MGNREGA jobs down 28% in Nov. as demand slows

Employment generated by the rural employment guarantee scheme in November is down by 28 per cent compared to the same month last year. Jobs provided under the scheme have been coming down in the past few months and are 60 per cent lower than June levels.

With the economic activity picking up, workers are moving back to urban areas from villages, which had seen a reverse migration due to the pandemic last year. This has reduced the demand for jobs in the rural areas. The government also has made lesser allocation for the scheme this year compared to last year.

In November, MGNREGA provided 1.59 crore jobs against 2.21 crore jobs in the same month last year— a decline of 28 per cent. November jobs were 24 per cent lesser than 2.09 crore employment in October. The volume of jobs provided by the scheme has been coming down since June. In June, a total of 3.99 crore jobs were offered and by November this was down by 60 per cent.

The number of households which completed 100 days of guaranteed employment stood at 1 .04 lakh in November against 1.62 lakh in the same month last year – a drop of 35 per cent. Similarly, between April and November this year, a total of 15 lakh households received 100 days of employment, 15 per cent less than 18 lakh in the same period last year.

Till the end of November, Rs 69,312 crore has been spent on wages and material components. With four more months remaining in the fiscal, this is 63 per cent of the total funds utilised of Rs 1,10,233 crore in the previous fiscal, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

The budget had allocated Rs 73,000 crore under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA for FY22. Recently, the Ministry of Finance allocated additional funds of Rs 10,000 crore for the scheme as an interim measure. Further, allocation may be made upon assessment of demand.

Meanwhile, the scheme has pending liabilities of Rs 3,515 crore as wages and Rs 8,480 crore as material components.