NREGS needs more money, commitment

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which has been in operation for 17 years, is facing challenges now. This year’s Union budget has reduced allocation for the scheme from 2.14% of overall outlay to 1.33%. The budget estimate last year was Rs 73,000 crore. It was cut by 32% to Rs 60,000 crore from the revised estimate of Rs 89,400 crore for 2022-23. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that more allocation can be made if demand increases, but this is not convincing. The demand for work under the scheme has never decreased and so the cut in allocation does not send out a good sign. The present government has not been enthusiastic about the programme from the beginning. The many problems seen in the implementation of the scheme have sometimes led to an artificial fall in demand which has been used as an argument against it.

Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh has said that the NREG Act needs to be amended in such a way that state governments will have to bear 40% of the expenditure. The minister feels this will make states “more vigilant regarding corruption” in the implementation of the scheme. But this can only hurt the programme. The finances of most states are not good for various reasons and they do not have sufficient avenues to generate their own revenues post-GST. If they have to bear 40% of the MGNREGS expenditure, that will further affect the payment of wages under the scheme. The central government should consider it as its responsibility to ensure that the programme is well and fully funded and helps those who are poor and have no employment. The utility of the programme has been proven, and it has had a great role in supporting millions of poor people and migrants during the Covid epidemic and other times of distress.

Another problem that has arisen now is a recent order from the government which says that all payments to beneficiaries should be made through Aadhar-linked bank accounts and the presence of workers should be recorded through an app-based attendance system. This is well-intended to reduce corruption and to ensure that the payments really go to the workers and there is no fake enrolment. But it can affect workers whose bank accounts are not seeded with Aadhaar, and there are large numbers of them. It is claimed that up to 57% of MGNREGS job cardholders will become ineligible to receive their wages because of this rule. There is corruption in the working of the programme and that needs to be curbed. But it should be done in such a way that genuine workers are not denied employment.