🔥 WHEN A POVERTY-ERADICATION SCHEME IS TURNED INTO A POVERTY-PUNISHMENT TOOL 🔥
The 100-Day Employment Guarantee Scheme was never just about wages. It was about dignity, self-respect, and survival for India’s poorest citizens. It was designed to ensure that no family starves in silence, no worker begs for charity, and no village is abandoned by the state. Yet over the past decade, this lifeline has been systematically weakened, delayed, centralized, and financially strangled. What was once a poverty-eradication program now risks becoming a poverty-expulsion strategy — and tamil Nadu stands at the sharp end of this assault.
1️⃣ A SCHEME BUILT ON DIGNITY — NOT HANDOUTS
MNREGA was conceived as a rights-based program, guaranteeing work to rural households and preserving self-respect through labour, not alms. For millions, it remains the only buffer against hunger, migration, and debt. Undermining it doesn’t just cut jobs — it erodes human dignity.
2️⃣ THE FIRST BLOW: BUDGETARY SLASHES AFTER 2014
In 2013–14, the rural employment scheme received ₹39,000 crore. The very next year, after the bjp came to power, the allocation was slashed to ₹24,000 crore. This wasn’t fiscal prudence — it was a political signal. MNREGA was no longer a priority; it was a burden the Centre wanted to escape.
3️⃣ tamil NADU: HIGH DEMAND, LOW SUPPORT
tamil Nadu has 92 lakh registered MNREGA workers. Instead of strengthening the scheme to meet demand, the Union government removed 33,000 beneficiaries this year alone. At a time of inflation and rural distress, exclusion replaced inclusion.
4️⃣ FROM local CONTROL TO delhi COMMAND
Until now, job allocation happened at the Block Development Officer level, close to the ground and responsive to local needs. The new move to centralize control from delhi strips states of flexibility and turns a grassroots welfare scheme into a remote bureaucratic exercise — slower, colder, and less humane.
5️⃣ CHRONIC FUND DELAYS: A DELIBERATE STRANGLEHOLD
For years, the Union government has failed to release funds to tamil Nadu on time, forcing wage delays and administrative chaos. workers wait. Panchayats suffer. States are blamed. The Centre escapes accountability.
6️⃣ A TIMELINE OF PROTESTS — AND CENTRE’S INDIFFERENCE
13 Jan 2025: tamil Nadu cm writes to the prime minister demanding release of pending MNREGA wages
27 Jan 2025: State Finance minister meets Union FM nirmala sitharaman seeking funds
28 Jan 2025: Instead of condemning the Centre, EPS targets the tamil Nadu government
25 Mar 2025: DMK MPs raise the issue in Lok Sabha
29 Mar 2024: Statewide DMK protests over ₹4,034 crore unpaid by the Centre
01 Apr 2025: DMK mp Rajesh raises the issue in Rajya Sabha
01 Jun 2025: After sustained pressure, the Centre releases only 74% of the due funds
This was not generosity. It was reluctant retreat under pressure.
7️⃣ THE MOST DANGEROUS MOVE YET: 60:40 FUNDING MODEL
From 2025–26, the Union government plans to change MNREGA funding from 100% central wage support to a 60:40 model. This forces tamil Nadu to cough up ₹4,000 crore annually just to keep the scheme alive. For a program meant to reduce inequality, this is a brutal cost shift onto states.
8️⃣ POVERTY ERADICATION → POVERTY ELIMINATION
Delayed funds, beneficiary removals, centralized control, and a 40% financial burden on states — taken together, they expose a clear pattern. MNREGA is no longer being weakened by accident. It is being re-engineered into an unworkable scheme, pushing the poorest out under the guise of reform.
⚖️ FINAL WORD
The 100-Day Employment Scheme was a promise — that the indian state would stand by its poorest citizens. Today, that promise is being hollowed out. What was meant to uplift the poor is being weaponized against them.
This is no longer about budgets or ratios.
It is about whether dignity itself still matters in public policy.
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