Rajasthan: Over 1.6 lakh job cards added under MGNREGA in the past two months

Rajasthan topped the country on Monday as far as labour engagement under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is concerned, as over 1.6 lakh new job cards under the scheme have been added in the past two months, state government officials said.

On Monday morning, deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who holds the rural development portfolio, announced the state government’s unprecedented feat via a tweet amid the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

“Rajasthan regained its first position in terms of labour engagement. It’s a matter of pride for us. We’re focusing on the job guarantee scheme to provide financial security to our rural population,” he tweeted.

Reverse migration, trigged by the pandemic, has led to an uptick in new enrolment under the rural job scheme.

Data showed that 105 lakh MGNREGA job cards were available in the desert state as on March 20, five days before the nationwide lockdown restrictions were imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19 outbreak and on Monday this figure has risen by another 1.6 lakh.

“Usually, the number of job cards remains static. An increase in 2 lakh cards per year is considered to be normal. But 1.6 lakh new job cards in two months is unprecedented,” said PC Kishan, commissioner, MGNREGA, Rajasthan.

“Lakhs of migrant labourers have returned to their native villages and are registering for job cards and work under the MGNREGA,” he added.

He cited last year’s data, which showed that 102 and 103 lakh job cards were added between April 29 and May 30, respectively --- a normal annual trend.

“Usually, this kind of increase in MGNREGA job cards occurs in a year. For example, there were 103 lakh cards in 2019, and it rose to 104 lakh this year. Besides the migrants returning home, even local villagers are seeking job under the scheme because of lack of employment opportunities in the state,” said Nikhil Dey, a social activist.

“Many people, who never thought about the scheme as a viable employment option, are making a beeline for it, as jobs are few and far between. We’ve been demanding a disaster management employment guarantee scheme for a crisis situation like this,” he added.

The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government said that it would issue job cards to all migrant labourers and engage them under the MGNREGA.

“Our next milestone is 30 lakh job cards and the final target is 35 lakh, which can be achieved by developing around 100,000 green assets in the field with an increased focus on natural resource management (NRM) and activities allied to the farm sector,” Kishan said.

The state government had sanctioned a pasture, playground, crematorium or burial ground and model pond in each of the 10,000-odd gram panchayats last year under the MGNREGA, which was introduced by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre in 2005.

“This year, we’re focusing on implementing these four kinds of tasks in each of the 43,000 revenue villages,” Kishan added.