Identifying works and funding key to national urban job scheme

The financial burden depends on the design of the scheme.

Various states, including Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu, have introduced job schemes in urban areas or are in the process of doing so.

However, these are very small schemes, and to make any fruitful dent on urban poverty, a national-level programme is required to be launched. For instance, Rajasthan’s is the biggest scheme among these states with an annual budget expenditure of Rs 800 crore.  

In fact, a report, ‘The State of Inequality in India’, commissioned by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) and prepared by the Institute for Competitiveness, had