3.5mn enrol for MGNREGS work
NEW DELHI: The number of enrolments for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) surged almost twentyfold in the period from April 1 to May 20, coinciding with an exodus of migrants from the big cities to the hinterland following the Covid-19 lockdown, according to government data and officials in multiple states.
Some 3.5 million people applied for work under the programme during the period, compared to just 180,000 in the same duration last year, according to the MGNREGS website, but there may not be enough work to accommodate all the applicants.
Only about 1.5 million applications for new job cards were received during the entire financial year of 2019-20. The number of cumulative job applications as of May 20 was 43.3 million and only half of them have been provided work so far, according to the government data.
MGNREGS, under which at least one member of every rural household is guaranteed 100 days of manual work a year, acts as pointers to the state of the rural economy and the living conditions of the marginalised sections in absence of any realtime data.
The surge has coincided with the exodus migrant workers left jobless by the lockdown imposed on March 25 to check the spread of Covid-19 in late March.
The government has allocated ~40,000 crore to MGNREGS amid the increase in demand for work under the programme.
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, where a bulk of the migrant workers have returned to, have reported the maximum increase in demand for jobs. Officials in these states said the demand for the work has been highest since the scheme was launched in all districts in 2008.
Many states have directed district authorities to create additional work and get quick approvals in view of the surge.
Jharkhand’s special MGNREGS commissioner Sidharth Tripathy said the situation is different this year as the demand for work started growing in April once the migrants started returning home.
“Nobody had anticipated such a situation,” Tripathy said. He said the administration had been engaging MGNREGS workers in pre-monsoon works.
His Rajasthan counterpart, P C Kishan, said normally there is a slight increase--3 to 5%--in new job applications when the financial year starts in April. “This year, we have issued two lakh [200,000] new job cards since April 1, which is equal to those issued in entire 2019-2020 [financial year]. This is not normal.”
Bihar’s rural development department secretary Arvind Kumar Chaudhary said the government had employed MGNREGS workers for flood management works since the first week of May.
Officials in Odisha said they will employ migrant workers to deal with the damage Cyclone Amphan has caused in the state as well as for pre-monsoon and road construction works.
According to the MGNREGS website, Rajasthan has provided the maximum number of new jobs cards-- 210,000--over the first 45 days of this financial year. “We are focusing on rural job guarantee scheme to provide financial security to rural populations. This has resulted in 24.31 lakh labour engaged in MGNREGS,” said Rajasthan’s deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.
Chhattisgarh, which has employed over 2.8 million people under the scheme, plans to increase the number of days of work if needed. “We are clear if people want, we would provide additional work under MGNREGS for workers in our state even if we have to pay from our own pocket,” said chief minister Bhupesh Baghel.
UP has asked districts officials to accommodate additional workers. “Providing work for all may not be possible. We would provide them employment in a staggered manner so that more families can be covered ...,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
The job guarantee scheme provided a fallback option for returning migrant workers. Ratnakar Yadu said he was working with a construction company in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur town, but when work stopped after the lockdown, he enrolled in MGNREGS at his village. “At least I am doing some work and earning some money,” he said.
Reetika Khera, a development economist at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, said, “States must create enough work. If needed, MGNREGS workers can be used for agriculture as there is shortage of farm labourers.”