People's Democracy

RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE ACT

People’s Victory; Safeguard It

EDITORIAL

THE Rural Employment Guarantee Act (REGA) has finally been adopted by both the houses of parliament. This is a welcome step. This is for the first time in independent India that the central government would be providing a legal guarantee for employment. This is a step in the direction of making the right to work a fundamental right in the republic of India. 

Though the bill was promised in the common minimum programme it has taken the UPA government more than a year to enact the law. This was because there was a lot of resistance for earmarking the expenditure connected with the implementation of the REGA. What has finally come is not the comprehensive employment guarantee act that the CPI(M) always advocated. We had suggested that the employment guarantee must cover both the rural and the urban areas in the country. Further, all the unemployed in the country who register for this programme must be covered under the act. Also, the act must provide for guaranteeing a minimum of 180 days of work in a year.

The REGA as it stands now covers rural India by assuring that one person in every family will be guaranteed employment for one hundred days in a year. The Left has accepted this on the condition that the programme could start under these circumstances to begin with. The struggle to extend this to the whole of the country and to all the unemployed will therefore continue.

Even this REGA was finally possible due to the resistance of the CPI(M) and the Left against the efforts being made to dilute the provisions. One such contentious issue was concerning minimum wages. The minimum wages are enacted by each state and therefore they vary vastly. The CPI(M) would have preferred that the act will ensure payment according to the minimum wage act in the state. However, given the variation, it was finally agreed upon that for this particular scheme the minimum wages will not be less than Rs 60 which would be borne by the centre. The scheme consists of both cash and material components. The state governments will have to share the burden by contributing 10 per cent of the expenditure.  Due to the fight waged by the Left the bill has finally come into force. This is a step in the right direction.

The prime minister while intervening in the debate in the Rajya Sabha on August 24 however, failed to give a categorical assurance that this statutory bill will be backed by statutory funding. This would have made the guarantee rest on a much firmer ground. The prime minister however, went on to state that if the economy continues to grow at the rate of 8 per cent per annum, then the employment guarantee programme as well as the other programmes like Bharat Nirman etc could be financed without any problem. This is a dangerous caveat. If for some reason growth fails to reach the target then this scheme could well be in jeopardy. This cannot be allowed. The UPA government must commit itself towards the successful implementation of this scheme once it has become an act of parliament.

Further, the prime minister sought to justify the reforms of liberalisation and privatisation as saying these were necessary to achieve the targetted growth levels. Specifically, he mentioned that larger inflows of foreign investment, curtailing or in general targetting subsidies are necessary in order to protect the public sector. While doing so he hinted at the necessity to hike petroleum prices in order to protect the oil public sector giants. In other words, we are being led to believe that the successful implementation of the employment guarantee act is conditional upon the implementation of neo-liberal reforms. If this be the case, then the people must brace themselves to face a further onslaught on their livelihood which is likely to come through cuts in subsidies and hikes in prices. The employment guarantee act has come into being in response to the common people’s craving for a better livelihood. If this is to be accompanied by further attacks on their livelihood through the measures suggested by the prime minister, then clearly the government is giving from the left hand and taking from the right hand. This is simply not acceptable.

The sincerity of the UPA government’s commitment to implement the employment guarantee will be seen in the coming days. The CPI(M), as always, shall stand as the sentinel to ensure that this newly acquired right by the Indian people is neither circumvented nor diluted.