The Hindu : National : AIDWA against `dilution' of employment guarantee Bill

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Thursday, Dec 09, 2004

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AIDWA against `dilution' of employment guarantee Bill

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 8 . The All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) today expressed concern over the "dilution" of the national common minimum programme assurance for 100 days employment per household, as reflected in the draft Bill to be placed before Parliament.

In a statement, the AIDWA vice-president, Brinda Karat, said the organisation would hold a national protest on Human Rights Day on December 10 through mass dharnas, meetings and demonstrations in all State capitals and here to oppose the dilution of the draft bill. A delegation will also meet the Union Rural Development Minister in this connection. Describing the revised draft Bill as "flawed," Ms. Karat said that it sought to restrict the operation of the Act to some selected districts with no guarantee of its expansion. Also, the draft defined a household on the basis of a shared dwelling or a common ration card ignoring the reality of joint families. In other words, if there were three adult sons with their families living under the same roof or if there were single daughters, widows with their families, only one among them would be eligible for employment under the draft bill. "This makes a mockery of the CMP assurance."

Exclusion of women

Past experience of the negative consequences of the exclusion of women from government work programmes has been ignored and there is no mention of the essential clause that at least 40 per cent of those who get work under the law should be women, the release said. The grave omission is compounded by the contradictory definitions of what constitutes "preferred work." Clearly, heavy earthwork cannot and should not be the only type of work offered, as implied in various definitions of work in the draft. "With high degree of malnutrition among those sections of rural women who require the work most, it is utter cruelty to offer heavy manual work as an alternative to starvation." It is necessary to redesign work to make them accessible to women, the release said. At present, in most rural areas the legal minimum wages are not being paid.

"The proposed draft provides sanction to the flouting of the minimum wages by itself proposing that the Minimum Wages Act should not apply to wages for work provided under the proposed Act, but may be decided by the Centre. This is an indication that the vulnerability of unemployed in rural areas will be used to push down the minimum wages, which must be prevented. Even though the scheme is Centrally-sponsored, the draft legislation expects the States to meet one third," the statement said. It demanded that the Centre take up the responsibility of the entire cost.

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