Average daily wages under NREGA rises to Rs84

The national average for daily wages paid to the rural unskilled labourers under the NREGA has gone up to Rs84 in the financial year 2008-09 from Rs65 in fiscal 2006-07, minister of state for rural development Pradeep Jain informed the Rajya Sabha, recently.

In 2008-2009, about 67 per cent (Rs18146.63 crore) of the funds have been utilised as wage expenditure, while in 2007-2008, more than 68 per cent of funds (Rs10,738.47 crore) was used as wage expenditure, he said.

The union ministry of rural development has notified the wage rate to be paid to NREGA workers with effect from 1 January 2009. Wage rate notified by the central government in respect of all states takes into account the wage rate as fixed by the respective state government prior to this date.

Earlier (up to 31 December 2008), under NREGA, wages were paid in accordance with section 6(2) of the Act, which provides that the minimum wage fixed by the state government under section 3 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for agricultural labourers shall be considered as the wage rate applicable to that area, the minister clarified.

Wages are paid to the NREGA workers in accordance with the wage rate as provided in Section 6(1) of the NREGA Act provides that the central government may, by notification, specify the wage rate for the purposes of this Act provided that the wage rate notified by the centre shall not be less than Rs60 per day.

Section 6(2) of NREGA provides that until such time as a wage rate is fixed by the central government in respect of any area in a state, the minimum wage fixed by the state governments under section 3 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for agricultural labourers shall be the wage rate applicable to that area, the minister clarified.

NREGA is one of the flagship schemes of the government that guarantees wage employment at an unprecedented scale. The programme aims at enhancing livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.