Over 4.71 lakh job card holders in State
Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 1
At Rs 234 per day, the states of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have the lowest wage for unskilled manual workers under the Government of India’s (GoI) flagship rural employment scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA).
A total of 1,78,73,127 ‘man-days were generated’ during 2023-24 financial year in the state, according to data provided by Nagaland’s Minister for Rural Development & State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), Metsubo Jamir, in the State Assembly on August 29.
The wage rates given by the Minister were based on the ‘State-wise wage rate for unskilled manual workers’ for FY 2024-25, notified by the Union Ministry of Rural Development on March 27, 2024. The rates came into effect on April 1, 2024.
According to the notification, the rates are also low in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand (Rs 237), Tripura (Rs 242), and Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh (Rs 243).
The highest rate was in three Gram Panchayats in Sikkim and Haryana at Rs 374, followed by Goa (Rs 356) and Karnataka (Rs 349).
While Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh had lower rates than Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh (Rs 221 and Rs 224 respectively) in FY 2023-24, wages in the former two states increased to Rs 243 in FY 2024-25.
As per a Union Rural Development Ministry release in February 2024, the Central Government may, by notification, specify the wage rate for its beneficiaries based on changes in the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPI-AL). However, each State/UT can provide wages over and above the wage rate notified by the Central Government.
The wage rate is made applicable from April 1 of each financial year.
Job card holders
Meanwhile, a total of 4,71,818 job card holders are registered in the state under MGNREGA. This translates to over 33% of the population in rural areas, as per the 2011 Census.
With a total headcount of 1,407,536, the 2011 Census highlighted that 71.14% of Nagaland’s population lived in rural areas.
Based on the Labour Budget formulated by the GoI, for Nagaland, the approved Labour Budget was 40.82 days for FY 2023-24 and 31.79 days for 2024-25, he added.
MGNREGA guarantees at least 100 days of employment per year to adult members of rural households who are willing to do unskilled manual labor.
However, Jamir also underscored, in response to a query by MLA Kuzholuzo Nienu, that “The guideline guarantee of 100 mandays mentioned in the guideline is the maximum permissible ceiling and not a mandatory allocation figure to the state.”
As a scheme with the main objective of providing employment to the unemployed in rural areas, a high number of MGNREGA job card holders in a state generally indicate economic challenges. However, an official in the State RD Department clarified that this is not necessarily so, as at least one member of the rural household is registered under the scheme, notwithstanding their economic status.
As per the ‘Report on Verification of Job Cards’ status available on the MGNREGA website on September 1, out of the 4,71,900 job cards issued so far, 4,53,731 were designated as ‘active.’
However, out of the total job cards, only 1,85,620 were marked as ‘verified,’ with 1,84,047 of them designated as ‘active.’
Regarding the possibility of fraudulent job cards, the official noted that with the implementation of several measures to ensure transparency, such as the Management Information System (MIS) and Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS), the process is being streamlined.
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