83% MGNREGS beneficiaries in Karnataka complain of delay in wage disbursement

Around 83 per cent of the job card holders of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) surveyed in Karnataka have complained that their wages were delayed or pending, a latest report showed.

While 43 per cent of rural households in Karnataka had an active job card under MGNREGS, only 9 per cent were unable to submit their applications for employment, says the study conducted by Dalberg Advisors and titled ‘The State of Rural Employment: A look at MGNREGS across five states in the country’.

Together, these five states surveyed—Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh—account for more than 35 per cent of active MGNREGS workers in the country, and in 2020-21 accounted for more than one-third of all employment provided within the scheme.

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The study found that although MGNREGS has been a strong rail for rural Indian households during the Covid-19 pandemic, critical gaps continued to undermine the scheme’s welfare potential.

According to the survey, 47 per cent of low-income households in the country had at least one active job card; 29 per cent of adults in rural areas did not have an active job card but wanted to get one. And 9 per cent of the adults who wanted a job card did not know how to get one—which is an estimated 5.4 million adults across the five states, the study report said.

All households that applied under MGNREGS received some work. Households demanded an average of 95 days of employment (against an entitlement of 100 days) and received, on average, 66 days of employment, says the report.

Women make up a key beneficiary group for the scheme. However, 6 per cent of the women with job cards reported having tried to apply for employment without success as no work was available for them. Further, 26 per cent of the women who wanted MGNREGS work but could not apply cited a lack of understanding of the application process as the reason for being unsuccessful, said the survey.

In 2020-21, total Rs 4,874 crore was spent on the MGNREGS in Karnataka and a total five surveyed states spent Rs 37,153 crore and a total Rs 97,225 crore spent in the country.

“MGNREGS has been transformational for livelihood security in rural India, especially through Covid-19 where it served as a critical lifeline for millions of low-income households," said Swetha Totapally, Partner, Dalberg Advisors.