{"id":1975,"date":"2020-08-26T12:30:43","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T12:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/2020\/12\/23\/running-out-of-work\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T18:04:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:34:53","slug":"running-out-of-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/running-out-of-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Running out of work"},"content":{"rendered":"

India’s rural employment guarantee scheme is falling short in helping residents tide over the economic distress caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown restrictions, data from Rajasthan suggest.<\/p>

Nearly 43% households who took up work under the scheme in Dungarpur, a largely tribal district in southern Rajasthan, had completed more than 50 of their 100 days of work in the first four months of the current financial year, the scheme’s data shows.<\/p>

This raises questions about families’ sustenance for the rest of the year. Stakeholders say they want the number of workdays offered under the scheme to be doubled to 200 days and the wage rates to be increased for this year.<\/p>

\"What<\/a><\/div>

Of the 44.3 million<\/a> inter-state and intra-state migrant workers in India, about 800,000<\/a> come from Rajasthan, according to Census 2011<\/a>. These 800,000 constitute 1.27% of the state’s population of 68.5 million<\/a>.<\/p>

The COVID-19 lockdown adversely affected the state as 46.26%<\/a> of the state’s rural households, i.e. nearly 4.38 million<\/a> households, have one or more family members who migrate for work. Most find work in the unorganised sector<\/a>.<\/p>

Related article: Getting construction workers their entitlements<\/strong><\/a><\/p>

Across India, the lockdown led to loss of livelihoods for migrant workers as well as local artisans, street vendors and agricultural labourers<\/a> and for those whose income was based on minor forest produce<\/a>.<\/p>

It is estimated that nearly 1.3 million<\/a> migrants returned to Rajasthan—India’s largest state—owing to job losses in cities during and after the COVID-19-induced lockdown in March and April. About 58,772 of these returned to Dungarpur, as per information given by district administration officials. Returnee migrants and informal workers in southern Rajasthan faced high income loss<\/a>.<\/p>

\"donate<\/a><\/div>

Soon after, the world’s largest public employment programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme<\/a> (MGNREGS), witnessed high demand for work<\/a>. The scheme guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year to adult members of rural households who have applied for employment. If employment is not given within 15 days of demand for work, the central government is liable to pay an unemployment allowance.<\/p>

MGNREGS is the only way for many rural families to make ends meet.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Work under MGNREGS, which had come to a pause during March and April, resumed in the second half of April<\/a> and has since been a major source of livelihood in rural areas. With looming uncertainty and no calls from their employers back in cities, MGNREGS is the only way for many rural families to make ends meet.<\/p>

“My family is dependent on MGNREGS income this year,” said Lakshman Faleja who lives in a family of eight members in Dungarpur’s Khajuri village. “My wife and I have completed 100 days of work. We have been told that we cannot demand more work [under MGNREGS].”<\/p>

Faleja and his wife hope to find work as agricultural labourers in and around their village during the rest of the kharif<\/em> agricultural season (harvest in September-October). They do not know how they will earn a living through the rest of the year, he said.<\/p>

Increased demand for work<\/strong><\/h3>

In 2019-20, a total of 23.8 million<\/a> (23,862,438) households cumulatively demanded MGNREGS work in Rajasthan over a 12-month period, according to the scheme’s employment data<\/a> released by the Ministry of Rural Development<\/a>.<\/p>

This year, 14.3 million<\/a> (14,324,401) households cumulatively demanded work in Rajasthan under MGNREGS over four months from April to July, according to data as of August 6. This is nearly 22% higher than the cumulative demand for work from 11.7 million<\/a> (11,746,140) households in the same four-month period in 2019-20, the data shows.<\/p>

The lockdown-driven cumulative demand for MGNREGS work in four months across the state this year is nearly 60% of the cumulative demand for work from the state from 23.8 million (23,862,438) households in the 12 months of the 2019-20 financial year, the data indicate. The maximum demand for work this year came from Bhilwara, Dungarpur and Ajmer<\/a> districts, respectively.<\/p>

Of the 6 million<\/a> (6,023,027) households in the state that have undertaken MGNREGS work this financial year, 1.3 million (1,376,978) households, or about 21.6%, have completed more than 50 days of work, according to data as of August 6.<\/p>