With the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill set to be tabled in Parliament this week, with crucial amendments by the Cabinet, the Rural Development Ministry is staring at some grim numbers on its job schemes—supposed beneficiaries do not receive even minimum wages.The findings came up in a survey by the Centre for Management Development. Sixty-five per cent beneficiaries of the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana were found to receive wages below the minimum set by various states. Kerala tops the list (Rs 140) while the north-eastern states come last, at Rs 60. Several beneficiaries of SGRY get less than Rs 60.As against Rs 84 per manday for skilled workers and Rs 60.23 per manday for unskilled workers (minimum wage fixed by the Centre and states) — majority of beneficiaries receive between Rs 31 and Rs 60 a day — the average being Rs 58.48.There’s more bad news — 48 per cent of the beneficiaries did not know there is a stipulated minimum wage.Under the SGRY, wages were to be paid partly in cash and partly as foodgrains. The Centre allocated Rs 3,600 crore in 2005-06 for the scheme. In Andhra Pradesh alone, it was found that 5.65 per cent of the foodgrain released by the Food Corporation of India went missing in the supply chain. And, as per the books kept, only 20 states paid 5 kg foodgrain per manday, in the rest it varied between 3 kg of rice and 4 kg of wheat.In the new Bill to be introduced, the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana is merged with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.The survey was part of the homework the Rural Development Ministry carried out before implementing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. This, despite the National Advisory Council declaring that the panchayats and not the Ministry should decide the work.The urban scene is no more encouraging. The Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry, in turn, has been told by a Standing Committee that around Rs 500 crore of the budgetary allocation meant for generating urban employment was returned unutilised.
