To soften Covid-19 blow, India plans to extend MGNREGA to the cities

India is considering extending its flagship jobs program (MGNREGA) in villages to workers in cities left unemployed by the pandemic-induced lockdowns, a government official said.

The program, when approved, may be rolled out in smaller cities and initially cost about 350 billion rupees ($4.8 billion), said Sanjay Kumar, a joint secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

“The government has been considering this idea since last year,” he said. “The pandemic gave a push to this discussion.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is already spending more than 1 trillion rupees on a rural jobs program this year, under