Gender issues
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WagesLike any other public employment or food distribution programme, the NREGA also provides entitlements in terms of income or grain (or both) with the important feature of the legal enforceability of the guarantee. The wage rate is one such entitlement. However, workers are earning no more than 50 to 60 per cent of the minimum wage, sometimes even a mere one fourth. The most shameful aspect of this programme is that we as a nation are willing to accept and even justify poor women earning amounts ranging from Rs 16 to Rs 40 per day of back breaking digging, lifting and throwing soil in the heat. This is justified on grounds of low outturn by the workers and failure to produce the norm, as if the norm was immutable. The good news is that Tamil Nadu followed the example set by Andhra Pradesh and has revised its norms downwards. The second worksite survey done by us in early October 2006 shows that this exercise has borne fruit, and now workers are by and large being paid minimum wages, sometimes after a strike of work and negotiated settlements. Table 45: Work and Wage in NREGS
This is the single most important problem in the Scheme. Moreover, it is a problem that no one denies. This problem has nothing to do with corruption, an issue raised repeatedly. It is in fact the opposite of what was argued would happen if the Centre pays the wages set by the States: competitive wage increases by the States. There has been little increase in wages in major States except for Tamil Nadu where the wage rate has been revised from Rs.54 to Rs.80 and Uttaranchal where it was raised from Rs.58 to Rs.73. Maharashtra proposes to raise wages now, after a gap of 5 years. . In the course of our State level consultation in Mumbai, the Hon’ble Minister Shri Patil announced that the Government of Maharashtra had decided to raise the minimum wage for unskilled rural workers to Rs 66, which will come in force from the 30th of October 2006 this was last revised in 2001. They also said they would examine the Schedule of rates soon. Governments of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh have revised the schedule of rates in accordance with NREGA but kept the wages at the same level. Rajasthan Government had reduced output norms by 10% for 2 months – May and June because of the intense heat The government of Orissa has already begun scientific time and motion studies in order to revise the Schedule of Rates. They feel that an average 33 per cent reduction will be required in the norms. West Bengal did reduce the outturn requirements marginally in two districts, but this has not been enough to bridge the gap. The Secretary assured us that this state government was monitoring wages, and will reexamine the Schedule of Rates. The practice in all the four states is to set daily tasks and rates for them, and calculate wages on the basis of the outturn. However, the productivity norms are very high with the exception of Tamil Nadu, which results in the phenomenon of “less work, less pay”, and not “more work, more pay”. Wages are less than statutory minimum wages for a very simple reason: the amount of production/outturn expected from the workers is humanly impossible in the prescribed time. This leads to payment of very low wages in most parts of the country. The Centre and States are responsible for such payments. The Courts may start intervening in such cases very soon since some aggrieved worker or organization is bound to appeal against the non-payment of minimum wages. Even though the Act permits productivitylinked wages under piece rate, it adds two very important riders: that workers shall not receive less than the minimum wage; and that the state government shall set productivity norms and rates in such a way that 7 hours manual labour earns the minimum wage. The relevant sections in the Act read as follows:
This is also backed up by very detailed instructions in the NOG in Sec. 3. “3.1. Norms for measurement of work have to be evolved by the States...for all the tasks listed under piece-rate works for the different local conditions of soil, slope and geology types in such a way that normal work for seven hours results in earnings at least equal to the minimum wage...3.2. The productivity norms for the District Schedule of Rates (DSR) should be worked out for each locale in such a way that seven hours of normal work earns minimum wages. 3.3. The State Governments should undertake comprehensive work, time and motion studies. These studies will observe outturn and fix rates after detailed location-specific observations. This implies that productivity norms must follow possible outturn under different geo-morphological and climatic conditions, across and within Districts. This is of particular significance in areas with a high degree of location specificity and variability in the soil, slope and geological conditions and seasonal variation. Therefore, a matrix of rates for the same task needs to be drawn up that follows ecological rather than administrative boundaries.”
