Livelihoods: Demand for the national rural employment guarantee programme, MGNREGA continues to remain high, months after the COVID-19 lockdown was eased. Nearly two crore rural households have been accessing employment through MGNREGA every month since August 2020.
The number of households that availed the scheme in December 2020 and January 2021 is at the same level as it was in August and September 2020, when the employment crisis caused by the pandemic was at its peak. The highest spike in demand comes from the following states: Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.
As on February 17th, 2021, 7.17 crore households had availed MGNREGA in FY 2020-21. This is the highest number of households that have ever availed of the scheme in any single year since its inception in 2006. In August, September, and October 2020, the number of families that availed MGNREGA was 62-82 percent higher than the same months in the previous fiscal year.
As part of the economic package announced in response to COVID-19, the central government declared additional funding of INR 40,000 crore to MGNREGA, in addition to the INR 61,500 crore allocated to the scheme in FY 2020-21. With this hike, the annual MGNREGA budget crossed the INR one lakh crore figure for the first time ever. Budget 2021 allocated INR 73,000 crore to MGNREGA, which is 34 percent lower than the amount allocated in the previous fiscal year.
Read this article to understand why India needs an urban employment guarantee scheme.