MNREGS created less employment in 2010-11

MNREGS was launched in 2006-07 and thrown open to all districts in 2008-09

The UPA’s flagship programme — Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Scheme (MNREGS) — generated lesser employment at 2.57 billion person days in 2010-11 as against 2.83 billion in the previous year, official data released on Tuesday showed.

According to a report on the review of the 20-point programme, the average number of days of employment given to a person were 47 in 2010-11 against 54 days in 2009-10.

This is despite the fact that MNREGS provided employment to a higher number of families at 54.9 million in 2010-11 as against 52.5 million in 2009-10.

The report, however, said the physical and financial performance of MNREGS in the first five years of implementation was much better than that of wage employment programmes in the past.

For instance, the average number of days of employment under MNREGS has been 43, while those were 29 in case of Swarnjayanti Shehari Rojgar Yojana (SSRY).

MNREGA, a supplementary employment programme in rural areas, was launched in 2006-07 and thrown open to all districts in 2008-09.

The report also showed improvement in various social indicators over the years in India.

Like, the dropout ratio of children at the primary school level fell from 39 per cent in 2001-02 to 28.86 in 2009-10, and the dropout rate at the elementary stage declined from 54.60 per cent to 42.39 per cent.

“The transition rate from primary to upper primary has improved from 74.15 per cent to 82.83 per cent during 2003-04 to 2008-09,” the report said.

It said girl dropout rates decreased significantly over this period. However, the improvement was not across all the social classes. The dropout rates of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe children continue to be high both at primary and elementary level.

The overall percentage of offtake with respect to allocation of foodgrains under targeted Public Distribution Scheme went up from 89 per cent in 2009-2010 to 92 per cent in 2010-2011.