How Nitish Kumar is Spreading Poverty in the Name of Eradicating it

If the Nitish Kumar government is so generous, resourceful and prompt that it transferred Rs 10,000 to the account of estimated 25 lakh women aged between 18 and 60 on Friday (October 3) as part of the first instalment of Mukhiya Mantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana within just over a month of the announcement of the scheme on August 29 why is it that it pays paltry Rs 255 daily to MNREGA workers? And that too for just 34 days in a year. Needless to mention half of these toiling labourers engaged in this rural employment scheme are females. And why is it that the Bihar government’s latest minimum wage for unskilled workers is just Rs 410, for semi-skilled Rs 426, for skilled Rs 519 and highly skilled Rs 634 (based on 26 working days per month)? In this case most of them are males?

If the government – whether in states or Centre – has such deep pockets and becomes so open-hearted for women on the eve of election, why does  it not make decent payment to those millions of workers – cutting across the gender line – employed by it all over India? Not to speak of mason and manual labourers employed by private construction firms, but even many contractors engaged in the infrastructure development sector of the government are paying something between Rs 400 and Rs 600 per day not only in Bihar, but all over the country. 

In this era of construction-driven growth, the builder lobby is emerging as more and more politically powerful; thus, those engaged in this business often violate the minimum wage rules. They are hardly caught and penalised. The labour department remains a mute spectator as the rich and affluent in manufacturing, service and agricultural sectors indulge in all sorts of malpractices. At the same time, since the bargaining position of the working class in the unorganised sector in general is very weak their exploitation is rampant. 

What is shocking is that these tongue-tied work-force have been getting the same amount of daily wage since 2014-15. The November 8, 2015 demonetisation and sudden announcement of lockdown on March 24, 2020, which led to the dislocation of crores of casual labourers, in actual terms, brought down their wages. 

Raise minimum wages 

Keeping in mind the sharp inflation in last over a decade now the minimum wage per day should be increased from the range of Rs 410-Rs 634 to Rs 900-Rs 1,300 (if not more) for different class of unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly-skilled workers. The truth is that the very definition of unskilled is questionable. For example, if a labour, especially a woman, carries bricks over her head at a construction site, this also requires skill. If a college graduate is asked to do so he or she may lose the balance in the first attempt and get hurt.  And it would be totally impossible for him/her to do this for seven to eight hours daily. Similarly, the back-breaking transplantation work in the agriculture field requires skill.     

The MNREGA workers too should get the minimum wage and not the peanut amount of Rs 255. The loot and corruption in this scheme should be immediately stopped and loopholes plugged. In the case of Bihar, the scene is extremely pathetic. Instead of 100 days work in a year, according to the latest government data, only 34.5 days work are provided. Even the wages are paid after much delay. 

Also read: After SIR and the Field Trip, Which Side Is Better Prepared for the Big Bihar Test?

In December 2023, MNREGA workers in Bhagalpur and Vaishali districts went on strike in protest against large scale scam involving the false inclusion of their names in the muster rolls without their knowledge and marking of fake attendance by the local officials. Thus, thousands of crores of rupees have been siphoned off in the last 18 years since its inception, it has been alleged by Jan Vikas Shakti Sangathan, which has been spearheading the stir. 

Thus, instead of launching yet another scheme in the name of poverty alleviation the governments – cutting across the party lines – should revise minimum wage and ensure its strict implementation both in private and government sectors. Once this is done much of the problem of poverty would be eradicated. Barring small farmers, whose income has really come down in the last couple of decades, the rest of the people are in a position to earn revised minimum wage. As far as small farmers are concerned, they are now relying less on labours as they along with family members work in their own farmland. The advent of technology has brought down their physical burden.

This changing reality led to the shifting of surplus farm labours from villages to the construction sector, or even to the mining industry. The glut of so-called unskilled manual labourers has further reduced their wage. 

The hard fact is that most of these poverty alleviation schemes actually end up benefiting the gang of middle-men as well as officials and not the real poor. 

Rural livelihood project

At the same time, imagine what will happen to the state’s economy if about 98% or so (less than two per cent pays Income Tax) of its adult women or one-fifth of the entire population suddenly plunges into petty-business without any experience, training and market support  and that too with the insufficient amount of seed money of Rs 10,000. They will be paid an amount of Rs 200,000 after the six months of monitoring if they show signs of progress in their business. 

The big question is what provoked the Bihar government just two months before the election to push such a huge number of women into small business when it had already experimented with the self-help group under Bihar Rural Livelihood Project, commonly known as Jeevika. It is claimed that about 1.36 crore Jeevika Didis (Sisters) are self-employed. They are engaged in poultry, animal husbandry, goat-rearing, dairy and fishing business    etc.

But, if the reports coming from different corners of Bihar are to be believed, this Rs 10,000 amount is not meant to bail out women from poverty, but it will actually go to micro-finance companies which have provided high interest loans to the Jeevika didis to initiate business.  The state government and the mainstream media may be painting a rosy picture about its Rural Livelihood Project, yet the truth is that not only Jeevika didis, but other women of Bihar too are in serious debt trap. They can hardly think of starting any business in this situation and that too with this small amount.  They have borrowed loans worth thousands and in many cases lakhs of rupees. Their business had collapsed due to one reason or the other – lack of experience and official apathy being important ones.

Though the print and electronic media are in general not highlighting the darker side of Jeevika companies which had collapsed, Dainik Bhaskar, a Hindi daily, has published detailed reports in this regard.

The newspaper highlighted how the agents of micro-finance firms, who had provided heavy interest loans to these women, have started knocking at their doors moments after Rs 10,000 was directly transferred to their account by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 26.

Government spreading poverty 

The truth is that the government is, instead of eradicating poverty, spreading it. All these schemes are actually meant for middle-men, such as micro-finance firms in Bihar’s case now. 

In 2023 micro finance firms disbursed loans worth Rs 49,500 crore against just Rs 6,000 crore in 2020. According to renowned economist Jean Dreze, micro-finance firms have become very active in Bihar and Jharkhand and people are taking loans on high interest even for the fulfilment of the basic needs. There is no transparency in their functioning and people are being pushed into debt trap. 

The sad reality in poll-bound Bihar is that there is hardly any scope for starting business with Rs 10,000 or even Rs 200,000 when established small shops are unable to withstand the onslaught of malls, marts and online business companies. And then there is always a lurking fear of land or business establishments being acquired in the name of development. In this case too, the big and powerful with right political and caste connections end up getting more than due compensation, while the rest have to run from pillar to post to get an adequate amount. Or they may never get any.  

Soroor Ahmed is a Patna-based freelance journalist.

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