In the month of May, it was found that the demand for jobs that fall under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have seen a record rise.
According to a report, there was a 13 per cent rise in the number of person-days of work in May 2020 compared to the same period last year. From the last week of March until May, there was a mass movement of migrant labourers from the cities and its outskirts to their homes in rural India. According to government data, there were as many as 41.77 crore person-days of work in the month of May. The number of households covered under the scheme shot up 31 per cent on-year in the past month to 2.8 crore. It is the highest ever for a month since the launch of the scheme 15 years ago.
States mainly Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh saw the highest jump in job demand as these states have seen reverse movement of migrants.
In May, UP saw 5.05 crore person-days of work under the scheme compared with 1.74 crore person-days the same month last year. In Chhattisgarh, the number rose to 4.15 crore from 2.43 crore and to 3.73 crore from 2.46 crore in MP.
“Excessive supply of labour in rural areas will keep rural wages depressed while their shortage in urban areas will result in an increase in wage cost of these workers in cities,” India Ratings chief economist DK Pant told ET. Considering this whole scenario as a chain of movement, Pant added this will increase cost of wages, which put companies in pressure and in turn impact investments in the long run.
According to government data, it recognises around 27.2 crore workers in India under MGNREGS, while job cards are issued to 13.97 crore workers.
