Demand for work under the Centre’s rural job guarantee scheme and food from the public distribution system (PDS) has spiked in a signal of economic distress in the Hindi-speaking heartland, where hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have returned since the coronavirus disease lockdown went underway on March 25.
In the absence of any real-time data, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and the PDS act as pointers to the state of the rural economy and the living conditions of the marginalised sections. And close to a month after the lockdown was imposed to stop the spread of Covid-19, they present a depressing picture.
A grim picture
Enrolment for manual work under the MGNREGS, which provides at least 100 days of employment a year to at least one member of every rural household, has risen 10-fold in Rajasthan and Maharashtra, officials said. It has increased up to threefold in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The number of families buying subsidised household rations under the PDS has increased by about 40% in Maharashtra and 20% in Madhya Pradesh, officials in these states said.
A clear sign of rural anxiety about what the future holds is the rush of villagers to local panchayat offices for enrolment under the MGNREGS, billed as the world’s biggest job security scheme.
{{/usCountry}}A clear sign of rural anxiety about what the future holds is the rush of villagers to local panchayat offices for enrolment under the MGNREGS, billed as the world’s biggest job security scheme.
{{/usCountry}}“We have not been able to enrol all because there is shortage of staff in panchayat offices,” said a Madhya Pradesh government official, requesting anonymity.
In Bihar, an official said the demand for MGNREGS enrolment was not unexpected, given that a large number of migrant workers who have returned from the cities have no money left.
“Our government has provided immediate financial relief to all migrant workers as providing work under MGNREGS may not be possible immediately,” said an Odisha government official who requested anonymity
The number of people who have lined up for work across the nation under the job guarantee scheme has increased threefold since April 20, compared to a month ago,said Nikhel Dey, a civil society activist who has been monitoring MGNREGS for more than a decade.
Growing enrolments
On April 23, MGNREGS had 110.6 million active workers enrolled, compared with 82.3 million a month ago, according to the website of the welfare programme. MGNREGS works resumed only on Monday, and just 1.58 million people have received work under it, or10% of the total people employed in April 2019.
Enrolment has surged since migrant workers returning home emerged from a mandatory 14-day quarantine. In Bihar, around 90% of the workers were released over the past one week and in Uttar Pradesh the proportion was about 80%, officials said.
Demand for work is set to increase once the harvest is completed by April-end in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
“Considering that there would be huge demand for work, the governments need to enhance capacity fast under MGNREGS to manage demand distress,” Dey said.
Rural distress
The higher sales of subsidized foodgrains at rural fair price shops in the states is another proxy for rural distress. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the number of households buying PDS rations has risen to 86% and 90%, an increase of 10 to 15 percentage points from March.
In poorer states like Jharkhand, governments should ensure that every poor person gets ration irrespective of whether they have a ration card or not, said development economist Jean Dreeze.
“Food shortages faced by people, especially families without PDS ration cards, are being reported from across the state. Despite mounting food stocks that are thrice the required amount [77 million tonnes], the central government is yet to universalise the PDS, which is the need of the hour,” he said.
Sachin Jain, a member of Right to Food campaign, said: “As the migrant labourers have returned, per-family consumption of food grains has also increased in villages.”
A helping hand
As many poor have been left out of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have decided to extend PDS benefits to those who were not enrolled under the PDS.
The PDS enrolment was done on the basis of the 2011 socio-economic census and many who became eligible for it after 2011 have not been included, said Dreeze. There are five million such people in Rajasthan and 6.5 million in Madhya Pradesh who have been provided access to rations only now, said Dey.
A Central government statement on Thursday said 390.2 million people have received free foodgrains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana announced last month at a cost of ₹1.7 trillion.The Centre and state governments have maintained that there is enough food stocks for three months.
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said on Thursday that the unemployment rate in India had increased to 26.2 % and consumer sentiment had fallen to its lowest level since 2015. A report by the International Labour Organisation said that around 90% or 400 million people working in the informal economy were at risk of falling deeper into poverty during the Covid-19 crisis in India.
According to the information provided by the state governments, the problem appears to be more acute in states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand.
In Madhya Pradesh, around 375,000 people have been provided work under MNREGS although over 10 million have enrolled. Additional chief secretary (rural development and panchayati raj) Manoj Shrivastava said, “All panchayats have been asked to immediately start MGNREGS works related to water harvesting and agriculture.”
The state has also distributed rations to 11.6 million beneficiaries, including 3.2 million not covered under the PDS.
Uttar Pradesh commissioner (rural development) K Ravindra Naik said all districts had been told to provide work under MGNREGS to migrants who had retuned home. “A total 570,000 migrant workers have returned to their homes from various other states following the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown,” he said.
Uttar Pradesh has 8.8 million people enrolled under MGNREGS and eight million under PDS. “Our PDS offtake remains equal to the distribution. But in April, it was double since we distributed foodgrains twice and to 323,00 additional beneficiaries that included the MGNREGS job card holders,” commissioner (food and civil supplies) Manish Chauhan said.
Chhattisgarh’s panchayat raj minister TS Singhdeo said there has been a sudden rise in enrolment under MGNREGS in last 10 days. “Last year, till April, a similar number of people were enrolled for MGNREGS but this year we expect to provide work to 1.5 million more people under the scheme,” Singhdeo said.