MGNREGA WORK DEMAND INCREASES
Till July 6, over 217,000 of the 46.7 million households that have received work under MGNREGA in FY21 have completed 100 days as provided under the Act. The data sourced from the MGNREGA website until July 1 shows that around 43.7 million households sought work under the scheme in June. This is the highest in seven years, continuing the trend seen in May. However, this was 21 per cent more than the number of households that demanded work under the scheme in May.
Rambeti from Pisawa village in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh is in a dilemma. She says her family is about to finish 100 days of work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and she does not know what she will do for the rest of the year.
Rambeti isn’t alone. Santosh Bando, of Namkum, a block on the outskirts of Ranchi (Jharkhand), a first-time MGNREGA worker, too, says he wants more work.
Rambeti and Bando are among the thousands of MGNREGA workers across 80 districts in the country who staged a protest a few days back demanding an increase in mandatory work days under the scheme to 200 from the existing 100, and a hike in minimum wages to ~600 per day, as against the current ~200.
The data shows that till July 6, over 217,000 of the 46.7 million households that have received work under MGNREGA so far in financial year 2020-21 (FY21) have completed their mandatory 100 days as provided under the Act.
According to a statement by the MGNREGA Sangharsh Morcha, which organised the protests, the central government has not increased the annual guarantee of work despite the significant increase in demand. The minimum wages for 2020-21 is around ~200 per day.
The data sourced from the MGNREGA website until July 1 shows that around 43.7 million households sought work under the scheme in June.
This is the highest in seven years, continuing the trend seen in May. However, this was 21 per cent more than the number of households that demanded work under the scheme in May.
In May, 36.1 million households demanded work, which was also the highest for that month in the past seven years.
Provisional data shows that in June, 521.7 million person-days of work were provided under the scheme, which was around 8 per cent less than in May, when 567.4 million person-days of work were provided.
The surge in work demand came after about 20 million migrant labourers returned to their villages from cities during the lockdown.
The central government raised the allocation for the scheme by ~40,000 crore for FY21 in May to provide more work to migrant labourers. This takes the full year’s allocation to over ~1 trillion for the first time ever.
The additional funds are expected to generate an additional 0.2 billion person-days of work in FY21 over the budgeted 2.8 billion person-days.
The scheme has so far provided an average 26.03 days of work in the first three months of this fiscal year, and the Centre has released about 39.4 per cent of its enhanced budget of ~1.01 trillion for FY21 over this period.
However, of this, around ~11,000 crore has been spent on clearing dues of previous years. Reports said the government is looking to expand the scheme to cover newer works such as building toilets and sanitation works.
A PTI report, quoting senior officials, said sizable fund allocation will be needed considering how demand for work has risen during the first three months.
The Centre has expanded the ambit of work offered under the scheme to include toilet construction and dragon fruit plantation to ensure work for returning migrants.
At present, only the labour cost for construction of toilets, part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, will be paid under MGNREGA. Sources in the ministry said additional funds might be required for the MGNREGA as the demand for work under it has more than doubled compared to last year, according to the PTI report.