View: Why an urban job guarantee scheme is a bad idea
Synopsis
Since a guaranteed urban wage can be double the MGNREGA rate, any given budget outlay can create up to twice as many jobs in rural as in urban areas.
The government is reportedly considering an urban jobs scheme. Some economists hope this can be the start of an Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme, analogous to the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA). Economist Jean Drèze has suggested a Decentralised Urban Employment and Training (DUET) scheme.Emergency action to create jobs in a disaster like Covid-19 is warranted. But scaling this up to an urban job guarantee poses
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