Polit Bureau communiquE

Excerpt from People's Democracy dated Dec 26, 2004.

"The PB communiqué released to the press, detailed the Party’s dissatisfaction at the dilution of Employment Guarantee bill, proposed to be introduced in the parliament shortly. As per reports, the dilution was by way of limiting the coverage, both in terms of geographical coverage and by income groupings. The CPI(M) called upon the government to rectify these defects through parliamentary discussions and come up with an effective bill."

The bill to enact a rural employment guarantee Act is to be introduced in parliament. This is to fulfill a commitment made in the Common Minimum Programme. However, it is unfortunate that the present bill represents a dilution of the provision made in the CMP. Instead of providing for a hundred days minimum work for one adult in every rural household, the bill seeks to target “poor households” whereby only those who are below poverty line (BPL) beneficiaries can avail of the scheme. There is no provision for payment of the statutory minimum wage decreed by the state governments. Nor is there any time period prescribed for extending the coverage of the Act to the whole country. There is no provision for ensuring employment of women in the scheme either through the nature of the work specified or by providing that 40 per cent of the jobs should go to women.

There is also no provision for the centre providing hundred per cent of the funding and the states have to bear a share of the burden. All these defects need to be removed if the National Employment Guarantee Act has to serve the needs of minimum employment for a vast section of the people in the rural areas.

The Polit Bureau expects the UPA government to rectify these defects in the process of the parliamentary discussions so that a more comprehensive and effective legislation can be adopted.