Employment under rural job scheme plunges in May as COVID-19 fear looms large

Man working under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or MNREGA (Source: ShutterStock)

COVID-19 has triggered rural distress in a big way in 2021.

Employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has dropped by 48 percent in May.

While 50.83 crore persons were provided work under the scheme in May 2020, the figure has now almost halved to 26.38 crore persons.

Consequently, the demand for work under the scheme has also dropped 26 percent year-on-year (YoY) during May.

Experts have attributed this steep descent in employment to penetration of the COVID-19 virus to rural areas and peoples' hesitancy to be exposed to the virus, which looms large.

The numbers have also dropped because reverse migration reported during the national lockdown of 2020 was of a greater magnitude.

Says Himanshu, Professor at Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University: "Unlike the first wave, the second wave of COVID-19, which is more severe, has even reached the rural areas. It has created a panic situation, hence people are reluctant to take up work due to the fear of catching the virus."

Niranjan Sahoo, Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation’s Governance and Politics Initiative, concurs. "Traditionally, employment under MGNREGA is on the higher side at this time, as it is a period between the Rabi and the incoming Kharif season. However, in 2021, employment has reduced sharply as COVID-19 has spread into rural India, which has created a panic situation. People are hesitant to take up work for the fear of being infected.”

"In 2020, when migrant workers had returned to their hometowns and villages, especially in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand, there was a big spike in demand for work and many were also provided with work. This time around, there were panchayat elections in some states and the administration was occupied in mostly controlling the spread of the virus and conducting elections due to which projects were also not sanctioned," he adds.

MGNREGA is widely attributed to have provided safety to millions of workers, who shifted back to their hometowns and villages after having lost jobs in the wake of COVID-19 in 2020.

"The possibility of not taking up work under the scheme due to the fear of getting infected is something that cannot be ruled out. Contrary to the first wave, COVID has not spared the rural areas this time. However, the critical question here is whether the government is fulfilling its responsibility of providing unemployment allowance to applicants who have demanded work," points out Pronab Sen, former Chief Statistician of India.

MGNREGA stipulates that state governments are required to provide work to a registered applicant within 15 days of the demand, failing which an unemployment allowance is payable by the state government.

Debmalya Nandy, an activist with the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, offers a different perspective. "The fear of catching the virus was present even in 2020. However, 2021's allocation is significantly lower than 2020's revised estimate (RE) and there is absolutely no push from the central government to expedite works under the programme. The state administration and the entire NREGA bureaucracy has shown no signs of urgency to ensure optimum implementation. The gram panchayats do not have adequate schemes sanctioned, as a result of the same."

"In the absence of funds and  push from the government, NREGA has almost come to a standstill in 2021 despite economic stress among rural communities. The opposition and civil societies too have not raised the issues of the rural livelihood crisis this year," he states.

The government had allocated Rs 73,000 crore to MGNREGA for 2021-22.

It is 34.52 percent lower than the revised estimate of Rs 1,11,500 crore for 2020-21. The government had allocated Rs 61,500 crore in 2020-21.

To provide work to migrants returning from cities to villages, the central government had pumped an extra Rs 40,000 crore to MGNREGA to ensure that the migrants do not face unemployment during the nationwide lockdown.

Sadly, that has not happened in 2021.

MNREGA is a flagship scheme rolled out by the Congress-led UPA government in 2006, which was later renamed MGNREGA in 2009.

It guarantees at least 100 days of employment in a financial year to unskilled rural households at a predetermined minimum wage rate.