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Worker ends his life over ‘unequal pay’

JAIPUR: A worker employed under the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme has committed suicide in Niwai tehsil of Tonk district in Rajasthan after jumping into a well protesting against unequal wages.

Bhurelal Meena, the 65-year-old victim, was purportedly provoked to do what he did when he was paid Rs.40 per day while others were given wages ranging up to Rs.65 at the work site in Guda Anantpura village under the Rajwas Panchayat.

Bhurelal, the first “martyr” of the much talked about unequal pay regime under NREGS in Rajasthan—where the programme is otherwise well implemented—was dead by the time he was taken out from the well by a terrified group of fellow workers who too had gathered to collect their wages.

His son, Giriraj Meena, who registered a case against the Panchayat Secretary and one Ganesh Bairwa, brother-in-law of Sarpanch Prem Devi, for driving his father to suicide, said his father killed himself out of “sheer frustration”.

According to eyewitnesses, Bhurelal had vociferously protested against his being paid Rs.40 while others were given more. As the protest grew louder, Ganesh Bairwa, who was making the payments, told Bhurelal that his wages would be calculated on the basis of the work he accomplished in a day and this came to Rs.40.

Ganesh Bairwa reportedly snubbed the old man saying, “Take it if you want. Otherwise go and jump into the well.” Bhurelal did just that. He jumped into the nearby well. The Panchayat Secretary and Ganesh Bairwa vanished from the scene while the rest of the workers informed the police at the Baroni police station.

The Circle Officer of Niwai, Prahlad Singh Shaktawat, later said the body of Bhurelal had been handed over to his family after post-mortem.

On a complaint from Giriraj Meena a case has been registered against the Panchayat Secretary and Ganesh Bairwa under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code.

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