New Delhi: The growth rate in the demand for work in rural areas has been continuously slowing down in the last two months as the demand under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, which was fuelled by the returnee migrant workers after the nationwide lockdown last year, has stabilised, according to the latest official data.
In response to a question by Mallikarjuna Kharge, the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the government said the growth rate in demand for work under MGNREGA has nearly halved as it came down from a high of 56% in December last year to just 29% in February this year.
According to the latest official data, over 2.65 crore rural households demanded work under the scheme in December 2020 as against 1.7 crore rural households that demanded work during the same month of previous year, it was an increase of 56% year-on-year basis.
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This massive increase in demand for work in rural areas was the result of large scale return of migrant workers from cities to their home towns and villages as a countrywide complete lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March last year made their sustenance in cities virtually impossible.
In order to provide employment of millions and millions of returnee migrant workers, the Union government increased the MGNREGA allocation from the budget estimate of Rs 61,500 crores to Rs 1,11,500 crores, according to the revised estimate for FY 2020-21.
MGNREGA budget slashed
However, in the anticipation that a large number of returnee migrant workers will eventually come back to cities and metros in search of better employment opportunities, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman slashed the budget allocation of MGNREGA by Rs 38,500 crores, from the revised estimate of Rs 1,11,500 crores for FY 2020-21 to Rs 73,000 crore for FY 2021-22. A reduction of more than 34.5%.
Demand for work tapers off
It is also visible in the latest data that the growth rate in demand for work in rural areas came down from 56% in December 2020 to 39% in January 2021 and to just 29% in February 2021.
More than 2.63 crore rural families demanded work in January 2021 as against nearly 1.89 crore families during the same month of previous year, an increase of 39%.
In February this year, more than 2.86 crore rural families demanded work under the MGNREGA as against over 2.22 crore families demanding work during the same month of last year, an increase of 29%.
However, the growth rate in demand for work in rural areas, which was 56% in December last year, yea-on-year basis, halved in just two months as it came down to just 29% in February this year.
Returnee migrant workers still in villages
The data also shows that a large number of returnee migrant workers were still staying in their home towns and villages as an additional 64 lakh rural families demanded work in February this year compared to the same month last year.
In February 286.67 lakh rural households demanded work under the rural employment guarantee scheme against just 222.68 lakh families during February 2019.
According to the official data, there was an increase of 40% in demand for work during the last three months (December 2020 to February 2021), as nearly 2.33 crore more families demanded work during this period in comparison with the demand for work during the same period of 2019-20.
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