shivani chaudhry
13 May 2005
Under the banner of Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee – a coalition of around 100 organizations and movements – a national “Rozgar Adhikar Yatra” was launched from New Delhi on 13 May 2005.
The aim of this Yatra is to consolidate the campaign for a full-fledged, universal and irreversible Employment Guarantee Act (EGA). Beyond this, the Yatra seeks to affirm the right to work as an aspect of the fundamental right to live with dignity.
Setting off in a colourful bus designed especially on the theme of employment guarantee, the Yatra will travel to ten states (Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh) before returning to Delhi at the beginning of the next session of Parliament. It will be joined by activists and members of peoples movements from various states. State conventions, public meetings, cultural activities and public demonstrations will take place on the way.
The launch of the Yatra on 13 May at Constitution Club was attended by a large number of people, including V.P. Singh (former Primer Minister), Annie Raja (National Federation of Indian Women), A.B. Bardhan (CPI), Swami Agnivesh (Bandhua Mukti Morcha), Arundhati Roy (writer), and Jean Dreze (NAC). They stressed the importance and urgency for a comprehensive, universal, and unrestricted Employment Guarantee Act, and expressed their support of the Yatra. Songs, chants, and speeches marked the launch while a lively puppet added a colourful touch to the flag-off.
The Yatra is a follow-up to the “display of banners” organised on 21 December 2005, when thousands of banners from all over the country, bearing about 10 lakh signatures demanding a full-fledged EGA, were displayed in Parliament Street (New Delhi). The banners will travel with the Yatra and will be displayed in various places on the way.
Rationale for the Yatra
A year has passed since the UPA government promised to “immediately” enact an Employment Guarantee Act.
A draft “Employment Guarantee Act” for rural areas was prepared by the National Advisory Council (NAC) in August 2004. This led to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill 2004 (NREGB 2004) being tabled in Parliament on 21 December 2004. While in principle a welcome step, the Bill is so problematic that it defeats the purpose of an “employment guarantee.” It is a severely diluted version of the original and omits the essential safeguards of the NAC draft. It also retracts from the commitment to employment guarantee made in the National Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government.
Among other revisions, the Peoples’ Coalition for Employment Guarantee, calls for the Bill to include the following provisions, without which it is self-defeating.
1. Universal entitlements: All adults in rural areas should be entitled to apply for work.
2. Irreversible provisions: Once the Act comes into force in a particular area, there should be no possibility of “switching off” the employment guarantee.
3. Time-bound extension to the whole of India: The Act should come into force in the whole of rural India (including Class B and C Municipalities) within five years or so.
4. Minimum wages: Labourers should be entitled to the statutory minimum wage of agricultural labourers in the relevant state, in all circumstances.
5. Scope for “individual entitlements”: The Bill should provide for a possible transition from household work entitlements to individual entitlements, i.e. 100 days per adult per year instead of 100 days per household per year. The way it is structured, the Bill completely neglects women. It is critical that this lapse be rectified by considering individuals rather than just households. In the meantime, at least 40% of the total employment generated in each Block should be reserved for women.
Without adequate employment, people’s rights to life, food, and dignity are violated.
The Yatra aims to generate substantial awareness on the issue, lead to greater mobilisation, strengthen a people’s consolidated demand for exigent revision and passing of the Act, and will hopefully lead to appropriate government action, as in the case of the Right to Information Act.
For more information, write to
rozgar@gmail.com or check the “Rozgar Adhikar Yatra” section at www.righttofoodindia.org. The itinerary of the Yatra is also available at this website. 
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