Workers on conserving a water body under MGNREGA.
Credit: DH File Photo
Mysuru: “People in villages, especially from peri-urban areas, prefer to take up private work as the wages are high there. Only in remote places, where people hardly get work, especially in North Karnataka villages, prefer work under MGNREGA,” said Krishnaraju.
The official said they are creating awareness through IEC activities and encouraging them to take up other daily wage work after finishing their portion of work.
“My husband works in a ginger plantation near Periyapatna. Many of our villagers go to Kodagu during the reaping season from November to April. They also migrate to Kerala. He gets more than Rs 600 per day,” said Susheela from Golur tribal hamlet of D B Kuppe gram panchayat, located within the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in H D Kote taluk.
According to government sources, work under MGNREGA is demand driven and a fallback option when they are not getting jobs elsewhere.
“Time and again the state government has been getting representations from labour organisations to increase the wage of MGNREGA workers. They have also been sending proposals regularly to the Union government in this regard as it is a GoI programme,” the source said.
But the source also pointed out that MGNREGA workers in Karnataka are getting the fourth highest wages in the country after Haryana (Rs 400), Sikkim (Rs 389) and Goa (Rs 378).