Living monument to Modi’s betrayal of rural India: Kharge on 19 years of MGNREGA

Addressing the Lok Sabha in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi derided the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as "a living monument to the failures of the Congress".

Nine years later, marking the 19th anniversary of the Act, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge turned Modi's own words against him, labelling the MGNREGA as the "living monument of Modi's betrayal of rural India".

Kharge in a post on X, recalled how the Congress-led UPA government had introduced the MGNREGA in 2005 to secure the 'right to work' for millions in rural India.

He underscored the plight of the 13.3 crore active workers who still rely on MGNREGA, despite the programme being marred by low wages, limited workdays, and the widespread deletion of job cards.

He accused the Modi government of using technology and Aadhaar as a guise to delete over seven crore job cards, effectively cutting off these households from accessing MGNREGA work.

Referring to the Economic Survey, the Congress president claimed that it was used to justify the low allocation by suggesting that MGNREGA demand does not necessarily reflect rural distress. He also criticised this year’s Budget allocation for MGNREGA, noting that it accounts for only 1.78 per cent of the total budget — a 10-year low for the scheme's funding.

"Today a labourer earns on an average a mere Rs 213 per day. The Congress is committed to provide Rs 400 per day as national minimum wage," Kharge said. 

MGNREGA was passed on 23 August 2005, and implemented by the Congress-led UPA government under then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The bill was introduced in Parliament by the then minister for rural development, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

The MGNREGA was established to provide rural households with a safety net through guaranteed work opportunities. It promises each rural household 100 days of employment annually. Noted economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz had praised the MGNREGA, and called the scheme "the most innovative programme from India and a lesson to the entire world".