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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | MGNREGA in Drought-Hit States: Work demand rises, but majority wait for additional days -Shalini Nair

MGNREGA in Drought-Hit States: Work demand rises, but majority wait for additional days -Shalini Nair

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published Published on Jun 24, 2016   modified Modified on Jun 24, 2016
-The Indian Express

Across the country, wage employment generated under the scheme has gone up from 32 crore person-days in April - May 2015 to 51 crore person-days in the corresponding months of 2016.

Signalling an increase in uptake of MGNREGA work on the ground owing to drought as well as the slow revival of the scheme itself, the person-days generated in the first two months of the financial year has gone up by more than 50 per cent as compared to the last year.

Across the country, wage employment generated under the scheme has gone up from 32 crore person-days in April – May 2015 to 51 crore person-days in the corresponding months of 2016. A majority of this work has been generated in the ten drought notified states which have seen 37 crore person-days so far as compared to 24 crore person-days in the first two months of FY16.

The wage employment guaranteed under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a major drought mitigation measure as it provides an alternative source of rural income in the face of failing farm outputs. The current surge in those being provided employment under MGNREGA the a result of a poor Rabi harvest in the months of April and May. With the next round of harvest, for Kharif crops, happening only in September -October, the demand for work is expected to remain high for another two to three months.

The uptake of work has more than doubled in the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. According to Yogendra Yadav, whose Swaraj Abhiyan had filed the apex court petition on the government’s failure to mitigate drought, with elections around the corner in UP there has been a visible improvement of MGNREGA work in the parts of Bundelkhand that fall in the state. He, however, added that MGNREGA is fast losing credibility due to non-payment and delayed payments. “With two consecutive drought years, what we have is not merely a drinking water crisis but a crisis of food, employment and fodder. However, it is business as usual for the state. MGNREGA funds are being choked from the top. The government is yet to keep its commitment made in the Supreme Court for releasing an additional Rs 17,000 crore of funds under the scheme by June,” said Yadav.
 
MGNREGA employment
 
Despite the increased demand for work, ten of the thirteen drought-hit states are yet to provide the promised 150 days of work under the scheme. In April this year, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) decided to extend for 2016-17 the additional fifty days of work per household that was provided under MGNREGA in drought-affected regions. These were to be applicable in ten drought-affected states where such extra work was already been provided since September 2015. Of the three additional states of Gujarat, Bihar and Haryana, where the 150 days work was to be extended, only Gujarat is the only one to have notified drought.

So far this fiscal, the promised 150 days is being provided merely in Karnataka. A week ago, the MoRD notified two additional states — Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan — for 150 days of work.

MoRD officials said that they are waiting for the states to write to the agriculture ministry which will, in turn, recommend the concerned states to the MoRD for grant of additional work. “For the ten states, where drought has already been notified, we had provided the extra days of work only until March 31, 2016. If we have to extend this for another year, the process has to happen all over again with the states first sending in their proposals,” said a MoRD official. As far as funds are concerned, officials said that they have released Rs 22,000 crore so far of which Rs 12,581 crore were for pending liabilities of last year. They added that the MoRD will demand another Rs 15,000 crore from the finance ministry.

Activists said that notwithstanding the relatively easier flow of money as compared to last year, funds squeeze remains a problem. For instance, despite the ministry’s claims of having cleared all pending liabilities, the compensation that is to be given under the scheme for delayed payments works out to Rs 438 crore for 2015-16. Just 2 per cent of this amount has been approved for payment and less than one per cent has been paid till date as per the ministry’s own records. “About 90 per cent of the amount is rejected. Until last year, the ministry would mention the reason for rejecting the amount as ‘insufficient funds’. Now they have simply stopped mentioning the reason,” said Nikhil Dey from the Rajasthan-based Mazdoor Kishan Shakti Sangthan.

Similarly, while the total demand for work for 2016-17 based on the proposals submitted by all states was 314 crore person-days, it was scaled down by the centre to 217 crore person-days. “The problem is with the finance ministry. If the rains are above average this year, it will resolve the drinking water crisis and the fodder shortage will go down but it won’t immediately ensure that people get food. This is why it is important that work is made available under MGNREGA until September,” he said.

Madhya Pradesh-based Sunilam from the Kisan Sagharsh Samiti added that in the drought-affected regions of the state, about 60 to 70 per cent of the working population have migrated recently in search of work. “Workers get their MGNREGA money after a three-month wait. Let alone 150 days, not a single village can claim that all their labourers have received 100 days of work. This is why most choose to migrate in search of better paying work,” he said.

The Indian Express, 23 June, 2016, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/mgnrega-in-drought-hit-states-work-demand-rises-but-majority-wait-for-additional-days/


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