Youngest Workers Rise in MGNREGA | 22 Oct 2019

The proportion of young workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), has begun to rise.

• An analysis of age-wise data of persons employed in MGNREGA indicates that the share of the workforce in the 18-30 age bracket began moving up after the financial year 2017-18.
  
  • The ratio of young workers among total MGNREGA workers has been rising to 9.1 % in 2018-19 and 10.06 % in 2019-20 from 7.73% in 2017-18.
• The total number of individuals working under MGNREGA has also gone up in recent years.
  
  • For instance, 6.71 crores in 2014-15,7.21 crore in 2015-16, 7.65 crores in 2016-17 and 7.76 crores in 2018-19.
• The rising trend of the young workforce among MGNREGA workers could be a reflection of the following events:
  
  • Demonetisation
    
    • Approximately,1.5 million jobs were lost after demonetization. Alongside this loss of jobs, there has been a decline in the Labour Force Participation Rate (LPR).
    • As a result of job loss, many workers opted for MGNREGA for livelihood.
    • For a developing economy like India, a drop in the labour participation rate is a sign of an economic slowdown.
  • The rollout of Goods and Service Tax (GST)
    
    • The implementation of GST improved economic efficiency but the complexities of the new tax regime have driven many small enterprises out of business forcing unemployment.
    • Uniform tax regime through GST has also pushed many small and medium enterprises in debt.
    • Both these events caused disruptions in the economy resulting in a surge of workers opting jobs under MGNREGA.
• MGNREGA has helped to reduce rural poverty to a greater extent, in turn, it has also been described as a "stellar example of rural development" by World Development Report 2014.
• But, still, it is facing few challenges like:
  
  • Low Wage Rates:
    
    • Currently, MGNREGA wage rates of 17 states are less than the corresponding state minimum wages.
    • The low wage rates have resulted in a lack of interest among workers in working for MGNREGA schemes, making way for contractors and middlemen to take control, locally.
  • Insufficient budget allocation:
    
    • Almost every year, more than 80% of funds get exhausted within the first six months.
    • Thus, the fund allocation is insufficient to ensure proper implementation on the ground.
  • Regular payment delays:
    
    • Despite the order of the Supreme Court, no provision has yet been worked out for calculation of full wage delays and payment of compensation for the same.
  • Too much centralisation weakening local governance:
    
    • A real-time MIS-based implementation and a centralised payment system has further left the representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutions with literally diminished its role in implementation, monitoring and grievance redress of MGNREGA schemes.
    • It has hardly have any power to resolve issues or make payments.
• Though there are issues with MGNREGA, the government is trying to improve the scope of the scheme through diversified aspects.
  
  • The central government is working on an initiative to include skill and training as a part of MGNREGA to make it not only a job creator but also to increase skilled labours across the country.

Source: IE