Rajasthan urban jobs plans to use migrant labourers only in emergencies

State scheme uses eligibility document that people from outside the state may struggle to get, say civil society groups.

Rajasthan’s urban employment guarantee scheme will give work to migrant labourers from other states only in emergencies like the Covid-19 pandemic or natural disasters—a provision civil society activists are questioning.

The ‘Indira Gandhi Sehari Rozgar Guarantee Yojana (Indira Gandhi Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme) provides at least 100 days of employment to urban labour, using the Jan-aadhar cards of the state government as the primary eligibility document for enrolment.

Rajasthan has launched a campaign to make maximum Jan-aadhar cards from May 1, 2022. The scheme’s detailed guidelines were issued a few days back.

Rajasthan plans to run the programme with an allocation of around Rs 800 crore per year, the highest for an urban job scheme. The scheme, for the first time, makes provisions for strengthening the human resource set-up of urban local bodies such as engineers and computer operators etc—a feature lacking in other urban job schemes.

Civil society activists said that a Jan-aadhar card is issued to any resident who has stayed for six months in Rajasthan in the past or intends to stay in the state for six months. “But, getting such a proof of residence for a person who has travelled from some other state to look for job is difficult and cumbersome and that is why we feel that the provision which says that migrants can get enrolled in the scheme only in case of emergency situation is in itself exclusionary,” said Rakshita Swamy, from the Social Accountability Forum for Action and Research (SAFAR).

SAFAR is part of civil society groups campaigning for urban employment guarantee programmes in states.

Swamy said another the guidelines say that administrative bodies will give priority to local labourers in providing work. “So suppose, I have a Jan-aadhar card made in Kota but, I’m residing in Bikaner, I might have to travel all the way back to Kota to get work under the scheme, which is difficult,” Swamy said.

In the central government’s MGNREGA, the Act says that work has to be provided within 5 kilometers radius of the place of residence of the applicant or else there is a provision for travel allowance.

Also, unlike MGNREGA, if any worker demands work and does not get in within 15 days, he is entitled for an unemployment allowance as per the Act.

But, as because the urban employment scheme isn’t yet a law, there is no such provision to fix accountability for not providing employment, Swamy said.

The wages in the Rajasthan scheme is to be provided as per the notified state minimum wages.

“This sometimes is much lower than the prevailing market rates which is why it has been seen that many times women and elderly people who can’t get work at market rates elsewhere get work in such schemes,” Swamy said.