The scorching heat in Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai districts has been making the work of day labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) a difficult one despite the introduction of split timings. Adding to their woes is the Centre’s decision to withdraw the additional summer dry season allowance from this financial year.
At Siddharampuram village hillock and at a tank bed in Bukkarayasamudram mandal of Anantapur district, a group of 200 agriculture labourers are tasked with digging ponds to collect rainwater flowing down the hillock and to desilt the dry tank to increase its storage.
A group of 40 women, headed by their leader Chandrakala , has been toiling to remove the boulders and certain quantity of red soil from the hillock. The progress, however, is slow as the work is tough.
A few in the group had come at 6.30 a.m. in an autorickshaw by paying ₹40. “The government, however, does not reimburse the fare now,” lamented Chandrakala. Some of the labourers had sought the help of their children, studying in class 8 and 9, to take them to the worksite on a motorcycle or bicycle so they can save some money on fare. Most stay with the parents until their work is done so that they can take them back home, some seven km away. They while away the time that can be better spent studying or playing.
At the tank, a large number of labourers from Kondapuram had come in vans, paying ₹50 per person. This money, too, would not be reimbursed. With temperature touching 35 degrees Celsius, it was becoming difficult for the elderly to continue their work by 9.30 a.m.. But, Tahaiah and Nagesh—two of the workers—need to continue the task to earn a full day’s wage, which is paid based on the total work executed by the group.
Field assistant Sudhir Reddy keeps a tab on allocation of work at different locations every day and uploads pictures of the workers for attendance twice daily from his mobile phone. If there is any technical glitch, the workers lose their wages.
Earlier, the dry season allowance was payable at a rate of 20% for February, 25% for March and 30% for April and May and 20% of total normal wages for June. The dry season allowance protected the wage rate assured under the MGNREGS Act, as the total work done comes down due to harsh weather. While more than 8.4 lakh job cards have been issued in the undivided Anantapur district, currently only 4.76 lakh job cards are active and 8.54 lakh workers are actively seeking job.
At a macro level, however, the expenditure has remained the same for the past four years. Going by the data available on MGNREGS website with regard to Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai districts, the total expenditure was ₹101.65 crore in 31 mandals during the two months of the current financial year for the truncated Anantapur district and ₹52.11 crore in 32 mandals in Sri Sathya Sai district.
In the undivided Anantapur, ₹790.06 crore was spent in 2022-23 fiscal year and ₹788.22 crore in 2021-22, against ₹1,002.21 crore in 2020-21 and ₹476.38 crore in 2019-20.
