has asked the rural development ministry to set up another committee to look into the implementation of MGNREGA. 

While states like Haryana have the highest wages at Rs 277 (from Rs 259) after the revision, states like Bihar and Jharkhand have not seen a significant jump in MGNREGA wages as it has in minimum wages. In 2011, when Bihar’s minimum wages and MGNREGA wages were at par at Rs 120 a day, today the minimum wages have increased to Rs 232 a day whereas the MGNREGA wages still remain at Rs 168. Similarly, Jharkhand has a wage-gap between the two.

Hence, the Chief Secretary of Jharkhand, Rajbala Verma wrote a letter expressing his “disappointment” to the rural development ministry. “The average national real wage of the country has risen by more than 20 per cent in the last 10 years, the increase for MGNREGA workers has only been 4.7 per cent in the corresponding period,” he wrote in the letter.