With just one month left until the plan is finalized, the Narendra Modi government has so far spent only 56% of the funds on a special initiative to provide employment for migrant workers who returned home during the coronavirus disease pandemic ( Covid-19) and the lockdown was enforced to prevent its spread.
The Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan was launched on June 20 by Prime Minister Modi from the Telihar village of Bihar. Under the plan, works worth 50 billion rupees would be provided to migrant workers for 125 days, a little over four months. An analysis of government data shows that at the end of 95 days, only Rs 28,138 crore has been spent.
Official data also shows that 300.69 million working days, in other words, almost 10% of the total mandates of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee National Plan (MGNREGS) for this year, have been generated through special intervention.
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As millions of migrant workers began returning home after the shutdown was imposed on March 25 amid a job shortage in large cities, the government designed the Rozgar Abhiyan to provide work for skilled workers and not qualified. The Center announced that a “focused campaign” will run in mission mode for 125 days in 116 districts in six states.
“In 125 days, about 25 schemes will meet to reach saturation. These will include Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, Gram Sadak Yojna, Jal Jeevan Yojna, PM Gram Sadak Yojna, etc. ”Said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
As the program enters its final month, Indian Railways emerged as the top employer, generating one in 3 mandays under the scheme.
Indian Railways have generated 10,66,246 job mandates as of Sep 25, 2020 under Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan in 6 states viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, ”the ministry stated on Sunday.
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The construction of rural houses has driven the maximum number of projects with 377,000 units, followed by 121,000 water conservation and harvesting jobs and 92,158 fiber optic cable laying projects under Bharat Net.
Former rural development secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra is not concerned about the slow pace of spending. “If you see, over the last few months, the demand for jobs under MGNREGS has dropped. Since a large number of programs under this rozgar scheme are under MGNREGS, the demand under this program must have decreased. ”
“But I think the government should continue with the scheme beyond the stipulated 125 days, as more people are expected to demand work after the agricultural season ends,” Mohapatra said.
The government did not allocate additional funds, but did advance 25 existing schemes to support the project which aimed to boost livelihood opportunities in rural India and also “create durable infrastructure along with boosting employment opportunities. “.
The program has covered 116 districts in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha. All of these districts welcomed more than 25,000 migrant workers each who returned home during the shutdown.
“We are pooling resources from these 25 projects. There are some works that can be affected by the monsoon, such as the laying of roads. But we want to advance the money allocated for these for those 116 districts and make sure that all those workers in these districts have jobs, ”Sitharaman said.
However, some experts said the trend did not necessarily mean that workers were back in paid employment in cities.
“If the government cannot spend its money quickly, it is definitely a problem. It basically means that people are looking for work, but there is a problem with the way money is spent or allocated on projects. I do not agree with the argument that migrant workers are returning to cities in large numbers and therefore the demand for Rozgar Yojna has plummeted. Remember, first quarter GDP [gross domestic product] It was minus 23.9%, so where is the revival? “said Himanshu, associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
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