Demand for MGNREGS exceeds govt estimates
709.4 MN PERSON DAYS OF WORK LOGGED AGAINST AN EXPECTED 679.8 MN, UNTIL THE END OF MAY, AS PER GOVERNMENT DATA
NEW DELHI:I n the past two months, work granted under India’s flagship rural job guarantee programme has surpassed the government’s estimates, indicating immense demand and lack of alternative livelihoods following the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and the subsequent lockdown that forced an exodus of millions of migrant workers employed in the cities back home to the hinterland.
From a tepid start in April—a large part of it was lost in sweeping lockdown measures—the generation of person days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) bounced back in May and June as the return of migrant workers caused demand to soar.
The rural development ministry had made an early estimate at the beginning of FY 2020-21 on the generation of persondays of work under MGNREGS over different months. According to the official estimate, 679.8 million persondays of work had been expected to be logged at the end of May. But actual persondays generated stood at 709.4 million. Similarly, 1.255 billion persondays of work was done up to June as against an initial estimate of 1.102 billion, government data shows.
According to senior officials, who requested anonymity, the trend underlines how the prolonged pandemic has led to delayed recovery of economic activities, forcing rural jobless to settle for work under the rural jobs scheme, which guarantees 100 days of work a year to at least one member of every rural household. The government’s estimate for July too, may be outpaced by increasing demand. Until the first week of the month itself, 1.257 billion persondays have been generated while the estimate up to July was 1.359 billion.
This massive pressure on MGNREGS may also lead to a shortage of funds for the programme, experts feel. The world’s biggest job guarantee programme has been allocated more than ₹1 lakh crore for this fiscal year, with ₹40,000 crore added as a part of the Centre’s Garib Kalyan package.
A closer look at government data also shows that the surge in demand for jobs under the MGNREGS is directly related to the states that have received a large number of migrant labourers who left the cities. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand have seen the number of persondays of work generated by MGNREGS soaring.
In Bihar, the number of persondays increased to 75.4 million up to June against an estimated 60 million. In Uttar Pradesh— home to the highest number of returnee migrant workers—the figure doubled to 146 million against an estimated 70 million.
Madhya Pradesh has seen 17 million additional persondays of work and Odisha 23 million.
“MGNREGS is anyway demand-driven and works of Swachh Bharat were already included. Creating job opportunities for unskilled workers is good but the main question is, where is the money? The government has hiked MGNREGS budget by ₹40,000 crore but the budget won’t be sufficient for the entire year given the very high demand for work,” Himanshu, an associate professor with Jawaharlal Nehru University, said.