Govt tweaks MGNREGS for benefit of unskilled workers
Migrants can now participate in the construction of complexes under the flagship Swachh Bharat scheme
nNEW DELHI: With millions of unskilled migrant workers in the cities having returned to rural India in the aftermath of the lockdown imposed for the Covid-19 pandemic, the Narendra Modi government has tweaked the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for the benefit of the workers.
The government notified on July 2 that unskilled workers can now participate in the construction of community sanitary complexes under its flagship Swachh Bharat scheme—a priority welfare measure for the government.
The phrase “Unskilled wage component for construction of Community Sanitary Complexes in convergence with Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen)” has been added to schedule 1 of the MGNREGS where it talks about “Rural sanitation related works, such as, individual household latrines, School toilet units, Anganwadi toilets either independently or in convergence with schemes of other Government Departments to achieve “open defecation free status, and solid and liquid waste management”.
The arrangement, officials said, would help in getting more hands for Swachh Bharat-related construction and for the unskilled workers, opens a dedicated area of work. MGNREGS promises 100 days of manual work a year to at least one member of every rural household.
The government recently announced a targeted programme comprising 25 types of existing work to offer jobs to migrant labourers who have returned home in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Out of these 25, construction of community sanitation complexes was mentioned at the top of the presentation made at a press conference.
Public works worth ~50,000 crore would be offered to create jobs for migrant workers through this programme.
The skill mapping done in 116 districts across six states for the rozgar (employment)programme has revealed the high share of unskilled workers from the construction sector who came back to rural India during the pandemic. While construction workers comprised nearly 60% of all migrant daily-wagers, about 40% were unskilled.
Officials pointed out that last
36,123 725 Madhya Pradesh
14,930
Dadar & Nagar Haveli
271
Chhattisgarh
3,207
Maharashtra
23,902
Goa
1,761
Karnataka
23,474
Kerala
5,429 14 206,619
Telangana
326 74 77 6,555 1,925 9,847 225 96 11,411
2,578 936
3,174 111,740
*Data compiled by covid19india.org and cross-checked from inputs by HT’S correspondents and news agencies. 'Cases reassigned to states' is as per data released by the MOHFW. This figure has not been included in the calculation for the daily new cases.
year too, the MGNREGS laws had been tweaked when the government renewed its emphasis on rain water harvesting. In November 2019, schedule 1 was amended to allow “rooftop rain water harvesting structures in Government or Panchayat buildings.”
MGNREGS was cleared by Parliament in 2005 and many changes have been made to make
the programme more attractive to the poor beneficiaries. An official pointed out, “the changes are only made in the schedule or an appendix of the main law. So, it doesn’t require the Parliament’s sanction.”
The union government is heavily banking on the MGNREGS to provide relief to India’s vast rural sector. It has
Jharkhand
946 2,807
Odisha
9,070
Andhra Pradesh
18,697
Puducherry
Tamil Nadu
111,151
Bihar
11,864 404 42 4,150 68 469 998 448 2,045
62,778
pumped in an additional ~40,000 crore to beef up the MGNREGS annual budget to ~1.05 lakh crore-the highest ever allocation to the rural jobs scheme. The government also plans to create 300 crore persondays of work under MGNREGS this financial year.
“MGNREGS is anyway demand-driven and works of Swachh Bharat were already 8,765
Total cases in India*
Deaths due to Covid-19
Cases being reassigned to states included. creating job opportunities for unskilled workers is good but the main question is where is the money? the government has hiked MGNREGS budget by ~40,000 crore but the budget won’t be sufficient for the entire year given the very high demand for work,” said Himanshu, an associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University.