The importance of MGNREGS

There is an increase in demand. Consider expanding it for agricultural activities

The nationwide lockdown, which was imposed to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), sparked an exodus of migrant labourers from their host states to home states. Many of them do not have any safety net such as agricultural land or savings to see them through this difficult patch. This has led to a huge spike in the demand for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). According to The Indian Express, close to 22 million households utilised the demanddriven scheme in May, the highest for the month in the last eight years. At least 19 states and Union territories have reported an increase in the number of households provided employment in May. Unsurprisingly, the leading migrantsending states saw the highest increase in demand in the month, with Uttar Pradesh at the top, followed by West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.

The Centre did well in hiking the allocation of the programme by ~40,000 crore, taking the total allocation under the scheme to ~1,01,500 crore. The return of migrant labourers and popularity of the scheme is probably an opportune moment for the government to tweak MGNREGS, as a column in this newspaper suggested. What if the government decided to allow employment of MGNREGS workers in private agricultural activities? This will lead to a significant reduction in cost of cultivation by easing or even eradicating the cost of hired labour, and also enhance its capacity to employ more people, in addition to the present goal of using it as a mechanism to prevent economic distress and build rural assets.