MNREGS hiring in Uttar Pradesh doubles in first quarter

LUCKNOW: In a resilient sign of Uttar Pradesh’s growing rural economy, the number of workers getting employed under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) doubled in the first quarter of 2022-23 in comparison to 2021-22.
Rural development department data, exclusively accessed by TOI, shows that between April 1 and June 21, the workforce employed under MNREGS shot up to 38.58 lakh this year from 19.63 lakh during the same period in 2021-22.
In 2020-21, when thousands of migrants came back to UP following the Covid-induced lockdown, around 63 lakh people got employed under MNREGS in the first quarter. The scheme had then proved to be the biggest job spinner for the rural families as the pandemic hit the economy.
The data shows that the existing workforce under MNREGS, otherwise, is higher than any other normal financial years. In 2017-18, when BJP came to power in UP, 19.35 lakh persons got engaged under the Centre’s flagship employment scheme in the first quarter.
Unsurprisingly, the number of person days of employment generated, too, has doubled from 3.24 crore to 7.3 crore.
The number of families completing 100 days of employment under the scheme shot up by almost eight times – from 355 to 2,825 – in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Officials said that this figure was expected to go up as more and more people appear to have stayed back in their villages.
Additional commissioner, MNREGS, Yogesh Kumar said that the number of people migrating from UP to other states have apparently slowed down over a period of time.
“They are thus opting for employment in the rural precincts itself which is a good sign,” he said.
Sources said that the Centre’s PM Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) entailing free food grain factored in majorly to stop the rural-urban migration. The PMGKAY scheme has already been extended till September later this year.
Kumar said that the growing income levels of people in villages was bound to propel the rural economy, helping people to have more purchasing power. Experts said that this could further create a ripple effect as more money would be in circulation in the rural areas.
As a matter of fact, it was only earlier this year that the MNREGS wages were increased by around 4% from Rs 204 to Rs 213 per day.
Rural department sources said that the state government also plans to increase the budgetary flow to 825 blocks to help them improve their existing infrastructure.
Currently, the blocks have a monthly spending of around Rs 50 lakh. The state government plans to double this to Rs 1 crore per month, in what could bolster people’s hopes of gaining access to better facilities.