This Thursday, the government of Chhattisgarh finally decided to pay Pitvasu Boi the Rs. 10,000 it owed him for his labour. But the money came too late to help Boi's son Santosh who died two weeks ago at the Mission Hospital in Ambikapur.
“We didn't have money to buy four bottles of blood for his transfusion,” said Boi over the telephone, “It took me two days to find people willing to donate blood. But he died. The hospital asked for Rs. 7000 just to release his body.”
A manual labourer from Pampapur village in Surguja district, Boi worked for 100 days last year building a village road under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), which guarantees job cards holders 100 days of paid work in a year, but it took the government nine months to process his payment.
“I broke my leg three years ago, when I was knocked down by a motorcycle,” said Boi.
“Since then I was unable to find regular work as I cannot carry heavy loads.” When the district administration offered work under the MNREGS, Boi and his wife signed on. “I dug the earth with my shovel, while she carried the loads on her head,” Boi said, explaining that his family had few other means of support.
A recent study by the Right to Food Campaign notes that delayed payments are the biggest challenge facing the MNREGS in Chhattisgarh. While the Act stipulates that all payments be made within 15 days of completing work, the study reveals that only 3 per cent of workers in Surguja and 4 per cent of workers in Chhattisgarh received their payments on time. Almost 70 per cent of workers in Chhattisgarh are paid more than a month late.
Samir Garg, one of the contributors to the study and an advisor to the Commissioner of Supreme Court (Food Security), explains that the poor and the vulnerable are the worst affected by payment uncertainties.
“The poor cannot afford to wait,” he explains, “Delayed payments mean that the very people who need the MNREGS might lose faith in it.”
Gangaram Paikra, an activist with the Right to Food campaign in Surguja, explains that while computerisation of payments has reduced the opportunities to siphon wages intended for labourers, the banking system in Surguja is notoriously slow and opaque. To access their accounts, villagers from Pampapur must travel more than ten km to the Grameen Bank at Darima. Paikra points out that it is difficult for villagers to keep travelling to town just to see if their money has arrived.
“Very often, officials say that the money has been sent to your account, but the banks say it hasn't come,” said Paikra, “Boi had no way of finding out if and when the money was sent to his account.”
For instance, bank records show that a payment of about Rs. 1,800 was authorised for Boi's account on December 28 last year, and another payment was authorised for January 8 this year.
The payments were delayed, but may have helped save his son, Santosh's life.
Boi says he finally got his money on January 20, after the local press raised the issue.
Dhanjay Devangan, Chief Executive Officer of the Surguja District Panchayat, sought to draw a distinction between the death of Boi's son, and the delay in the payment of his wages.
“These are two very unfortunate, but separate incidents,” he said, attributing the delay to procedural issues.
Keywords: Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, MNREGS
India says it is an 'IT Superpower'. Why are banks taking days to move money from one account to another? Money is just a number sitting in a data record of the bank ('black money' is exempted which may sit somewhere as a fat wad of paper notes). Moving a piece of data happens at light speed even if it is moved across branches through a financial network. It should take minutes at most in any decent financial network, though T+1 (next day) is guaranteed. Using IT is the cheapest and most efficient way of banking with existing technology available in India. So why is all this happening ? My feeling is: India is like a house of cleaners who will do cleaning work for paymasters, but do not move a finger to keep their own house clean. As for the Adhar UID project, I can tell you none of this will change a wee bit after UID is rolled out. UID is not going to speed up this nor stop corruption. The mega project will be just another legitimised way to give IT companies more work and more revenue. IT companies don't like to pay tax either! None of this is going to make India an IT superpower, none of it is going to improve the plight of the super-poor Indian. Especially because we already pretend to be an IT superpower!
Very sad and unfortunate to read this kind of incidents. With the cabinet going chaotic for increasing ministers' salary and hundreds of scams to be investigated along with the irresponsible remarks made by ministers, they often forget to sort the minor problems of hungry poor man.
