Rs 5 In A letter: Jharkhand's Unpaid Workers Return PM Modi's Wage Hike

Latehar, Jharkhand: Over a hundred letters, Rs 5 enclosed in each of them, addressed to the Prime Minister's Office in Delhi. The senders are the villagers in Jharkhand's Latehar, who say they could do without the Rs 5 wage hike under MNREGA.

In a season of drought, the Centre's increase of wages in Jharkhand -- from Rs 162 to 167 a day - has added insult to injury, say the villagers. The minimum wage for labour and non-NREGA work is Rs 212.

"The government has done us a big favour perhaps by increasing the wages. In some other states, I am told, the increase is not even that," said 65-year-old Kamlesh Oraon, a marginal farmer. "But we cannot accept such a raise. It is too little. So we are sending the money back to the prime minister... Maybe he'll have some use for it."

Among those who wrote the letter to PM Modi on Sunday was 65-year-old Phulmania Devi. Her family of 5 depends heavily of NREGA to supplement income. But this year has been bad, there is no work, she said. The wage increase, however meagre, is on paper, since payments are not made on time. "We are facing a drought. If there is work, only then we can eat," said Phulmania Devi.  

In March, Jharkhand's BJP Chief Minister Raghubar Das wrote to the Centre, asking for immediate release of due NREGA funds. The state says it hadn't been paid the money for workers' wages for more than three months.

Given the drought this year, NREGA could have helped greatly, said economist Jean Dreze, one of the architects of the MNREGA act. "NREGA was meant to be a saviour for the poor," he said. "But there are no funds. It is not a good thing at all."

Taking about the wage rise, he said the increase by Rs 5 after a number of requests was a textbook case of too little too late. "The wages should have been raised to at least Rs 300 in these times," he said.   

More protests are likely in the coming days, say workers, unless the Prime Minister personally intervenes.