Changing trade, skilling: Rajasthan migrant workers adapt to new job market

Rajasthan accounted for 6.57 million of 60 million households that have availed MGNREGS since April this year

At 7 a.m. every day, Vala Ram Gameti, 32, sets off from his home at Koviya village in southern Rajasthan to the nearest market, about 3 km away. He takes an hour for the day’s prep--chopping onions, carrots, cabbage, and stewing sauces. By 9 a.m., he pulls up the shutters of Bankyarani Chinese Corner, “the first-ever Chinese food stall in the area” as he proclaims it to be. He set it up after losing his job as a cook in a fast-food restaurant in Gujarat and returning home in March, when a national lockdown was announced.

Gameti is one of estimated