NREGA Wages less than Minimum Wages The Government of India, in clear violation of its own laws, has refused to raise NREGA wages even though they are now less than Minimum Wages.
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PAEG (People's Action for Employment Guarantee) had its meeting on 24th December at NFIW office, where the issue of Minimum wage in NREGA was discussed. It was felt that we draft a statement stating our position on it and more so, with the recent developments

The statement is attached is pasted below (also attached). Please endorse this statement and let me know the name and affiliation which i could use. You can also call me on the number below and give your names. Also circulate it widely, asking for more endorsements.

Government of India Must Immediately Stop Perpetuating Forced Labour

We the undersigned are deeply distressed at the blatant effort of the Government of India to undermine the NREGA through a January 2009 notification imposing an unjust freeze of Rs 100 per day on its wages. The Government of India’s use of Section 6(1) to delink NREGA wages from the Minimum Wage Act is not just bad in law but is also immoral in so far as it seeks to lower the real wages of the lowest end of workers in the wage hierarchy. With consistently nearly double digit inflation rate, touching 9.7% and even higher food price inflation the frozen NREGA wage, over the last 24 months has been significantly eroded in real terms.   In fact the MGNREGS wage, in at least 19 states, is lower than the prevailing state minimum wage, a situation that the Supreme Court of India has called forced labour, prohibited under Article 23 of the Constitution.

State minimum wages have also been artificially depressed, without any rationale, and ignore the minimum need-based norms proposed in 1957 by the 15th Indian Labour Conference. These norms were not only endorsed by the Supreme Court but further enhanced by additional 20% in the Unichoy Vs State of Kerala in 1961 and 25% in the Reptakos Brett vs their workmen in 1991. If these norms are followed, given current rural prices, the minimum wage would be at least Rs. 250 per day. But the Government of India has not only blatantly disregarded these minimum wage setting norms, but is continuing to pay a frozen wage of just Rs. 100 per day since January 2009 under NREGA.
 
There is overwhelming legal and political consensus on the need to pay minimum wage in MGNREGS works:
·         The Andhra Pradesh High Court in WP No. 11848/2009 struck down the January 2009 notification on freezing the minimum wage for NREGA on grounds of unconstitutionality. The order of the High Court was that Government being the agency for implementing minimum wages cannot itself violate the minimum wages. In addition, governments of Tripura, Karnataka, Punjab, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh had also requested an amendment of the January 2009 notification as their state minimum wages were above the notified wage rate. Both the Government of India and the state Government of Andhra Pradesh are facing contempt proceedings [where has someone filed for contempt and if yes in which court] since.

·         GoI’s own law officer, the Additional Solicitor General, Ms. Indira Jaising referring to the PUDR Vs Union of India case and Article 23 of the Constitution of India has said that payment of less than minimum wage in NREGA works will amount to forced labour. She also cited the Kamani Metals and Alloys vs their workmen case in which the Supreme Court observed that minimum wage must be paid ‘irrespective of the extent of profit, the financial condition of the establishment or the availability of workmen on lower wages.’

·         Chief Ministers  of the states of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have written to the Prime Minister requesting MoRD’s compliance with the Minimum Wage Act
.

·         The Chairperson of UPA, Mrs Sonia Gandhi too has written to the Prime Minister calling his attention to find urgent resolution of this matter.

·         The Labour Ministry has reiterated its “fundamental objection” to Section 6(1), warning that using 6(1) to allow payment of less than prevailing state minimum wage will not stand legal scrutiny.

·         The Congress’s manifesto for the 2009 General Elections committed to a Rs. 100 real wage for all NREGA workers and  Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in his Budget speech in July 2009, had said, “We are committed to providing a real wage of Rs 100 a day as an entitlement under the MGNREGA.” The National Advisory Council, headed by Mrs. Gandhi, also recommended that minimum wages be paid to NREGS workers.

·         15 eminent jurists and lawyers including M N Venkatachaliah and J S Verma (both former Chief Justice of India), V R Krishna Iyer, P B Sawant, K Ramaswamy, Santosh Hegde (all former judges of the Supreme Court), A P Shah (former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court) and Dr. Upendra Baxi, Dr. Mohan Gopal, Fali S Nariman, Prashant Bhushan, Brinda Grover and others have urged the Government of India to immediately revoke its unconstitutional notification and along with state governments ensure that minimum wages are paid to all workers in India.

The Ministry of Finance in its letters dated December 1 and December 6, 2010  has stated that the Government will index the Rs 100 with inflation using wages as of April 1, 2009 as base for notification on January 1, 2011. While indexing wages with inflation recognises the fall in real wages, it will not resolve the core issue.

The Prime Minister has asked the rural development ministry to develop an index for fixing and revising wages under rural job scheme NREGA. Till the new index is worked out, wages under the scheme will be tied to inflation as measured by the consumer price index for agricultural labourers. The order will be effective from January 1, 2011. A committee under the chairmanship of Pronab Sen has been formed to devise an NREGA wage index. This is in itself worrisome as it will create yet another category of categorising workers and thereby institutionalizing the discrimination.

The government’s refusal to pay even minimum wage on public works at a time when the price of poor man’s food, onions has reached Rs 80 per kilo and food prices keep shooting up lays bare the Prime Minister’s promise that “no citizen of our country must sleep hungry”. Moreover it is shocking that a government battling trust deficit as scam after scam privileging powerful corporations become public, will let (comparatively minor) fiscal considerations override a constitutional and humanitarian mandate.

We demand the Government of India:

1.       Immediately implements Section 6(2) of the NREGA in all states thereby upholding the fundamental right to live of its poorest workers.

2.       Immediately declares a national floor level need based wage based on the 15th ILC norms and subsequent Supreme Court judgements on minimum wage fixation, below which no state minimum wage can go.  


1. Anuradha Talwar (Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity)
2. Ashish Ranjan Jha and Kamayani Swami (Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan)
3. Nikhil Dey, Aruna Roy and Shankar Singh (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan)
4. Dunu Roy (Hazards Centre)
 
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For more information about our work and struggles , please also look at our new blog site at http://khetmajoorsamity.blogspot.com.

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Nikhil Dey
Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan
Village Devdungri, Post Barar,
District Rajsamand,Rajasthan 313341
India Posted by collective at January 16, 2011 10:05 PM