Bhubaneswar: The world’s biggest lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic has an adverse impact on the livelihood of millions of people and employment generation for them has become a challenge today. At this critical juncture, the world’s largest rural job guarantee scheme MGNREGS holds the key to turn the table and revive the rural economy in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. Those worst hit by this unprecedented pandemic and lockdown are mostly daily wage labourers, migrants, homeless and the poor who can be accommodated in the program.
With the unprecedented nationwide lockdown having hit rural employment, the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha is now making all-out efforts to activate jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in all districts.
While works under the MGNREGS scheme have already commenced in different parts of the state in a staggered manner, the Government is making all out efforts to go in a big way in the coming days by taking up increased number of works in the villages.
Focus Areas
Considering the low demand for work, the government is making attempts to activate jobs in the areas of water conservation, construction of cattle sheds, forestry and preparing the ground for horticulture.
In order to bring some liquid cash in the hands of rural people, the government has launched a special drive and paid all previous dues from a corpus fund which has been specially created for the MGNREGS. Meanwhile, the centre has also sanctioned Rs. 500 crore as first installment to the State for wage payment to the workers on time.
With the Naveen Patnaik Government now focusing on agriculture and allied sectors to start the process of bringing the rural economy back on track, it prioritized works related to irrigation and water conservation while selecting the jobs to be done under the MGNREGS.
In Odisha, a whopping 1,56,472 projects have already been approved by the district collectors and are ready to be taken up soon with proper maintenance of safe distance guidelines. According to latest MIS reports as on 16th April, as many as 1,22,468 workers were working in 53,825 projects in the state.
Odisha’s thrust is on linking the MNREGS works with the local Self Help Groups, so that there will be produces and end user balance and proper marketing chain will be there to utilise the end products. All these are being undertaken with the hope that MGNREGS is the only program that can revive the rural economy in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The move is apparently aimed at easing the distress in the rural economy caused by the curbs imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
With tens of thousands of jobless migrant workers fleeing the cities in the wake of the lockdown and returning to the villages, the demand for MGNREGS jobs is likely to go up in the coming months.
The MGNREGS – mandated by Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act – is designed to guarantee at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household having adults ready to do unskilled manual work.