Work allocation under NREGS rises amid surge

THE RURAL DEVELOPMENT MINISTRY BUDGETED FOR 335.7 MILLION PERSON-DAYS OF WORK IN APRIL UNDER MGNREGS

NEW DELHI: The Centre allocated more work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in April and May than in the corresponding period last year, signalling a greater job demand amid the surge in Covid-19 cases that has prompted lockdowns across the country, and pushed at least some migrant workers in the cities to return home, although the exodus is still a fraction of what was seen during the 68-day hard lockdown last year.

The rural development ministry, which administers the world’s biggest job guarantee scheme, budgeted for 335.7 million person-days of work in April under MGNREGS. As India’s Covid cases rose, the budget for May jumped to 799.4 million, a rise of around 140%.

MGNREGS, which guarantees at least 100 days of manual work annually for at least one member of every rural household, generated 325.2 million person-days of work in April. As many as 335.9 million person-days of work have already been generated in the current month, showing a steep rise in job demand.

Demand for work under the scheme surged following the lockdown last year. The curbs in 2020 triggered an exodus of workers from the cities to their homes in the hinterland. It is believed that the scheme and the performance of the agricultural sector (which bucked the trend) helped insulate the rural economy to some extent from the fallout of the pandemic.

In the middle of the lockdown in April last year, 175.7 million person-days of work was budgeted under the scheme. The budget saw a steep increase to 676.3 million the next month. For the first time in MGNREGS’s history, more work was done in every month of FY20-21, barring April, than the budgeted quantum as workers left jobless by the lockdown returned to their homes last year.

The year saw the highest ever spending under the scheme--₹1.11 lakh crore.

Most states and Union territories have imposed lockdowns, prompting workers to return home, where they are likely to fall back upon MGNREGS.

This year’s Union budget, presented at a time when the country was seeing fewer than 10,000 cases of Covid-19 a day allocated ₹73,000 crore to MGNREGS.