MGNREGA: Workers across 13 states protest to demand unpaid wages

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) workers across 13 Indian states are mobilising from September 21-23, 2022 to raise their issues and to submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is being done as part of the National Action Days called by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), a collective of groups that work with NREGA labourers across India. Here, members of Dalit Bahujan Front hold placards in Siddipet district of Telangana to raise issues of pending wages worth Rs 450 crore in the state, low budget allocation in Mahatma Gandhi NREGA and labour rights. Photo: NSM

Around Rs 2,800 crore are pending in wages from the Centre for this financial year and around Rs 1,984 crore are pending from the previous financial year. Here, workers demonstrate in Kalayat town of Haryana’s Kaithal district. Photo: NSM

The average increase in NREGA wage rate across the country is a measly 4.25 per cent whereas Union government employees and pensioners get a dearness allowance of 31 per cent. Here, a protest is organised in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh. Photo: NSM

Some 77 per cent of the budget has already been spent in the first five months. Sixteen states are already in negative net balance, condemning workers to ‘forced labour’ by delaying wage payments. Here, members of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity pose with their complaint filed in Dantan police station of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal against the program officers of the NREGA project, accusing them of cheating MGNREGA workers of their wages. Photo: NSM

By now there is incontrovertible evidence that inadequate funding leads to massive delays in wage payments. Even the Union Ministry of Finance has acknowledged this. Here, a protest is organised in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Photo: NSM