Lok Sabha Question No. 4278 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-29
Subject: Disparity in Wages under MGNREGS
Ministry: RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Sanjay(Kaka) Ramchandra Patil, Nandigam Suresh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

## LOK  SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4278 ANSWERED ON 29/03/2022

## DISPARITY IN WAGES UNDER MGNREGS

## 4278.   SHRI SANJAY KAKA PATIL: SHRI NANDIGAM SURESH:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  taken  steps  to  address  the  disparity  in  wages  under Mahatma  Gandhi  National  Rural  Employment  Guarantee  Scheme  (MGNREGS) urgently to bring about equality as per clause (d) of Article 39 of the Constitution in all States/UTs;
- (b) whether the Government has taken any steps to create easy mechanisms of ex-gratia payment  of  a  fixed  compensation  amount  for  the  MGNREGS  workers  to  have  a prompt and urgent redressal to accidental claims;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  any  plans  to  provide  wage  support  to  the  Adivasi farmers after its recent decision to disallow coffee plantation works under MGNREGS in the tribal areas of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SADHVI NIRANJAN JYOTI)

(a)     As  per  Section  6  (1)  of  Mahatma  Gandhi  National  Rural  Employment Guarantee Act (Mahatma Gandhi NREGA), 2005, the Central Government may by notification specify the wage  rate  for  unskilled  work  for  its  beneficiaries.  Accordingly,  the  Ministry  of  Rural Development  notifies  Mahatma  Gandhi  NREGA  wage  rate  for  every  financial  year  for States/UTs.  To  compensate  the  Mahatma  Gandhi  NREGA  workers  against  inflation,  the Ministry  of  Rural  Development  revises  the  wage  rate  every  year  based  on  change  in Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPI-AL). If the calculated wage rate of any State is coming lower than the wage rate of previous financial year, it is being protected by maintaining the previous financial year wage rate. The revised wage rate is made applicable from 1 st April  of  each  financial  year.  However,  State  Governments can  provide wage over and  above  the  wage  rate  notified  by  the  Central  Government  under  Mahatma  Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS).

(b)    As  per  the  provision  of  the  Act,  'If  a  person  employed  under the Scheme meets with death  or  becomes  permanently  disabled  by  accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of employment, he or his legal heirs, as the case may be, shall be paid by the implementing agency  an  ex-gratia  as  per  entitlement  under  the  Pradhan  Mantri  Suraksha  Bima Yojana or as may be notified by the Central Government.'

(c)&(d)  Mahatma Gandhi NREGS is a demand driven wage employment programme which provide  for  the  enhancement  of  livelihood  security  of  the  households  in  rural  areas  of  the country  by  providing  at  least  one  hundred  days  of  guaranteed  wage  employment  in  every financial  year  to  every  household  of  rural  area  whose  adult  members  volunteer  to  do unskilled manual work.

Under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, individual assets can be created on the own lands in which such households can also work and will be entitled to get wages also as per the notified wage rate of the States/UTs. The works that are permissible for such farmers on their own land are: land  development,  farm  pond,  dug  wells,  other  water  harvesting  structures,  horticulture, sericulture, plantation, farm forestry, PMAY-G houses (unskilled wage component of 90-95 days), cattle shed, goat shed, poultry shed, piggery shed, fodder trough, fish drying yards etc.

As per Para 5 of Schedule I of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA ,works creating individual assets shall be prioritized on land or homestead owned by households belonging to the:

- i. Scheduled Castes
- ii. Scheduled Tribes
- iii. Nomadic tribes
- iv. de-notified  tribes
- v. other families below the poverty line
- vi. women-headed households
- vii. physically handicapped headed households
- viii. beneficiaries of land reforms
- ix. the beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awass Yojana- Gramin
- x. beneficiaries under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (2 of 2007), and after exhausting the eligible beneficiaries  under  the  above  categories,  on  lands  of  the  small  or  marginal  farmers  as defined  in  the  Agriculture  Debt  Waiver  and  Debt  Relief  Scheme,  2008  subject  to  the condition that such households shall have a job card with at least one member willing to work on the project undertaken on their land or homestead.

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