MGNREGA stares at a tough challenge ahead as labourers return to villages

Significantly expanding the budget for the rural employment guarantee scheme is vital, but so is exploring other forms of job creation

Between April 17 and 22, Ra­jasthan recorded a 10-fold rise in the number of people receiving employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) — from 62,000 to 608,000.

In Maharashtra, the number of those seeking employment under the scheme in the same period more than doubled from 40,000 to almost 100,000.

In Bihar, MGNREGA work started in around 88 per cent of the state’s approximately 8,386 gram panchayats within the first few days of the lockdown restrictions being lifted for such work.

As migrant labour from the cities stre­am back to their villages, MGNREGA is expected