When the employment guarantee scheme is garroted!

The only answer to the question of which is the most important scheme implemented in modern India to combat poverty and uplift human dignity is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), launched by the UPA government in 2005 as part of its Common Minimum Programme. The scheme’s first, second and third achievement is it has brought about a change in the Indian situation, which poet Prof. V. Madhusudhanan Nair described in his 'Bharathiya' as ‘Mothers of India smear opium on the tongue of their children and make them sleep and then work in the fields of others for four annas'. The Narendra Modi government, which has begun clipping the scheme's wings since coming to power in 2014, has garroted the scheme that played major role in eradicating hunger at the rural level, making women self-reliant, and preventing exploitation by landlords and upper castes. The Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan introduced a bill Vikasit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (VB-G Ram G) in Parliament Yesterday without any consultation removing Gandhi's name and imposing additional burden on the states thus destroying the spirit of the scheme that legally guaranteed 100 days of employment to rural families every year with the slogan ‘Har Haath Ko Kam, Kam Ka Poora Dham’ (Work for every hand, full pay for work). The Centre claims the goal behind changing the name and substance of the scheme is to make India a developed country by 2047. Where the Centre used to pay the wages to the workers, now on the states have to bear 40 percent of its financial burden. However, the Centre will bear 90 percent of the scheme’s burden in Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh alongside the northeastern states. The bill also stipulates that the employment guarantee share for the states each financial year will be as per norms set by the Centre. The fascist regime has certainly specific objectives behind committing Karseva on the scheme. Alongside already choking various states by withholding thousands of crores of rupees in wages of employment guarantee, the Centre will turn the scheme into its generosity. In short, the Centre’s centralization of power, undercutting federalism, will only harden up.

Although the number of working days is said to be increased from 100 to 125 in a financial year, it will be wound up at a maximum of 75 days with the imposition of 40 percent burden on the states. There is a big scam behind banning the scheme for up to 60 days during agricultural season. With the lack of work during the harvesting season, workers will be forced to work in the fields of landlords for meager wages. This will cause feudalism and exploitation to return as it was before. The change from providing employment according to the demand of the unemployed to the Centre determining the share of the states every financial year will affect the working days. States like Kerala, already struggling financially due to centre's neglect and delays in receiving project allocations, will be completely devastated if they are asked to bear 40 percent of the cost. It should be remembered that Kerala has implemented the scheme the best since its inception and introduced a welfare fund for employment guarantee workers. Three years ago, the Centre had cut 10 crore workdays to 9.5 crore, and later tried to cut it to 6 crore, but Kerala was able to overcome it by raising objections. Various organizations pointed out that 27 lakh workers were eliminated from the scheme between October 10 and November 14 this year. The shameless Hindutva political vendetta behind removal of Mahatma Gandhi, who said that the soul of India resides in the villages alongside advocated self-reliance and village swaraj, is no coincidence. It is no coincidence that this is being done at a time when the ideology, which carried out the first terrorist attack in independent India by shooting Gandhiji, is celebrating its 100th birthday. This is not just a name change. It is a devious plan to push the people of the country into hunger and poverty, turning them into vulnerable beings waiting for the favours of the government and its crony capitalists. We cannot wait to rise up against it.