Jobs for migrants

The new scheme should help create durable assets in rural India

The government’s newly launched Rs 50,000-crore Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan (GKRA) to provide 125 days of employment to the migrant workers who have returned home during the Covid-19 lockdown is essentially a smart repackaging of the existing job-oriented schemes of different ministries. Yet, this initiative merits welcome for several reasons. For one, it lends the much-needed and urgent livelihood support to the returnees who lack earning opportunities at their native places. Besides, it has certain well-judged features, setting the scheme apart from the typical government-run welfare programmes, which focus chiefly on mitigating the immediate hardships of people; any gainful returns