Children found working under MGNREGA project in Jharkhand: Report

Jharkhand NREGA Watch, a civil society organisation, shared photos and sent a complaint letter to the local officials

Jharkhand NREGA Watch, a civil society organisation, found that children below the age of 14 were working in a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) project at a block in Jharkhand's Latehar District, according to a report in The Telegraph.

The organisation shared photos and complained to the Latehar Deputy Commissioner Bhor Singh Yadav and Latehar Deputy Development Commissioner Surendra Verma that at least six children were employed in a trench-cum-bund project at Herhanj Village in the Herhanj block of Latehar, which is nearly 150km from Ranchi.

Also Read — Police rescue two minor boys employed to serve liquor in Bengaluru bar, two booked

Jharkhand NREGA Watch State Coordinator James Herenz told The Telegraph that it was a gross violation of the MGNREGA provisions as job cards would not be issued to children. "As it is, children cannot be employed in any work, which itself is a violation of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act 2016," he said.

Herenz said that they had managed to identify the children from the photographs and all of them were residents of Herhanj Village who were aged between 10 and 14 years.

In the complaint letter to district officials, Jharkhand NREGA Watch said that the Gram Panchayat had not created muster rolls for the work period but a fake muster roll was made with villagers' names who had not worked on the projects but had received job cards.

Herenz said that one of the names in the muster roll was a driver while two others worked as staff on a bus. He said that they believed embezzlement of government funds was happening using fake muster rolls.

The letter highlighted other discrepancies like the specific location where the work on the trench-cum-bund was being done was different from the location mentioned in the records.

Latehar Deputy Commissioner Bhor Singh Yadav confirmed to The Telegraph that he received the complaint. Latehar Deputy Development Commissioner Surendra Verma said that a three-member committee had been formed to investigate the allegations.