World’s largest rural employment programme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), is being perceived as a solace for the lakhs of workers making the way back home amid Corona outbreak. However there are voices who opine differently.
Experts from industry, politics and social service have expressed their views particularly after the indications coming about Government’s reliance over the scheme. Ministers and authorities in the State Government have on several occasions gone on suggesting that the issue of reverse migrants coming from different States to Jharkhand jobless would be handled using MGNREGA.
“An estimate suggests that there are over 10 lakh people who would be coming back to the State following the Corona crisis. Major chunk of them are skilled or semi-skilled.
Idea behind NREGA was to provide works when there is no work in rural areas and villagers are forced to migrate outside leaving their families and native placesbehind. Now you have permanent unemployed workforce and their number is too big.
In this scenario the job guarantee scheme won’t work and able to mitigate the woes of the people coming in,” suggests BJP Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Poddar.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon had shown lots of optimism over the job guarantee scheme and demanded wage hike from the Centre which has been done as well. Even overall budgetary allocation to the scheme has been revised positively with an additional outlay of Rs 40,000 crore for the Financial year 2020-21 by the Union Government while rolling out the series of relief packages couple of days ago.
The faith over the scheme is so that there are inputs suggesting the State Government may approach the Centre with request to waive or relax social audit provisions which is inbuilt into the scheme.
“It can be understood with the fact that there is very little scope to accommodate the workers into existing industry or anywhere else. Industries in the State were already running below its full capacity and now when entire supply chain has gone for a toss it is impossible to absorb such a huge workforce.
But MGNREGA alone can’t be the tool. It is a stopgap solution to seasonal unemployment and thus can’t be a sustainable option,” said a senior official with Planning Department requesting not to be quoted.
Mahesh Poddar instead goes on blaming the ‘historical reasons’ behind the State facing this issue while throwing a solution to it. “States like Bihar, Jharkhand, UP have been in the role of labour providers for the economically developed States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka or agriculturally rich States like Punjab, Haryana. It is because investment in education and skilling has been low in BIMARU States. Now we are living with a huge amount of unskilled hands coupled with lowest level of workplace or industries.
That is why the burden felt is huge at the moment. The Government needs to start setting up new industries to create opportunity here,” added the MP.
