Employment under rural job scheme plunges 48% due to Covid-19

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.

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.

"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," says Debmalya Nandy, an activist with the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha. 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.