Rajasthan minimum income Bill: provisions, what makes it unique

Source: The post is based on the article “Rajasthan minimum income Bill: provisions, what makes it unique”  published in Indian Express on 21st July 2023

What is the News?

The Rajasthan government has tabled the Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023.

What is Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023?

Aim: To cover the entire adult population of the state with guaranteed wages or pension.

Categories: The Bill has three broad categories: 1) right to minimum guaranteed income 2) right to guaranteed employment and 3) right to guaranteed social security pension.

Expenditure: Government anticipates an additional expenditure of Rs 2,500 crore per year for this scheme, which may increase with time.

Key Provisions of the Bill: 

Minimum guaranteed income: Each adult citizen of the state has been guaranteed a minimum income for 125 days a year through the Rajasthan government’s flagship Indira Gandhi Shahri Rozgar Guarantee Yojana for urban areas and through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in rural areas.

Right to guaranteed social security pension: Government will provide eligible categories such as aged, disabled, widows, and single women with a minimum pension of Rs 1,000  per month. Importantly, the pension will be increased at the rate of 15 per cent each year.

Right to guarantee employment: According to the Right to Employment, once the work in a rural or urban employment schemes are finished, the entitled minimum wages must be paid weekly or not later than a fortnight.

– To implement this, a Program Officer will be appointed by the State government.In rural areas, the officer must not be below the rank of a Block Development Officer (BDO).In urban areas, they must be an Executive Officer of the relevant local body.

– The officer will ensure that the work site is within a five-kilometer radius of the location in which the job card is registered in both rural and urban areas.

– The Program Officer must also ensure the applicant gets work within 15 days of receiving the application. If not, the applicant is eligible for unemployment allowance on a weekly basis and in any case not later than a fortnight.

What is the significance of this bill?

Firstly, Mahatma Gandhi had said “true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”. Hence, it is a moral responsibility of every government to ensure that everyone gets justice.

– Therefore, the Bill is part of a bouquet of schemes and measures undertaken by the Rajasthan government to provide relief from inflation.

Secondly, the bill contains many firsts in the country. The bill’s approach, guaranteeing minimum employment and pensions by law, distinguishes it from the cash transfer schemes that various other states have.