Congress-led Ashok Gehlot government on Tuesday introduced ‘The Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023’ in the Assembly, what is widely expected to be the last session before the State goes for polls in less than four months. The legislation, for the first time in the country, provides legislative backing for urban employment guarantee schemes and also makes pension a legal right with the provision of 15% annual increment.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot also shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that such a law should be brought for the entire country, the Rajasthan cabinet also passed a resolution to this effect on Wednesday.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections the Congress in its manifesto had promised Nyay — a minimum income guarantee programme — which promises ₹72,000 each annually as a minimum income to the 20% families in the poorest of the poor category. Since then the party has rarely spoken about the scheme. This Bill comes the closest to the Congress’s 2019 promise.
Under the Bill, every adult person residing in the rural areas of the State shall have a right to get guaranteed employment for doing permissible work of at least additional 25 days in a financial year on completion of maximum days of work as prescribed by Union government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Every person falling in the category of old age/specially abled/widow/single woman with prescribed eligibility shall be entitled to a pension under this Act. And this pension, as per the legislation, will be increased at the rate of 15% per annum.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Gehlot said, “It is my firm belief that the social security should be considered an entitlement of people. It is the “right” of one and all to be able to lead their life with dignity.” He further added that the COVID pandemic proved importance of such measures.
Arguing in favour of the legislation, social activist Nikhil Dey of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan said that it brings a unique approach to an undisputed need for minimum income guarantees for crores of vulnerable families across the country. “The law combines employment guarantees for those who can work [both in rural and urban areas] and minimum social security pensions for those who can’t — thereby ensuring a minimum legal income guarantee for all,” he said.
Several other States too have in recent years introduced employment guarantee schemes for the urban areas but only via executive order. This is the first time the Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme will get legislative backing.
“This is also the first time that social security pensions will become a legal guarantee. Again, within that, the provision for a minimum amount of ₹1,000 with automatic increments every year of 15% is both significant in amount, and scope [almost universal for the unorganised sector], and a breakthrough in the demand for indexing entitlements for the economically vulnerable,” Mr. Dey said.
He pointed out that this legislation has a universal application unlike the centrally sponsored pension scheme which is extended only for Below Poverty Line families. In the absence of a fresh census, the BPL numbers are outdated. The pension offered by the Centre is also stuck at ₹200 per month and has been stagnant since 2007.
