As the two waves of COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns resulted in massive loss of incomes and worsened the food insecurity for the majority of rural population, activists have demanded that the Government focus on providing work to job seekers and ensure participation from minority categories.
Odisha Khadya Adhikar Abhijan and Odisha Shramajeebee Manch, informal networks of individuals and organisations working on questions of right to food and right to work in Odisha, shot off a memorandum to Panchayati Raj Minister Pratap Jena and sought his intervention.
“There is very high demand for work in the State which is not being met. Work was demanded by record 34.9 lakh households and only 29.2 lakh of families were provided work,” the group said.
“It is essential that a campaign must be taken up for registering work demand in all districts in collaboration with civil society organisations. Rozgaar Diwas should be rejuvenated and can be celebrated at each gram panchayats to regularly capture demand,” said Sameet Panda, a lead member of the network.
Mr. Panda pointed out, “it is also important that demand registration is also done through electronic means such as WhatsApp. Work demand receipts should be provided to each worker, this should be mandated and strengthened at each gram panchayat.”
Workers belonging to minority categories were deprived of work. “Schedule Caste participation is low. In Odisha, only 32.2% of registered SC households participated in NREGA while the national average is 38.5%. Similarly, women’s participation is low. In Odisha, 46% of person days are by women, while the national average is 54%,” he said.
As per the analysis carried out by the groups, there is a high prevalence of rejected payments that are denying workers their wage.
“About 1.2% of transactions are rejected. Wage of ₹102 crores in last five fiscal has been rejected whereas pending wagers were still to be credited into workers’ accounts,” said Mr. Panda.
According to the analysis of the two networks, delay in payment processing by the Centre is depriving workers of a timely wage. “About 48.5% of payments took more than seven days to be processed by the Centre. This is not considered as an official delay on the management information system, leading to lack of compensation to workers,” they said.
Stating that the Natural Resource Management (NRM) expenditure in Odisha was low at 69%, Odisha Shramajeebee Manch convener Arun Prasad Dihudi said the State Government could encourage building of NRM assets for soil and water conservation, improving biodiversity and increase productivity of rural areas.
