E-Paper
Demand for MGNREGA jobs nearly doubled in five years: Data
The wage expenditure of Karnataka rose from ₹ 1,952.32 crore in 2017-18 to ₹ 4,633.07 crore, data shows.
Owing to higher job demand under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Karnataka, the number of person days created has almost doubled, in last five years, from 8.58 crore in 2017-18 to 16.28 crore in 2021-22 , data released by the rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) departmentshows.
The rising urban distress, plummeting wages for agricultural labourers and reverse migration from cities to villages, exacerbated by Covid and subsequent lockdown, among others factors have contributed to this rise.
“The urban distress, lack of jobs in urban areas with small and medium enterprises (SME) faring badly has led to an increase in demand for jobs in rural areas,” RDPR department additional chief secretary LK Ateeq said.
The trend indicates that a large number of people have been able to earn from MGNREGA compared to white-collar jobs in cities like Bengaluru, considered the technology capital of India.
As per the data, the number of people registering for jobs under the MGNREGA has nearly doubled in last five years, from 38.91 lakh persons in 2017-18 to 63.92 lakhs in 2021-22.
The lower wages in open markets across northern Karnataka, which houses some of the most backward districts in the country, also makes MGNREGA attractive as a steady source of income, said Ateeq.
The increasing pressure on agricultural lands (as higher number of people are dependent on smaller parcels of land) and lower income opportunities with dipping demand for agricultural labour has also contributed to the higher demand.
Ateeq said that agricultural labourers earn around ₹150-200 per day and there is pay discrimination on gender basis. However, MGNREGA wages in the last five years have increased from ₹ 236 per day in 2017-18 to ₹289 in 2021-22.
Demand for MGNREGA has not only increased in the state but across the country also in the last five years. As per the data from RDPR, the number of person days generated across India has gone up from 233 in 2017-18 to 355 in 2021-22, data shows.
The expenditure incurred during the same time across the country went from ₹ 62,136 crore to ₹ 10,5618 crore.
The wage expenditure of Karnataka rose from ₹ 1,952.32 crore in 2017-18 to ₹ 4,633.07 crore, data shows. During the same time, the wage expenditure across India went up from ₹ 41,370.39 crore to ₹ 75,188.77 crore.
Karnataka’s minister for small scale industries N Nagaraju (MTB) informed the legislative council on Tuesday that over 45,000 labourers, working in small scale units lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
“A total of 754 registered small scale industries, including 562 in 2020 and 102 in 2021 have shut down,” he said. The minister added that over 92,000 jobs were created across the state during the same time period.
Nagaraj said non-availability of raw materials, shortage of skilled labour and lack of investments were some of the reasons that impacted the functioning of small scale industries.
In contrast, there were 3.25 lakh white-collar job openings across organisations, according to data from LinkedIn, the Economic Times reported in February this year.
Officials from the RDPR department said that there is no dearth of funds for payment of wages as most of the salaries are transferred, within 7 to 15 days, directly in the bank accounts of the labourers, adding to the lure of the Union-sponsored scheme.
“During Covid, there were a large number of people who were going (for MGNREGA) and the demand declined post that. In rural areas, MGNREGA is an additional source of income. They (labourers) moved on their own and wages have not declined,” economist and former director of the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) professor RS Deshpande said.
“If you ask the farmers today, they will say that their biggest problem is (availability of) labour. The labour from villages is also coming to cities and working in construction sites,” Deshpande added.