There are problems in each one of them. In earth works, typically men do the loosening and digging, while women lift the earth on their heads, carry it to some distance (10 meters, 20 meters, even more), lift it to some height (4 feet, 6 feet, even more) and throw it, to return and repeat the process. When work is specified, the labour process is not broken up into the distinct tasks, with earth loosening, digging, carrying, lifting and throwing clubbed as one activity. Similarly, rarely are correct ‘lift and lead’ allowances made, even though the existing Schedule of Rates allows it. Usually, a standard rate is specified, irrespective, even though weather, age and gender play as important a role in ability as soil. Clearly, lifting and throwing should be treated as separate tasks from digging. There are systemic forces at work which result in invisibilising women's work through a focus on productivity-linked earth works and high productivity requirements. The urge to save costs and make additional assets by exploiting existing gender biases that already invisibilise women's work and pay her less/nothing for her labour is the most important underlying factor behind the continued clubbing together of easily divisible tasks and low payment. In a sense, women’s labour at public worksites gets treated almost in the same way as women’s work in the household. Unfortunately, administrative laziness has exacerbated this situation further whereby difficulty in computing women’s work has resulted in it not being recognized as independent work. There is also some amount of confusion regarding the productivity norms. Though the maximum outturn under the old rates in Tamil Nadu was 3 cu.m, workers in Kumaramangalam were emphatic that they had to produce 3 cu.m in the morning and 1.3 cu.m in the afternoon. For their labours, they recieved a daily wage of Rs 25. In Maharashtra, too, workers have no idea about the rates of payment and their wage entitlements. There was also discrepancy in the piece rates told to us by different people. For example, at Dahegaon, some workers told us that they were to be paid at the rate of Rs 4 per pit measuring 2 metres x 2ft x 1 ft. At Loni in Kinwat, we were told that the rate for a pit 1 metre x 2 ft x 1 ft was Rs 2.40, whereas the Range Forest Officer at Kinwat told us that the official rate for a pit measuring 1 metre x 2 ft x 1 ft was Rs 4.80 per metre. At Dahegaon, we asked some workers to recollect the wages paid to them in the previous year; they told us that the rate for digging was Rs 22 per cubic metre for A-1 soil (soft), Rs 27 for A-2 type (hard soil) and Rs 29 for A-3 type soil. The lead and lift rate varied between Rs 5 and 7 per 10 metres. At Lanji, they said the rate was Rs 14.70 for the first cubic metre, and Rs 4 as lead and lift for every stage of 10 metres. At Shekapur, the rates told to us for A-1, A-2 and A-3 were Rs 19, 23 and 27 per cubic metre with a lead and lift rate of Rs 4 per stage of 10 metres. At Rui, the largest site we visited, workers had absolutely no idea what the going rates were. None of these rates matched with the wage rates prescribed in the DSR. There were no boards describing the nature of the work undertaken, the number of workers present, and the prescribed wage rates. It should be noted that many workers were literate and would have benefited had the transparency provided for in the Act been actualized. Measurement is delayed by days, and this leads to inaccuracies. There are two methods that are followed: either the earth that has been dug up is measured or the pit from which it is removed is measured. While the loose dug soil can get washed away in the rain, pit measurement works reasonably well on clayey soil. Work is rarely measured on a weekly basis, which not only causes delays in the disbursement of wages but also leads to inaccuracies in measurement since rain and wind can very easily distort the quantum. Much to our chagrin, we discovered that in Orissa often the JE (Junior Engineer) is too busy to visit all the sites for detailed measurement and this has led to uncertainty about the allocation of tasks, suitability of productivity norms in the soil/slope regime and the final measurements taken. All these functions are informally delegated to the panchayat members, the VLL and the mate. In Tamil Nadu, too, in Kumaramangal village we were told that the Vice President and President measured the out turn with the help of a few upper caste people. One day, “a man came in a car and looked at the piles of earth, never measuring”, and later the workers learnt that he was the JE. Even though work is measured on a jodi or pair basis in most places, it is averaged for the entire worksite and everybody earns equal wages. The muster rolls too reflect this. For this reason, there is a lot of resistance to the elderly working on these sites since their productivity is likely to be less, which will pull down the average. There are at least two solutions to this under piece rate. (1) The wages are paid on the basis of individual/jodi measurement; (2) There are separate norms for women and the elderly. Of these, the latter is better because it is fair and more capable of ensuring that all workers earn the minimum wage. Some State Governments have taken important steps to ensure minimum wage payment, and, in conformity with the Act, West Bengal has made marginal revisions in two districts. While Tamil Nadu has undertaken substantive steps, Orissa is on the way to revising its Schedule of Rates.
