'Bring Back MGNREGA': Fearing Loss of Livelihood, Labourers Protest Against VB-G Ram G

Jaipur: In the last two decades, 38-year-old Premshankar Meena – a resident of Nala Phala village in Rajasthan’s Salumber district – has seen many of his fellow villagers go to different cities in neighbouring Gujarat or other states such as Maharashtra as migrant labourers in search of work.

But Meena, a father of five children, chose not to leave his family to search of work in other states and instead earned his living as a worker under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

“Each year I would manage to get nearly 100 days of income working as a labourer under MGNREGA, taking up jobs such as installing tents for the forest department, planting trees and doing other development works sanctioned at the gram sabha. But now, after VB-G Ram G, I am not sure if I will get work like before,” says Meena, expressing his fear that in the absence of work, he too will have to go to other states in search of work.

Meena was among many MGNREGA workers who had come to Jaipur on February 2 to participate in a 'Mazdoor Panchayat' where activists and labourers from various districts of the state demanded the withdrawal of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) and reinstatement of MGNREGA in its original form.

“As part of MGNREGA, the work we did would get sanctioned by the gram sabha and it helped us in getting regular work. Now, under VB-G Ram G, the Union government will decide what work is to be done, which we feel will make getting work more difficult. Also, earlier the Union government bore the entire cost of the scheme, now it will be a 60:40 fund sharing between the state and the Union government. The state is already under substantial debt. How could we expect that the scheme will function properly?” Meena told The Wire.

Similar concerns were echoed by Sunita Devi, who had joined the Mazdoor Panchayat in Jaipur from Beawar district.

“Many women who earned a steady income from MGNREGA earlier struggled to get proper wages for their work. Due to the localised nature of the work, they could also do other things such as looking after their children or farming. But now, since the state government will fund part of the scheme, we fear that we may not get our payments in time. MGNREGA is crucial for our livelihood,” said Devi.

Speaking to The Wire, activist Nikhil Dey of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) said that what otherwise would have been an event to mark the 20-year anniversary of MGNREGA, had turned into a protest to save the employment guarantee scheme.

“Life and sustenance of labourers depend on MGNREGA in ways that we can’t even imagine. Whenever there is a crisis there is nothing to turn to other than MGNREGA. The certain amount of supplementary income from MGNREGA allows kids to go to school, college, get things necessary for life. Everything is centralised in VB-G Ram G, be it who will get the money, when it will be released, which state will get what or what types of work will take place,” said Dey.

Dey termed VB-G Ram G as a “return to feudal slavery and bonded labour”.

"The intention of VB-G Ram G is to help the employers, the corporates and the very big landlords. The straightforward message is that we want MGNREGA back. We don’t want VB-G Ram G. Instead of MGNREGA, it’s VB-G Ram G that should be repealed. The government is saying that it wants to increase the number of working days to 125. It could have ensured that within MGNREGA with a simple amendment," he added.

In December last year, MGNREGA, the world’s largest programme that guarantees 100 days of work in rural areas, was repealed by parliament amid uproar from the opposition and was replaced by the VB-G RAM G.