Is paying Rs 127 a day for farm labour too much, Mr Pawar?

What lies behind Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s note to the prime minister asking for a suspension of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA, for short) for three months a year?

The obvious reason is that the big farmers’ lobby he represents is unhappy that NREGA has raised wages in rural areas and labour cannot be enticed to work for less. Under NREGA, labourers get paid at least Rs 127 a day - and Pawar’s protest suggests that farmers in Maharashtra were getting away earlier by paying much less.

According to a story in The Indian Express, Pawar has requested the PM to make NREGA “off-duration” for “at least three months in a year.” He wrote: “During the period, work on labour-intensive MNREGA works must be kept on hold so that labourers are available for agricultural operations.”

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Pawar, who has been at the forefront of demanding the lifting of export bans to give farmers market-related prices, seems to be squeamish about allowing a NREGA-boosted labour market to raise rural wages to reasonable levels.

Surprising, since Pawar has been pro-market in most things he does. In Maharashtra, he exhorted farmers in his constituency and neighbouring villages to grow grapes for the wine industry that his son-in-law runs. In the present day market, grapes will get you better returns, he told farmers. In cricket, the Indian Premier League (IPL) worked on the principle that the highest bidder should get the best players. As the Godfather of the largest hill township of Lavasa near Pune, he worked hard to keep non-market ideas - like environmental concerns - to stall work at this new-age town.

Why is Pawar now turning anti-market with farm labour wages?

Rajan Kshirsagar, general secretary of the All India MGNREGA Employees Federation, has one answer: “Nearly nine lakh villagers in Maharashtra used to move out of their villages every year in search of work as agricultural labourers. And 15 lakh of them used to go out to construction sites. Life was tough for them, because they were getting less than minimum wages in an unorganised market and they had to support their families too back in their villages.”

NREGA has had a huge social impact. The same villager now doesn’t want to work outside his village. He gets Rs 127 a day under NREGA. And he is sure of getting at least 100 days of work. He will never step out of his village if he is paid less than Rs 127. “The labourer has gained ‘bargaining’ power with NREGA. And Pawar’s letter exposes that he didn’t like it one bit. That’s why he wants to cut their wings by freezing NREGA work for three months,’’ says Rajan Kshirsagar.

Sharad Pawar’s letter has bared at least two things. That his rich farmer friends pay less than Rs 127 a day to labourers working at their respective farms. Otherwise, Pawar has no reason to ask for a freeze on NREGA. His friends can get all these labourers if they pay more than Rs 127. And second, one can understand why Maharashtra tops in farmer suicides in the country.

NREGA supporters led by Kshirsagar are holding an impromptu protest march in Sharad Pawar’s constituency. Rajan, in his blog, nregagrs.blogspot.com, reveals a startling fact: “Thirty percent of the NREGA workers in rural Maharashtra are graduates and 20 percent of the workers are post-graduate.’'

And Pawar thinks paying them Rs 127 a day is too much.