*Includes lead upto 50 meters and lift upto 1.5 meters ** Includes lead upto 25 meters and lift upto 1.5 meters Out-turn requirements vary substantially across states. Of the states for which we have data, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have the highest norms for a day’s work while Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have the lowest. For soft soil, the norm varies between 110 cft in Jharkand and 36 cft in Andhra Pradesh. In village after village the foremost concern of workers is that wages paid are far below the minimum wage rate. What is more disturbing, however, is that the wage deductions on account of inability to achieve the unrealistically high productivity norms under piece rate has become an excuse for panchayat and government functionaries to negotiate for low wages in order to get works done. Disappointed with the wage at the end of the fortnightly measurement cycle, workers have sometimes revolted (esp. male and upper caste) and not come the next week. In states like Tamil Nadu, in the districts we visited, low wages have meant that male and non-Dalit workers are not interested in the Scheme. Several works had to be stopped in Tamil Nadu due to the refusal of workers to work for the low wages being given. The bargaining then began between the Executive Officer and workers. Workers were persuaded to settle for a wage higher than their productivity linked wage but below the minimum wage, which is typically a little higher than the prevalent market wage. The paper work then ensures that this wage is earned and involves fudged measurement and even muster rolls. In fact, in Orissa a village level worker told us that he did something completely illegal to get workers to a worksite. In the first week, on the basis of measurement, workers barely earned Rs 30 each and therefore refused to come again the second week. The Executing Officer who was responsible for completing the Project then initiated a process of wage bargained with the dissatisfied workers, and finally they settled at Rs. 50 per day. This is clearly not linked either to the productivity norm or the minimum wages, but reflects the bargaining power of the workers. Not surprisingly, this is only a little higher than the prevailing market wages. In order to justify this wage payment, the EO then worked backwards and fudged his records. For this, he told us, lift and lead provisions were given at twice the actual amount. Only then did the quantum of work justify Rs 50. He was very worried after we literally forced this confession out of him, but our curiosity was aroused by the workers’ statement that they only came after an a priori promise of Rs 50 as wage. There is a social dimension to the amount of wages that workers earn. We found that there is a strong positive correlation between the bargaining power and asset ownership of workers and the extent of minimum wages earned. Where poor people own some agricultural land, labourer get a higher wage, but where landless labourers dominate the poor, wages are low. Upper caste male workers tend to have a higher bargaining power, while Dalits, tribals and women don’t. Where there are strong movements and mass organizations, the balance tips in favour of the workers. This is certainly not the way the Act should be implemented, and indicates the influence of labour market conditions on the Scheme. Where workers have alternatives or market wages are relatively higher, they earn a higher percentage of the minimum wage. While welcoming the Scheme, and seeing it as a way out of distress migration, 93 % respondents are opposed to the payment of wages in accordance with a task based system and prefer a time based system. Respondents said that even if piece rate is mandated by the Central Government (which is what the local officials have told them), an immediate revision of the schedule of rates is required. Upon further probing, they argue for different rates for men, women and older persons. When we mentioned that the government wants to keep the elderly out of the Scheme, two older men retorted; who would feed them? They then demanded that if they are to be excluded from the NREGS, their pension be raised to Rs 500 per month. Delayed Payment of Wages As far as timely payment of wages is concerned, in Maharashtra, we found that barring Dahegaon, where the workers had received a total amount of Rs 2500 as advance, (which amounted to anything between Rs 50 and Rs 100 per worker, that too without any proper record of payments made to each worker) there was not a single site at which payment was being made as per the prescribed practice of the NREGA, i.e. once a week. The earlier practice of payments after the entire quantum of work is completed continues, so there are sites where work had been going on for more than 2 weeks, but payments had not been made. When we asked the workers when they were expecting the money, the standard reply was to shrug their shoulders and say “after the work measurements have been taken”. When asked when the measurements are taken, the reply was at least 2-3 weeks after the work is completed. At none of the sites had the measurements been taken on a weekly basis as per the provisions in the Act. When we asked workers at Atharipada in Maharashtra about work done by them on other sites, they informed us that around 100 of