Fewer NREGS jobs for migrant workers

nNEWDELHI: The migrant workers, who were forced to return to their homes after losing their jobs because of the Covid-19 pandemic, continue to face an uncertain future as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) funds are quickly getting exhausted and the Union skill development ministry has been able to provide jobs to only a few thousand people.

At a meeting of Parliamentary standing committee on labour on Friday, rural development secretary Nagendra Nath Sinha informed lawmakers that 1.55 billion person-days have been generated out of the targeted 3 billion person-days for the entire year. He said in July this year, the demand for jobs was three-fold than last year.

On the other hand, the skill development ministry has been able to provide jobs to just 5,000 migrant workers so far out of 2.4 million skilled workers they mapped across 116 districts, underlining a slow pace of job generation for the daily wagers.

At the meeting, skill development ministry secretary Praveen Kumar said they have been able to map 2.4 million workers under the PM’S Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojna. They also found that 0.21 million job opportunities have been posted on a dedicated portal for migrant workers.

Kumar said finally 48,000 jobs were offered and out of them, just 5,000 workers found placement.

The panel, led by Biju Janata Dal’s Bhartruhari Mahtab, asked Sinha about MGNREGS and expressed concerns the Rs 1 lakh crore fund for it may soon get exhausted.

But the ministry claimed the demand for MGNREGS jobs is expected to slide in the coming months as more and more people are going to be engaged with other works and return to cities.

Sinha did not commit if the government has any plan to increase the ceiling of 100 days of work under MGNREGS amid job losses.

Officials said increasing annual limit might be difficult as the ministry might not get so many resources to handle an expanded programme. Sinha told the panel that some funds such as state mineral funds and finance commission funds are stuck with some states.

The government pumped in an unprecedented ₹1.01 lakh crore in the programme to generate 3 billion person-days of work to help jobless migrant labourers in their villages.

Kerala