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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Only 49 days of work under MGNREGS a record: Chaudhury Birender Singh -Elizabeth Roche
-Livemint.com

Report says only 10.1% of the total households that had been provided employment had been able to complete 100 days of work as stipulated by the MGNREGA

New Delhi: The rural job guarantee programme provided only 49 days of work on an average across the country in 2015-16 when drought in several states affected farm output and crimped income.

Rural development minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, though, highlighted this number as a record.

Only 10.1% of the total households that had been provided employment had been able to complete 100 days of work as stipulated by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, according to a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) outcome report by the rural development ministry.  And the number of households that had completed more than 100 days of work in areas where a drought had been declared was 283.5 million or 5.9% of the total, the outcome report said. Activities under MGNREGS, including building check dams and village ponds, resulted in 46.43 hectares of land being brought under irrigation, the report said.

Ordinarily, in a year of scanty rain, those engaged in agricultural activities—farm labour and even small farmers—would have been unemployed and looking for jobs and even migrating in search of work.

The year 2015-16 was the second consecutive year that rains had failed. At least 11 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Karanataka have declared a drought. Last year, the central government announced an extension from 100 to 150 days for work under MGNREGS for areas declared as affected by a natural disaster.

It was to stem distress migration and suicides among farmers and alleviate rural distress that MGNREGS was introduced in 2006.

The programme guarantees up to 100 days of unskilled work in a year to every rural household and has been credited with raising rural household incomes. It has been a key source of livelihood for millions of rural households.

“The average of 49 days of work is a record,” rural development minister Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi.

MGNREGS has had a record of never completing 100 days a year since its inception, said Himanshu, associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and visiting fellow at Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi, and a Mint columnist.

“It is only 2% or 3% of the people who complete 100 days of work in a year. The reason for that is that some state governments are proactive, some are not, some pay wages on time, others don’t. So, there are a number of factors for this,” Himanshu said.

“Also, the number 49 days is an all-India average; so it is not correct to compare this with 100 days in a year,” he said.

Another reason for MGNREGS to clock an average of 49 days is because wages under the scheme have fallen below other wages stipulated by states; so the priority will be to go for better paying daily wage jobs, he said.

According to the report, the number of households that demanded employment in 2015-16 were 53.5 million and of these, 48.2 million had been provided with work.

The total person days—or the number of people multiplied by the number of days they had been provided work—stood at 2.36 billion in 2015-16, the report said.

The number of jobs undertaken for asset creation under MGNREGS in the past decade stood at 32 million, of which 23 million were completed, the report said. Land development and irrigation works topped the list of activities under the MGNREGS, it said, followed by water conservation and maintenance and development of traditional water bodies.