I can only suggest the governments at Centre and Chhattisgarh to take decision regarding payment to Workers under the MNREGS, So that it will be success for those, who have need this Scheme. But, I am very shocked to read this news, that indicate we are not developing.
Why to disrespect the name of Mahatma? The incident shows the situation prevailing in the Nation. Politicians (irrespective of party) and the bureaucrats are looting the nation at the cost of common man. What is alarming is the judiciary also keeping its eyes shut. Dr. Ambedkar, while heading the commission of Indian Constitution, the committee kept certain criteria for development of weaker sections and included hundreds of castes in Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes list. But it is unfortunate that only a few castes are allowed to utilize the benefits and others are not allowed to reach the benefits. The administration never bothered to review the status of communities listed in the Schedule and never compared their status i.e. to assess the progress they achieved. The people of Boi community are the wandering community in search of jobs who earn the livelihood irrespective of gender by digging the land and working as casual laborers in construction of tanks, dams etc. Because of their nomad nature the children do not have the privilege to go to schools and repeating the profession of their parents. The introduction of latest machinery into the field has added to their vows. Bureaucrats does not have an interest in looking towards the benefits of the weaker sections and the politicians want to retain the status of weaker sections alike to buy their votes. Poverty makes the weaker sections sell their votes. This attitude makes the poor getting attracted to Naxalism since the poverty does not allow to think and take right decision. This is the status of Rural India.
Now what should be the action against the raman singh government of Chhatishgarh! This is a shame not only for Chhatishgarh but for whole country! Surprisingly, how the Raman Singh government shows pride in tackeling naxalism and charging innocent people like Binayak Sen, Sanyal and others for so called sedition - but when it comes to its own duty, Raman Singh shows what type of action! Not paying the tribals their due under NREGAS on time has resulted in the tragic death of his son! Now who is responsible? Raman Singh should reply to the nation. Such misdeeds of the Chhatisgarh government has exposed its insensitivity. Now the only answer to this menace appears left --unite poor of the country not to overthrow the democratic government but to agitate and protest through armed revolution for revamping the stale system, which is exploiting poors and tribals. Union home minister should owe responsibility for such guesome crime against poor because once Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru remarked, 'death of even a single person in unnatural circumstances is the responsibility of union home minister.' People of country must demand explanation from both union and Chhatishgarh government for this heinous crime of not paying NREGA wage in time. Thanks Hindu for highlighting such instances of irresponsibility on the part of the government.
Its tragic, the father lost a son on whom he was depending sooner or later for his life. It was this apathy of the government and neglect of the poor that forced Binayek Sen to fight for their rights. The Govt. calls Dr. Sen a Revolutionary'. I count him among Buddha,Gandhiji, Mandela and Martin L. King Jr.who fought for justice and alleviation of sufferings.
MNREGS being a government organization, which employs poor people for work has an equal responsibility of paying their hard earned money on time without any delay. Today the death of Santosh has made this topic open but this issue is in many government organizations like students' stipend, salaries in government schools mainly temporary employees are being delayed. I met many people who suffered because of delays in their payment. This need to be controlled because it majorly effects the poorest of the poor in the country.
This is the true picture of India.On one hand there is large scale corruption amounting several lakhs of crores.This is the fate of a common man with no muscle , money or manpower.
I agree with Dhanjay on these issues being separate. There is no evidence that the labourer's son would have survived if he has gotten the necessary blood supply on time. The fault here is that the hospital should have done everything to save the boys life. That is what the hospitals do in any civilized country in the world. The fact that they can't release the body unless they get Rs.7000 is a disgrace to humanity. The state and central governments should have a policy to re-imburse the hospitals in cases such as these, where people are not in a position to pay. In a country where a single person can build a billion dollar house to live, I am sure the government can divert some of that corrupt money to the welfare of the poor.
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