Job cards but no jobs in Palghar

It’s a chilly morning at Manor phata (junction) and farmers are huddling around the ashes of dying bonfires. The previous night was bitterly cold, and early morning is no better as Lakshmi Dattu Boba describes it, “as if rain was falling from above – cold water pouring down on our bodies.”

The chill was sharp, but sharper still was the anger of the 46-year-old Adivasi farmer over issues of land, water, and most importantly, wage work. Like her, tens of thousands of men and women walked to the Palghar district collectorate over the delayed resolution of their long-pending issues: regularisation of their land plots, potable drinking water, and importantly, wage work. Issues that are at the heart of them living a dignified life.

“Forget the whole year, we don’t get work under the rojgar hami yojana for a day,” says an irate Lakshmi, referring to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The Central government recently made structural changes and renamed it as the Viksit Bharat – G RAM G Act (VB-G RAM G), reneging on a legal guarantee for work and placing the bulk of the budgetary allocation for the programme on the states.

Among the other key demands of the tens of hundreds of people in the protest march, organised by the CPI (M) and the All India Kisan Sabha’s Maharashtra unit, was 200 days of guaranteed employment in a year at minimum wages of Rs. 600. The march that culminated on January 21 with the district collector making promises on each of the demands, had started on January 19, 2026.

Lakshmi hails from Tawa, a small Warli Adivasi village in Thane district. “We got a job card five years ago but none of us got work. Men go to cities, but not all women can go with them and those who stay back should get some work to survive,” she says firmly.

So, Lakshmi walked along with 150 residents of her Adivasi village in Dahanu block. The first halt at the end of the first day, after covering 30 kilometres from Charoti was on open ground along the Manor–Palghar road; exhaustion and enthusiasm settled side by side. The next morning was a rush of movement as people queued up at the row of portable toilets and water tankers set up in fields by the side of the roads. Elderly marchers rested on tarpaulin sheets, while groups of men and women sat in small circles, talking quietly. Groups from different villages ladled out steaming khichdi, making sure they ate a meal before the march pushed ahead — another 23 kilometers toward the Palghar Collectorate.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was passed in 2005 and renamed in 2009 as MGNREGA to honour Mahatma Gandhi. The act was among India’s most ambitious social security measures, guaranteeing up to 100 days of unskilled work per rural household per year at statutory minimum wages. It sought to improve livelihoods, build rural infrastructure, promote social inclusion, and strengthen local governance to benefit women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Despite its tall claims, even the older version of the programme did not attain its full potential.

People from rural Palghar, among the state’s newest districts, are angry at its ineffectiveness. Harshan Khadke from Tawa told PARI, “the effectiveness of hami yojna [guaranteed work] is minimal. Our village has no road, no electricity, no water sources. There is no work being generated for villagers because there is no rural infrastructure.”

In the march, anger and desperation was starkly evident.

For many, MGNREGA exists only on paper, even before its name and intent changed for the worse. Bacchu Mohankar recalls working for just 16 days in 2024 desilting a small check dam. “We were 40–50 people, bandhāryācha gāḷ kāḍāylā [desilting the dam],” says the 56-year-old. Bacchu even has a record of a filled muster roll, the work completed. “But I never got paid. I kept following up with the rojgar sevak [employment officer]. He said, ‘it will come, it will come.’ Why didn’t my wages come for my hard work?” he asks.

Bacchu never received work again. “I wonder how it is a hami [guarantee]of work then?” he asks, holding up his hands to show the deep callouses of the daily wage worker.

Frustration is palpable and stark across Thane-Palghar villages, including Dahanu taluka, inhabited by the most marginalised tribal communities.

“Only changing the name [of MNREGA] is not enough,” said Sakharam Kharpade, 45, from Murbad village. “There are more people in need of work and wages, but fewer villagers get work — maybe five or six at a time, out of hundreds [seeking work].”

Seasonal small-holding agriculture barely sustains families living on the periphery of forests. Most villagers have small plots that support only kharif cultivation; protective irrigation is a mirage, and guaranteed work – a lifeline – often remains unavailable.

“Those forest plots are not even in our name,” Meena Fadawale said. The Adivasi farmers are demanding rights to their land under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 that recognises the rights of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers to forest land and resources. Read: The long road to land rights

The list of woes and daily struggle to earn a living runs long.

“There is no irrigation to grow vegetables year-round, to be able to sell for daily income. We go to brick kilns or migrate to cities for construction work,” says Sakharam Kharpade. For her, and others like Lakshmi and Bacchu, MGNREGA’s promise of livelihood security remains largely unmet.

Meena, 45, who has never held formal education, says bluntly: “even young graduates don’t get jobs in our village. What are you asking of us who can’t read or write?”

Official audits validate these concerns. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s 2020 performance review of rural employment programmes notes that schemes like MGNREGA frequently delayed payments beyond the statutory 15-day deadline in many districts. The transformation of MGNREGA into the VB-G RAM G framework at the end of 2025 intensified criticism. While the new law nominally increases guaranteed days from 100 to 125, it shifts much of the funding burden to the states, reducing the Centre's accountability.

In December 2025, an open letter co-signed by economists including Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty warned the Indian government that this replacement would be “a historic error,” noting that timely wages and assured funding are crucial to prevent rural distress migration.

However, Union ministers claim the reformed law is based on “studies and expert opinion,” citing concerns about fraud. Yet, for many farmers, these reassurances feel distant from the fields and daily labour that shape their lives.

In the January 2026 protest, farmers and workers from Thane-Palghar districts, walked 55 kilometres to reach the Palghar Collectorate. The march, led by CPI(M) and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), raised demands for land rights, water, and employment.

After prolonged talks with the district administration and written assurances on every demand made by them, the march was called off late on January 21.

The Maharashtra Kisan Sabha chief Dr. Ajit Nawale informed the protestors that the administration has assured them that demands — from land inspections to rights implementation and job guarantees — will be resolved “within the next three months”. The administration told the delegation of protestors that it would communicate the demands to the government where the state’s intervention may be required.

As farmers and workers packed up to leave, the premises of the collectorate slowly emptied out on Thursday morning, January 22. People packed their blankets, flags, and cooking utensils for the journey home; there was both scepticism and relief in the air.

“We were told the government agreed to our demands and it will be done in three months,” Lakshmi said before boarding a tempo with others from her village. “If they don’t keep their promise, we will come back again — we will march once more.”