Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the plans to launch ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ to provide employment opportunities to over six million migrant workers in six states through government schemes in the next four months.
The government has decided to frontload expenditure of Rs 50,000 crore in next 125 days towards 25 areas of work in 116 districts spread across six states.
“There are so many works provided under this scheme which is linked to the rural sector. Workers will be immediately utilised and provided livelihood which is the primary objective for the next four months. We want to give the returnee workers a clear and concrete blueprint during this period,” Sitharaman said.
She, however, didn’t comment on the impact of the move on the manufacturing sector but said that companies are finding new ways to ramp up their production, which have touched a capacity utilisation of about 45-50 per cent till last week, and drawing plans to bring the workforce back.
“The key aspect of the scheme is the convergence and the fact that there will be front loading of money for activities which was spread for over a period of six months to a year. It will be focused on districts with a large migrant population and result in asset creation in short period of time,” the FM said. The FM added that some of the work such as construction activities may be impacted due to the monsoon.
The six states which had the highest influx of migrants who have “settled” in their districts were: Bihar (32 districts), Uttar Pradesh (31), Madhya Pradesh (24), Rajasthan (22), Odisha (4) and Jharkhand (3). These states had 116 districts, each with at least 25,000 returning migrant workers who will be benefitted from the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan. All these districts had around 6.7 million migrant workers, which account for a total of two-third of “returnee” workers during the ongoing pandemic so far.
The money in the scheme will go towards construction of national highways and rural road connectivity, construction of wells, plantation, railway activities, community sanitation complex, horticulture, farm ponds, cattle sheds, among others. The Krishi Vigyan Kendras in villages will also help in imparting skills to the workers.
"Many migrant workers have returned home, rather than joining work. Industries are also doing a reset and many have reported to me that they are running at a capacity of 45-50 per cent till last week which is gradually increasing," Sitharaman said.
The scheme will be formally launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday from Khagariya district in Bihar.