them, mainly pairs of men and women had worked on the Shikalti-Shelbara road, for around 4 weeks in the month of February 2006. They had not received any payment for the work done till the day we visited them (21st June). They were not aware of the wage rates; measurements had been taken suddenly in their absence so they were not sure how much they would receive as payment. In Orissa, we found several instances of delayed wage payment. In Jagda GP of Bisra Block in Sundergarh district, the VLL ‘contractor’ of the FFWP and the present OREGS worksite did not pay two weeks wages to over 25 workers for over a month. This, despite repeated reminders by the workers. Our team went to his house, where we discovered that he was pretty well off and had worked as a contractor earlier too. There were several bags of foodgrain lying around. After a lot of argument, we complained to the DM, who was extremely proactive. She ensured that the workers received the payment from the JE the very next day. Wages in Orissa are paid almost entirely by the VLL, sometimes also the Panchayat Secretary. Usually, no government servant is involved in the payment. On most sites in Orissa, workers said that the wages were either paid in their houses or to the group leader, without public payment to the actual worker. In Tamil Nadu, there was a stark contrast between Villupuram and Nagapattinam. In Villupuram there were several complaints of delayed payment, by as much as 7 to 10 days after the 15 day period. Muster Rolls Proper Muster Rolls are not available at the worksite. Only in West Bengal and Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu were the muster rolls available with the Panchayats and entries are made on the job card and muster rolls signed at the time of payment of wages. Workers said that attendance is marked on a rough sheet on a daily basis at the work site but not on the muster roll. The official explanation for this was that the daily record is entered every week in the muster roll in order to avoid mistakes and damage to the final document. Even though workers had received wages and when we inspected the muster rolls they had thumb impressions purportedly of those who had received the wages, none of the workers Maharashtra, Orissa and Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu recalled ever having signed/put their thumb impressions on the document. It is customary to maintain a rough Muster Roll which is later used to prepare the final Muster Roll, typically while sitting in the Block office. Therefore, the signatures and thumb impressions are entirely forged. It was very tough to get photocopies of the Muster Roll. Furthermore, entries are usually not made on the job card at the time of wage payment, esp. in Orissa. The workers are mostly unaware of the requirement that entries be made on the job cards, muster rolls be maintained for daily attendance, etc. Muster rolls are neither available at worksites nor at the Programme office. At every site in Maharashtra, there was a huge difference between the number of workers shown in the records obtained from the Collectorate and the actual number of workers on site. For example, at Dahegaon the number of workers we counted was 32, including two women employed to fetch drinking water, while on record the number is 120. At Lanji, it was 17 against an official figure of 143, at Shekapur 37 against 145, and 135 against 165 at Rui. The total number of workers shown to be working on all EGS sites in Mahur as per the record on 3rd June was shown as 5085, a figure that surprised the local people because they had not seen so many worksites in existence. When we confronted the officials with this fact at the Tehsildar’s office on the 8th of June, they were completely unfazed by our queries, and simply told us that many works had been completed in the previous two or three days; consequently the number of workers had declined! Monitoring and Vigilance Committees Except in West Bengal, where the Beneficiary Committees are designated as Monitoring and Vigilance Committees, these have not been formed anywhere. Cash or grain? Everywhere, women complained of the poor quality of grain and voiced suspicion about the quantity. This is how a Tamil woman Janaki amma put it: “Every night, the rice stares at me like a monster, resisting the boiling water as it takes twice the time to cook”. However, this notwithstanding everywhere women wanted at least part payment in kind when they worked. Interestingly, they wanted the men of their household to receive wages only in kind since, whatever the quality, whatever the quantity, it would at least reach home and fill the empty stomachs of the children. Over 4/5th of the sample preferred payment to be partly in grain and partly in cash. Almost all female respondents and 50 % male respondents wanted the wage partly as grain. However, they are very clear that this must be calculated at BPL prices. This view is held all over the country, which demonstrates the primary importance of food security. It also reflects the inability of the PDS to successfully address this vital concern. Female respondents preferred payment in kind since it saves a trip to the local market to buy grain, besides of course the tendency to simply spend the money so that it vanishes (“flies”) quickly.
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