MGNREGA: rural welfare on crutches -Debmalya Nandy

-The Telegraph

The inadequate sanctioning of schemes across gram panchayats hinders operations, thereby reducing employment opportunities

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act tracker released by the People’s Action for Employment Guarantee as well as a research report presented by LibTech India reveal why the rural job programme has not been able to cater to the needs of the poorest during this steep rural job crisis.

Earlier, a survey by the Azim Premji University had shown that 6 out of 10 rural workers had lost their jobs during the lockdown. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy also stated that about 1.1 crore daily wage workers were unemployed. Corroborating these claims, the Right to Food Campaign survey has shown that about 43 per cent of its respondents had no work in the month of April and May and that 62 per cent of the workers are now earning considerably less than pre-Covid times. These are adequate evidence of the crisis of employment in India during and after the lockdown.

The MGNREGA, the biggest rural flagship job programme, was expected to rise to the occasion and ensure people earned a dignified income and coped with income losses. However, the PAEG report suggests that while 1.3 crore new job cards were issued and about 1 crore more households have worked under the scheme compared to last year as of November 30, the average employment per household remains as low as 41 days as of now as compared to 48 days in 2019. Also, 17 lakh households had completed 100 days of employment as of November 30 against 40.6 lakh households last year. In a crisis year, it is expected that a higher number of households would go for full employment under the MGNREGA. But the data show that while demand for work has been very high, the implementation has been shoddy.

The MGNREGA’s limited efficacy can be attributed to three factors.

Please click here to read more.