Cong. lists ‘injustices’ against workers in 10 years of Modi rule
The Congress on Tuesday accused the Narendra Modi government of six major injustices against workers, including a decline in real wages and the slow death of MGNREGA”, as it asserted that its guarantees under “shramik nyay” would dispel the darkness of the “anyay kaal”.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge put out on X the reasons why the Congress had brought “shramik nyay” (labour justice), saying the growth rate of real wages was less than 1% per year between 201415 and 202122.
The growth rate of real wages was only 0.9% for farm labourers, 0.2% for construction workers and 0.3% for nonagricultural workers. Real agricultural and nonagricultural rural wages grew at 8.6% and 6.9% per annum, respectively, during UPA2 (200910 to 201314), he said. In contrast, in the second term of the Modi government, the growth rate had become negative for both agriculture (0.6%) and nonagriculture rural wages (1.4%), Mr. Kharge said.
“By making Aadhaarbased payments mandatory in MNREGA, the Modi government snatched the ‘right to work’ from seven crore people in the last two years,” he alleged.
Congress general secretary incharge communications Jairam Ramesh said six major “anyays (injustices)” were inflicted upon workers in India during the “Dus Saal Anyay Kaal (10 years of injustice)”.
These were “declining real wages, antiworker labour codes and rising contractualisation, Modimade deindustrialisation of India, the decline in salaried jobs, increasing selfemployment, slow death of MGNREGA, and apathy towards workers during COVID19”.