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Data show disparity in MGNREGA wages across States

Work under MGNREGA is under way at Kuplan tank in Telangana’s Nizampet. File

Work under MGNREGA is under way at Kuplan tank in Telangana’s Nizampet. File  

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Data Point

With the Centre’s plan to peg MGNREGA wages to inflation, a look at the current wages shows a wide disparity in the notified wages among States.

While some States notified relatively higher wages, they paid out lesser than that amount on average during all months in FY19, while some States which notified lesser wages paid out that wage (or higher) consistently.

State disparities

Map shows the wages notified under MGNREGA for FY20. Many central and northern States have relatively lower notified wages; Haryana (the highest among States) is an exception.

 

What they actually paid

Graph shows the number of months in FY19 in which a State paid out a lower average wage than the notified (promised) rate.

image/svg+xml Haryana Andhra Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Himachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Madhya Pradesh 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Kerala Goa Karnataka Punjab Tamil Nadu Manipur Telangana Maharashtra Mizoram ,Gujarat Rajasthan West Bengal Assam Odisha Meghalaya Nagaland Sikkim Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand Chhattisgarh Bihar Jharkhand States with relatively higher notified wages Kerala and Goa notified higher rates and paid out as promised in all the months of 2019 In these States, lower wages were notified and the promised wages were paid out on all months In Chhattisgarh and M.P., despite lower notified wages, in all the months lesser than the promised wages were paid In States such as Punjab, Tamil Nadu, A.P. and Telangana, higher wages were promised, but less amount was paid on all 12 months States with relatively lower notified wages No. of months in FY19 in which wages lower than notified were paid
 

Growth drop

The total MGNREGA expenditure reported by States has risen, but the year-on-year growth has fallen below 5%.

 

 

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