Economies based on markets and private enterprise have failed to eradicate poverty and unemployment. Remarkable growth in incomes and wealth have gone hand in hand with government support for the poor and the unemployed. Some economists consider this to be a waste of budgetary resources and a curbing of the initiative to work and earn. There are others who believe that the State has a moral responsibility to provide sustenance to all people willing to work. The principle on which this argument rests is based on the right to a living income and dignified employment. Different governments have adopted different positions regarding the rights-based provision of State-funded welfare schemes. For instance, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was introduced by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and positioned not only as a successful intervention in the economy but also as a duty of the State. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which is in power now, has a different approach. In 2015, the current prime minister, Narendra Modi, had described the MGNREGA as an example of the economic failure of the UPA government to remove poverty and unemployment. Yet, in the first year of the pandemic, the allocation for this scheme had to be boosted by the Centre to counter the economic misery wrought by Covid-19.

In a recent development, the Congress-led Rajasthan government has introduced two bills that reflect the rights-based approach to welfare. The first pertains to employment. The Rajasthan minimum guaranteed income bill seeks to provide 25 additional days of employment over and above the 100 days guaranteed under the MGNREGA for all families in both rural and urban areas. The legislation would also cover pension benefits to all eligible persons at the rate of Rs 1000 per month. The other legislation, the Rajasthan platform-based gig workers (registration and welfare) bill, aims to register all gig workers and aggregators in the state so as to create a data base that will help provide social security cover under various schemes. Significantly, in this year’s budget, the Union government has slashed the allocation for the MGNREGA by 17.8%. This goes to show that welfare remains an ideological as well as a political question that influences, adversely or otherwise, funding priority and the reach of such schemes. The vulnerability of welfare to such political intervention is unfortunate and often, as West Bengal’s MGNREGA workers now know, affect the lives of the people.