Covid-19: Strengthening rural jobs scheme critical to address migrant woes

MGNREGS, which offers 100 days of work in a year to rural households who seek employment, has played a critical role in curbing distress migration and in building assets in rural areas

To generate livelihood opportunities for the millions of migrant workers who returned to their villages during the COVID-19-induced lockdown and stem distress migration in the future, the government will need to strengthen its rural jobs scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS), say experts. This will mean more funds for the scheme, doubling of the work days guaranteed under it and inclusion of new categories of work, our analysis shows.

In May and June, return migration pushed up the demand for work under the MGNREGS to its highest level since 2013-14. Upto 24.2 million rural households were demanding