Ranchi: Over 200 workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) gathered in a powerful protest outside Raj Bhawan today, condemning the relentless assaults on their rights and the systematic dismantling of the NREGA by the Modi Government. The protest, led by Jharkhand NREGA Watch and the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, brought together workers from Jharkhand as well as Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal in a united stand demanding the proper implementation of the act in letter and spirit — guaranteed employment, timely payment of wages, and providing work without arbitrary exclusions. On Bhagat Singh’s birth anniversary and Shankar Guha Niyogi’s martyrdom day, Praful Linda from Adivasi Adhikar Manch called on the workers to take inspiration from the revolutionary and stand up against the anti-poor, crony capitalist government at the Centre. Meanwhile, representatives from Jharkhand Mazdoor Sangathan and Jharkhand Kisan Parishad also joined the protest in solidarity with the workers.
The workers are calling for the immediate reversal of anti-worker technologies such as the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) and the Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS), which have proven to be opaque and arbitrary. Maheshwari from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur highlights how workers in her panchayat are routinely denied their wages on account of NMMS, with officials claiming their names were not on the muster rolls despite their having completed the work. The workers assert that these technologies have resulted in the exclusion of thousands of workers, delays in wage payments, and denial of work, thereby undermining the very spirit of the NREGA.
A particularly egregious issue raised during the protest was the total suspension of NREGA work in West Bengal since December 2021. Alleging implementation leakages, the Centre had invoked Section 27 of the MGNREGA Act, freezing funds for the state and halting all work. As a result, thousands of workers in West Bengal have not been paid for work completed before the suspension, nor have they been able to access new employment under NREGA for nearly three years. Ambarish from West Bengal’s Purulia district derides the Central Government’s logic of making workers suffer for corruption on the part of government officials, demanding that NREGA work must continue in irregardless of any investigation into these alleged leakages.
In Jharkhand, on the other hand, it is commonplace for NREGA works to be done using JCB machines in clear violation of the Act, while thekedars (middlemen) pocket a large portion of workers’ wages. But there is complete absence of political will to address such practices despite their being an open secret, leaving workers in the lurch between exacting middlemen and an insensitive state. The workers demand that the government must work towards strengthening social audits and grievance redressal under MGNREGA and ensure the independence of these processes to fight corruption and increase people’s accountability under the Act. With the state elections around the corner, one thing is clear: the workers’ vote will go to the one who works towards strengthening NREGA.
Moreover, the workers highlighted that despite their repeated attempts to seek dialogue with the Minister for Rural Development, they have only been met with roadblocks and broken promises. The most recent disappointment came just last week when a scheduled meeting on September 24, 2024, was abruptly canceled without explanation. This meeting was supposed to include representatives from NREGA workers’ unions across the country, but only one of the six proposed worker representatives was approved by the MoRD—further evidence of the ministry’s unwillingness to listen to the voices of those directly impacted.
With rural poverty on the rise and employment opportunities shrinking, the importance of NREGA has never been greater. For many workers and their families, the wages earned through NREGA are not just a source of livelihood but a means of survival. The message of rural workers to the Central and State governments is loud and clear: NREGA work at a living wage is our right, we will not let it go!
Attached is the charter of demands from NREGA Sangharsh Morcha.
