Wages under the government's flagship rural job guarantee scheme are set to rise 11.4% from April 1, according to people close to the development. The rural development ministry has decided to increase wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme from an average of Rs 156.4 per person, per day at present to Rs 174.3 in fiscal 2014-15 , the same persons said.
The proposed wage hike is expected to cost the government an additional Rs 1,000 crore under the scheme from next fiscal. The government is spending over Rs 30,000 crore on the scheme in 2013-14 . MNREGS is widely seen as a plank on which the UPA government returned to power in 2009. The scheme entitles millions of workers enrolled under it to Rs 100 a day for a minimum of 100 days of work in a financial year.
On an average, 25% of rural households seek employment under it every year. The wage revision is based on the rise in the inflation rate as measured by the consumer price index for agricultural labourers (CPIAL ). The CPI-AL is based on data collated by the 38th round of the National Sample Survey Organisation's household consumption expenditure survey for 1986-87 . For the first nine months of the current fiscal, inflation based on CPI-AL stood at 12.4% compared with 12.6% for 2013 (January-December ). The wage increase will be different for most states.
At Rs 212, Kerala will see the highest increase -- up 17.7% from 2013-14 . This will be followed by Lakshadweep -- up 17.4% at Rs 195. For Bihar, wages will rise 16.6% to Rs 153 while Jharkhand will see a 14.9% increase to Rs 158.
Wages in Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland , Sikkim and Tripura will increase 14.8%. In absolute terms, however, Haryana tops the wage increase list at Rs 236 per person, per day, compared with Rs 214 at present, followed by Andaman and Nicobar at Rs 228 (Rs 204) and Chandigarh at Rs 227 (Rs 209). At the list's bottom is Bihar at Rs 153. Despite the annual increase in wages under MGNREGA since 2011, minimum wages in more than a dozen states are still higher than MGNREGA wages. The government is looking at ways to remove this disparity.
Source:-The Economic Times
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