COVID-19: Several schemes, little progress for agrarian economy

Economy's road to recovery passes

K P Suresh

With COVID-19 spreading across rural India, the issue of returning migrants is increasingly turning into a crisis of unmanageable proportions. In addition to the challenges of fixing the public health infrastructure, the issue of providing these migrants with livelihoods needs close attention.

The state government’s response to the crisis is rather unimaginative, with its only solution being the strengthening of Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to provide work to returning migrant workers, who are left without any income.

Read: Coronavirus Lockdown: MGNREGA provides relief, not enough to counter the crisis

Even when it is implemented in the earnest, the MGNREGA is a stop-gap arrangement, at best. Activists have already demanded that the MGNREGA human-days be doubled, to allow rural families to get through the monsoon season and tide over this crisis.

Karnataka already has a precedent for this: during the 2009 floods in the state, when B S Yediyurappa was the chief minister, the Centre had agreed to increase the MGNREGA human-days to 150 days per year. The Central government has not taken any such decision during the current crisis.

Apart from the safety net of the MGNREGA, the state government should explore other options to sustain rural livelihoods. Access to credit still remains an issue for rural families in Karnataka. Institutional credit reaches less than 50% of rural borrowers and avenues of informal credit have dried up as well.

The National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) was partly created to address this problem. Under the NRLM, federations of self-help groups (SHGs) have already been created at the Gram Panchayat level; many SHGs have a solid track record of repayment on internal lending, making them ideal avenues to disburse credit. Increasing the fund allocations for these SHGs can help spur economic activities at the village level.

Earmarking substantial funds under the MUDRA scheme to reach entrepreneurs can help create sustainable livelihoods in areas such as handloom weaving, which have been badly hit during this crisis.

Also Read: Karnataka: With no hope in their villages, migrants return to Bengaluru amid lockdown

The government’s flagship Skill India scheme has also lost sheen over the years. The Central government has formed ‘Skill Councils’ consisting of heads of industry bodies; Karnataka was even the first state to establish a Skill Development Ministry. Yet, systematic skill mapping with a focused training schedule is missing and the government’s implementation of the programme leaves a lot to be desired.

The Central government’s penchant for acronyms seems to have given birth to the ‘Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture’ (ARYA). But even government officials seem to be unaware of this programme, which is meant to provide skill training for youth engaged in agriculture. Providing adequate funding for this scheme and dovetailing it with other programmes like Skill India can help alleviate rural distress.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, the economy is likely to take a long time to recover. There is a consensus among experts that unless the rural economy is revived, the rest of the sectors are unlikely to see a radical upswing. So it is in the interest of the state government to marshal its resources and focus its efforts on rejuvenating the agrarian economy.

(The writer is a rural development expert)