An intense high-stakes political battle is brewing in Karnataka over the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin (VB G-RAM-G) Act, which replaced the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), implemented under the UPA government in 2006.
The Siddaramaiah government has taken up cudgels against the new Act, squarely accusing the Centre of depriving those dependent on rural employment schemes for work. Earlier this week, the state cabinet unanimously decided not to accept the Act and to challenge it in the court on various grounds, including “violation of the right to work and livelihood of the citizens as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”
The government has decided to hold a two-day special session of the state legislature to discuss the implications of the new Act on the rural workforce, while the ruling party Congress will hold protests at the Gram Panchayat, taluk, and district levels. Five-kilometre padayatras in each taluk are also planned from January 26 to February 2, to drive home its message against the new Act and the Union Government.
Job creation has been one of the major planks for the Opposition’s attack against the Modi government, and Congress sees the current development as an opportunity to bolster its narrative on that front. With the change in the funding pattern, the State Government has expressed difficulties in implementing the new Act. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar even went on to say that no state would be in a position to bear 40% of the cost.
The change in the funding pattern, from a 90:10 to 60:40 Centre-State sharing arrangement, seems to be one of the major concerns expressed by the state government, which is already hard-pressed for funds.
The state has also accused the Centre of enforcing it arbitrarily and hurriedly without holding consultations with the state governments.
Although the employment guarantee under the new Act has been increased to 125 days, from 100 days in the MGNREGA, the state government says it is constrained by the centrally determined normative funding. In his letter to the Prime Minister, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah argued that it undermines the principle of employment guarantee, as many gram panchayats may be left without funds despite a genuine demand.
To counter the Congress’s aggressive campaign – that the Union Government has snatched the rural workforce’s very source of livelihood – the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) are also planning to hold a series of outreach programmes. These include involving those who had registered under the NREGA scheme.
But, given the complexity of the issue, it would not be easy for the BJP leadership to fend off Congress’s attack and convince the rural workforce that the change is in their best interest. Like how the Congress party and its government are working in tandem, the BJP, apart from its organisational strength, could involve the Centre’s bureaucratic machinery at the very bottom of the structure to drive home its message. Reaching out to the target audience through means acceptable to them is a Herculean task. The cost of failure to explain the need for change could be huge, with far-reaching implications, not just on local body polls, but well beyond that.
BJP and JDS leaders reject the Congress’s allegations and strongly defend the new Act.
Rural employment schemes in India have evolved over six decades from the Rural Manpower Programme (RMP) in the 1960s. The Centre’s argument in favour of the latest change is that there were several gaps: expenditure not matching physical progress, use of machines in labour-intensive works, frequent bypassing of digital attendance systems and fund misappropriation.
The key components of the new Act are: a guarantee of 125 days of wage employment, entitlement to unemployment allowance if work is not provided, employment linked with infrastructure supporting long-term rural development and a strong digital and social accountability mechanism. That apart, it provides for a 60-day no-work period to ensure the availability of agricultural labour during the peak sowing and harvesting season.
According to those associated with the implementation of MGNREGA, demand for employment under the scheme peaks in the months of April, May and the beginning of June, when rural labourers are left without work. Around Rs 370/day was being deposited in their accounts within 15 days.
The Congress government, which is vehemently demanding the restoration of MGNREGA, must come out with a detailed report on how the UPA scheme has benefitted the rural economy, asset creation, and slowed urban migration – if at all it has – since its implementation.
With the MGNREGA being replaced by the new Act, if the latter is not implemented, it could adversely impact rural employment across Karnataka. Besides, with Congress and the BJP gearing up for a long political – and possibly, a legal – battle, over 71 lakh people, including over 36 lakh women, who have depended on the rural employment scheme in the state, and nearly 5,000 outsourced employees working on its implementation, will face an uncertain future.