Grassroot groups say Budget for rural jobs inadequate, contest ministry claims

The rural development ministry’s argument that the reduced budgetary allocation for central government’s apex job guarantee scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment (MGNRE) Programme for 2023-24 is adequate has been questioned by a group of grassroots civil society organisations.

The Union Budget 2023-24 cut the allocations for MGNRE scheme from ₹73,000 crore in 2022-23 (Budget Estimate or BE) to ₹60,000 crore in 2023-24 BE. The ministry of rural development later said it was adequate because supplementary funds are usually provided later in the year if there is more demand for rural jobs (he government had revised MGNRE budgetary allocation for 2022-23 to ₹89,400 crore in the revised estimates).

NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a coalition of organisations working with rural labourers, including those who seek work under MGNRE said despite supplementary allocations, the budgetary provision has proved inadequate every year and leads to wage arrears being carried over to the next financial year. More than ₹10,000 crore has been carried over this year too, they say. The groups also allege delay in wage payments and instances of works being held up.

“If only to break this vicious circle of under-allocation and mounting arrears (let alone expand employment), it was important to make a much higher Budget allocation this year,” the group said.

To the ministry’s clarification that there is no unmet demand for MGNRE work as a total of 99.81% rural households have been offered wage employment against their demand for work in FY2022-23, the groups said that what passes for “work demand” in the scheme’s Management and Information System (MIS) can by no means be interpreted as an indicator of the full demand for work.

“It is only a record of formal requests that may or may not have been submitted by workers themselves. More often, these digital requests are just a formality fulfilled by the implementing agency or middlemen. Independent surveys show that the real demand for work is much larger. In practice, employment generation depends more on the initiative of state governments and local authorities than on formal work applications,” the group states.

NREGA Sangharsh Morcha also complains that unlike the ministry’s claim the digital-attendance app for workers under the scheme is working smoothly, mandatory imposition of this app has caused havoc and triggered demonstrations of workers against it in many places.