BENGALURU: Delayed wage payments, technological glitches and declining worker participation are threatening the functioning of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), said Jean Dreze, welfare economist and activist who has worked extensively on the employment programme.
Speaking at a discussion titled “MGNREGA vs VB-G RAM G, harsh realities” organised here on Thursday, Dreze called for urgent reforms to revive the rural jobs programme as it completes two decades. The programme has faced increasing difficulties over the past decade, particularly due to repeated changes in the wage payment system. “It started with cash, then post offices, then banks, then electronic systems,” he said. “Each time we change the system, there are delays for months, sometimes even years,” he said.
These changes have led to “delayed payments, rejected payments, diverted payments and blocked payments or non payments,” he said.
Dreze also pointed to stagnant wages and declining worker interest, noting that real wages have barely risen since 2009. The “employment guarantee law”, he said, must be understood in the context of people’s movements between 2003 and 2005 and alongside rights-based legislations such as the Right to Information Act and National Food Security Act.
Despite its challenges, he said, MGNREGA remains one of the world’s largest public employment programmes and has inspired debates on employment guarantees in countries across Europe, the United States and South Africa.